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Drag (Conversations)

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 1.36 -- London, July 26, 1973:

Innocent women, they are very much harassed after the war by the victorious party. You know, the soldiers are given freedom to rape the women. And plunder the property. So many things they have. So when Hiraṇyakaśipu was defeated, all the devatās, they did not make such aggression, but the wife of Hiraṇyakaśipu—Kāyadhu, I think—she was arrested by Indra and was taken. She was crying, just usual, woman. But she was being dragged by Indra. So Nārada was passing. Now, he said, "What are you doing this?" "No, there is no question of harassing this woman. But I am taking her in my custody because she is pregnant and the child is begotten by asura, Hiraṇyakaśipu. Therefore I shall wait for the birth of the child, and as soon as she gives birth, I will kill that child." Yes. So Nārada said, "No, no. That child is not asura child. He is coming, a great devotee, mahā-bhāgavata of Kṛṣṇa."

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Prabhupada Comments on Prahlada Maharaja Slides - August 25, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: So when the gods became victorious, Hiraṇyakaśipu, his wife was arrested. At that time, his wife was pregnant, and the demigods arresting the wife of Hiraṇyakaśipu were dragging her to take her into their, I mean to say, planet. In the meantime, Nārada Muni met. Nārada Muni asked them, "What you are doing? This innocent woman you are dragging?" They replied that, "The woman is innocent, I know," the head of the demigods, Indra, "but she is pregnant, and the child is born of the demon. So we shall keep this woman under our custody, and as soon as the child is born we shall kill him. That is our program. We are not going to do any harm to the woman." So Nārada Muni informed that "This child, although he's born of a demon father, he's a great devotee. He's a great devotee, and do not try to kill. Neither you can kill him. This is not possible." But the demigods, they accept the instruction of the authority. Nārada is an authority. So immediately they accepted that "This woman has got a child who is a great devotee." So in order to show respect to the child, they offered their obeisances and circumambulated the mother and they left the woman.

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Interviewer: How did you become a disciple yourself? What were you, or what did you follow before you became a disciple?

Prabhupāda: Same principle as I told you, faith. One of my friend, he dragged me forcibly to my spiritual master. And when I talked with my spiritual master, I was induced. And since then, the seedling began.

Interviewer: Would you discuss your dancing with me please and explain something of it. I first saw it Tuesday evening, and I would like to know more about it.

Prabhupāda: We don't this dancing as an art. It is automatic. We dance, we cry, we chant, we laugh not by artificially learning it. But Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so nice. As you begin to chant, naturally you feel for dancing. So it is not taught artificially. It comes simultaneously with development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Dr. Karan Singh, -- November 25, 1971, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: So similarly, naturally there is a division. The intelligent class of men, they like to study philosophy, they like to understand what is the ultimate goal of life, so many things. So intelligent class of men should be engaged in that business. They should not be dragged in other platform. And those who are inclined to take part in politics, administration, that class also should be trained how to rule over the country, how to make satisfied the citizens. They should be trained up, as in business people are trained up. Now the fault is without being trained, simply by votes one becomes prime minister or (indistinct). He has no training how to administer, but simply by vote, he occupies a big post. And that is his qualification. But he does not know how to rule over, how to make the people satisfied. Therefore, chaos. Daily everywhere, government is changing. Daily, weekly, this government, that government, that government. Why? Because they are not trained up how to administer. Therefore, that is required. Tejaḥ.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 26, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Pāṇḍava means the five senses. In this way (break) ...they cannot (indistinct) I may tell you frankly. Just like Mahatma Gandhi, he wanted to prove nonviolence from Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is spoken in the battlefield, and how he can prove nonviolence from Bhagavad-gītā? Then he has to drag some interpretation out of his own way. But because he's a big leader the people are misled. Similarly, all... at present moment in India the Bhagavad-gītā has becoming a plaything that anyone can interpret in his own way and do all nonsense. But I'll request you, because you are so much interested, and you have already approved Bhagavad-gītā, you have translated. Amongst the leading personalities, you try to understand Bhagavad-gītā as it is and spread it, it will have immediate effect. That is already experimented. Just like in western countries, before me, hundreds and thousands, swamis and yogis went there. But not a single person could understand what is Bhagavad-gītā, and what is Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation with Indian Guests and Devotees -- July 11, 1973, London:

Satsvarūpa: It's just dragging, dragging on. Now he's become sick. He's ill. He's in the hospital.

Prabhupāda: He must be. So many attacks. How he can tolerate. He's in the post. This is happening.

Kṛṣṇa-bhāminī: This idea of democracy came at a time in French history called the Period of Enlightenment, and it was introduced by...

Prabhupāda: Hm? Democracy?

Haṁsadūta: Democracy was first introduced in an age which they call the Age of Enlightenment in French history.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Kṛṣṇa-bhāminī: The idea was that everyone should be pleased, that everyone should take...

