Discourses (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"discourse" |"discoursed" |"discourses" |"discoursing"

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1970, Indore:

Guest (4): Last night in your learned discourse you said that you're supposed to found a temple in this city.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (4): But you preach the Vedic mārga. Don't you think that instead of building a temple, āśramas in this brahmacārī model would be...

Prabhupāda: Yes. And without temple the brahmacārīs will be vyabhicāris. (laughter)

Guest (4): That āśrama becomes a temple.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that we... Wherever we have got a center we have got a temple and at the same time teaching. These two things must go parallel. If simply dry teachings go on and there is no temple worship, then gradually he will glide down to vyabhicāri instead of brahmacārī.

Guest (4): Besides the chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and arousing(?) this Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the people, what else are you doing to establish the way...?

Prabhupāda: That you have seen this morning. We are teaching every day the śāstra. They are not simply chanting. Their chanting is based on understanding. Therefore they are sticking.(?)

Guest (4): Mahārāja, the educational system of this country has so much deteriorated. I have been studying. I see young people of different colleges, boys and girls taking to LSD even in this city and doing to all sorts of nonsense. What is the best...?

Prabhupāda: That I was explaining. As soon as there is indulgence in illicit sex life, all bad qualification will come. That I was explaining.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 15, 1972, Madras:

Prabhupāda: (reading:) "...Kṛṣṇa can be described, not (indistinct) Him, his mind becomes totally associated with Him. His Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda in his discourse at the (indistinct) Sunday, said there was no rigid rules and regulations for chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, nor does it require formal education. While uttering the name of Sri Kṛṣṇa one should focus the mind on the image and form of the Lord, His auspicious activities, His delightful sport, and His role as Gītā-ācārya. Lord Caitanya, during His visit to a temple in South India, found a man scanning the pages of the Bhagavad-gītā without seeming to read the verses, and inquiring, the same found that the person was illiterate and yet he was turning the pages of the Gītā at the request of his master because as he did so, he had a vision of Sri Kṛṣṇa expounding spiritual knowledge to Arjuna on the Kurukṣetra battlefield. Thereupon Caitanya embraced him in all admiration for his devotion, sincere faith, and guidance of the spiritual master as necessary for God realization." They give very nice article. You have seen it?

Madhudviṣa: No. (pause) He doesn't give the receipt number. He says... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...all the educated men. Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas tat tad evetaro janaḥ (BG 3.21). If the, who is called, elite society appreciate, then ordinary people will also appreciate. Before my Guru Maharaja, I mean, Bhaktisiddhānta's..., Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Lord Caitanya's cult was considered by the higher class as it is the business of the low-class men. Even Vivekananda remarked that "It is the religion of sex," because they saw that the sahajiyās, they discussed this rāsa-līlā and have illicit connection with woman. So therefore they took it as the religion of sex.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Karan Singh?

Guest (1): ...of Kashmir, he's a very pious man, and because rich birth and he is a pious as well, is it?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (1): Very religious and...

Prabhupāda: No, I have seen him. He's religious temperament. Not very. He loves Kṛṣṇa. No, he's a good man.

Guest (1): That's a good example, example like that.

Guest (1): Likes the Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he's a good man. He's good scholar also, educated.

Guest (1): He was coming but I don't know why he has not come due to this...? This last year hearing Bhāgavatam discourses he accepted he would come come. We got his letter also.

Prabhupāda: This is due to government post.

Guest (1): And he also accepted an invitation, we invited him, He said he'd also come, but this Pakistan war started.

Prabhupāda: Still there are so many respectable person came. The governor came, the high-court justices and that, the Canadian ambassador came. Many men came. And he was very humble. He sat down below.

Room Conversation -- September 19, 1973, Bombay:

Acyutānanda: She couldn't answer her philosophically, so she got back by failing her.

Prabhupāda: So there are so many members of the society against cruelty to animals. But they are all meat-eaters. Read something from Bhagavad-gītā and discuss. So in the Nepeansea Road, whether regular other things are going on or not? Or simply it is going out and coming and eating and sleeping?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, we want to have morning class and Monday, Wednesday and Friday have evening program there, evening discourse.

Prabhupāda: Whether it is going on?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, we just fixed up the place. The day you arrived was the first day it was painted. Until then, it was not fit for anyone to come in. It was very nasty.

Prabhupāda: But you are living since a long time there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have been living, but we have not invited others there.

