Dress (Conv. 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"dress" |"dressed" |"dresser" |"dresses" |"dressing" |"dressless" |"dressmakers" |"dresswalla"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: You cannot say.

Acyutānanda: ...you should dress warmly. You should dress warmly now.

Prabhupāda: No, no. You cannot say.

Acyutānanda: And then I come in the summer, and you still are dressing warmly-it's for time and circumstance, only immediately.

Prabhupāda: No. That is spiritual fragment, eternally existing. Nityo nityānāṁ cetana... There are always plural number and singular number.

Acyutānanda: How can there be any truth separate from the Lord? Eka brahma.

Prabhupāda: No, it is not separate. You are thinking separate.

Acyutānanda: No, a gold ring is separate from the gold mine. That is your...

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is your material conception. But everything is...

Acyutānanda: Yes, that is a material example. The example came from you Vaiṣṇavas. We do not make...

Prabhupāda: No.

Morning Walk -- January 13, 1976, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Ah. (break) Manipuri.

Jayapatāka: Many Manipuri people are coming to Māyāpur now. Many. They wear a special type of uniform, the women, one pinkish dress.

Prabhupāda: For seeing our temple?

Jayapatāka: They are going everywhere. The Bengalis are going mainly to our temple. But they've come so far, they see everywhere, naturally. But also our temple without fail. (break) The Nabadwip Commissioner came and he was so impressed. Now he is thinking.... He is trying to.... He is a little bit greedy that so many things are going in Māyāpur. He is trying to think how he can include Māyāpur within Nabadwip municipality.

Prabhupāda: How it can be done?

Jayapatāka: That he is failing to do, but he is thinking, anyway. He told me. So many taxes.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: Fully satisfied. The woman puts on her sari, the man dresses up in his kurta...

Prabhupāda: So our arrangement should be to give them some prasadam, very nice treatment.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We've got to do this. We've got to do this.

Prabhupāda: And if important man should write something in the visitor's... Reception.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There should be a reception, proper receptionist.

Prabhupāda: So where the reception?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Will sit?

Bhavānanda: We'll make some arrangement.

Prabhupāda: Make it immediately. Reception.

Morning Walks -- January 22-23, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The question I've had is that in the pictures they always show her head. She is bareheaded. She doesn't cover her head. And I noticed the thing that when we're sometimes passing in a car in Bengal I notice that the women, very often, they don't... It's more in this state than anywhere else, they don't cover their head. Is that due to her influence?

Prabhupāda: No, no. The system is when the woman is at the care of father she does not cover. But when she is under the care of husband she must cover. By dress you can understand what she is, whether she is widow, whether she has got husband, whether she is prostitute. Everything by dress you'll understand. Nowadays the fashion is the woman has the bakan(?) sīmanta here, not here.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prostitute.

Prabhupāda: But that was meant for prostitute. If the woman has sīmanta here, then you should understand. Then you can freely talk with. She is advertising, "Yes, I am prostitute. You can talk with me." Without that signboard no man is gentleman if he wants to talk with another woman. He can talk only with that woman. Neither you can talk with widow. That girl, our (sic:) Śivaśakti's mother? She is dressing herself as widow. That is very nice. Very nice. That simple dress will not attract men.

Morning Walk -- February 20, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Then nothing.

Dayānanda: In 1933-34. But you have, you have done so much. Even, even though you just had some low-class persons, you have transformed them all. And now it is a very wonderful...

Prabhupāda: The Ramakrishna Mission man came to see me. He said that "You dress like American. Otherwise, nobody will take you as important."

Acyutānanda: Nikhilananda...

Prabhupāda: "And I don't want to be important. I have no dress. If you pay for it, I can dress. I have no money. I know how to dress as a European. As business man, I was doing that. But not this shabby dress. You must give me four set of nice dress, (laughter) changing every alternate day. I know how to do it, but have no money." (end)

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) No, don't say like that. But the thing is.... Business means.... Business means four things. Yes, we are businessman. I was student of economics. I know how to do business, and the business principle means you require four things: land, labor, capital, organization. So, ordinary man cannot do that. Otherwise, everyone would have done some business and become millionaires. But it requires these four things: land, labor, organization, and capital. So where you have got these? You have neither land, neither capital, neither place. So how you can do business? I am doing business because I have got all these things. I went to America-land. Then I worked-labor. Then I earned some capital, and I have got brain how to do it. (to Lokanātha) Hare Kṛṣṇa. So why you are becoming paramahaṁsa? This is paramahaṁsa dress.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: It is very pleasing to hear.

Jayatīrtha: Jaya.

Yaśodānandana: Many temples also in South India, they have all the functions in the morning-waking up the Deity, bathing the Deity, dressing the Deity, they have different shenai tunes for that. Every temple.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Similarly here introduce.

Guru-kṛpā: You should play your flute. Tamāla Kṛṣṇa knows how to play the flute.

Prabhupāda: No flute.

Guru-kṛpā: He can learn to play the shenai, though.

Prabhupāda: No, shenai, yes. Very good.

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh. Chicago? Did I install? No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, you were present on the vyāsāsana...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...when the ceremony was performed. Here is some of our vans and men, Viṣṇujana and Rādhā-Dāmodara. Here's the grandfather of airport book distribution, Tripurāri Mahārāja, dressed as a karmī to distribute in his distribution.... You can't tell, but he's wearing a wig. That's Tripurāri there. That's how he looks when he's in the airport. He never misses.

Guru-kṛpā: The master of book distribution.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here's Tripurāri giving a class. Here's a priest buying a Bhagavad-gītā. Gurudāsa Mahārāja preaching on campus. Dhṛṣṭadyumna leading a kīrtana. Here's a television show. That was that television show.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Rādhāvallabha: It's not possible to see the books with the pictures up. They can put them down at the end where there is some room. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (break) Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They're dressed in peacock feathers?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They're dressed in peacock feathers?

Prabhupāda: The dress, (indistinct).