Morning Walk -- August 30, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: The same thing is there, but they are dragging this lusty affairs to Kṛṣṇa. Generally, the rascals, they paint Kṛṣṇa's picture with gopīs so that their lusty activities may be supported—Kṛṣṇa also had like that. This is misunderstanding. They do not take into calculation: Here, so-called love is lust and it breaks. But in the gopīs' love with Kṛṣṇa there is no breaking but increasing of love. So how they can compare Kṛṣṇa's love with gopīs with these lusty affairs?

David Lawrence: I must admit, yes, I've read far enough on to see that and I think this is...

Prabhupāda: When we make analogy, the points of similarity must be there. But these rascals are so dull-headed that they have not even logical arguments. Where are the points of similarity? That we are comparing these lusty affairs of this material world with the affairs of Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs? Where is the similarity?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 23, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Bhāgavata: ...everything will be revealed to you."

Dr. Patel: It may be within him, all right. He must drag it out.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Now, just see how he is making nonsense competition.

Guest (3): Vaśārambhaṇam. (?)

Prabhupāda: Vaśārambhaṇam.

Dr. Patel: Vaśārambhaṇaṁ caro nāmadheyam (?). (break)

Prabhupāda: He's writing books, and he says, "There is no need of books."

Guest (3): He has written so many books, not one.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...nonsense. Directly.

Morning Walk -- April 24, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: ... that these rascal leaders, they cannot give us any comfort. All over the world. Here in the Gujarat, the students have insulted the leader, you know? So horribly, they have dragged the prime minister, chief minister, dragged him and set up and seated on an ass's back. In this way he was insulted.

Mahāṁśa: Prime Minister.

Prabhupāda: The chief minister.

Mahāṁśa: The chief minister.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: This was in Jerusalem?

Prabhupāda: Ah? No, no, is Gujarat, here.

Room Conversation with M. Lallier, noted French Poet -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Where there is evolution, there must be degradation. Otherwise, what is the meaning of evolution? Why it should be stagnant? If you go, ascend, then you can descend also. Now, the Mr. Nixon was elected president, and why he's being dragged, "Come down." He is not coming down, but he has already come down, degradation. Nobody likes him.

M. Lallier: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And the more he sticks to his position, he's becoming unpopular. So his degradation is already complete, but because he's in the office, post, he does not agree that, "I am degraded." But from the public point of view, he's degraded. Is it not?

M. Lallier: Yes. But do you think it is possible now to, to predict, to prevent degradation?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh, again, "heard it from devotee." (laughter) That is very dangerous. What Caitanya's movement has got with politics? Nothing. They drag Caitanya's movement, that. Many rascals do that. It has nothing to do with politics. It is simply spiritual. Rather, even the Mohammedans, they were very much respectful to Caitanya Mahāprabhu. They never took it as, His, the political movement. Now it has become a fashion to take everything from political point of view. Just like in India, they are suspecting you as CIA. "CIA has come to become Vaiṣṇava." (laughter) (break) That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu says. If anyone remembers Kṛṣṇa by seeing somebody, that somebody is a Vaiṣṇava. He gives impetus to remember Kṛṣṇa. Therefore he is Vaiṣṇava. You stick to your principle, Vaiṣṇava. Then māyā will not touch. (break) Where is Prajāpati? He is not here?

Room Conversation with Dr. Copeland, Professor of Modern Indian History -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: People call, that is another thing. That is the defect of the modern civilization, that vox populi. The people may be asses; still, their votes are accepted. The people are trained up as the fourth-class, fifth-class men, and their votes are appre... This is the defect of the modern... They are not trained up as first-class men, and still, their votes are accepted. Therefore, even a very advanced country, America, there was mistake, Nixon. They elected him president. Then they dragged him down. That is the mistake. Yes.

Dr. Copeland: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: They did not elect a first-class man, and later on, they could understand. So everywhere it is going on. Vox populi, the people, are less intelligent. They do not know whom to vote. And besides that, votes can be purchased. They do purchase by paying according to the country. So what is the value of this vote?

Room Conversation with Dr. Copeland, Professor of Modern Indian History -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: No, that is most dishonest. Oh, yes. You cannot interpret my book in your own way. That is not allowed. No gentleman will do that. You, if you have got a different view, you put your view in your own book. Don't drag my book. That is honesty. And because my book is popular, you take advantage of my book, and you interpret in your own way... This is most dishonest. You cannot do that.

Dr. Copeland: No, but when you have different types of things...

Prabhupāda: Different types we may have, but Kṛṣṇa's book, what Kṛṣṇa is saying, it should be presented as Kṛṣṇa says.

Dr. Copeland: Yeah, but then you think that you know what Kṛṣṇa says.

Prabhupāda: No, I say, "Bhagavad-gītā As It Is."

Room Conversation with Director of Research of the Dept. of Social Welfare -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So the public select a president, Nixon, and they became disturbed, again drag him down. This is going on.

Director: Yes, but that is how society works. You must want to change, we have to change. I just do what I'm asked to do. Otherwise I lose my job.

Prabhupāda: No, if you actually want to do some social welfare, then you must take the standard formula. And if you manufacture your own way, that will never be successful.

Director: I might agree with you that of us will be Kṛṣṇa...

Prabhupāda: Not whole. We don't...