Prabhupāda: No, you invite others or not, whether your program was going on?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Indian Guests -- April 12, 1975, Hyderabad:

Guest: What he does, each day he takes one śloka, and he just goes on giving discourse for an hour or what... (indistinct) ...he just has his discussion, "Now this śloka, we will take and we will discuss."

Prabhupāda: No, I have read some of his...

Guest: ...because his Gītā is there, all ślokas (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: He has said somewhere, I don't particularly know, "The Indian priests(?) think like that."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In his Gītā, in the verse that describes how to meditate on the formless, he states that although it says in the Bhagavad-gītā that it is very difficult to understand the formless aspect, he says this was true five thousand years ago but now it is no longer true.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Morning Walk -- September 27, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Prabhupāda: Philosophy was presented nice?

Madhudviṣa: Yes. Very nice.

Prabhupāda: You spoke? No.

Madhudviṣa: I spoke also, ten, fifteen minutes in the beginning. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: (break) (Hindi) ...kīrtana viṣṇoḥ, about Viṣṇu, not nonsense. (break) ...speak in Hindi, they will hear more.

Kartikeya: Yes, they like it.

Prabhupāda: You cannot speak Hindi?

Girirāja: I can't give discourses.

Kartikeya: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) "Yes, no, very good." You know this story, "Yes, no, very good"? No? There was one kansamar(?). So he was to go home, so he asked his friend that "So long I am not here, you serve European master." So he said, "I do not know English. How can I serve him?" "No, no, no. These three words will do: 'yes, no, very good.' " Then he was engaged. (laughs) Then one day from the master's room something was missing. So he asked the new servant, "You have taken it?" "Yes." (laughter) Then he asked him, "Return it." "No." (laughter) "Oh, then I shall hand you over to the police." "Very good." (laughter) Then when the police came, he was won..., "Sir, what is this? You have...?" "No, I do not know this." Then he was explained, that "I understand these three words only: 'yes, no, very good.' " That's all.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation With Radha-Damodara Sankirtana Party -- March 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think that the newly initiated brāhmaṇas have to come now. Maybe we should...

Prabhupāda: So some meeting is not going to be held down?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, there's constantly kīrtanas and discourses.

Prabhupāda: Lecture.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Lectures and kīrtanas.

Prabhupāda: Kīrtanas. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's soldier to fight with māyā.

Devotees: Jaya!

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You are our commander-in-chief, Prabhupāda.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself says, ekākī āmāra nāhi pāya bolo. When He.... In Caitanya-caritāmṛta you have seen? In the first part you can find out this verse, ekākī āmāra nāhi pāya bolo.

Morning Walk -- August 23, 1976, Hyderabad:

Indian man: But what is the stage at which it is ātmā gets merged with Paramātmā? If ātmā would get merged with Paramātmā then...

Prabhupāda: That I have already explained. You cannot merge. You simply imagine. Merging means you merge in the spiritual atmosphere, but without ānanda you cannot stay there. Therefore you have to come back again to this material world. Suppose you are advocate and you are given some place without any practice. How long you will you remain there? If I say, "Please remain here happily without any practice." How long you'll remain? We want some activities. That is our nature, for ānanda. But here we are trying to get that ānanda, but that is temporary. That is not satisfying us. Therefore being disgusted we want to stop it and merge. But there is also temporary. Unless you go back to home back to Godhead, there is no complete life. Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes and shows by His spiritual activities. He's playing with the boys, He's dancing with the girls, He's killing the demons, and so many activities. This is ānanda. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). They are all spiritual. You have read our Kṛṣṇa Book? Yes. There is everything. So as far as possible we are trying to give people the real knowledge from the śāstra. Now it is up to them to accept or take advantage of it.

Indian man: And practice.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian man: Will Swamiji discourse this evening?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian man: You are doing greatest service to the humanity throughout the world.

Prabhupāda: At least, I am trying. But it is very difficult. We have to spoil hundreds of gallons blood before one comes to the point. It is very simple thing. Only our leaders of the society, they are sleeping. They are misguided themselves and misguiding others. That is the difficulty.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with C.I.D. Chief -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I have no appetite also. (laughs) I do not eat too much. Whatever, one or two cāpāṭis, they give, I take. That's all. This is my royalty.

CID Chief: But any... How these politicians, they react to this in America? Do they...

Prabhupāda: There also... Here. Here people are suspecting that I am getting money from CIA, and they are also suspecting that I am cheating people and getting money.

CID Chief: Yeah, but do they have any prohibition about these religious discourses?