Gurudāsa: Jaya, Kṛṣṇa Balarāma ki jaya.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. Where is that bābājī gone? He's not.... (break) (Bengali)

Bābājī(?): (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali conversation) What is this? (Bengali) (end)

Morning Walk -- March 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Flares.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So you can invent so many means of curing the danger. But as soon as the sun is there, immediately all mist is over. Similarly, we have invented so many medicines and counteractions for so many things. But if one becomes a devotee, all these troubles immediately.... That is the only one medicine. He has no more any inclination. Svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce: (CC Madhya 22.42) "No more I want." And that is wanted. (break) ...asmi varaṁ na yāce. One should be fully satisfied: "No more I want this material disease. That's all. Enough of it." That mentality required: "I don't want anything material facility." Sannyāsa means that, that "I shall live with the minimum necessities of life and simply devote..." That is sannyāsa. "I shall become a sannyāsī and enjoy all material facilities"—that is not sannyāsa. (break) ...recommended that "If there is no need, don't take even cloth. Remain naked." That is sannyāsa. But because we have to preach, because we have to go the people, therefore some covering. Otherwise, this is also not necessary for a sannyāsī. Nothing. Lie down on the floor like the Śukadeva Gosvāmī said, and take water in your palm, no dress. Śukadeva was also not dressing, naked. That is the perfection of sannyāsa. (break) Where is Jayapatākā? (break) ...talk with this boy. He wanted to.... (break) ...make. He's offering a land. Did you talk with him?

Jayapatākā: No. I sent.... Śatadhanya talked with him.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh, but he lives like a bābājī dress.

Jayapatākā: I don't know anyone lives by bābājī... He wears dhotī.

Prabhupāda: What is his name?

Jayapatākā: Śacīnandana.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, Śacīnandana. So he.... I have seen several times. He's like bābājī, but what he is?

Jayapatākā: He's a clerk.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jayapatākā: He's a clerk.

Prabhupāda: Clerk. And he's the chief man.

Morning Walk -- March 22, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yei bhaje sei boro. Here is woman (indistinct) engaged in worshiping (indistinct), she is great. Yei bhaje sei boro. So why should we hurt woman? Anyone who is engaged in service, he is big. The dress is not important. The advancement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is important. We have to see from that formula. Just like we sometimes have to dress like ordinary gentleman and sell books. Does it mean he is deviating? No. He's serving Kṛṣṇa, dress or no dress. It doesn't matter. If you stick to the dress, "Oh, I have taken sannyāsī, I cannot..." He cannot sell the books. Where is your service influence? You must give service first. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Is that Līlāvatī? No. It is Līlāvatī? No. I was thinking that she is Līlāvatī dressed like a widow, because she never likes to be widow. (laughter)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That's Hridayānanda's old wife.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That's Hridayānanda's old wife.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Dayānanda's?

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: That Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, eiṭa eka kalira chelā, nāke tilaka, galaya mālā:(?) "Here is another follower of Kali. He has got tilaka and mālā." Sahaja bhajana kacen māmu, saṅga laiyā pārera wala (?): "He is worshiping, bhajana, taking another's wife." Sahaja bhajana kacen māmu, saṅga laiyā pārera wala, ei ṭa eka kalira chelā: "Here is a servant of Kali. Simply he has changed his dress with tilaka and mālā." Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says. If you take tilaka and mālā and do all nonsense things, then you are not a devotee. You are Kali-chelā. To become a devotee is not so easy thing.

Morning Walk -- April 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And he may be great rogue, that "Simply dress yourself nicely; you become gentleman."

Devotee (1): Usually materially opulent people are puffed up and mean. They're not...

Prabhupāda: Gentleman means that if you go to a gentleman's store, "Beware of the dog. Beware of the revolver." This is your culture. And when you go to the airport everyone is searched out, pocket. So who is gentleman? Is that gentleman? There is no gentleman in the world. All rogues and thieves, cheaters, bluffers. Now we are creating gentlemen. Otherwise there is no gentlemen. Here is the proof. If we are gentleman, why we are being checked in the airport? Hm? This is the proof. There is no gentlemen.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Brian Singer: We normally say he's dead.

Prabhupāda: No, no, death.... What is the distinction between death and life? You are now dressing with these coat, pants, and this same body, same hair. Now, something will be minus—you'll be called dead. What is that something? That you do not know. Eh?

Brian Singer: The "you."

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Devotee (2): Yes, the person.

Brian Singer: The person.

Prabhupāda: Person. But the person you have never seen. You have never seen. I am seeing you: I am seeing your body, hat, coat, pant, hair. That's all. And dead body also, I will see the same thing. But I say, "Now the person is gone." Then but you have never seen the person. Now you say the person is gone, but before that, you were never interested with the person; you were interested with this body, coat, pant, hair, and that's all. That's all. That is ignorance.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: So many. This tail, dog's tail. Either you become sannyāsī or gṛhastha or anything, the tail is this side. You may grease it as much as possible, but the whole tendency is sex, that's all, in different dresses only. The objective is sex. This is going on. Some of them are openly declaring that "I am for sex," and some of them showbottle. But the objective is sex. This is the whole world. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tucchaṁ kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha (SB 7.9.45). And the sannyāsīs like Rajneesh, they are advocating, "This is life—sex. By sex indulgence you get salvation." These Brahma-kumārīs. Not brahmacārī but Brahma-kumārī. Kumārīs are available very easily. And they keep. And the rich men, they are supplied with nice, beautiful kumārīs. They pay money. This is going on. Brahma-kumārī. They enjoy and they invite the karmīs to enjoy and get money. Kumārī is there; money is there, that's all. Everywhere this is going on.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Our principle is that if one person carries out the order of God, he is actually the prophet. If he does not carry out—simply by dress he is prophet—it is useless.

Guest (3): I see. All right. We have a little different feeling about that.

Prabhupāda: Why it should be different?

Guest (3): Well, we would...

Prabhupāda: If you (are) actually the servant of God, you must carry out the orders of God. There cannot be difference. If there is difference, that means you are no longer servant of God.

Guest (3): Well, we feel that God has always had prophets and called them Himself, as he called Mike Aran.(indistinct)

Prabhupāda: But how the prophet can disobey the original orders of God or Christ?

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: So if that statue is kept in a temple and you dress, you garland, you offer food, is it not more respectful?

Guest (2): Offer food to an idol?

Hari-śauri: It's not an idol. This is a point Prabhupāda is making.