Director: Then we would be, then social welfare would mean something different.

Prabhupāda: Now, just like we are proposing here. I am not proposing—Kṛṣṇa says—that one must be peaceful. So how to become peaceful? If his mind is always disturbed, how he can become peaceful?

Room Conversation with Two Lawyers and Guest -- May 22, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Then you become. But if he is a loafer and he wants to become prime minister, then it will create havoc. Just like in America. He was not fit for the president's post. Nixon was elected. Then again he has to be dragged down. We say the fit man should go to become a particular...

Guest 2: Our system, I think is not very good. But everyone is taught this way in our system.

Prabhupāda: No, there must be... Just like first-class men. They should judge for which purpose this man is. Practical psychology there is. I think. They can decide like that. Anyway, the society must have all divisions of men, and then the society is perfect. We have already many divisions, but we are lacking one division, that, the first-class men, first-class ideal men. That is lacking.

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Revatīnandana: One day in London a woman came to try to drag her daughter from the temple. She came into the temple room with her shoes on, and one devotee... She would not remove her shoes, so the devotee pulled off her shoes and she fell down. It was almost like she bowed down. She became so angry, she was shouting in front of the Deities, and I dragged her out and had to wrestle her out of the temple, literally wrestling with her to get her out the door. And she came back in with a policeman, and she pretended to have a fainting spell because we had beaten her so badly, she said. And so she said, "Get me some water," but we didn't have any water, so we have her some milk prasādam, and she drank it without thinking what it was. And so in so many ways—she saw the Deities, she had prasādam, and then she left again, and all this, completely out of anger, but her anger was so strong that she got a lot of association because of it. She was so energetic, I think she could become a devotee some day. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...in America from India. They are so much impressed, Śrīla Prabhupāda. But the most impressive thing for these life members is to come to America and see our institutions. They have letters of introduction. They don't want to live in the temple generally, but they come to see.

Prabhupāda: The other, that member, the same?

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Anarthopasamaṁ sākṣād (SB 1.7.6). This is the learning only, to keep them saved from this illusory material energy. (break) ...means knowledge, and this Bhāgavatam is the essence cream of Vedas. Nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalaṁ (SB 1.1.3). Nigama means Vedas, and this is the galitaṁ phalaṁ, ripened fruit of the tree.

Dharmādhyakṣa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, there's one professor... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...drags the home. (break) ...living?

Jayatīrtha: No. Maybe he is. I think in, he was in Switzerland or some place. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...make research about God. Somebody told me?

Brahmānanda: Yeah. Dr. Werner von Braun. That has been his conclusion now, at the end of his career. He is interested in meditation and self-realization.

Room Conversation with Dr. John Mize -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So we can see on equal level when (sic:) you become a brāhmaṇa. Brahma-bhūtaḥ, not in the United Nation, passing resolution and fight is going on outside, because they have no vision, samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. So the politicians should be guided by the brāhmaṇas. That is social structure. Those who are first-class men in the spiritual understanding... Or the politicians, the administrators, they should take instruction from the brāhmaṇas and take part in politics. Then they will be also first-class men. You haven't got to drag him down again. First of all elect, and drag him down. This is mistake. Just like you elected Nixon president; again you dragged him down, because there was mistake. You do not know who to elect because you are not guided by brāhmaṇas. This is the fault. The whole society is being guided by the mle..., śūdras and some portion vaiśyas. Mostly śūdras and some certain percentage, mercantile. And no kṣatriya, no brāhmaṇa. Therefore, for the peaceful life in human society, there must be four divisions. Find out this verse, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13).

Television Interview -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Elected, but not by this general public. They have no intelligence. They sometimes elect a wrong man, and again they try to drag him down. So what is the use of such election? Because that election is not sober, not mature. If the election was mature and sober, then there was no need of dragging him down again.

Woman reporter: We have talked to scientists who say that the size of the brain has nothing to do with intelligence. Do you believe that?

Prabhupāda: I think that the scientists do not think like that. They keep the brain of a particular scientist to study. They keep the heart of a particular noble man. Why they try to study the heart and the brain if there is no difference?

Nitāi: Sometimes they keep the brain of a great scientist to study because they think that he is so intelligent, there must be something we can learn from studying the brain. So if they are thinking like that, then there also must be a difference between a woman's brain and a man's brain.

Room Conversation after Press Conference -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Indira Gandhi also. She got the largest number of vote...

Brahmānanda: Even more than her father she received.

Prabhupāda: So what is the value of these votes? If, by vote, if you select a wrong man and again you try to drag him down, then what is the use of this popular vote? Even in Communist country, the, what is called, Krushchev? He was the head. Now nobody knows where he is.

Brahmānanda: Stalin also. He was...

Prabhupāda: Stalin died.

Brahmānanda: But after he died, they completely discredited him. They pulled down his statues and he was completely disgraced.

Room Conversation with City Counselor -- July 10, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: So public vote. Elect Nixon and then drag him down. This is public opinion. Sometimes make him president, sometimes drag him down. So what is the value of these votes?

City Counselor: Well, I can certainly pledge that wherever I find and can identify prejudices...

