Prabhupāda: After destruction of this body the living entity is not destroyed. He is there. That we can understand. Just like in your childhood, you had a small body. That body is no more, but you are existing. So it is natural, when this body will not exist, I will exist in another body. It is not very difficult to understand. So this theory that body is eternal..., soul is eternal and body is temporary, that's a fact. Therefore this life, this present life, is meant for manufacturing the next body. That is Vedic knowledge.
Destroy (Conversations)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:
Prabhupāda: That is stated, kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ: "In this age practically all men will be śūdras." That is... That is predicted. But if there are simply śūdras, then the social order will be destroyed. You... Just like in spite of your state of śūdras, a brāhmaṇa is found here. And that is necessity. So if you do not divide the social order in such a way, then there will be chaos. that is the scientific estimation of the Vedas. You may... You may belong for the time being to the śūdra class, but to maintain the social order you have to train some of the śūdras to become brāhmaṇa, some of the śūdras to become kṣatriyas.
Room Conversation -- July 18, 1971, Detroit:
Prabhupāda: There is no loss. This was, I was explaining. Because this, it is spiritual science. Anything spiritual, that is eternal. It is never, I mean to say, lost, never destroyed. So whatever they have learned, that is basic for other learning. Suppose they cannot finish the total process, program, then they will get a chance, another chance to begin in the human form. So practically there is no loss. As ordinary beings, whatever they are creating in this life, after giving up this body everything is lost. But this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even it is not completed, whatever they have learned, that will go with them, because it is spiritual, it will not be destroyed. But they're being trained up to finish the course and program within this life, not to wait for the next life. That is our goal.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:
Bob: Science may, though, say something. It is said in science that energy is never destroyed. It is just changed.
Prabhupāda: That's all right, but how the energy is working in future, that science does not know.
Bob: Yeah.
Prabhupāda: How the energy is diverted, how by different manipulation the energy is working differently. Just like electric energy, by different handling it is creating heater and it is creating cooler. Just opposite. But the same electric energy. So similarly, these energies, living energy, how it is being directed, which way it is going, how it is fructifying in the next life, so they do not know. They do not know. And in the Bhagavad-gītā it is very simplified. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). You are covered by this dress, by this shirt. When this shirt is not workable you change it. Similarly, this body is just like shirt and coat, when it is no longer workable, we have to change.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- April 19, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: He created some misfortune, and he spent the money for creating further, more misfortunes. What can he do more? Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa... (Pause)
Brahmānanda: It says in the Gītā that the demoniac, they do acts, horrible acts which are meant to destroy the world.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Ugra-karma. Kṣayāya jagato 'hitāḥ. It is meant for destruction and inauspicity of the world. This is their business.
Morning Walk -- May 14, 1973, Los Angeles:
Svarūpa Dāmodara: No. The definition of the conservation of energy is the energy cannot be created nor destroyed. That means that it is eternal.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, that we admit. Original energy of Kṛṣṇa, that is existing with Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa is eternal. Therefore all His energies are eternal.
Karandhara: So the living entity is also eternal.
Prabhupāda: Just like the sun. Sun, the energy heat and light. If sun is eternal, heat and light (are) eternal. Hmm. What is that?
Karandhara: They say energy cannot be created or destroyed, then life cannot be created or destroyed.
Prabhupāda: We say that. Life is eternal. It is not created nor destroyed. It is covered only for the time. Just like, I'm eternal, but last night I was covered by dreaming, sleeping. So I say "yesterday" and "today." This is my position. I'm eternal, but because last night I was covered by dreaming, therefore I say "yesterday" and "today."
Room Conversation with Two Buddhist Monks -- July 12, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: Death means forgetting. Just like in dream. At night, when we get another body and dream and hover, we go somewhere and talk with somebody, we forget about this body. And again, when I come to this body, I awaken, I forget the dreaming body. So I..., every day I am forgetting. At night I am forgetting this body, and daytime I am forgetting my night body. So forgetfulness is not the basic principle of knowledge. The things as they are we have to study. That body we change, but we are, as living entities, we are existing. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is confirmed by authorities. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). After destruction of this body, the soul is not destroyed. The soul continues. He accepts another body. Now, what sort of body we have to accept—that is responsibility.
Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:
David Lawrence: ...on farming, and it was talking about the so-called modern methods of farming which have destroyed the earth in this country, really, in great areas. And it showed an Englishman and his son who believe in the old methods with cows on the land. And he is not only doing better economically, but he was so happy, the two men were so happy.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
David Lawrence: They were just working with nature, not against nature.
Prabhupāda: Just like so much field is there. You, if you take the all village people, you can produce enough food for them in this village. So much land is lying there. Simply you keep cows and till ground, get your food grains. Enough. And if you take the whole planet as it is, you can feed ten times population. There is so much prospect. Australia, Africa. So much vacant land. You can produce enough quantity of milk and food grains.
Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:
Pradyumna:
- etāṁ dṛṣṭim avaṣṭabhya
- naṣṭātmāno 'lpa-buddhayaḥ
- prabhavanty ugra-karmāṇaḥ
- kṣayāya jagato 'hitāḥ
- (BG 16.9)
"Following such conclusion, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world."
Prabhupāda: So work is required. But godly persons, they want to live a simple life and high thinking, save time for understanding of God. The demonic people, they are engaged in horrible activities. They have manufactured so many things.
Room Conversation with Reporter from Researchers Magazine -- July 24, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: They actually, by destroying the Manchester millionaires, Gandhi gave opportunity to the Ahmadabad millionaires. And the consumers, instead of purchasing Manchester cloth at one rupee per pair, now they're purchasing at thirty rupees per pair.
Reporter: Yes, yes.
Prabhupāda: This is advantage. I know. My father had cloth business. The Manchester cloth, very nice cloth—one rupee six annas per pair, retail sale.
Morning Walk -- December 5, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Ah, therefore the whole world is in confusion. All rascals, they are busy. What is the use of such business? Like monkey. Monkey's very busy, always, but doing harm. That's all. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, ugra-karmāṇaḥ kṣayāya jagato 'hitāḥ. These rascals, they are busy just to destroy the whole world and do the mischief. That's all. Actually, they are doing so. That we also... In English language, sometimes it is said, "A sharp razor in the hands of a child." The child... That is this imitation. They want to imitate their father. So if he imitates the razor sharp, then he will create havoc. So these rascals, they have got now all power, and therefore creating havoc. They do not know how to use it. According to Vedic principle, the śūdras, they should not be given more money, the worker class. Now the worker class is given more money. So what they'll do? They'll produce drunkards. That's all. In America, it is evident. They do not know how to use money. So therefore we see, fifty-two percent drunkards in your country. Eh? What is the percentage?
Devotee: I'm not sure, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Morning Walk -- December 6, 1973, Los Angeles:
Karandhara: ...the universe is contracting.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Not contracting. They'll be finished. Destroyed. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). This is the nature, material nature. It will grow. Just like the tree has grown. One day there will be no more, finished. Your body has grown and one day it will now finish. That is material nature. Similarly, this universe. It has grown, and one day it will be finished.
Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:
Govardhana: And then he went away for one week and associated with some Christians, and they convinced him that he had committed a great sin, that he should come to the temple and destroy the Deity. So after dancing and chanting in ecstasy, taking prasādam and reading Bhagavad-gītā, he returned to the temple one week later and tried to destroy the Deity.
Prabhupāda: Where?
Govardhana: Detroit.
Prabhupāda: Oh, he attempted it?
Govardhana: Yes, but we prevented him.
Prabhupāda: So we must be careful. There may be so many fanatics.
Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: No mercy reservoir is Kṛṣṇa, but we are servant of Kṛṣṇa. We have to abide by his orders. That's all. Real mercy is Kṛṣṇa's. (break)
Prajāpati: ...in the Bible, there's a story of how some cities named Sodom and Gomorraḥ became so sinful that the Lord wanted to destroy those cities and everyone in them. Will this be happening again sometime, cities become so sinful, they will be just destroyed?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Destruction means sinful. If you become sinful, your body will be destroyed. You'll die out of some disease. Sinful means destruction.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- January 5, 1974, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: She was to be paid fourteen lakhs fifty thousand, then stamp duty two lakhs... Sixty thousand or six thousand? Then registration fee... Oh, it was very expensive. (break)
Devotee (2): ...that at the end of this month the United States will be destroyed by the comet, the Kahutek comet.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Their demonic principles will be destroyed. They'll take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Devotees: Jaya, haribol!
Prabhupāda: What do they say... After destruction, then what is next?
Devotee (2): Oh, they all move to Mexico and Canada, so they wouldn't be in the way of the destruction. They don't know what's going to happen after that.
Prabhupāda: So at the time of danger they'll go away. Very good.
Morning Walk -- January 9, 1974, Los Angeles:
Bahulāśva: Illusion.
Prabhupāda: Yes. We are making distinction between animal and ourself, but we're forgetting, we are forgetting, the animal also will die and I will also die. So where is my advancement? Will you remain? You'll also die. So where is your advancement upon animals? That is stated in śāstra: āhāra-nidra-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca samānam etat paśubhir narāṇām. Business—eating, sleeping, sex-life and defending—this is also animal's business. And you are also doing the same. How you are distinct from animal? You'll die. The animal will die. But if you say, "I'll die after one hundred years, and this ant will die after one hour," that does not mean that you are in reality. It is a question of time. Just like this huge universe. It will be all be destroyed. As your body will be destroyed, this will be destroyed, annihilation, dissolution. Nature's way, everything will be dissolved. So therefore it is dream. It is a long duration dream. That's all. Nothing else. But the advantage is that even in this dream you can realize the reality, God. That is the... So if you don't take advantage of this dream, then you are missing.