Prabhupāda: The point is how to offer respect, that if you respect a person, so if you expose this form of the person on the public park, giving the crows chance to pass stool on his head, that is more respectful? Or if you keep that statue in a temple and daily dress him and garland him and offer him food, that is more respectful? Which is more respectful? You are doing the same thing, but you are exposing to the stool of birds and crows.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: So that is the difference. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means know how to glorify God, not theoretical-practical. Here is practically example. Everyone drinks water, and while drinking water he can glorify thousand times. That we are teaching. Prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ. As soon as you see sunlight, "Oh, we are suffering for want of sunlight. Here is God's glory. He has sent the sunlight." This is practical. So one must know how to glorify God practically. Then his life is successful. God is always glorious. There is no doubt about it. But for us, how to glorify God.... Similarly, when we worship the Deity, here is God. Just offer Him flower. Just offer Him dress. That is love.

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1976, Melbourne:

Devotee (1): So if we're performing the Deity worship and we get in anxiety, how to make it nice...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is Kṛṣṇa anxiety. That is Kṛṣṇa anxiety. If you become anxious how to worship Deity, how to dress Kṛṣṇa nicely, how to do, if you remain, that will develop your anxiety for Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Deity worship essential. Exactly in time to get up, to offer maṅgala-ārati, to dress, this anxiety is the beginning of Kṛṣṇa anxiety. Then, when you become perfect, you'll always be anxious for Kṛṣṇa. And that is perfectional stage. Therefore, by the injunction of the śāstra, regulative, it is a way of creating that anxiety. So we must follow. Then we'll come to the real anxiety.

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: So what enough time you want? To go to the cinema? (laughter) Then? Your time has to be occupied by Kṛṣṇa anxiety. That's all. And as soon as you go to other anxiety, then it is māyā.

Guru-kṛpā: If we have four hours to dress the Deity, we can use the whole four hours. But sometimes we only have an hour and a half, so we have to rush. So that is anxiety.

Prabhupāda: No, that anxiety does not mean this laziness, that "I am anxiety for four hours. Deity cannot be opened now. I am in anxiety." That is negligence. That is negligence. That is not anxiety.

Devotee (2): When we are distributing books, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and we are not doing so good and we are in anxiety, that is also spiritual?

Prabhupāda: That is.... For selling books anxiety is Kṛṣṇa anxiety. If you become very anxious how to sell more books, that is Kṛṣṇa anxiety. That is not trade anxiety; that is Kṛṣṇa anxiety.

Press Conference -- April 27, 1976, Auckland, New Zealand:

Prabhupāda: It is not my—everyone's. You are in ignorance; you do not know; therefore we are trying to educate you. It is yours also. It is not a personal thing. It is meant for the living entities. That you people, you do not know, that we are all living entities. There is slight description of the evolution by Darwin. But he's also not in perfect knowledge. The real fact is the..., I am not this body, you are not this body. I am living entity within this body. Just like you are within your coat and shirt. The coat and shirt you are not. Similarly, we living entities, we are within this gross and subtle body. The gross body is made of earth, water, air, fire, and the subtle body is made of mind, intelligence, and egotism. So we are within this. So nobody knows; there is no educational system, what is our real constitutional position. We are wrongly accepting this body. And that kind of acceptance is there in the animals. The dog also thinking that "I am this body." So if I am thinking like that, "I am this body," then what is the difference between the dog and me? We are educating from him that point of view, that the living entity is entrapped within this body, and according to his desire, he's changing different types of body and undergoing continually birth and death. So in order to save him from the cycle of birth and death, one has to understand God, or Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means God. Then he comes to his real, identical position as spiritual body, and then he lives forever. He lives forever. Just like a man changing constantly dresses; that does not mean he's dying. Similarly, we do not die. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). After destruction of this body, we are not dying.

Morning Walk -- May 3, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: Never mind he's very nicely dressed. But because he is not surrendered soul to Kṛṣṇa, he is a miscreant. That's all Beware of him.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Can anyone be said to be innocent in this world?

Prabhupāda: There are three classes: one devotee, one innocent, and one envious. So we have nothing to do with the envious. With devotee, we shall make friendship, and to the innocent, we shall preach.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But the innocent souls, they're not surrendered to Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: He'll surrender. You teach him. Because he's innocent, he does not know. But you preach, he will become. That is our duty.

Room Conversation -- May 3, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: Suppose if I go to some place for some business, and going there, to select my hotel, which hotel I shall enter, I remain busy to find out the hotel, and I forget the business for which I have gone there, then am I not madman? A human life is meant for deciding his future. If we do not care for the future, and if I want to become modernized from primitive life, is that very good inclination? Real business forgotten, but I am busy with modernized life. That example I give sometimes, (Bengali). That one has to go to see a fair on account of (Bengali). So women, they generally dress themself very nicely. So the woman say to his friend that "You dress." So dressing, dressing, dressing.... In the meantime, the fair finished. So the modern civilization is like that. (Bengali) I have to go to see the fair, but I became so much attentive in dressing that in the meantime news came, "The fair is finished." That is our civilization. A human life is meant for preparing for the next life. That is sensible. But I am so much busy in manufacturing things for modernized life, R.C., T.C., P.C., and so on, so on. In future, at the time of death, I begin to bark and I think, "Oh..." And nature will say, "All right, come on."

Room Conversation with Siddha-svarupa -- May 3, 1976, Honolulu:

Siddha-svarūpa: They're not lowering your standard.

Prabhupāda: No, naturally, but when they are initiated they must shave. They must keep to the standard. If one becomes initiated and he still keeps the hippie form, that does not look nice. Do you think that is all right? No, that is not good. So long they are coming as outsider, joining kīrtana, they may have their own dress, it doesn't matter. They are coming to kīrtana, that must be (indistinct). But when they are to be initiated, they must follow the rules and regulations given by the spiritual master.

Siddha-svarūpa: So...