Prabhupāda: If they become unreasonable, whimsical, then who can defend? There is no such law that one should have a particular dress in their church or temple. There is no such law. But they are insisting about the dress. What is this?

City Counselor: Again, I will pledge that whenever I can expose such prejudices on the parts of my fellow aldermen, I will do it.

Prabhupāda: No, that is very kind of you, but if they are persistent on majority vote, then you are nowhere. So the majority, if they want whimsically to do something, you cannot check.

Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: Who teaches these things—how to know God and how to love Him—he is spiritual master. Otherwise bogus, rascal bogus. Sometimes they mislead that "I am God." Poor people, they do not know what is God, and a rascal proposes, "I am God," and they accept it. Just like in your country they elected Nixon president and again drag him. That means they did not know who is really bona fide president, elected somebody, and again they had to business of dragging out. Similarly, people are foolish. Any rascal comes. He says, "I am God." They accept. And again they accept another. This is going on. So one must be serious student to understand what is God and how to love Him. That is religion. Otherwise, it is simply waste of time. That we are teaching. That is the difference between others and our... We are presenting Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the science, how to know Him. The Bhagavad-gītā is there, Bhāgavata is there. Not bogus. Authorized. Therefore this is the only institution which can teach how to know God and how to love Him. Two business. There is no third business. It is not our business to ask God to give us our necessities.

Morning Walk -- November 8, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Mine, no. My disciples! Dragging.

Dr. Patel: Well, government... I have heard like this, but government think that in this group there may be some those C.I.A. people. I don't know whether they are right...

Prabhupāda: Let government supplies some men who does not belong to the C.I.A. And where is that? That is all.

Dr. Patel: That is what they say.

Prabhupāda: They may say anything nonsense.

Dr. Patel: That all these, all may not be sādhus. There may be C.I.A., one of them. They'll find out what these fellows are, and then they will do all that.

Bhāgavata: Well, first one of their C.I.D. will have to live like we live, and then we can see.

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: ...mother died. Their relatives never came to lift her up. So himself dragged the dead body out and burned her just in front of his house.

Prabhupāda: A brāhmaṇa says because he is saṅkara, varṇa-saṅkara. Yes.

Dr. Patel: Who?

Prabhupāda: Śaṅkarācārya.

Dr. Patel: Was he? No, no. Both were brāhmaṇas.

Prabhupāda: He was born when his mother was widow, and she became pregnant by the priest. So she was going to kill herself. Then her father restrained her, that "Don't do it. Your... In the womb there is a big personality." So the brāhmaṇa community did not like her.

Yaśomatīnandana: Oh, I see.

Prabhupāda: Therefore he is called Śaṅkarācārya.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) Whatever He likes, He'll do. That is God. God is not meant for satisfying you.

Acyutānanda: That man was dragged down by the people in the audience anyway.

Guru-kṛpā: They took him out of...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Acyutānanda: He was dragged down by the people in the audience. He was an agitator. (break)

Prabhupāda: This preaching work is a great fight, struggle.

Acyutānanda: It is very struggle.

Prabhupāda: So you are all soldiers. Even if you lay down your life by fighting, you are recognized by Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa will see that "This devotee has laid down his life," so He'll... He's... Asaṁśayam. Asaṁśayam. Mām evaiśyasy asaṁśayam. So let us go on fighting. Even we die, what is that? We are going back to... Jīvo vā māro vā. A Vaiṣṇava, a sādhu, either he lives or dies, he is under the protection of Kṛṣṇa. Jīvo vā māro vā. (break) So if he dies in the battlefield, he goes to heaven.

Morning Walk -- March 10, 1976, Mayapur:

Jayapatāka: Śrīla Prabhupāda is so merciful that if it comes to a point where it means that a person is not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness or in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, I think Prabhupāda'd rather support them and let them be Kṛṣṇa conscious. That's why you have to see whether they stay in the society.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Dragging us back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: When this paṇḍal is going to be filled up?

Bhavānanda: The exhibits should be arriving today with the devotees, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Who are these men?

Bhavānanda: They are the paṇḍal workers.

Prabhupāda: Paṇḍal work... (break) Always, what is called...? Communism. They say, whole world, "We are Communists," "We are capitalists," "We are socialists," and "We are nonviolent," "We are violent."

Talk at Radha-Govinda Mandir -- March 24, 1976, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: So anyway, this Thakurbari, Rādhā-Govindajī, is my life. That is the beginning of my, this spiritual life. And after so many years, still Rādhā-Govindajī has dragged me. So it is His kindness. So the beginning was the same thing—worship of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deity and introduction of Ratha-yātrā. That is I am doing in a bigger scale and a wider scale all over the world. So it is nothing new. So in the one sense, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate (BG 6.41). So although I was not belonging to this family.... Or perhaps originally we belonged to this family, because they are also De, we are De, but practically I was born in this family, and śucīnāṁ śrīmatām. And my father was a very pure Vaiṣṇava. So these opportunities we got. Now it is developed in a wider scale. It is all Kṛṣṇa's arrangement, maybe from my previous life. But you are cooperating, you American and European, so we are spreading the mission of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, this mission. Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa mission it is practically. Śrī kṛṣṇa caitanya, rādhā-kṛṣṇa nahe anya. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is combination of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. Rādhā-kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī-śaktir asmād (CC Adi 1.5). Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī, the same Absolute Truth.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: That is the defect. That is the defect of the modern civilization. They vote. Just like in big democratic country like America they voted Nixon to become president, and when they found that "This man is a bogus," they again dragged him down. So this is going on. We vote somebody to the topmost position, and we see that he's a rascal. So therefore we do not advise. We say just take lesson from Kṛṣṇa, who is recognized by everyone. That is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We don't say, "Go to a bogus man and take instruction." We don't say.