Morning Walk -- January 23, 1974, Hawaii:
Prabhupāda: That's all right. They are mad. Still, we have to do that. Madmen does not, he doesn't think that "I require anyone's help." But still, the father, mother, guardian, government, gives him help. We are not dependent on their decision; we are dependent on Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, para-duḥkha-duḥkhī: Vaiṣṇava is unhappy seeing others unhappy. Otherwise, they have no unhappiness. They are unhappy seeing that "This rascal is unnecessarily suffering." That is unhappiness of Vaiṣṇava. Śoce tato vimukha-cetasa... Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "I have no, any problem, but I'm simply thinking of these rascals, that for some temporary happiness they make so gorgeous arrangement, and forgotten their real business." Just like all these... What is this city? At any moment, it will be finished, but... Just like they're flying, fleeing some other place, "America will be destroyed." So why they have spoiled so much energy? They do not know where to apply the energy for real benefit. Mūḍha. Therefore they have been called as mūḍha, duṣkṛtina, duṣkṛtina: showing very good merit for this big, big building, big, big road... Kṛti, kṛti means meritorious. But duṣkṛti. Duṣkṛti means for useless purpose, real purpose missing. They have no information of the soul within the body; simply they are engaged in the bodily activities. The soul is neglected.
Morning Walk -- April 5, 1974, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: So this is very important verse, that by kāla, by time, due course of time, everything will be destroyed. So our duty is uttiṣṭha...
Dr. Patel: Fall in line with His wish.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He wishes sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ. This is our duty, not that "I have got that duty, that duty, that duty." That duty, that duty will not save you. They will be destroyed. Dehāpatya-kalatrādi. This is explained in Bhāgavata.
Morning Walk -- April 5, 1974, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: We are attached, deha, this body. Apatya, children. Dehāpatya-kalatrādi, wife. Kala... Because we increase through the wife, kalatrādi. Dehāpatya-kalatrādisu ātmā-sainyesu. We are thinking that "They are my soldiers. They will save me from the clutches of death." Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv ātma..., asatsv api. They are not permanent. So although they are not permanent, they will be killed, I am thinking, "They will save me, my soldiers." So pramatta, this thought comes on account of becoming pramatta. Prakṛṣta-rūpena matta, mad. Yes. Pramatta tasya nidhanam. The plan is: everyone will be destroyed. Tasya nidhanaṁ paśyann api na paśyati. Although he has got experience that "So many relatives, so many friends, so many family men, they have all died, they could not save me, and what these, my wife, children and others, will save me?" But because he is pramatta, paśyann api na paśyati, even though he sees, he does not see.
Morning Walk -- April 5, 1974, Bombay:
Girirāja: "The Blessed Lord said: All the great warriors—Droṇa, Bhīṣma, Jayadratha, Karṇa—are already destroyed. Simply fight, and you will vanquish your enemies."
Prabhupāda: So this is our duty. Just like in this particular case, about our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that so many people are giving me the credit. Actually, I have no credit. It is already desired or it is already planned that "This time in Western countries, this saṅkīrtana movement..." So it is our duty. Similarly, our only duty is to carry out the order of the Supreme. Other things is already done by Him. So if we abide by the orders of the Supreme, then we get the credit. We should know that.
Morning Walk at Villa Borghese -- May 26, 1974, Rome:
Prabhupāda: Yes. Tyāga-bhūmikā, renouncement. The platform of renouncement. So how this was broken, by war fights or what? Huh? Last war?
Devotee: Yes. The bombs?
Bhagavān: These are all holes.
Prabhupāda: Just see, in humanity. The historical buildings, what is there? They destroy them. This building, I think it was constructed later.
Morning Walk -- May 29, 1974, Rome:
Satsvarūpa: Then the next question is where do you get your knowledge. Like that boy asked in the airport.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet. Go to guru. Guru. Yes. (indistinct) Who is guru? Śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham: who has heard from the Vedas perfect knowledge and who is fixed up in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is guru. Everything is there. Immediate answer is tad-vijñānārtham. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This life is for inquiring where shall I go for knowledge? Athāto brahma-jiñāsā.
- tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet
- samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham
- (MU 1.2.12)
Everything is there. When they were building this costly skyscraper, they forgot that this skyscraper will be the same fate as there were big, big Roman buildings two thousand years ago. Because I will have to leave. Although the building is very solid, it will not be destroyed within five thousand years, but you are not going to live here for five thousand years. You can live for fifty years sir. Then go away. Then it will be relic. That's all. So why don't you make guarantee, that "I have made this strong building to stand for five thousand... Let me live also." Where is your that knowledge? This is illusion. They know it, that "I shall not be able to live in this house. I shall not get the duration of life as big as this building will have. Then why am I wasting my energy in this way? I shall be zero after fifty years." What is this knowledge? You are not also going to enjoy. Then he is pleased that "My sons and grandsons and..." Who is your grandson? Who is your son? That he does not know. Nobody's son, nobody's grandson. Everyone is coming just like we have come, and they will go away. So similarly, they are coming and going. This is... No knowledge.
Morning Walk -- June 2, 1974, Geneva:
Yogeśvara: When I was in school, I read that when the British went to Africa to colonize, the first thing they did... In the north there was a tribe called the Ashanti tribe. And the symbol of religion was an axe. Whoever possessed that axe was a leader. So the first thing they did was to import thousands and thousands of axes and they distributed them to everyone. In this way, they destroyed the religious sentiment and then introduced their own system.
Prabhupāda: Who first started this colonization? Britishers or the Spaniards?
Yogeśvara: It was a Britisher.
Karandhara: Spaniards were, I think Portuguese.
Prabhupāda: Portuguese. Because they had very small land.
Room Conversation with Biochemist, Dr. Sallaz -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:
Dr. Sallaz: Of course. This cannot be destroyed.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That cannot be destroyed.
Dr. Sallaz: That cannot be destroyed. It can disappear from the living people, Christian or other of this world, but not at all.
Prabhupāda: Then what do you mean by spiritual revolution?
Dr. Sallaz: It is to see, to look, for the real truth, the simple truth. The very simple truth. And to abandon our way of life aiming only for money, power and material things, to go back to simple living and especially to living with up.
Prabhupāda: Living with?
Yogeśvara: Living with higher thoughts.
Prabhupāda: Then higher thoughts... Is there any definition of the higher thoughts? (French)
Yogeśvara: He says humanly it is impossible to understand it.
Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:
Prabhupāda: Struggle. We cannot do anything because the bigger creative energy's there. And we are simply trying to combat with Him. So therefore, uselessly we are struggling. That's all. We cannot change. Because the bigger creative energy is different. Prakṛti, the material nature. Just like they are trying to create living being in the laboratory. So suppose you are trying to create living being by scientific, chemical combination, so what is the credit to you? Millions of living beings are created by the material energy. Where is your credit? You cannot even create a small ant up till now. So simply you are wasting your time. That's all. Therefore it is called, prakṛti-sthāni karṣati. Eh? Just like the children are playing. What is the value of this playing? They are making some howling noise. That's all. What they can do? But they are thinking they are creating so many things. "We are Ṭhākura (?)." (laughter) So you all scientists, you are doing that thing. That's all. You cannot do anything. That is not in your power. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). It is very, very difficult, physical energy, which is being conducted... Just like you you have created this nuclear bomb, and if you take it and throw on the sun planet, what is the effect? Nuclear bomb can destroy something here. But where the... Your nuclear bomb will be destroyed if you throw it on the sun.
Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:
Prabhupāda: You know or do not know, the transformation will take place. Take, for example, the ship. The ship is combination of these five material things, earth, water, air, fire and... And when it is destroyed, it again turns into earth, water, fire... So the conservation of energy is there. You simply give a shape, temporary, and it goes again to the same place, original physical elements. This is going on. But you are... You do not know that you are eternal. That is ignorance. So therefore the sense is that "If I am eternal, then why I am busy with these temporary things?" That knowledge is lacking. I am eternal. So now, as human being, I am busy in temporary things, to construct a big ship or aeroplane. But as soon as I change this body, I become a bird, I have no power. Then I manufacture a nest on the top of the tree. That is my business. Or... Because the body will change. That is lack of knowledge. I am eternal. In this particular body I am busy with some temporary things. And as soon as I change my body, then another temporary thing. Eh? The... Suppose the big Romans. When they were Romans, they constructed all these big, big buildings. But if the Romans have changed into birds, they're no more interested in this body. They're interested in making some complicated nest on the top of the tree. This is going on, life after li... This knowledge is lacking. Therefore it is said, manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni... They are struggling on this mat... (break) ...physical world by concocted mental speculation. That's all. As soon as the body is changed, then everything is changed.
Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:
Yogeśvara: ...destroyed, it cannot be...
Prabhupāda: That is, that is spiritual energy. Two energies. We accept two energies. One, this material energy, which can be cut into pieces, which can be dried up, which can be moistened, which can be burned. But another, spirit, that cannot be done so.
Morning Walk -- June 12, 1974, Paris:
Prabhupāda: Just see how much rascal they are becoming. (to devotee:) Take care of your son. It is... Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa...
Paramahaṁsa: If the material creation is created by Kṛṣṇa, then man cannot destroy it although they are thinking that if they have a nuclear war, then they will destroy the earth.
Prabhupāda: What they will destroy?
Paramahaṁsa: They're thinking the earth will just blow up with all the atomic bombs.
Prabhupāda: That means this earth will be finished?
Paramahaṁsa: Yes.
Room Conversation with M. Lallier, noted French Poet -- June 12, 1974, Paris:
M. Lallier: What does he destroy? He destroys soul?
Prabhupāda: Hm? (French)
Pṛthu Putra: So when one has fallen too low in the material life, how can he come back to his original condition?
Prabhupāda: By surrendering to God, Kṛṣṇa.