Prabhupāda: No, not... Prohibition has yet come. But individual cases, they have been instituted, and we are fighting by spending so much money to defend.

CID Chief: Yeah, but I read in some paper that somewhere they had this county courts, you know, ruling that people are disturbed by the kīrtanas and this for twenty-four hours and...

Prabhupāda: No, we have got judgment. You read those judgment, judges? We have got counterjudgements also.

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Sat-saṅga, satāṁ prasaṅgāt. The sat-saṅga... We know that word only, but if we don't take advantage, then what is meaning?

Guest (5) (Indian man): Execution part is more important of the sat-saṅga.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, sat-saṅga means sat. Sat means which is true and not contaminated. That is sat. Oṁ tat sat. So sat-saṅga means to associate with spiritual knowledge. That is sat.

Guest (5): And execution of the discourse.

Prabhupāda: Well, saṅga means execution. When you associate with medical association or sharebrokers' association, simply go there and sit down is not your business. You have to do something. You have to do something. Sat-saṅga means that. Tad-yoṣanāt aśu apavarga-vartmani. Sat-saṅga means you have to take the knowledge and use it for practical purpose. That is sat-saṅga. So our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to give the sat-saṅga, opening centers all over the world. If people take advantage of it they'll be benefited. But if he is ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā, then it is very unfortunate. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). This is Kali-yuga. The leaders also do not associate with sat, and they create their own imagination. Sat, oṁ tat sat. Bhagavān is the supreme sat. So they do not care for Bhagavān, so there is no sat-saṅga. Asat-saṅga.

Room Conversation -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Pṛthu-putra: I was living with one whole family. Sometimes I cooked prasāda for them, and they like it very much. They like us as a person.

Prabhupāda: Simply follow this. Give them prasādam and let them chant. That is preaching. And if they're educated, let them read books. Then gradually, he'll automatically come. (break)

Pṛthu-putra: ...sheik. And they say that when the sheik is teaching them the spiritual understanding from Koran, they can have..., he's like the link between God and themself, and they can have direct contact with God from inside. So... And they say what Muhammad said, that was no prophet after him. So they always asking from which prophet we are following. So one day I told Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And he accept it more or less because I explained to this person... He was a professor in Cairo University. He was a Sufist himself, so he was much more open than the regular Muslim. And I explained to him that Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared according to the time and circumstances to preach love of God. And he understood it, but he just didn't know Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So he said, "Then it's very nice. I can try to take knowledge of your philosophy," and he took the Gītā. He has the Gītā with him. So whenever I come back, he tell me, I always can go and give some discourses in the University, in his class. So I gave some discourses in universities, but sometimes I had to use some tricks. Like for example, once I gave a discourse in psychology department, explaining to them how the yoga system can bring you to different state of consciousness. And when I hint to Kṛṣṇa consciousness they were a little bit wondering what it is. Because unfortunately, due to their political situation, always in war with Israel and all these things, they're little bit...

Prabhupāda: Still war going on?

Pṛthu-putra: Yes.

Prabhupāda: (break) Oh. In the dictionary it is clearly stated, "God the Supreme Being." So He's a being, but supreme. And what are the signs of supremacy? One must be very rich, very famous, very strong, very learned. In this way analyze. So God means one who is in possession of all these things, all the reputation, all the beauty. That is God. On this point discuss. Now, who is God, that is to be found. But this is the position of God. Try to convince them.

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No idea of... He has no authorized.

Brahmānanda: One thing they recognize is that the young people of India, they want to see the experience of Bhagavad-gītā. Just like Arjuna in the beginning was bewildered and in the end he agreed. So that experience... I said, "Yes, and we have had the same experience, because as Westerners, in the beginning we didn't even the know the name Kṛṣṇa, and now we are serving Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours a day. So obviously there was some great experience. So that has been given to us by Śrīla Prabhupāda." And then he recognized, "Yes." I said, "So we are... We can actually give our experience." So then he suggested that some publication be made actually dealing with the experiences.

Prabhupāda: That we are giving. This Bhāgavata discourse...

Brahmānanda: I think now that our books are coming out in the Indian languages and are being distributed, I think this will cause young Indians...

Prabhupāda: Young Indians are not... They have already published these things. Scientific investigation of matter.

Brahmānanda: Yes, they appreciated that we are preaching to the scientists. They liked that, that we're the only ones who are doing this, because the scientists are amongst the biggest atheists.

Prabhupāda: This Gītā Pratiṣṭhāna is a good proposal, transport(?) Bhagavad-gītā As It Is all over the world.