Indian Devotee: May I interrupt? What Swami has described in all the books—as it exists, no further contribution, no amendment, no interpretation. He has described all what has been written in Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, in its truest form. So no imitation, no representation, no interpretation. Swamiji has described exactly as it happened.

Morning Walk -- April 17, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I could not draw you in my temple.

Dr. Patel: You have drawn me lot, but still, you are dragging me by leg nowadays.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Into our hospital.

Indian: (Hindi)

Dr. Patel: I think I am not fit to be with you, so far I consider myself.

Prabhupāda: Everyone is.

Dr. Patel: I must correct myself and all my defects. Otherwise I would pollute you. (break) (laughter) I will become after sixty-five.

Prabhupāda: You are fifteen years late already.

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Māyāvādī rascal, Caitanya Mahāprabhu has condemned them, māyāvādī-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa (CC Madhya 6.169). If you hear Māyāvādī association, then your bhakti life is finished. Don't touch them. (break) Still, they are little more than the karmīs. (break) ...this place they are dragged through this, what is called? Short grass? Through this.

Devotee (1): That is anxiety, Śrīla Prabhupāda. That is anxiety, when one goes to Yamarāja and has to face.

Prabhupāda: That is the result of material anxiety. (break) To become anxiety-less, no more anxiety. That is nonsense.

Guru-kṛpā: They say, "Kṛṣṇa says, na śocati na kāṅkṣati."

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guru-kṛpā: Na śocati na kāṅkṣati.

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, no, machine we are, but still there is independence. That means you are not absolutely independently, relatively. The state, you say we are American-independent. But that does not mean you can do whatever you like. As soon as you misuse, you are arrested, punished. Even the president is not independent. As soon as he misused his power, drag him, "Come out." What to speak of you.

Hari-śauri: That's like an impersonalist. He doesn't want any individual existence.

Prabhupāda: And he does not agree to be guided by the supreme controller. He does not agree that He is supreme controller. "I am everything." Therefore they are called mūḍhas, māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.15). Mūḍha. He's being controlled. As soon as there is some toothache, he goes to the doctor. And he says "I am God." He's becoming old, and he says that "I am God." Why you are becoming old? God is always young.

Rāmeśvara: He has another argument. He says that he's in the grip of māyā.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversation with Clergymen -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Scheverman: Yeah, but we have a principle called "A man tends to rise to the level of his incompetence." (laughter)

Prabhupāda: These are the defects of the society at the present moment. A fourth-class, fifth-class man is on the first class or second class. Why Nixon had to be dragged down? He's a third-class man.

Scheverman: Third-class man.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughter)

Scheverman: That's rather high on the ladder, I'd say, Your Excellency. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: These mistakes are going on.

Garden Conversation -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Even in the stool, the worms in the stool, he's also thinking "I have got so much stool to eat." This same mastership. "I am the monarch of all I survey. I have got so much stool." And you just take the worm from the stool, put it here: "No, no, no, here is my enjoyment." This mastership mentality is there in Brahma, and the mastership mentality is there in the worm of the stool. This mentality you have to give up. Then you become liberated. That is liberation. The bondage is that mastership mentality. He's servant, but he's thinking falsely that he's master. Just like your President Nixon. He thought that "Now I have become master of America, I'm president." He forgot that he's servant. As soon as the people wanted, dragged him down. That he forgot, that "I'm servant of the people." So everyone is servant, but falsely thinking "I'm master." That is material disease. The best thing is that if I have to remain servant, why not become servant of Kṛṣṇa? That's all. That is perfection.

Garden Conversation -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: So everyone is servant, but falsely thinking "I'm master." That is material disease. The best thing is that if I have to remain servant, why not become servant of Kṛṣṇa? That's all. That is perfection. That is perfect life. Even by becoming a false master of the whole American country, I was not happy, I am now dragged down as a common man, Mr. Nixon, then what is the use of becoming master? It is all false. Let me become servant of Kṛṣṇa; then it is perfect. Instead of becoming a false master of the American country, let me be a real servant of Kṛṣṇa. That is liberty, liberated. Because any stage of my life, to become master is false. That is not possible. He has to be convinced that he cannot be master. Your constitution is to remain servant. If you prefer to remain servant of a big populace in America... But you are servant; don't think you are master. That is sane. And soon as you commit mistake as master, immediately he's in trouble. Is it not? That's it. You give up this false notion that "I am master." Then your all welfare is there. We teach that ask a Godbrother, "Prabhu." Don't become master, but become servant.