Room Conversation with Russian Orthodox Church Representative -- June 13, 1974, Paris:
Prabhupāda: No, it is characteristic. Definition means you mention the characteristic. That is definition. Definition, you mention the characteristic. So that can be mentioned directly, or if it is not perceivable, then you can define in opposite way. Just like we have got experience: everything in the material world, it is beginning. There is a beginning. Anything of this—your body, my body, everything—it has got a beginning, and it has got an end. So it is stated, na jāyate na mriyate vā: "It has no beginning, no end." And nityaḥ, eternal, śāśvataḥ, very old, purāṇaḥ. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). "It is not destroyed, annihilated, after the destruction of the body." So if we accept this definition, then we can understand the soul is eternal. Our characteristic, if we accept these characteristics, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), after the destruction of body the soul is never destroyed, then you can understand the soul is eternal. And it is clearly stated, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). "After the destruction of the body, it is not destroyed." So, it means it takes another body.
Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:
Prabhupāda: Now who will translate? You, one by one, line, the translation you speak.
Nitāi: O.K. "I offer my obeisances unto Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the son of Vāsudeva, who is the Supreme, All-pervading Personality of Godhead. I meditate upon Him, the transcendent reality, who is the primeval cause of all causes, from whom all manifested universes arise, in whom they dwell, and by whom they are destroyed. I meditate upon that eternally effulgent Lord who is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations and yet is beyond them. It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge into the heart of Brahmā."
Prabhupāda: And this is Vedic knowledge.
Nitāi: "Who is the first created living being."
Prabhupāda: You read another verse, aham ādir hi devānāṁ maharṣīṇāṁ ca (Bg 10.2). Aham ādir hi devānām. (loud noise in background) Never mind, never mind. Don't bother. That's all right.
Room Conversation with German Women Philosophers -- June 17, 1974, Germany:
Pṛthu: Yes she admits that the man by his intelligence, he makes something up which destroys ultimately. But the dog doesn't do, she says.
Prabhupāda: No, no. The dog has no greater intelligence. Therefore he sleeps under some bush very comfortably. But man has made very nice building, and another man destroys it by bombing. So the dog's intelligence is better or the man's intelligence is better? (German) (break)
Pṛthu: So she says that the man, by his intelligence, will go on, go on inventing some things which will destroy, and...
Prabhupāda: So is that very good intelligence? (German)
Pṛthu: So she says that this intelligence is actually not good. She says this intelligence...
Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of getting better intelligence than the dog? (German) (break)
Haṁsadūta: ...like to have more, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: No.
Room Conversation with German Women Philosophers -- June 17, 1974, Germany:
Prabhupāda: From the books. (German) (break)
Pṛthu: So she feels... It seems that she feels a little bit attacked by this hellish worlds. So now she says that Jesus has come to save men and not to, to destroy them. So he says Jesus even came to the robbers and with a purpose to save them.
Prabhupāda: Well, but provided the follower abides by the order of Jesus. Jesus can save them if the man follows the Jesus order.
Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:
Vedavyāsa: Yes, but he says because if we go out of the room, the room remains as it is, but if we go out of the body, the body doesn't remain. So he says there must be an intimate connection between the soul and the body.
Prabhupāda: No, remains means in the same way. Just like if I leave this room and it remains here, in a few years time it will be destroyed. Similarly, if you leave this body, in a few hours... It is a question of hours and years. (German) (break)
Vedavyāsa: ...saying that this body is, the soul is eminent.
Prabhupāda: The soul is different from the body.
Room Conversation with Devotees -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:
Prabhupāda: This is practical. The scientists have got good brain, but who manufactured the brain? You cannot do. You have not manufactured your brain. If you say, "By nature," then nature is more powerful than you. But nature is dead. It cannot create life. That is in the hand of Kṛṣṇa. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). As soon as the question of jīva, living entity, there, this, mine, you can say it is nature. And other things? Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarva... (BG 3.27). Prakṛti, nature, is doing. Everything explained. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā: (Bs. 5.44) "There is an energy which can create, maintain, and destroy the whole cosmic manifestation."
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- February 21, 1975, Caracas:
Prabhupāda: Mathematics? So you can calculate, "After so many years the whole universe will be destroyed." (laughter) Not of the universe but everyone's life. This body will be destroyed. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). And again you get another body. It will stay for so many years. Again you annihilate. Again you get. In this way eternal time is being wasted.
Hṛdayānanda: In the modern world the engineers are designing everything. So how can an engineer use his talent for Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: Design a temple, nice temple. There are wonderful temples, very expert engineering. And they were ordinary men but the engineer was so nice that nobody can manufacture such temple in the whole world, still.
Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- February 28, 1975, Atlanta:
Rūpānuga: They say matter can never be created or destroyed, but they do not know that life cannot be created or destroyed.
Prabhupāda: Nothing cannot be created. Life also cannot be created. They are already there. But matter is manifest, not manifest. Just like this body is manifest because the life is there. Now, this body will be destroyed, but I will exist. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). I will accept another body, and it will grow. Therefore the matter grows on the basis of life, not that from matter, life comes. This is all rascaldom. So now, by the grace of... We have got scientists. Let them protest. Save the people from this ignorance. Mūḍhā. That is our mission. Give them chance. They have got human body. Let them become Kṛṣṇa conscious and give up all this nonsense thing. Hitvā anyathā rūpaṁ svarūpena avasthitiḥ. Mukti, this is mukti. They are mad after something wrong. So they should be saved, and they should give up this so-called materialism and come to service to the Kṛṣṇa, his eternal job. Then that is mukti. He is liberated.
Room Conversation with Bernard Manischewitz -- March 5, 1975, New York:
Prabhupāda: Sacrifice means restriction. One meaning of sacrifice is: if you believe in the śāstra, the animal is going to get next life as a human being. Because he is being sacrificed under Vedic rituals, so he is given promotion immediately, to human life. So he is not loser. His body being sacrificed before the deity, he gets the opportunity of getting a human life immediately, for which he had to wait perhaps thousands and thousands of years, because the evolution will go. Of course, after animal life the next life is human life. So anyway, he is given the concession to get a human form of body immediately after this body is destroyed, and with the right that he has the right to kill the man who has killed him. That mantra is cited, that "He was sacrificing your life, so you get immediately human form of body, and you can kill this man." So this is the Vedic rituals.
Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:
Prabhupāda: No, no. Rules, God rules, are perfect, and it is being perfectly done. Sometimes we misunderstand.
Young man: Then how do we take the meaning of earthquakes and natural disasters which could destroy the lives of pure people as well as impure people?
Prabhupāda: No, every life is pure. The body is pure and impure. So anyway, after destruction, the life is not destroyed. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). The destruction of body does not mean that the soul is destroyed. No. He gets another body. The body is... one body is destroyed, and he transmigrates to another body. And so far your question about the earthquake, so suppose if there is plane crash, there are many good men, bad men, so everyone is crashed. But the good man gets a good body again; the bad man gets a bad body again.
Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:
Guest: They say powerful but what about...
Prabhupāda: Yes, then we have to know this powerful, not only the power. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). In another place, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir eka chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni bibharti durgā (Bs. 5.44). Durgā is power. Power is in... What kind of power? Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir eka. She can create, she can maintain and she can destroy, so powerful. But this power, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir eka chāyeva (Bs. 5.44), is working just like shadow. Just like here is shadow. I am moving this hand; the shadow is moving. Shadow is not independently moving. Therefore this gigantic power, material energy, is working under the direction of Kṛṣṇa. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa: (BG 9.10) "under My superintendence." So we are allured with the power, but who is manipulating this power we do not know. That is God.
Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:
Nalinī-kānta: So if we are given charge of the society, we should dismantle all this industry, all these cities...?
Prabhupāda: No. We're not going to. But we can manage how to do it. First of all give me. I'll say how to manage. (laughter) We'll not create any problem. We do not wish to destroy anything.
Nalinī-kānta: Just like we have big printing press and incense factory.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Morning Walk -- (World War III) -- April 4, 1975, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: Yes. They are not very much interested in war.
Paramahaṁsa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you said that this war will destroy the demonic civilization.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Paramahaṁsa: Does that mean that it'll destroy all the cities and all the industries?
Prabhupāda: War means destruction of all cities. That is natural. You have got experience in Europe so many times.
Haṁsadūta: Cities and industries.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Haṁsadūta: Cities and industries.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the main target.
Morning Walk -- (World War III) -- April 4, 1975, Mayapur:
Rāmeṣvara: You wrote that if the Communists are victorious they would destroy whatever is left of the culture.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Victory for the Communists means the whole human culture is lost.
Ajāta-śatru: Does it mean that they will also attack the Kṛṣṇa consciousness?
Prabhupāda: Yes, they have already begun. They are not passing our temple in Bombay.
Nalinī-kānta: If after the war the preaching will be still good, that means the Communists will not be victorious.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Morning Walk -- May 12, 1975, Perth:
Prabhupāda: Farce.
Paramahaṁsa: It seems like these demons who say that they are God, eventually they will end up destroying each other.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Now they are fools, rascal, bluffing, but even the scientists, they are also bluffing. Now Russia and America combined together, going? Just see where they are going.
Room Conversation with Journalist -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:
Prabhupāda: Yes, you can call it Hinduism, but actually it does not belong to any "ism." It is a science of understanding God. But it appears like Hindu religion. In that sense Buddha religion is also Hindu religion, because Lord Buddha was a Hindu and he started Buddha religion.
Journalist: Do you think modern man must mend his ways or he will... he must get better and know God or he will destroy himself?
Prabhupāda: Yes, he is destroying already. The society is not in stable stage. Just like in America, they are also in trouble now. They are asking money from the federal government. They cannot make solution. So as soon as the monetary source will decline, this civilization will be finished.
Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:
Prabhupāda: You are not controlling. There are so many happenings, that big waves come, and overflood, and there is earthquake, and everything is finished. So you are not controlling accident, even if we accept accident. Accident is not under your control. That Madhudviṣa was telling: in Darwin there was so big, powerful wind, the motor buses were flying.