Prabhupāda: Otherwise they should not be initiated. It is simple thing. Let them go on chanting, taking prasādam; we have no (indistinct). But when they are to be initiated, they must follow. This is the clear (indistinct). If you don't want to disturb them, let them come, chant, dance, take prasādam We have no objection. But don't recommend them for initiation unless he agrees to the rules and regulations given by the spiritual master. Where is the wrong? Where is the difficulty? You can talk with him like that.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter where it is. The same process. Dante nidhāya tṛṇakaṁ padayor nipatya. The books will sell, that "You rascal number one, you set aside whatever learned. Read this." He sādhavaḥ sakalam eva vihāya: "You are very learned, but forget what you have learned, all rascaldom. Try to read this book." Tāvac ca śobhate mūrkho yāvat kiñcin na bhāṣate: "A rascal fool is very beautifully dressed, very nice sitting. But his rascaldom will be disclosed as soon as he will speak." So these rascals, as soon as they speak, "We shall surpass the laws of nature," then we can understand what kind of rascals. Tāvac ca śobhate mūrkhaḥ. By their, these words we can take, "Oh, rascaldom," at once. "I shall break the wall. I shall push the mountain with my head." It is like that. If somebody is thinking that "I shall push the Himalayan mountains by knocking with my head," then we can understand. So where it is? A rascal, the innocent, he is also rascal. But innocent is eager to become intelligent, so there we shall deal. And the stubborn atheists, they are dviṣat. They cannot be corrected immediately, unless they become ruined. (break) ...their standard of life. Try for that. Concentrate in your country. There is no need of going.... I was written, asking you that, that "If it is very hard job, don't try for that, useless waste of time." Incorrigible. So what is the use of going to a person...?

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: That means they're rascals. If there is no necessity, that means dull life, dull brain. The madman will think there is no necessity of clothing: "I can remain naked." And actually remains. He's a madman. And a sensible man, he requires dress, nice dress, first-class dress. So this is the difference between intelligent and dull. Dull has no necessity. Intelligent has necessity.

Devotee (4): He has necessity for God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu (BG 7.3). Out of millions and millions people one has the necessity for Kṛṣṇa. (break) Material scientists, they are creating necessities, television, and they are thinking advanced. What is the use of television? There is no use. But this is advanced civilization.

Hari-śauri: In relative terms.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Unless there is necessity, what is the advancement? There is dull matter. Yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat (BG 7.5). Apareyam. The dull matter is inferior energy. And the anya-prakṛti, apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parām, jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho, the living entities, they have got necessities. Dull matter, there are no necessities. The more one is dull, his necessities are less. And those who are advanced, his necessities begin.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Sadaputa. He has said nicely that "They depend on chance. We depend on God." That's all. (break) Some dress? No, bird (indistinct)

Devotee (2): No, they have some bathing trunks on.

Hari-śauri: Sometimes they wear like a rubber suit. Something like the scales of a fish. It keeps them.... (laughing)

Devotee (2): Aldous Huxley liked to think of the idea that there's no controller, so that he could enjoy without the feeling of guilt.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the whole idea. Thieves and rogues, they think "If there's no government, then we can do whatever we like." Who is there of the thieves and rogues?

Garden Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: You wanted this body. Therefore you have got this body. You wanted. Just like a child asks the father, "Give me this dress." Father gives him, "All right, take this dress." You wanted a certain type of body. Just like the surfers. They want a body like fish. Therefore they are so much anxious to swim. So father will give him next body a fish.

Rāmeśvara: He was saying that some people criticize us that we are saying this is God's creation, yet we are always speaking of it in a very bad way.

Prabhupāda: Very bad way?

Trivikrama: The bad way is also the mercy of the Lord to help us realize that...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Bad way, good way, man proposes, God disposes. You want something, bad or good.... Actually, everything is bad. This body or the fish's body or the dog's body, that is all material body. So everything is bad. But I prefer to get the body of a human being or a dog or a fish or a bird. That is my choice. So God gives you that body. Everywhere God's mercy is there, because whatever you want, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). In the material world, you have come to enjoy. You cannot enjoy.

Garden Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Allow some Indian dress may come in.

Nalinīkaṇṭha: "Prahlāda Mahārāja continued: My dear friends born of demoniac families, the happiness perceived with reference to the sense objects..."

Prabhupāda: He is addressing his friends, "born of demoniac families, my dear friends." (laughs) Give him one chair, Dr. Wolfe. Yes, that's nice. He used to address his father also as "the best of the demons." Once his father asked him, "My dear son, what nice lesson you have learned in the school? Please tell me." So he addressed his father, asura-vārya, "the best of the asuras."

Garden Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Arnold Weiss: Or could the prior life also be human life?

Prabhupāda: No, not necessarily. There are 8,400,000 different forms of life, and you are one of them now, as you, as soul, you are the same; the body is changed. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said in the Second Chapter that "Arjuna, you, Me and all these persons who are assembled here, they existed in their previous lives, they are now existing, and they'll continue to exist." So our life is eternal. That is the first instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This living entity, soul, is never born, neither he dies. It is simply change of body. Just like you just took this sweater. That means you are there, and you may give up the sweater again. So your body is changing like dress, but you are the same. So your... In previous... Just like now we are elderly gentleman, but we were a child. That's a fact. At that time the body was different. You are a young man; the body was different. And again you'll become old man like me, your body will be different. So in this life also we are experiencing going through different types of body. Similarly, after giving up this body, I'll have another body. Where is the difficulty to understand? Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati.

Room Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...can have so many engagements. Simply by making dress, we remain Kṛṣṇa conscious. Simply by cooking, we remain Kṛṣṇa conscious. Simply by cleansing the floor, we remain Kṛṣṇa conscious. Easiest method. Everyone can remain Kṛṣṇa conscious in any circumstance. Ahaituky apratihatā. It is not condition that "You have to become like this; then you'll become Kṛṣṇa conscious." No. In whatever position you are, you become Kṛṣṇa conscious. No extra intelligence required. Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau **. Either you dress the Deity or you cleanse the floor of the temple, the same thing. You get the result the same. Tan-mandira-mārjanādau. Anything you do. Somebody is cleansing, somebody is chanting, somebody is cooking, somebody is printing, somebody is selling books—everything is Kṛṣṇa conscious. And that is the best yoga. Sa me yuktatamo mataḥ. Yoginām api sarveṣām: (BG 6.47) "Of all the yogis, who is thinking of Me, always in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is the topmost yogi." "By meditation I am trying to become God. By meditation one can become God." This is their foolish theory. Kṛṣṇa, when He exhibited His godly power at the age of three months, where was meditation? (laughs) God is always God. You cannot become by meditation God. You can become godly; that is possible.