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: People have no eyes to see. The absolute truth is realized brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). But in the Bhagavad-gītā it is never said Paramātmā uvāca. (laughter) Or Brahman uvāca. Bhagavān uvāca! Vyāsadeva, He does not say kṛṣṇa uvāca, because Kṛṣṇa will be taken, misunderstood. Therefore (Vyāsadeva) directly says, śrī bhagavān uvāca. So where is impersonal? There is no question of impersonal. He clearly says bhagavān. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo (BG 10.8). Bhagavān says, "I am everything." So where is imperson? How they can bring in impersonal at all? It is simply dragging (?) the matter. This impersonal has killed India's Vedic culture.

Guest: Well, the example is that Śaṅkarācārya, who was of course...

Prabhupāda: Śaṅkarācārya, he advised bhaja govindam, bhaja govindam, "Hey you rascal, whatever I have said, you just..."

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: Just like this is brain, Sanātana Gosvāmī is asking, ke āmi, kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya. This is brain. "I don't want some uncomfortable situation, but why it is enforced?" So when you make research into that, that is brain. And if we remain like animal, "All right, they are dragging me to the slaughterhouse, that's all right, let me go," that is not brain. Brain means that I am seeking after perfect happiness, why I am not allowed to have this perfect happiness? That is brain. The question, if there is any remedy. They are doing this. Scientific brain means there are so many problems, they are trying to solve it. That requires brain. But because they are poor scientists, they do not know how to make a solution of the ultimate problem. They are making tiny problems, that's all. There is power shortage, all right, let us invent some substitute of petroleum. Brain is being taxed. Again it is finished, again another. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). But they are so dull brain, they do not raise the question that we are making solution of one problem, another problem is ready. That brain they have not.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: It is not dry. It is not dry like, simply so 'ham, so'ham. So 'ham, they do not know the meaning. So 'ham means I belong to the same rasa. I also eligible to enjoy the same rasa. But Kṛṣṇa is... (break) ...and the calves, the cows are enjoying the rasa as predominated. Just like husband and wife, they are enjoying, both. But one is enjoying as the husband, predominator. The husband is forcefully dragging the wife. She's also... While she is dragged by force, she enjoys. That is another rasa. But there is rasa. Combined together it becomes rasa. Similarly Kṛṣṇa does not enjoy this material. This material rasa is the perverted reflection of that cinmaya-rasa. So we have to get ourselves nil of all these material rasas and we have to be situated in the cinmaya. Then our, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Then our life is perfect. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Rasa is there. Here perverted reflection. This perverted reflection... My Guru Mahārāja used to say to taste milk in white lime water. White lime water, it looks like milk. But it is not milk. It is different thing. Similarly, we are trying to taste the rasa of milk in lime water. Therefore we are baffled.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

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

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: "These Hindus, they are so fool, they are worshiping an animal, a cow." They do not know what is the economic value of this cow. In the beginning of your life you want milk immediately in the morning. And you are killing the mother? You are civilized? Do you think? You take milk up to the point of death. In South Africa, before killing the cows, they drag out milk and then send it. Milk is important, but because they are uncivilized, they do this. You take milk. Instead of killing, you prepare so many nice things from milk which is good for brain, good for intelligence. But they do not know because uncivilized. Foolish fourth-class men. So we are trying to bring them to become first-class men, and they are accusing of brainwash. "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." We are teaching that "These boys, they are becoming first-class." Anyone will worship them. How nice they look, how behavior, how their character. We are creating this, and they are accusing, "Oh, they are kidnapping our children." Why you are going? Eh? Why you are going?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 4, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What prakṛti? When there is...

Dr. Patel: Mithyaiṣa vyavasāyas te prakṛtis tvāṁ niyokṣyati. The prakṛti drags you down in that world.

Prabhupāda: Because he was trained up as a fighter.

Dr. Patel: Sve sve karmaṇy abhirataḥ saṁsiddhiṁ labhate naraḥ.

Prabhupāda: Our, one of the mission is to reestablish the division of the society according to...

Dr. Patel: But, sir, even without redividing them, nature has divided it.

Prabhupāda: No, no, nature has divided, but we are taking the post or some position without qualification. That must be rectified.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: How you can expect good wishes from such persons? Very precarious condition. Your son, you take care. Now, as soon as you make a committee to take care of your son, then everything is finished. Is it not? The committee members will finish the son and the son's maintenance and everything. But that is going on. Formerly there was one monarch. He was acting according to the Vedic instruction. So he was responsible. And if there are many votes, by vote a government, a combination of plunderers, what they will take care of the people? It is impossible. Otherwise why there was need of dragging down Nixon? He was elected, wrong elected. Wrong must be. The people are wrong. They do not know who is the right man. Any rascal makes some intrigue, and he gets vote. And then they detect, "Oh, he's the wrong man." Again another is taken. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). And what is the guarantee that another man is right? Because the process is wrong.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: Huh? Cheated him. He was such swine. He was such big swine.