Bali-mardana: In America, tornadoes, they just destroyed one very big city.
Gurukṛpa: But the thing would be too simple. If they accepted there was God, they would be out of a job, and then there would be nothing more to speculate about.
Bali-mardana: They would lose their jobs.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) That is another poor fellow. If by bluffing like this, they can continue their office, that is another thing. In our childhood we were living in a quarter: there many thieves, pickpockets. So we... After all, they were neighborhood men, so they knew us. Although we had no connection, but we knew that "These are pickpockets, gundas." And they also knew us. So I remember, now, children, one pickpocket was taking, and as soon as he saw me... (laughter) He was afraid that "This boy may tell." We have seen it. He was doing... Similarly, these rascals are pickpockets, and they are asking us, "Don't expose us. Let us do."
Morning Walk -- June 16, 1975, Honolulu:
Siddha-svarūpa: ...in the United States and Russia are to get on special airplanes that are equipped... It's like a city in the air, where they will be able to wage war from the air so that even if the all the cities are destroyed, they will still be able to make strategy and keep sending missiles with warheads because they have so many missiles with warheads all over the country that even if all the cities are wiped out they can keep sending more. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...they will get their food? Siddha-svarūpa: They have it so that they have something like a year's supply. (break) Prabhupāda: They are struggling for living. Still, they will not be allowed to live. (break) ...Communists. Siddha-svarūpa: Yes, well they have some basic differences, though, in philosophy.
Morning Walk -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: ...nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam:" You cannot become a philosopher unless you disagree with other philosopher." Nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. (break) ...something drown?
Sudāmā: Yes, they destroyed an amusement park there, and that got stuck in the water.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Why destroy?
Sudāmā: No one was coming any more.
Prabhupāda: All amusement finished.
Sudāmā: Yes.
Dharmādhyakṣa: They did that to get insurance money?
Prabhupāda: (break) ...they are becoming disappointed in science, philosophy, amusement. That is good sign.
Morning Walk -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Because their leaders have gone dead. The leaders are Jawaharlal Nehru and company.
Indian guest: They have destroyed. The Nehru family has destroyed India. He was atheist.
Prabhupāda: Even Gandhi, even Gandhi.
Indian guest: Gandhi believed in God, but Nehru didn't believe in God.
Prabhupāda: No, no, he does not know that Kṛṣṇa is God. Everyone believes in God. That is another thing, but one must know who is God. That is advancement. Here also, the people say, "God, God is great." But as soon God comes, "Here I have come," they don't believe it.
Room Conversation with Dr. John Mize -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Everything has got proper use. In the material condition we do not know that. Therefore Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has made a list, how to use your, this anger, greediness, like that. He says, kamaḥ kṛṣṇa-karmārpaṇe. We are lusty for doing something for our sense gratification. The same desire, same propensity, can be utilized for serving Kṛṣṇa. Just like we are writing books, keeping night, whole night. So for an old man like me, it is tedious. But we are doing for Kṛṣṇa. So similarly, another author may be writing whole night for some sex literature. So the labor for producing a sex literature and the labor for producing a Bhāgavata is the same. It may be same ambition that "Let me become a big author. My name will be very popular." But one thing is being done for Kṛṣṇa; one thing is being done for sense gratification. So that propensity of becoming a reputed author or the labor, this, same, but it is being utilized for different purposes. Similarly, you take anything, if you use it for... Just like Hanumān. He became angry upon Rāvaṇa. He set fire in his city, destroyed the whole city.
Room Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Wax, Writer and Editing Manager of Playboy Magazine -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:
Prabhupāda: Everyone is thinking, "This body is accidental and when the body will be finished, everything is finished." That is the general understanding. But Bhagavad-gītā, you read. It is said, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre: (BG 2.20) "After the destruction of the body, the soul is not destroyed." Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni anyāṇi gṛhṇāti aparāṇi: (BG 2.22) "Just like when our dress becomes old enough not to be used, then we accept another dress, similarly, when this body is old enough, not workable, then we accept another body." These things are there. But who is trying to understand it? At least all our Indians, those who are born in India, wherefrom Bhagavad-gītā has come out, at least they should understand.
Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:
Nitai:
- saṅkaro narakāyaiva
- kula-ghnānāṁ kulasya ca
- patanti pitaro hy eṣāṁ
- lupta-piṇḍodaka-kriyāḥ
- (BG 1.41)
"When there is an increase of unwanted population, a hellish situation is created both for the family and for those who destroy the family tradition. In such corrupt families, there is no offering of oblations of food and water to the ancestors."
Prabhupāda: So this instruction is strīṣu duṣṭāsu: "When women become polluted, there is unwanted population." That is coming all over the world, the hippies. Therefore the first thing is how to train up women not to become polluted.
Morning Walk -- July 14, 1975, Philadelphia:
Svarūpa-damodara: Destroyed.
Prabhupāda: He is not destroyed. When this body cannot work any more... Because this body is a machine. So a machine, if he does not move, then you, have to change to another machine.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The desire is not... Actually it is not burned; it just changed. The desire is changed to for a higher purpose. We have a choice between the subtle desires. Just change is the there from one to another.
Prabhupāda: No, the same example: just like in a motor car you desire to go this side, but the machine is stopped, so you have to accept another motor car. It is like that, to fulfill your desire. After all it is a machine. Machine is matter. So it has got a time to work. When it is not working, then you change to another machine to fulfill your desire.
Morning Walk -- July 21, 1975, San Francisco:
Paramahaṁsa: When I first joined the movement, Śrīla Prabhupāda, I used to listen to your lectures and then go talk with my father. And he would argue with me, and I would find a question and come back and ask you and find the answer and go back and argue with him. But the thing I always came up against is that if he assumes that there's life on other planets or that there is a supreme source, a supreme energy or God, then it destroys his entire life's work, his study.
Prabhupāda: Then they are fools. They should stop all this education. This university should be broken. (laughter) Because they are producing only fools. That's all. They should stop this education.
Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:
Mr. Surface: Were some of the animals destined to survive through the destruction of other animals?
Prabhupāda: Yes. You are also destroying so many cows daily, although you are human being. Do you consider that "Why this cow should be slaughtered?" They are also living beings. So what about the animals? If man can slaughter so many animals daily, then if a tiger kills another one animal, what is the wrong there? That is the distinction between man and animal. Everyone has to eat somebody, and nature's law is one living being is eating another living being. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. So the snake is eating the frog, the frog is eating another small animal or some flies, and the snake is eaten by the mongoose, and the mongoose eaten by somebody else, by cat or by dog. So this is the law of nature.
Morning Walk -- September 15, 1975, Vrndavana:
Devotee (3): Śrīla Prabhupāda, if this is spiritual, spiritual means eternal. But this microphone will fall to pieces.
Prabhupāda: Yes, but scientifically it will keep the energy, conservation of energy. Even it is destroyed, it will remain. The material manifestation means bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). It is sometimes destroyed and sometimes manifest. But the energy is there.
Indian man (2): And also remain in different form.
Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be. Just like this is earth. Now you prepare hundreds or thousands of earthen pots and dolls. When it is destroyed, again it is earth. So when it is manifested, it is earth. When it is not manifested, it is earth. So from the spiritual energy of Kṛṣṇa everything becomes manifested, and therefore originally it is spiritual. Kṛṣṇa said, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir..., bhinnā me prakṛtiḥ: (BG 7.4) "It is My prakṛti, energy." So how Kṛṣṇa's energy can be material? Because we forget Kṛṣṇa, therefore it appears material. (Aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (Hindi) (break) ...Mahāprabhu, as soon as He entered the Jagannātha temple He immediately fainted. Did He see the wooden Jagannātha? It is a question of seeing and prepare the eyes to see.
Morning Walk -- September 29, 1975, Ahmedabad:
Indian man (5): Somebody else is controlling that.
Prabhupāda: Yes. We learn that na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). "This is my position. I am eternal. So why I am obliged to accept body which is hanyamāna?" These questions do not bother them. And where is my freedom? "I am eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). I do not die after the destruction of my body. Then why I am put into this body which will be destroyed, which will become old, useless? And where is my freedom?" These things do not bother them, and they are reader of Bhagavad-gītā.
Morning Walk -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:
Prabhupāda: Mano-rathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ. By his chariot of the mind he will be driven to this material consciousness. (break) ...spiritual knowledge. Therefore, we see, big, big scientists, they are thinking that combination of matter can produce life. In spite of so much advanced learning, they do not know what is life. They cannot create life; still, they will theorize. How foolish they are. And as soon as you catch his throat, "Produce life." "No, we shall do it in future." Just see.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes people ask that "If God is so great, then why doesn't He just come and destroy all the evil?"
Prabhupāda: Because you have to suffer. You are rascal. You must suffer. Therefore evil must be there.
Brahmānanda: Why doesn't He force us to be good?
Prabhupāda: Just like if the criminals and thieves say, "Why government has created this prisonhouse?" Is it very good argument? It is for you, rascal. You are criminal. You must suffer. Why it is to be abolished? Otherwise who will suffer? It is for your suffering.
Morning Walk -- October 7, 1975, Durban:
Devotee (2): They know how to destroy everything, but they can't create anything nice.
Prabhupāda: No question of creating. They have destroyed themselves. Save yourself from destruction. Then you talk of destruction. You destroy. That's all right. But you will be destroyed by some other greater power. What you are going to do that? What you have done for that purpose? You destroy. That is going on, nature's way. I am killing somebody, somebody is killing me. That is nature's way. So what is your special credit? There is no credit. There is no credit. You save yourself not to be destroyed by others. "I can destroy others but nobody can destroy me"—that Hiraṇyakaśipu tried. But that is not possible. Ultimately he was destroyed. That's all.
Room Conversation -- October 29, 1975, Nairobi:
Harikeśa: ...they would ultimately be destroyed.