Room Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: She's covered with the body, but she's different from the body. Just like you are covered by your dress, but you are different from the dress.

Richard: Okay.

Rāmeśvara: Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Richard: Thank you.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. You are very intelligent boy. (laughs)

Richard: I don't know what good that does me.

Prabhupāda: They are very good questions.

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Material. When you were on the lap of your mother the body was so small. Now you are a young girl and you are.... So where is that small body? That means you have changed bodies. But your mother knows that you are the same, "My child." Because you have grown up or you have changed your body, your mother will not cry "Where is my child?" She knows that "My child is there, but she has changed body." Why these people do not understand this plain truth? Suppose you have come in this dress; next moment you come in another dress. But if I know you I'll not mistake because you have changed your dress. Similarly, we are changing our dress from baby to child, child to boy, boy to young man, young man to middle-aged man, constantly changing, every moment. Medical science also says. The blood corpuscles are changed every moment. So we are changing our body every moment. But still we cannot understand that on account of change of body, the living force within the body does not change. Is there any difficulty to understand?

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Kathy Kerr: Do you advocate then that one deny the body? Like comforts and so forth, in order to...

Prabhupāda: No, why deny the body? Just like you are putting some type of dress. So dress is not unimportant. But real importance is you, the person. So where is that education about the real person? They are simply engrossed with the dress. This is going on. Such kind of mentality is there even within the cats and dogs. He's also thinking "I am this body." If a human being does not understand this fact, that he is not this body, he is changing his body, but he is spirit soul, then he is no better than the cats and dogs. We do not want to keep the human society in the category of cats and dogs. We want to raise them to the real understanding of his identification. That is our mission. It is neither Hindu religion or Muslim religion or.... This is science.

Kathy Kerr: I notice all your followers obviously dress similarly and so forth.

Prabhupāda: We cannot get many followers. Because everyone is under this impression, "I am this body." And to get him released from this conception is not so easy job. So we cannot expect many thousands and millions. Only selected fortunate people will understand it. But everyone can understand it. It is very simple thing. But the modern education has made them so dull brain, they cannot understand, neither do they try to understand. That is the difficulty.

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Changed, or another body you have got. Change means another body. If you dress your child, you get another.(?) So it is simple truth. So you have got another body or another dress, but you are still living. This simple truth they cannot understand, and they are advanced in education.

Kathy Kerr: Does that mean then that once the immediate corporal body is dead, the one that you have...

Prabhupāda: Yes. We have to conclude.... This is, what is called, logic, that my, I have changed my body, still I am living. Therefore when I change this body, I shall live. This is the logic.

Kathy Kerr: Does your spiritual body keep the same training that you...

Prabhupāda: Same, that is another.... Just like you are in different type of dress, I am in different type of dress, that is another thing. Dress may be changed in different types, but I, the owner of the dress, is the same. Now a person, the same person, when he's dressed as a high-court judge, he's dealing differently in the high-court. And the same person, after giving up his garment of high-court judge, he talks with the wife and children in a different way, talking. The wife does not address him, "My lord." The wife calls, Mr. John. "John, why you are doing this?" She has no respect, as the respect he gets in the court. Man is the same, circumstance is different.

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Kathy Kerr: So that means then that our society then gives certain people certain status just because of their job, that's not correct.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We must come to the correct position of our spiritual life, then it is perfection of life. Otherwise, they're ignorant. If the husband comes at home and the wife calls him by the name, "John, come here." "Oh, you are not addressing 'my lord,' " it will be ridiculous. He might be "my lord," in the court, but when he's in the family, the wife calls by the name. So our, with the change of dress we are changing our name, circumstances, thoughts, and everything. Therefore we find differentiation. American, Indian, Hindu, Muslim, black, white, this, these are all designation of the dress. And therefore we do not agree. As soon as I accept, identify myself with the dress, there will be disagreement. And as soon as we, everyone of us, we know that this is superficial, this is dress, I am spirit soul, then there will be agreement. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu, find out this verse. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu (BG 18.54). So without this understanding they have opened United Nations, keeping them cats and dogs. And they are simply barking, that's all. This is going on. For the last forty years simply they are barking. What achievement is there? In your country, who is the president gave the black man same liberty?

Jayādvaita: Lincoln.

Prabhupāda: Lincoln. Equal right, but actually, there is some tension, black and white. Because they are not on the spiritual platform.

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Lincoln. Equal right, but actually, there is some tension, black and white. Because they are not on the spiritual platform.

Viśvakarmā: In Canada, Prabhupāda, it's the French and the English.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere, some tension. The Catholic, the Protestant; the black, the white; the Hindu, the Muslim. That must go on because if we accept on the platform of dress, of body, then there must be ignorance. Read that verse and explain to her.

Jayādvaita: "One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments nor desires to have anything; he is equally disposed to every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me."

Prabhupāda: Equally disposed. As soon as he knows that I am not this body, I am spirit soul, then there is no distinction. Just like two American goes to India. So when they understand that "We are Americans," immediately their interest becomes one, although they are in the foreign country. That is psychology. Similarly, as soon as we come to the spiritual platform, there is no such distinction as black, white, Hindu, Muslim, Christian. Everything finished. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. You are reading the purport?

Morning Walk Conversation -- June 20, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: To live like them, to dance with them, to dress like them, to smoke like them, to stand like them. (laughter)

Hari-śauri: Baḍa? That means?

Prabhupāda: Baḍa sāb. Baḍa sāb-big master.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sāheb or sāb?

Prabhupāda: The word is sāheb, but short cut, sāb. (break) (indistinct) No.

Hari-śauri: No, he's show-biz, show-business. (long break)

Devotees: Hare Kṛṣṇa, good morning.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) This modern civilization. (Hindi) nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛ-loke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). Don't be hogs. Be human being. This is hog civilization. (Hindi) Sex. Don't care whether he's mother, sister or brother. No, no. This is going on.