Rāmeśvara: And right after he was killed, anyone who followed him, they made the lions eat them. It's common knowledge that the early Christians were dragged into a big arena, and the lions were let out of their cages and devoured them. And the people were cheering. The public was invited to the event, and they were cheering.

Prabhupāda: That Rome.

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Your civilization is such.

Hari-śauri: Mr. Gupta just sent a big basket full of oranges from Nagpur.

Jagadīśa: This is a tarshi? Are they named tarshi?

Hari-śauri: I'm not sure.

Prabhupāda: Hm. (break) Therefore it is mentioned.

Evening Darsana -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Where is the dictionary, "the body means Kurukṣetra, and Kurukṣetra means the body."

Guest (1): He has told, karma-kṣetra. Kuru-karma.

Prabhupāda: So you can drag some meaning. That is another thing. But Kurukṣetra is there still.

Mr. Pandiya: That is the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.

Guest (2): That is interpretation.

Prabhupāda: That is interpretation. Interpretation... Here is a person in the legal way. Interpretation is required when you cannot understand. Is it not?

Guest (2): Interpretation...

Prabhupāda: But when the things are understood very clearly, why interpretation?

Evening Darsana -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: But when the things are understood very clearly, why interpretation?

Guest (2): It will, rather, confuse.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (2): Suppose I will drag this meaning...

Prabhupāda: This was protested by Caitanya Mahāprabhu vigorously. Why should you interpret?

Guest (4) (Indian man): Yes. He told, the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is the ultimate bhāṣya of prasthāna code, Vedānta-sūtra.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, anything, if you can understand very clearly, where is the question of interpretation? But it has become a fashion that "If I can interpret in my own way, I become a big scholar." This is going on. If you have got your philosophy, you can speak. Everyone is free. Why you should take Bhagavad-gītā and distort it?

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No, if it is a fact, you can force, if it is a fact. And if it is not fact, then it is obstinacy. If it is reality, you can force, just like the father forces the child, "Go to school." Because he knows without education his life will be frustrated, so he can force. I was forced. I was not going to school. Yes. My mother forced. My father was very lenient. My mother forced me. She kept one man especially to drag me to the school. So force is required.

Gurukṛpā: But that is the authority. Your parents were your authority.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gurukṛpā: But they don't accept us as authority. They say, "I'm equal to you. Actually..."

Prabhupāda: That is another foolishness, another foolishness. Father-mother, natural guardian, they can force.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: "I force you. You accept this"—your personal choice.

Ādi-keśava: That is them returning someone to personal choice. You see them dragging them off.

Brahmānanda: That's the mother.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is the mother, the father and the kidnappers.

Prabhupāda: This is personal choice.

Ādi-keśava: They're saying, "You do not know what is your personal choice. You have forgotten. Now it is brainwashed away. Otherwise you would remember. So we are doing this for your own good." They call it "rescuing." They say that "We are rescuing him from this Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: So everyone can say by force to do something is good.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Harikeśa: And so by your mercy I managed to drag him back by his hair one day, and I sent him and his wife to Austria, and now they are doing something amazing. They never spend even one penny. Everywhere they go, they beg as monks that someone should please give them a place to stay and something to eat, and they're begging gasoline and they're selling so many books, it's inconceivable. The bookstores...

Prabhupāda: German language. German language.

Harikeśa: In German language, yes. To bookstores. Bookstores are buying like anything, and people are buying the books in the bookstores. Because we can't sell in the streets, so they're buying in the bookstores. And he's also training up Austrians to sell books, and gradually it's expanding. One day last week—he called me just before I left—he sold 1,200 marks worth of books in six hours. It's simply fantastic.

Prabhupāda: It is all Kṛṣṇa's grace. Let us try our best sincerely, and Kṛṣṇa will give us. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam (BG 10.10). Otherwise how it is happening? In foreign countries, a system of philosophy which is foreign to them, how they are purchasing? In India, if they purchase one Bhāgavatam, it has got meaning.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. If simply they appreciate that Kṛṣṇa is wonderful, their life will be successful. This very simple thing. A child can do it. Kṛṣṇa is wonderful, there is no doubt. Let them admit only. They will be pushed forward in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I'll request only these big, big men that maintain this institution to attract intelligent persons from all over the world. And you do all nonsense, whatever you like, but maintain this. And if possible, after retirement come and do practical something. What is this nonsense? Andhā yathāndhair upa... What he will do? They are promising so many rascal things. What you will do? What you have got? Indira promised so many things. Bluffed. What she can do? Now she is, herself, Indira Gandhi. Te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ. Īśa-trantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ. They want to do something. What happens? Gandhi, when he started nonviolence, "Within one year" And he dragged for fifty years. Twenty years in Durban and thirty years in India.

Room Conversation with Ram Jethmalani (Parliament Member) -- April 16, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That I am realizing, that Kṛṣṇa pushed, dragged me through all circumstances, that "These are useless." Niṣkiñcanasya bhagavad-bhajanonmukha... That is required. Just like Jagāi and Mādhāi. They were made to promise, "No more." "Yes sir, no more." "Then I accept you. That's all right." "No." And they made it, kept their promise. They became faithful.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually you also demand of us that promise. "Now whatever you have done, never mind, but no more. Follow these four principles." That means if the devotees don't follow, then they will not make advancement.