Prabhupāda: This is right answer, that you cannot non-cooperate with the stomach. You must serve the stomach. Otherwise your position is very precarious. That is the answer. If the finger thinks that "I shall remain independent and be happy," that is not possible. The stomach must be supplied food, and then all the parts of the body, they'll be happy. That is the point. So you cannot non-cooperate with the stomach. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is the central enjoyer. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). He is the center. Just like ordinarily this African state, if you do not satisfy the state or the president, then you cannot remain happy. Independently you cannot be happy. We require in every step sta... We have come to this park because state is cooperating. In the morning we shall come, and they have prepared it nicely. We are not going to the jungle.
Morning Walk -- December 23, 1975, Bombay:
Harikeśa: It's not fair. You have completely destroyed the opposition. (Prabhupāda laughs) There is no question of fight.
Prabhupāda: The actual fact is that Lord Śiva did not give permission, but he did not go to protect Rāvaṇa, because he knew that it was impossible to give him protection. That is summarized in Bengali, rākhe kṛṣṇa māre ke, māre kṛṣṇa rākhe ke. If Kṛṣṇa kills somebody, wants to kill somebody, nobody can give him protection. That is the conclusion. And if Kṛṣṇa protects somebody, nobody can kill him. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. Huh? He was protected by Lord Nṛsiṁha-deva. Who can kill?
Kīrtanānanda: Why did Lord Śiva try to protect Banasura?
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Kīrtanānanda: Didn't Lord Śiva try to protect Banasura?
Prabhupāda: Yes. You must try, when your son is in danger, you must try. That is natural. That is not uncommon. You can save or not save, that is a different thing. But it is you duty, if somebody is under your protection, you must try to save him, even at the risk of your life. That is real protector.
Morning Walk -- December 23, 1975, Bombay:
Indian man: Ātmā is amara. So it is eternal, it has no death, no life, no.... It has got a birth, it has got a death that only are superfluous, say only for consolation. But actually it does not die. Body dies, or body destroyed, and that is (indistinct) or suffering. But, when I do something good or bad in this life, see, I am doing.
Prabhupāda: You are doing, and therefore you must suffer.
Indian man: But that is not ātmā. Why ātmā is...
Prabhupāda: ...do not know.
Indian man: (indistinct) ...even (indistinct) ātmā.
Girirāja: You are the ātmā.
Indian man: Not ātmā.
Prabhupāda: You do not understand that you are ātmā. Aham brahmasmi. That you do not understand. You think "I am body." That is nonsense.
Conversation on Roof -- December 26, 1975, Sanand:
Harikeśa: You so completely destroy the opposition, it's very hard to say anything more.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That you have to prove. You can eulogize your Guru Mahārāja, but you have to learn it and face the public and be strong to defend yourself. That is success. Not by praising your Guru Mahārāja. You'll praise your Guru Mahārāja. That is not very difficult. But be victorious to the opposing elements. Then you will praise your Guru Mahārāja nicely. At home, you can praise your Guru Mahārāja, and Guru Mahārāja be satisfied, "Oh, my disciples are praising me." That is not very.... That is good. Respectful. That is the qualification. But you have to fight. Then your Guru Mahārāja will be glorified.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- January 16, 1976, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: So there are so many rooms. You could not make any store?
Jayapatāka: First they were in the building to here. When they moved it then many became damaged. And somebody came in and vandaled them.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Jayapatāka: Somebody came in and destroyed them.
Prabhupāda: Somebody came in?
Jayapatāka: Vandalized.
Prabhupāda: You are so careful. That is the defect. Yes. Somebody broke it. (break) We have got so many enemies and you did not take care of it. (break) Where these.... When these pictures will begin?
Jayapatāka: Over on that side we're putting the stones. The stones should be finished about in one week. Then we're going to start the pictures. Already there's a few frames they're ready to start on that side.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's very nice how they, the way they're putting stones...
Prabhupāda: (break) Begin immediately.
Morning Walk -- February 11, 1976, Mayapura:
Hṛdayānanda: There are more, probably at least a hundred thousand, and at least, maybe 300,000 their home was destroyed. Small country.
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Hṛdayānanda: In my zone there are many countries that are always being hit by earthquakes, tidal waves, floods, repeatedly.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So what is to be done?
Hṛdayānanda: We'll go afterwards and preach there.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Hṛdayānanda: We will go afterwards and preach there. There is another country right next to it...
Prabhupāda: Tell them that if you take to Hare Kṛṣṇa, then these things will not happen. Tell them.
Morning Walk -- February 11, 1976, Mayapura:
Prabhupāda: This is Kali-yuga. Durbhikṣa-kārāpīḍita. One side, government disturbance, one side, no food, and they let them live very happily. That's all. This is their conception of happiness. Tactation(?), taxation, and no food, and natural disturbance.
Hṛdayānanda: (break) ...country in my zone. Many times big tidal waves come and many, many towns are simply carried away into the ocean and destroyed. Thousands of people... Every so many years gigantic waves come, and thousands of people are killed and many towns are destroyed. (break)
Prabhupāda: Observe. You have got any pañjikā?
Jayapatākā: Yes. Just now bringing.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So there is mention what to do.
Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The scientists are getting smashed to bits by your statements, Śrīla Prabhupāda. This destroys their whole theory. Orbs, round spheres. I think that this Māyāpur building, we must build a big planetarium in it.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That, that I am going to do, Vedic planetarium.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, boy. You're going to bring a lot of.... A lot of scientists will come here just to dispute this.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:
Dr. Patel: ...that if God wanted to destroy the rascals and mūḍhas, He could have done by His finger.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dr. Patel: Why does He come here? He comes here... (Hindi) Am I right?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dr. Patel: It is not only for killing the...
Prabhupāda: Otherwise how He can give contact? Contact.
Dr. Patel: He could have done it from there only.
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Actually to give him favor.
Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:
Prabhupāda: That they do not know, what is the real gain. They think this body is the gain only. And beyond this body there is another gain. That is not known. They do not know even. That is the defect of their civilization. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). They are taking care of the body, but beyond the body there is something else which is eternal. Even after the annihilation of the body, it does not become destroyed. That they do not know. There is no education. There is no research. There is no college. There is no science to understand. And that kind of taking care of the body, a dogs know. Sometimes the dogs, they rub their body on the ground like that. That.... That makes them rejuvenated. Horse also do that. So how to take care of the body, they know in their different method. But that is known to them. If before the horse you give them some meat, they'll not take. And give them peas; they'll take immediately.
Morning Walk -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:
Rādhāvallabha: Śrīla Prabhupāda, at the time of death, when the soul leaves the body, at that time the body is destroyed. So at the time of sleeping, when the soul leaves the body, how is the body maintained?
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Rādhāvallabha: At the time of sleeping, when the soul leaves the body, why is the body not destroyed at that time?
Prabhupāda: Why? Suppose you have left the car; does that mean it is destroyed? You are going again.
Rādhāvallabha: But at the time of death it is destroyed when you leave it.
Prabhupāda: Death is different. When the car is no more usable, that is death. But we are returning to the car because we know that it is usable. And if we know that it is useless, we don't go to that car. That is death.
Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Recently there was an propaganda. That comet?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it would come and destroy,
Prabhupāda: There was no comet.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They said it would destroy...
Prabhupāda: Destroy...
Hṛdayānanda: They predicted a comet that never came.
Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in the Fifth Canto you wrote that the planets are being pulled in their orbits by chariots. Just like there is a description of the sun planet, and there is very elaborate...
Prabhupāda: That is movement. Now, according to their calculation, sun is fixed up, but according to our calculation it is moving. That is the difference.
Interview with Professors O'Connell, Motilal and Shivaram -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:
Jayādvaita: Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi.
Prabhupāda: Yes, find out. This is knowledge. Advancement of knowledge means one must be able to see that what are the actual problems. Just like the scientists, the philosophers, they're trying to solve so many problems. But first of all, fix up what is the problem. Temporary problem, to make a solution, that is going on. But actual problem is this: na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). The soul is not destroyed, na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit, at any time. One should be very prudent to see that "If I have no birth and no death, then what is this nonsense, birth and death?" That is knowledge. Why I am dying? Why there is birth problem? Why there is death problem? And as soon as there is birth problem, there is disease problem, there is old age problem. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says.... What is the janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi?
Jayādvaita: It's in the list of items of knowledge, "The perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease."
Prabhupāda: Yes. And the cure, medicine, is also given: tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). If you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then.... Everyone has to give up this body, but a person who is in thorough knowledge of Kṛṣṇa, then he, after giving up this body, he does not accept any more material body. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma (BG 4.9). Find out his verse.
Morning Walk -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:
Devotee (3): Śrīla Prabhupāda, when we take that which is not our quota, by using, wasting a lot of clean water, how is that perfect and complete, oṁ pūrṇam? How are things still perfectly complete even when we're wasting and destroying it?
Prabhupāda: Why you should waste? Wasting is not allowed. (break) ...our car?
Kīrtanānanda: No, it belonged to the man who formerly owned the property.
Prabhupāda: So how it is broken?
Kīrtanānanda: Some vandals. There's no one living here, he just left it. (in car:) This farm is for sale now.
Prabhupāda: There is no limit of purchasing?
Kīrtanānanda: Only limit is money.
Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say as in India there is limit, that you...
Kīrtanānanda: No, government puts no limit.
Prabhupāda: There is no land, therefore there is limit.
Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:
Dhṛṣṭadyumna: You say, Śrīla Prabhupāda, they engage in unbeneficial horrible works meant to destroy the world and that this refers to the atomic weapons. This is so true.
Prabhupāda: Yes, God's speaking, Kṛṣṇa is speaking.
Dhṛṣṭadyumna: I was studying this nuclear energy in college, thinking that it would save the world. That by the energy they could make bigger tomatoes, bigger corn, and...