Conversation in Airport and Car -- June 21, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: The beginning is to understand this transmigration. But actually people do not understand. Cycle of birth and death, if one does not understand what is birth and death, what he'll understand of cycle of birth and death? Mostly because they do not understand what is birth and what is death, they are mostly going on on the bodily concept of life. That is animal life. Ask anybody. Bodily concept. And everything is going on. We pass through Canada to USA. Why Canada? Why USA? This bodily concept. It is meant for the Canadians, it is meant for USA, Americans. Immigration, customs, the same mentality as a dog coming from other neighborhood. The other dogs, they all come together, "Yow, yow, why you have come, why you have come?" In civilized dress only. This is the position. What is the difference between the dog's mentality... When another dog comes to another neighborhood, these neighborhood dogs, you know that? All animals: "Yow, why you have come?" So this department, "Why you have come here?" dogs barking, and this immigration, what is the difference? Is there any difference? This is our policy. Very difficult. (break) ...they will understand Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Their mentality is not better than the animals.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "It is explained in the Second Chapter that the living entity is transmigrating from one body to another just as one changes dress."

Prabhupāda: This is transmigrating. He's put into this circumstances, so he gets this body. (break) ...in our society, he's living in a room, but if he has got some difficulty, he says... Then the authority gives him another room, "All right, you go there." This is transmigration. He must get a place according to his capacity, according to his quality. Go on reading.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "This change of dress is due to his attachment to material existence. As long as he is captivated by this false manifestation, he has to continue transmigrating from one body to another. Due to his desire to lord it over material nature, he is put into such..."

Prabhupāda: If he wants to remain in this material world, creates a situation and continues his desire, then he has to take... And when he understands that "To live in this material condition is very troublesome. Why shall I live here?" then he becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious and he goes back to home, back to... And so long he desires, "No, why not? If I remain in this situation, I'll be happy," then he'll have to get a body. Nature will give him all chances: "Get this body." If one is very pleased to take raw flesh, "All right, why artificially? Take this body, tiger." That's all. Nature is... God is so kind.

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: These are all marbles? No.

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, this is all marble. The devotees—you see how the marble is all inlaid on the pieces there—they've done that. Then there will be a dressing room and a bath.

Prabhupāda: Oh. That side?

Kīrtanānanda: That side.

Prabhupāda: These framework will remain?

Kīrtanānanda: No, it will be covered with plaster.

Prabhupāda: Then it will be taken away? No.

Kīrtanānanda: No, no, it remains.

Prabhupāda: It will continue.

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Kīrtanānanda: Barking for the last thirty years.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Nobody has criticized them. They have taken it seriously; otherwise, why they have published? Yes, that's right. What they have done except barking? "I am American," "I am Russian," "I am this," "I am that," that's all. If you keep them dogs and hogs and, nicely dressed, they go to United Nations and talk of unity, is it possible? Can the dogs and hogs can unite? Common sense. You bring all the dogs of this neighborhood and ask them "Don't bark now. Live peacefully," (laughter) will they be able? (laughs) The United Nation is like that. They're kept as dogs and they're advised, "Now keep peacefully." Is it possible? They have no common sense even. First of all, let them become human beings. Conference is going on, big conference, and Jawaharlal Nehru has imitated, that in the conference there are different languages, different..., but if somebody is speaking in any language you'll hear it in your own language. Remember? In New Delhi he has done that. This rascal thought, "Now I am finished, I have done my duty." All rascals. (japa) Thus our definition, that anyone who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he's either in these four groups, bas, final. You just try to prove it. Hm? Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja? You have any doubt about it?

Kīrtanānanda: No.

Room Conversation -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Kīrtanānanda: Practically it is impossible to teach these older boys how to use bulls and how to... It is very difficult, they cannot do it. But I think if we train the children.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa Himself did it. He was king's son, Nanda Mahārāja. In the childhood, He was taking care of the calves, and when He was grown up, little, He was taking care of the cows. Kṛṣṇa personally showed it. His father could have avoided, "No, no, You don't go. The servants will go." No. "You also go." Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma, both. Balarāma has got the plow, tilling ground, and Kṛṣṇa has got the flute to enchant the cows. Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. They were not sitting idly, although Nanda Mahārāja could keep Them without any work. No. They worked. From the beginning of childhood. They would come in the evening and mother would take care of bathing Them, changing dress, and then giving nice food, and after taking food They would go to rest. Whole day They worked. Kṛṣṇa never taught that you sit idly. No. Personally, He did not do so, neither He taught anyone. In the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find.

Room Conversation and Reading from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1 and 12 -- June 25, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Here, the daytime is...

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: We have found, Śrīla Prabhupāda, when the buses are going to many of these cities, they have never seen our devotees, because when we go, we are dressed like they are for distributing the books. So now the boys are going again in the streets with a kīrtana party once a week downtown, and they have all done front-page newspaper articles, because although they have been reading the books, they have never seen the devotees in many years. I think festivals like this...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: ...in all these cities would be very advantageous, and all the book distribution...

Prabhupāda: And therefore I said that introduce Ratha-yātrā every city. At least wherever we have got our centers. Bring Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa. They have received some testimonial from Indian...

Hari-śauri: Oh, yes, Indian reviews?

Prabhupāda: You can open this file. I don't want, but...

Room Conversation and Reading from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1 and 12 -- June 25, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Liṅgam evāśrama-khyātāv. There are āśramas, brahmacārī, sannyāsī, gṛhastha. So they have got different dresses. So Kali-yuga, simply by dress, he becomes a brahmacārī, he become a gṛhastha, he becomes a sannyāsī, simply by dress. What he is acting, nobody cares, that's all. Then?

Pradyumna: Liṅgam, eva.

Prabhupāda: Liṅgam means the external feature. This is the dress of a sannyāsī, this is the dress of a gṛhastha. Just like daṇḍa. Daṇḍa is the symptom that he is a sannyāsī. Then?

Pradyumna: Liṅgam evāśrama-khyātāv anyonyāpatti-kāraṇam.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Then?

Pradyumna: Avṛttyā nyāya-daurbalyam.