Prabhupāda: They are breaking their promise. Before accepting them, I make him promise. They promise it. If they break, what can I do?

Second Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 24, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Now, how they have become Kṛṣṇa conscious? And our men? They are dragged, somebody, to this conscious, that conscious, that conscious. Take this steady instruction of Bhagavad-gītā. Try to implement. Everyone will be happy, everyone, undoubtedly. Take this seriously. It is not that, because we are pushing Kṛṣṇa ... We are not pushing something new, manufactured. It is already there. It is already there. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So what do you think? Is it possible to push Kṛṣṇa consciousness on this line, strictly on Bhagavad-gītā? What do you think? It is not difficult, but we have made it difficult. Recently I had been to Vinoba Bhave's aśrama. And there is no Kṛṣṇa, and he is writing Bhagavad-gītā pravacana or something like that. Even in Gandhi's āśrama, Wardha(?), the Gandhi's lantern is being worshiped. And where is Kṛṣṇa? So the Bhagavad-gītā's instruction is mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, and they are worshiping Gandhi's lantern. You had been with me?

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Duty, profit, so on, so on. And all these big, big millionaires, they are exacting money from the poor like that, and when they have got money, they spend little for daridra-nārāyaṇa. "Oh, very big man." And our program? Why you making daridra? Daridra? Our policy is this, that "Why should you make him daridra?" First of all make him daridra, and then take credit—"daridra-nārāyaṇa"? Just see how cheating is going on. But we are projecting this path for them: let them remain in their home, produce their own food only and cloth and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is our policy. Our policy means Kṛṣṇa's policy. Let them have sufficiently to eat, and they'll be all satisfied. If the mind is Kṛṣṇa conscious, then they don't want anything, either liquor or meat or anything. No. This is the advantage. And this is not social... What is that? That first of all drag him from the innocent life of village and engage him in the factory in the hope of getting more money, and then he's habituated to liquor. When he cannot pay, they purchase this poison and die.

Room Conversation about Mayapura Attack Talk with Vrindavan De -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They would have been very glad that "Here is the old rascal who has spoiled our children." They could charge, and drag me to the courts and give me trouble. Therefore a restriction on me.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Restrict, that instead of myself, he has to restrict: "Do this way."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Including go to the court. This boy writes further. He says, "They claimed I was brainwashed by Śrīla Prabhupāda and the devotees, and they were here to get me to think for myself again. They kept me up for ten hours at a time for so-called deprogramming, just blaspheming Śrīla Prabhupāda and Kṛṣṇa and telling lie after lie. Finally they let me go to sleep, and in the morning it was time for more blaspheming and lies. But by Kṛṣṇa's mercy I was able to escape out the front door of the house," he says, "which was unguarded. I ran down my block barefoot and was able to get to my friend's house. I told him the story. He gave me enough money to get to a nearby temple.

Room Conversations Bangladesh Preaching/Prabhavisnu Articles by Hamsaduta -- August 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This is common sense, a point anyone can understand. He says, 'It is the unique ability of man to engage in creative thinking that has made him succeed in his fight against the laws of nature.' This is a preposterous claim only a fool would make. Nature forces everyone to become old, diseased, and, lastly, die. Even the most powerful conquerors of the world are helplessly dragged off the stage of life by nature in the shape of all-devouring death. But perhaps Dr. Kovoor will be the first living being in the history of the world that will conquer over death. That remains to be seen. And lastly he says, 'Some of the marvelous achievements of mankind in recent years are the liberation of atomic energy, radio telescopy to reach millions of light years in space, landing on the moon, etc.' Everyone knows that the first thing scientists did when discovering atomic energy was to manufacture the atom bomb and promptly drop two of them on Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus annihilating millions of innocent victims in a flash. It is certainly marvelous.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Tamāla Kṛṣṇa?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: In the horoscope we have dragged the life through so many catastrophes, but ultimately how long the life we have dragged?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: As far as I recall... The horoscope is written in such a way that if you survive these catastrophes, then it mentions that... He said that you would live for another five or six years.

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, there are different horoscopes. One... I can show you that some of them say that you will live for more than five or six years. One of them said you could live up to one hundred.

Prabhupāda: So there is no.

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Brahmānanda: We are the burden, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We are the cause of your disease, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Brahmānanda: You have to drag us back to Godhead. That is a very big burden.

Prabhupāda: So as you think... But this morning I was fainting.

Bhakti-caru: That is because this parikrama is very strenuous, Śrīla Prabhupāda, this jerking and swinging.

Prabhupāda: So how...? How? How we can?

Brahmānanda: So three hours to Delhi, then the plane ride and then three hours to Māyāpur?

Bhakti-caru: No, I mean that is out of the question.

Page Title:Drag (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:02 of Dec, 2010
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=54, Let=0
No. of Quotes:55