Prabhupāda: Bigger deaths. Conclusion is bigger deaths. Everything big. One man was dying, now many hundreds of thousands will die. Bigger deaths. You did not consider it bigger death? Dhṛṣṭadyumna: It was very frustrating, though, because for everything they were trying to do good, they found so many more things bad were coming.
Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:
Prabhupāda: That is... Karma jagat means that if you have to raise this house, then you have to cut the wood somewhere. You have to destroy somewhere, and then you can make house. You have to adjust things like that. You cannot create. This house was constructed, created, by destroying somewhere else. Is it not? So where is your creation? Creation is God's creation. He has created everything, and if you want to create, you have to destroy somewhere. That is karma.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes these people are called duṣkṛtina. And you've mentioned that the duṣkṛtina, actually he has some intelligence, misused. Prabhupāda: Yes. Intelligence. After destroying the wood, you use your intelligence to construct this house. You have intelligence, there is no doubt. Human being must have intelligence. But that intelligence is given to him for getting out of the clutches of birth, death, old age and disease. He's not utilizing that intelligence for that purpose, therefore duṣkṛtina. Intelligence he has got. We don't say that modern world, they are unintelligent, fools. No, they have got intelligence. But the intelligence is being utilized for duṣkarya, which he should not have done. Duṣkarya. Karya and duṣkarya-work and bad work. His intelligence was given so that he could get relief from these clutches of birth, death, old age and disease, but that he's not utilizing. He's opening factory and creating another bad atmosphere. Therefore duṣkṛtina. To open a factory requires intelligence. So many machine is working, that's all right, but how this intelligence being used? To keep man in a hellish condition of life.
Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:
Prabhupāda: Prabhavanty, materially, materially. Just like when you go to a modern city and say, "Oh, how developed," prabhavanty. But what kind of prabhavanty? That is next word, jagato 'hitāḥ, to destroy this world. So their prabhavanty in the opposite direction. That is not prabhavanty actually. Prabhavanty in the material sense, but what is the purpose, what is the end? Jagato 'hitāḥ. There are two kinds of progress, to hell, to heaven.
Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: If the natural tendency of the living entity is to want to exist, to live, then why is it they perform so many horrible acts that will destroy themselves?
Prabhupāda: They are thinking that they will exist in that way.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Is it that they see everyone as their enemy, and therefore everything has to be around them?
Prabhupāda: No, that is foolishness. Everyone wants to exist, struggle for existence, but they do not know how to exist. That is foolishness. Everyone wants to exist because actually he is eternal. He doesn't like to be destroyed. That is his natural inclination. But he does not know. We are giving the formula that if you want to exist, then you come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are giving the right information. But they want to exist in their wrong way of existing. That is not possible.
Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:
Hari-śauri: Na hi prapaśyāmi mamāpanudyād yac chokam ucchoṣaṇam indriyāṇām, avāpya bhūmāv asapatnam ṛddhaṁ rājyaṁ surāṇām api cādhipatyam (BG 2.8). "I can find no means to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses. I will not be able to destroy it even if I win an unrivalled kingdom on the earth..."
Prabhupāda: No. There is another verse that "Without You I do not find anyone else who can give me real..."
Hari-śauri: You know that one?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No.
Devotee: The doubt when... The fallen yogi. "Who else can...? I think so.
Hari-śauri: I'll look it up in the...
Prabhupāda: In the, is the,... There is... What are you finding?
Hari-śauri: I'll look it up in the Sanskrit index.
Prabhupāda: What is the śloka? The śloka I do not remember exactly, but there is continuation. You read the whole thing. What is that chapter?
Hari-śauri: This is Chapter Two.
'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Prabhupāda: That is abortion. By force you are destroying the shelter. Therefore you are criminal.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So we can utilize this experiment.
Prabhupāda: Yes, this is... When the life comes from outside, then there is germination.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the perfect theory.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So life comes from life.
Prabhupāda: As I have already explained. It is not the man and woman sex creation. The life comes from outside. The solution was there, but life comes out. The same example. The solution of man and woman is there, but life must come there. Then there will be pregnancy. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). Find out this, Third Canto.
'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Prabhupāda: They, simply like child, they are speculating. If he's imperfect, then what is the value of his speculation? There is no value.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: But then what happens at the time of partial devastation? At the end of Manu, the partial devastation, what happens to the species?
Prabhupāda: Happens means these different ways become destroyed, but again, during creation, they come in.
Hari-śauri: The same species.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Sadāpūta: I was thinking like in Bhāgavatam, it says Cākṣuṣa-manvantara, Dakṣa recreated all the necessary living beings. So I was thinking it must have been that they were destroyed in a devastation and that he recreated them.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Sadāpūta: We were trying to see how we could explain these fossils that geologists speak of, and it seems like one way of looking at them.
Prabhupāda: But their calculating mind, in whatever you explain you have to give reference to the śāstra, and they will say it is, what is called? Myth, mythology. They'll refuse immediately that thing. But you have no other source to explain. And they will take it immediately, "It is all mythology."
Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Prabhupāda: Spirit is unable to live. The condition changes. Poison means the condition changes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So cyanide is more powerful than the spirit.
Prabhupāda: No. Powerful, this is different element. Powerful, it is, certainly, because it is moving the whole thing. Powerful, that particular body is destroyed. But the spirit soul, there are so many, otherwise how the germs are coming? It is not powerful.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: When cyanide is introduced the body becomes unsuitable.
Prabhupāda: For a particular soul.
Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Prabhupāda: Yes, body is changing every moment. That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā lesson.
- dehino 'smin yathā dehe
- kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
- tathā dehāntara-prāptir
- dhīras tatra na muhyati
- (BG 2.13)
Every body... Just like a child is changing his body to boyhood, boy is changing his body to youthhood, kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. The young man is becoming old man. Similarly, when the body is no more endurable, then you get another body. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This body is being destroyed, we are not destroyed. We living entities, we are nityaḥ śāśvato 'yam. We are eternal. The proof is given that the child is growing, getting the boy's body. That means the living entity is there, he has changed bodies. When a child is grown to become a boy, the father, mother do not think that "My child is no more existing." He knows "My child is existing, but in a different body." This is common sense. So we shall exist, we existed in the past, we are existing now and we shall exist in the future, but in a different body.
Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Bill Sauer: ...in theses that we..., nature tolerates us. We are part of the tree of life, this is the tree of the animal kingdom. And since there is no way that the animal or plant can escape this planet in the body form, but we are here to support this new tree, the tree of technology, the tree of the fourth kingdom, which started out as the animals lived very simply and became more complex until we finally developed a means to launch the seeds of our civilization from this planet to others. We are a special creature which has been given special brain power, special power, which we have abused many times, by the way. But special power in order to create space arks to take, not just humanity, but really an ark of the totality of life to another planet, to, hopefully, hundreds of planets. Because sooner or later this planet will be destroyed by the sun.
Prabhupāda: Other planets also will be destroyed.
Bill Sauer: Pardon?
Prabhupāda: Other planets also will be destroyed.
Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Bill Sauer: Other planets? There couldn't be enough cosmic disaster to destroy a hundred planets at once.
Prabhupāda: Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19).
Bill Sauer: Our star will eventually turn into a red giant, will incinerate this earth. Other stars, the astrologers have found, or astronomers, excuse me...
Prabhupāda: You find out that verse? (Sauer laughs) Paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20).
Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Prabhupāda: But there is eternal life.
Bill Sauer: But when this planet sits for a billion years at a thousand degrees Fahrenheit, what we know as life will be destroyed.
Prabhupāda: Anything within this material world will be all destroyed. But there is another nature, that is being described. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20).
Bill Sauer: But the spirit is manufactured in the body, is it not, sir?
Prabhupāda: Yes, spirit is, but there is a spiritual world also, where you don't require this material body, you remain in your spiritual body.
Bill Sauer: But if there is no bodies left, they are all burned up, there's no spiritual development.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) No, that is not the fact.
Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Bill Sauer: Well, I believe there is a matrix of creation, a spiritual... Technical people call it an electromagnetic world, where I'm sure a lot goes on that we are unaware of, but I believe the... It's like one product of the fourth kingdom is the automobile. And that has it's spiritual world. Automobiles, if you destroyed all the automobiles, there are still blueprints around, there are still things that can manufacture other automobiles. But the trial, the improvement, the development the automobile has to take place as an automobile... Likewise, I think the spiritual improvement, the improvement of...
Prabhupāda: Automobile, automatically the automobile does not develop. When a man, a person, develops the design, that is a question of development. But the automobile as it is, it does not develop. It is matter. When matter is handled by a spirit soul, then there is change. Otherwise there is no change.
Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Prabhupāda: So as soon as you say light, you must find out the source of light.
Bill Sauer: That's correct. You must destroy matter in order to create light.
Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Prabhupāda: Surrender to God, there is no fault. That is the highest faultless action. And so long you do not surrender, anything we do there is fault. Anything you eat... That is stated:
- yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo
- mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ
- bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā
- ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt
- (BG 3.13)
Even if you prepare vegetable, not meat, still you are sinful. It is not that those who are meat-eaters, they are only sinful, and you are eating vegetable, you are not sinful, no. Anything you cook for yourself without being offered to the Deity or Kṛṣṇa, you are sinful. Bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt. Now, pacanti, you may do whatever you like to eat, but if it is not prasādam, then you are sinful. It is not the question of... Sometimes they mistake the vegetable is good, meat is not good. May be, comparative. But either vegetable or meat, if you simply cook it for your tongue's satisfaction, then it is sinful. And if you offer to Kṛṣṇa, maybe only little patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam (BG 9.26), not very gorgeous, palatable dishes, and if you eat that, then bhuñjate, again. Yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ, he becomes free from all sinful actions. As there is sin in cutting the throat of an animal, similarly, there is sin in destroying a vegetable. Maybe more or less sinful. But it is sinful.