Prabhupāda: Avṛttyā nyāya-daurbalyam. If you have no money, then you cannot get justice. First of all you have to pay government so many percentage of money. Suppose somebody owes to you some money and he's not giving you. So if you have to go to the court, first of all you have to spend so much money, and if you have no money, then you cannot get your money back. You have to pay this lawyer's fee, the stand duty, and so on, so on. But if you say "I have no money," then forget justice. That's all. Avṛttyā nyāya-daurbalyam.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: As a gentleman, if you go to somebody's house, you require his permission, but India, still, a sannyāsī doesn't require any permission. He can enter in any householder's house: "Mother, give me some food." This is the introduction. Not that he has gone there for food, but easy introduction. And generally the householder will receive a sannyāsī, "Yes, Swamiji, come here, sit down." They will offer obeisances and then they begin talks. This is the meaning. Not that he is hankering after food. This is only introduction. He's not a beggar. But people take advantage of this dress because they think that "Without any work I can beg and live." That is going on in India. So many rascals, they are taking this sannyāsī dress and living at the cost of others. Therefore people have become disgusted. They have no knowledge to preach. Yes, go on.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: For your direct whims you have to spend so much money? The people are so befooled they do not challenge them. Yes. Everyone knows, suppose one is coming to the western country, Europe and America, we knew it, that it is cold country, we must take proper dress. And we have come and we are staying. So this is knowledge. So if you do not know what is the atmosphere there, what do you spend so much money? And again you are going to the Mars. Are you fixed up what is the position there? Then you'll again bring something, some dust and rock. (laughter) This business will go on at the expense of the... You can do. You have got money. You can do that. But we are Indians, we are coming from poor country. If you spend so much money for nothing, that is very, not very palatable for us. If one tenth of the expenditure you would have given to us for spreading this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement... No. Not a single paisa they will give. And they'll spoil money for going to the moon planet and bring some dust.

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

Prabhupāda: But he realized by worshiping Kali. (laughter)

Devotee: ...he dressed up as Rādhārāṇī too.

Prabhupāda: So do you agree to that? Then how you appreciate it? Indian woman: No, I don't appreciate it.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. It is a common sense. He, later on, he became God, by worshiping Kali, is it not?

Dr. Sukla: He was cursed by Kali.

Prabhupāda: No, he was a big worshiper of Kali. And he was meat-eater also, Ma Kali's prasāda, that unless one eats that prasādam he cannot become a devotee. So this was his position, that he worshiped Kali, and later on by worshiping Kali... His picture is there, mother Kali's embracing. And he also preached yata mata tata pat: "Whatever path you take, accept, that is all right." Is it not? So do you think it is all right? He worshiped Kali and he said yata mata tata pat. You agree to this? Now, Ramakrishna says yata mata tata pat. And Kṛṣṇa says... He became Ramakrishna, identifying himself with Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa said mam ekam, and now he's becoming Kṛṣṇa, he says yata mata tata pat. Just see. When he's actual Kṛṣṇa, he says mām ekam, and when he became imitation Kṛṣṇa, he says yata mata tata pat. Kṛṣṇa has changed his views. (laughter) Just see, this foolishness is going on.

Interview and Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Hari-śauri: She's pointing out that in recent years we've changed our dressing style while we're on the street selling books.

Prabhupāda: Dress? Dress is not important. Practically, as sannyāsī, brahmacārī, we dress with saffron cloth, but sometimes you do not like, but we have to do business with you; therefore we change. What can be done? "Necessity has no law."

Janice Johnson: I'm also interested in... You all have moved your school out of Texas. Is that correct?

Prabhupāda: Gurukula school, yes.

Janice Johnson: Why was that done?

Prabhupāda: Why? Gurukula school? We are training children from the very beginning of life to understand spiritual importance of life.

Interview and Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Rūpānuga: I was thinking that to show the devotees dressed in the śikhās and everything may not be so important. That will make us some Indian, Hindu...

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Quite. So we'll take this.

Rūpānuga: We're always preaching to everyone. This is rough sketch, but we can make it very colorful, make nice color, detail.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Also, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja sent me a letter yesterday, asking a little about Bhaktivedanta Institute, what plans, things like that.

Prabhupāda: So, we are going tomorrow. You are also coming?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Arrival Comments in Car to Temple -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: They think that we unnecessarily criticize. But we require everything. But just like a man. When he's alive his decoration, his nice dress, everything is very good. But if he's dead, then it is useless. Similarly, without spiritual consciousness we are dead. Because the body is dead. Because the spirit soul is there, therefore it is moving. The important point is the spirit soul. So if you are simply taking care of the body very nicely, that means you are decorating the dead body. What is the value of it? It is clear? The body is important because the soul is there. So long the life is there, if you decorate the body everyone will appreciate. But if you decorate the dead body, people will say "What a fool he is!" Aprāṇasya hi dehasya maṇḍanaṁ loka-rañjanam. That is simply a popular applause, "Ah, the dead body is decorated," but what is the value of it? Similarly, without spiritual knowledge, this dead civilization simply on the bodily concept of life, it is ludicrous. That we have to condemn. Take Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then everything is... Just like one, if there is zero, then it is ten. Another zero, hundred. But without one, simply zero; it is only useless.

Room Conversation -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Pālikā: Would you like to take fruit now, or prasādam as regular?

Prabhupāda: No, no, I have taken breakfast. So Bali-mardana Prabhu, doing all right?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Those are your servants' quarters, and the kitchen, and there's also a dresser in your bedroom.

Prabhupāda: There is any closet with lock?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. This closet here is a walk-in closet. Small room with a lock. You also have a cabinet that locks. It's a big walk-in closet.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. So I shall again stay in New York? Nice place.

Ādi-keśava: From this window here you can see the Empire State Building and all the big buildings in New York.

Prabhupāda: Oh, very nice.

Evening Darsana -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Now there are so many rascals in this dress of sannyāsī, they are eating meat. That is going on. They say, "What is the wrong of eating meat? Can eat." They eat meat. Then?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "The subject matter has already been discussed in the conversation between Lord Caitanya and Maulana Chand Kazi Shaheb. The animal sacrifice as stated in the Vedas is different from the unrestricted animal killing in the slaughterhouse."

Prabhupāda: There, your question.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Every people. You come to stay with us, we give you all help. Anyone who comes to our society we give shelter, we give food, we give instruction, we give dress, everything. Without any condition. You please come and live with us. For such a nice building we have taken. Our farms are so nice, you can go and see how they are doing. We have got one hundred and two centers all over the world. You'll find they are living very comfortably.