Morning Walk -- July 9, 1976, Washington D.C.:
Prabhupāda: End of the day of Brahmā. End of fourteen Manus.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: At that time is the earth destroyed, or is it simply covered by water?
Prabhupāda: Covered by water.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: That can explain many facts, because they're having great difficulty in finding these old fossils, in Siberia, and all these other places, they find some strange fossils, which are not supposed to be there according to their theory.
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: But if we accept this catastrophism, this can explain many facts.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That's a fact.
Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:
Prabhupāda: That is your nonsense, without father and mother, aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2). Before creation, the child was created, the father was there.
Rāmeśvara: They say that matter can neither be destroyed nor created. It exists eternally. But there is no need for a creator.
Prabhupāda: Why your body does not exist?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It does exist, but in a different form.
Prabhupāda: No, at least this body does not exist. This body was not in existence, it was created, and at the present you see, and in the past this body will not remain there.
Room Conversation -- July 17, 1976, New York:
Indian man: Right. In fact, several people, even in our community in Poughkeepsie, received letters from Satya Sai Baba's followers that "Here is a letter. Make ten copies and send the ten copies to ten different people. If you don't, Satya Sai Baba's thunderbolt will come and strike your family, and they'll be destroyed." Now no guru ever puts a thunderbolt on his devotee, and I said, "If that is a guru, I'll stay ten thousand miles away from him, because my guru is very kind and he'll bless me." I said, "No guru should ever put a thunderbolt on his devotee."
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. You can turn towards this.
Morning Walk -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: ...rainy season these leaves should have been very green, but it is not green. Huh?
Saurabha: It's also the sea wind that kills a lot of trees. Not so much here, but if one goes down to the sea, all trees they have no leaves. There's some type of salt or something in the air that destroys plants. Here it's all right, but close to the sea it's all... That must affect them. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...saptāha, it is not authorized.
Acyutānanda: No. But in some editions of Bhāgavatam they have a Bhāgavata-māhātmyam, and there's a story about bhakti and jñāna and vairāgya and Nārada Muni.
Prabhupāda: That no ācārya has mentioned.
Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: To be quickly recognized by Kṛṣṇa, this is the short-cut process. He never says those who are sitting in a secluded place meditating or chanting, doing nothing. He never says that "They are My very dear devotees." But those who are preaching-na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me (BG 18.69). Just like government takes more care for the soldiers, especially when there is fighting. They are giving life for the state. So their comfort-first consideration. In the warfield, enough supplies. Anything the soldiers require. Enough supplies. Sometimes the store is blown out. And again another store is ready. Therefore in the wartime they control. (break) ...destroy them. And still another store. So therefore supply is sufficient. Civil supplies become controlled. Whatever they want, supply is there. The Britishers, British time. I have seen, in the village they will let loose the soldiers to rape anyone.
Room Conversation with Endowments Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: They are doing that. You can see from this big, big person. Gandhi used to say that he believes in Gītā and Gītā gives him solace in difficult times and so on, so on. But has he ever preached about Kṛṣṇa? Tilok has ever preached about Kṛṣṇa? Radhakrishnan has ever preached Kṛṣṇa? Nobody. Their policy is take Sītā and kill Rāma. Rāvaṇa's policy. Take away Sītā. Take away Gītā and kill Kṛṣṇa. So Rāvaṇa's policy will never be successful. Rāvaṇa's policy means he will be destroyed. You cannot do any harm to Rāma, but he will be destroyed. This policy, that take Sītā and kill Rāma, means he will destroy himself. So this is going on. Take Gītā and kill Kṛṣṇa. This will destroy the whole thing. This Rāvaṇa's policy. And Hanumān's policy is somehow or other rescue Sītā and get her seated by the side of Rāma. Therefore he's worshiped, Vajrāṅgajī. That is the difference between Rāvaṇa's policy. Sītā is the via media. But one is trying to bring back Sītā and seat her by the side of Rāma, and another is trying to take away Sītā and kill Rāma. This wrong policy will not take. We have to accept the instruction of Gītā and accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Lord. Then everything will be all right. Prasāda? So thank you very much for your coming. So, kindly if you will agree to take the instruction of Gītā, I am always at your service. I'll give you such guidance, our men, our everything. But you have to decide this. You cannot take up this policy, take Gītā and banish Kṛṣṇa. That is wanted.
Room Conversation with U.N. Doctor -- September 29, 1976, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: It is not material. Because matter, chindanti, any matter it can be destroyed. It can be cut into pieces, it can be melted in fire, it can be moistened. So when we cannot understand things, it is given in the definition of negation.
Doctor: But then it's much better to worship God in form.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is intelligence. If you accept Kṛṣṇa immediately, man-manā bhava mad..., then your life is successful. Kṛṣṇa says man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru, mām evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te (BG 18.65), He said. But they are not interested. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11). "Ah, Kṛṣṇa is a historical person. Why shall I think of Him? I shall think of oṁkāra." You cannot think of oṁkāra. You can hear. And as soon as you think of oṁkāra it comes from? There is no impersonalism.
Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:
Prabhupāda: So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is purely a spiritual movement. Therefore sometimes it is little difficult to understand the activities of this movement. There are two things, material and spiritual. That is the beginning of instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa begins with this statement: that this body is not the person, the soul is the person. Asmin dehe. Within this body there is the soul. And he has explained in different ways that this body is antavanta ime dehā (BG 2.18). This body is perishable, but the soul is not perishable. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), that even after the destruction of the body the soul is not destroyed.
Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Yes. You are destroying these trees.
Devotee: Well, see these trees, they're not real tall all the way, there's...
Prabhupāda: Oh, this is green also.
Devotee: Yeah, this is greenery around here and occasionally there's a big tree and then along the back here's...
Prabhupāda: Big trees are this side.
Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:
Vāsughoṣa: So by this kind of philosophy they are destroying themselves.
Prabhupāda: Yes. This is against their interest. These rascals, they do not know what is their interest. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). If you keep the stomach empty and try to supply food to the eyes and legs, it is simply waste of time. But these rascals, they do not know. They will go on committing mistakes after mistakes. This is the position. We are giving the real knowledge that "You serve in this way. Then everyone will be pleased." Yasmin vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati.
Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:
Prabhupāda: On this road?
Mr. Malhotra: On this road. Of course, I went by air to Bangalore and from there we went by car. But this road goes straight. (break) ...by car, to Calcutta by air, then from there to that Bhuvaneśvara by train, and then from there by car like that. (break) It is very small place, Dvārakā, it is very small place, and in that leak was, an entire area was destroyed completely. Even communications could not be restored for three months. But Dvārakā itself was untouched completely. But on the way we found, because we went by car from here, we found roads, everything was destroyed completely. You could see demolished, the tops of houses gone away in the cyclone.
Prabhupāda: Maharastra Province is rich? I don't think so.
Mr. Malhotra: It is like this, that Maharastra is industrially quite stable. But that only Bombay and one, two cities. The rest of Maharastra is poor. There is not much cultivation.
Prabhupāda: But industry it belongs to the other persons, not to the Maharastrians.
Morning Walk -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:
Guest (1): It should be destroyed. No use to it.
Prabhupāda: Suppose if I supply you something which is spoiled, then what benefit you will derive? Therefore no benefit is derived by the people in general either from Gandhi or Vinoba Bhave or Tilak because it was naṣṭa.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: That is Vṛndāvana life, either in rasa dance or the cowherd's play or killing the demons or in dining and dancing. The friends are eating, they are being stolen by Brahmā—but the center is Kṛṣṇa. That is Vṛndāvana. All activities are going on, just like in other place. But here in Vṛndāvana, all activities centered around Kṛṣṇa. When Brahmā is stealing His friends, the center is Kṛṣṇa. The demon is coming to destroy—the center is Kṛṣṇa. When there is forest fire, the center is Kṛṣṇa. This is Vṛndāvana beauty. In happiness, in danger, in perplexities, in friendship—everything Kṛṣṇa. Kāliya-damana. "Oh, Kṛṣṇa has gone to Yamunā. He has fallen down in the..., to fight the Kāliya." It is a very, what is called, calamity. But still, the center is Kṛṣṇa. This is the beauty of Vṛndāvana. "Kṛṣṇa has entered Yamunā to fight with Kāliya." It is not at all good news for Mother Yaśodā, Nanda, friends and family, not at all. Their life is lost. But still the Kṛṣṇa is center. This is Vṛndāvana life. In everything Kṛṣṇa is center, anything. We are having just like: "Kṛṣṇa's a bad propaganda," opposition.
Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:
Hari-śauri: All these religious, what they call the religious cults, came immediately after the hippies. That's the big thing now. There was the growth period for those. Now they're trying to destroy them. Of course, they won't destroy us, but they've succeeded in one or two other groups. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...below one person.(?) In the name of religious men, because they are not civilized even, it is further, further. This is going on. Actually there was no such...
Rāmeśvara: And another thing that came out of the hippie movement is this abortion. Because the whole thing... The slogan was "free sex." So now they have free sex.
Hari-śauri: Women's liberation was another thing.
Rāmeśvara: All based on sex. Abortion, divorce—everything related to sex has increased.
Hari-śauri: They used to carry signs, "I want the control of my body," the women, the women's liberation.
Prabhupāda: That is woman's liberation.
Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:
Rāmeśvara: This article will have a great effect on people. They will be convinced that after death of this body there is still life.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Na hanyate hanyamāne... (BG 2.20). Because the body is destroyed, that does not mean the soul is destroyed.
Rāmeśvara: But they are not giving the complete idea.
Prabhupāda: They have no...
Rāmeśvara: No. They are not explaining that from this subtle state you again enter another gross body.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:
Prabhupāda: Yes. That's a fact. That's a fact.
Rāmeśvara: I think you even said that "This unemployment will destroy your country." You once said that.
Prabhupāda: Yes. At least, the black men will spoil everything if they are unemployed.
Rāmeśvara: He'll simply become a thief.
Prabhupāda: Thieves, rogues and plunderers. That's all.
Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:
Prabhupāda: Now they are trying to destroy us. And we are trying to destroy them. The conflict is already there. And this is now psychological fight. And then there will be actual fight. And we must take part in that fight.
Room Conversation with Film Producer about Krsna Lila -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:
Prabhupāda: Ordinary question... Kṛṣṇa has advised in the Bhagavad-gītā, na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit, na hanyate hanyamāne śarī... (BG 2.20). This is for living entity, soul. And living entity is the part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. So the part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, na jāyate na mriyate. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). And "Kṛṣṇa, the supreme whole, He was killed." Just see the question, fun. Means he has no common sense even—"Kṛṣṇa was killed." "The part and parcel cannot be killed, but the whole can be killed." Just see his intelligence. If I say, "Not a single portion of this room can be destroyed," but "The whole house was destroyed," what is this nonsense? Part and parcel... Na jāyate na mriyate kadācit. Kadācit, this word, is used, "at any time." And "The whole is killed."
Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:
Prabhupāda: These two girls, they are very fine. (break)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One of the big points of criticism is that we do not encourage our members to visit and spend time with their parents. In that way they say we are destroying the family.
Prabhupāda: Actually that we want to do.
Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:
Prabhupāda: This is their platform line for line, demoniac. Then their activities.
Hari-śauri: "...and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world."
Prabhupāda: Just see. There is periodical war.
Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- February 28, 1977, Mayapura:
Hṛdayānanda:
- etāṁ dṛṣṭim avaṣṭabhya
- naṣṭātmāno 'lpa-buddhayaḥ
- prabhavanty ugra-karmāṇaḥ
- kṣayāya jagato 'hitāḥ
- (BG 16.9)
"Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world."
Prabhupāda: That's it. This is going on. And what is their prakāra? Kāma? But simply sense gratification.
Room Conversation -- March 22, 1977, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa said, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). That is healthy, when you do not die even the body is destroyed. That is healthy life. What is this healthy life? The body is finished and everything, everything is... Actually everything is finished. And to keep people in that ignorance—"The body is finished; everything is finished." That's not the fact. Kṛṣṇa very clearly said, na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācin na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). They do not question even how it is possible. That is the most important question. Some lady asked me, "What is the important...?"
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "What is the most important thing in life?"
Prabhupāda: This is the most important question.
Room Conversation with Scientists, Svarupa Damodara, and Dr. Sharma -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Some contribution.
Dr. Sharma: Contribution. And there was a real rich life in Indian village. Now, after independence, that life has been really destroyed. Because the grants have been taken away and here, it's really a pain to see such beautiful temples having no maintenance now. Plus this so-called secular education, you know godless education they have introduced, that has further harmed, because the temple-going public has also dwindled in number. And it looks like there has been a systematic plan to undermine our...
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, by this Congress. Their opinion is that India is too much religious; they spoiled.
Room Conversation -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: There was fighting between two political parties. The cultivator is working on the field. One party soldier and, "Where is the other party's soldiers?" "I have seen, they have gone this way." The soldiers of the king, let them fight. Therefore all the soldiers, they assembled in Kurukṣetra. It had nothing to do with the public. Fighting is going on, killing is going on in that big place. They were peaceful. "You conquer or either Kauravas. We shall pay tax. That's all." Why the public should be drawn?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nowadays they drop one atom bomb, a whole half the country, half the people destroyed.
Prabhupāda: Then whole meeting, people are coming, Russian people. When Indira is empowered they are coming to hear her, and she is gone. Rascals. What is the value of their vote? Sometimes giving vote here, sometimes giving vote there.
Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they are doing it with the money which was given in good faith to Kṛṣṇa. That's very objectionable.
Prabhupāda: No, objectionable... The rākṣasas... Just like Kṛṣṇa was there within the womb of Devakī. Kaṁsa imprisoned. So the brilliance of the body of Devakī could not be seen by others, because imprisoned. So if Kṛṣṇa comes from the womb of Devakī, and He will come, similarly if by your endeavor Kṛṣṇa comes in this movement, then these Kaṁsas will be destroyed. He will kill. That day will come when we shall take all the political posts. That is Kṛṣṇa's mission. That is battle of Kurukṣetra. "Take it from Duryodhana. Give it to Yudhiṣṭhira, Arjuna." If you go on steadily, that will be... And all these demons, Kaṁsa, Bakāsura, Aghāsura, sakala incarnations, swamis, yogis... They are Aghāsura and Bakāsura. Just like Kṛṣṇa had to kill so many asuras, disturbing element. You become under some Aghāsura.
Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Now, if this is fact, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ and na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), what we are doing for that? This is Bhagavad-gītā. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācin na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So when my body is destroyed, I am going... (break) ...from door to door, selling the books and sending money. We are pushing on our mission in the way. I am not getting any help neither from the government, from the public. And the record is there in the Bank of America, how much foreign exchange I am bringing. Even in this feeble health also, I am working four hours at least, at night. And they are also helping me. So this is our individual attempt. Why not come here? If you are actually very serious student of Bhagavad-gītā, why don't you come, cooperate? And harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā manorathenāsati dhāvato... (SB 5.18.12). You cannot make public honest simply by legislation. That is not possible.
Room Conversation with Ram Jethmalani (Parliament Member) -- April 16, 1977, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: In northern India first of all they give sweets. So they eat sweet to the heart's content. Then to counteract the sweetness...
Ram Jethmalani: The best way to destroy your appetite is to eat sweet first.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughs)
Indian man: They eat last to digest.
Ram Jethmalani: The sugar produces energy to digest your food.
Girirāja: No, no, I will take. (taking prasādam)
Prabhupāda: So I am very glad that you have taken the prasādam. I am pleased. Therefore I wanted that you eat before me. It is a great pleasure.
Morning Talk -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are very much glorified.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And the government gives them all facilities because they are dear patriots, laying down their life. During war everything is controlled, but they are supplied with immense. One store is destroyed; another one store is ready. Those who have gone to the warfield, they are... Because they have got that store of food and everything, sufficient, whatever they like, want. Now, in one point they have to go away. So how they can take the store? So from one point to another point there is another store. This store is blown, that enemy may not take advantage of it. This is going on, hundreds and thousands of worth of goods-blown, cut. Because they are going to another point and the enemies will take advantage of the store, therefore they blown it.
Evening Darsana -- May 13, 1977, Hrishikesh:
Prabhupāda: So that also will not be allowed. Aśāśvatam. Your tendency is to live forever. So that will not be allowed. Aśāśvata. So this requires knowledge, intelligence, that "If I am eternal," na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), "I am not destroyed even this body is destroyed," then you should seek after eternal happiness. Why temporary? That is not in your interest. That happiness is there when you go back to Kṛṣṇa; otherwise not. These are the statement in the Bhagavad-gītā. So if we do not try to understand the real purpose of Bhagavad-gītā, and if we theorize, "Bhagavad-gītā means nonviolence. Bhagavad-gītā means to become patriot," these are materialism.
Evening Darsana -- May 13, 1977, Hrishikesh:
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
- teṣām evānukampārtham
- aham ajñāna-jaṁ tamaḥ
- nāśayāmy ātma-bhāva-stho
- jñāna-dīpena bhāsvatā
- (BG 10.11)
"Out of compassion for them, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance."
Prabhupāda: Is there any purport?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: "When..." (break)
Prabhupāda: So let us stop today. Somebody kīrtana.
Talk About Varnasrama, S.B. 2.1.1-5 -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Because they have no other business. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). Chewing the chewed. Make a car, break it, and again melt it and again make another car. That's all. This is their civilization, car-making civilization. No spiritual idea, no ambition for spiritual life. But they'll do. They'll do something. So therefore they are making, breaking more. Make the car; break the car; again make the car; again break the car. Therefore you are habituated to change.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If something is nice, it must be destroyed.
Prabhupāda: No, it has... Everything is destroyed, material.
Conversations -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: (tape very faint throughout) ...divorce, child-killing or making the children hippies, that all. Or find out some war to destroy them. When it is unmanageable, they declare war: "Engage these rascals." The politicians do that. When they cannot manage, they declare war, because they are not human beings; they are animals, Churchill and Hitler and this... "Start some war and finish this population." Or it may be nature's law. "When there is unnecessary population let there be war, famine, pestilence." That is one theory, Malthus' theory.
Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: And it has gone to the Central Government?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You said that. I guess you must have got that information from the newspaper. I didn't know that. I mean just see. Fifty of them together stealing the grass. That's organized. Two hundred fifty people waiting in the bushes, knowing that we will try to stop them from stealing, and suddenly they all rush into the gate, destroy the gate, cut the wires, cut the telephone line, destroy the waterpumps. Every one of these things is criminal. We did not do anything wrong, no wrong in any case. And yet they arrest us. The American government... Actually this should be pushed from the American government. That will have tremendous effect. We should let the American government defend us.
Prabhupāda: Is the Consulate has come?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. The Consulate went to Māyāpur.
Prabhupāda: We already said that this is a Communist plan.
Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: They did not like to come.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, that was part of the plan, not to come. "Let them have enough time to destroy everything and cause injury. Then we'll come afterwards."
Prabhupāda: They do that.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And that will also be investigated, why it took them two hours. That's worthy of investigation.
Prabhupāda: And telephone was cut.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hm. We didn't cut our own telephone lines. Whoever cut it should be taken to court. Criminal. Destroying government property. There's no mention here of a cow, that we beat any cow. None of these things are mentioned.
Prabhupāda: So many stories fabricated.
| Page Title: | Destroy (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Rishab, Mayapur |
| Created: | 25 of May, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=123, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 123 |