Interviewer: How many centers in the United States?

Prabhupāda: About forty.

Rāmeśvara: Forty or fifty.

Hari-śauri: Fifty with the farms.

Interviewer: How are those supported? Do they support themselves?

Prabhupāda: That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Literature.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But very vague.

Rāmeśvara: He's printing Japanese Gītā this year he says.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But very vague, not dressed as devotees, strictly cultural.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Cultural. They should... Deity worship one of the items. Otherwise it is called bhāgavata and pañcarātra.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I felt that it should be done in a very modern American style but very cultural with Vedic subject matter. Then gradually they would appreciate it. As well as the library party. If the library party, Satsvarūpa is thinking to go all over the world now, if they go to Japan they are expecting a good reception in Japan, that will be another advantage if your books are accepted by the professors there. I thought that a cultural presentation...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We have to somehow or another get the local people to join there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well that's the way, see they're not going to join as Hare Kṛṣṇas because of the bad publicity. They're not going to join like that. You have to have a different method.

Prabhupāda: What is this church, big church.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: His wife has also sannyāsī, renounced. Have you seen her latest?

George Harrison: No.

Prabhupāda: She has cut hair and white dress, living alone in the temple. Vairagya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yogam (CC Madhya 6.254). This bhakti-yoga means vairagya-vidyā, means detachment. That is the perfection of life. If we remain attached, that is conditional. Māyā has made so many things attractive so that we have to remain attached, and to come out of this attachment is called bhakti. So one man, you can sit down, you can eat. Pradyumna, you can eat.

Pradyumna: I've taken some milk before.

Prabhupāda: Oh, you don't require. Now you can eat, go on. Prasāda prapti mātrena. Our Jayatīrtha prabhu is a good manager. Management, looking after. Yes, he's a very good manager, experienced.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: That is the.... The microphone is the same. And the politician can speak all nonsense, and the so-called scientist may speak all nonsense of going to the Mars planet, but we don't talk all nonsense.

Mike Robinson: If we could just put one more tape on it. No, if I can explain to you, the question I am trying to ask, which I'm finding difficulty to explain. Obviously, the members of the movement who are here have made a definite sort of decision that you've decided, they've decided, for instance, to dress differently, and they're dressing now in what would appear to be an Indian style. Is it necessary to do that, or could I carry on being a member of a radio station and still be a member of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Harikeśa: That would be very nice.

Mike Robinson: Perhaps if I phrase it a bit differently. I gather that the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement also has some concern for areas of the world where there is suffering, physical suffering.

Prabhupāda: We have got the only concern. Others, they are simply avoiding. They have no responsibility. They are talking all nonsense. We have got real responsibility. These people are being misguided, they are kept in darkness. Let us try to give them some enlightenment.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Just see how rascal they are. My Guru Mahārāja every step condemned this Ramakrishna Mission and Vivekananda. He said frankly that if there are any impediments for our movement, that is this Gandhi and Vivekananda. He said frankly. Hodge-podge. Gandhi's also hodge-podge. He was a politician, and in politics he mixed some spiritual ideas, hodge-podge. And this Vivekananda was also politician. His name was recorded in the government as "sannyāsī-politician." Because after returning from America, he began to preach to make the poor man rich, and these weak, fatty, and so on, exercise. So the government took it that he's, under the dress of a sannyāsī, he's preaching social and political upliftment. So his name was recorded as "sannyāsī-politician." And his name was also recorded, "political saint," Gandhi. After all, the British government, they were very intelligent. They could understand what is what. Otherwise, how they were managing this big empire? Very intelligent, there is no doubt about it. And actually they were intelligent. When they were managing, we were happy, actually. Nobody can deny it. Although they were exploiting. But nobody could understand. Everyone was feeling happy. And as soon as they left, everyone is unhappy. That distinction I can give evidence, I can, from my personal experience. Things were very, very nice. Calcutta, oh, it was so nice city. Now it is hell. It is same Calcutta. Why it is now hell? Hidden(?) garden, that was a nice garden. So... Everywhere hell, only hell. Calcutta was considered the nicest city in India, better than Bombay, but it has become now hell. The streets, especially those quarters in our temple.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: So eating, sleeping, and some sense gratification, sex. These are bodily necessities. But when you understand what is spirit, then we must try to find out what the spiritual necessity is. That is spiritual culture. You cannot go on with the bodily culture as spiritual culture. That is a mistake. Spiritual culture is different from the bodily culture. And when we understand it, then there is no question of Iranian spiritual culture or Indian spiritual culture. Spiritual culture is one. As bodily culture is also one. It does not mean that only Indians eat and the Iranians do not eat. The Iranians also eat, because they're bodily necessities. Similarly, spiritual culture also, there is some necessities which is equally needed by the Iranians, by Americans, by Indians. It is not... Just like when we say that the child grows to become a boy. This is not applicable only to the Indians or Iranians. It is applicable everywhere. Child grows everywhere. You cannot say this is Indian or Iranian. It is everywhere. So if we understand what is spiritual culture and what is material culture, then there is no question of Iranian or Indian or English or American. Spiritual culture is the same everywhere. So any question on this point? Any difficulty to understand? (pause) Spiritual culture or material culture, it is one and the same everywhere. There cannot be any difference. Materially, we want to cover this body, some dress, everyone has got dress. You cannot say this is Iranian dress or it is Indian dress. Dress is dress, that's all. So any question on this point?

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes. Śrīla Prabhupāda. They said they were. I have noticed that people who are materially contaminated, when they hear spiritual preaching, they can always look at it from material point of view. For example, when you speak of designation, one boy was asking how come we are also having shaved heads and dressing like devotees. In other words, the emphasis on their minds is more on what is everybody else thinking, while the emphasis in your teaching is how you yourself can become free, not what everybody else is thinking. While our shaving of our head and dressing as devotee is a means to become free from all designation, he may be seeing other designations.

Prabhupāda: No, it does not depend on shaving head. But this is in the process.

Atreya Ṛṣi: It is in the process.

Prabhupāda: Yes. By shaving, there are so many shaven headed. Does it means that he's in the process? Just like a doctor carries one stethoscope. But if somebody thinks "Let me carry a stethoscope, I'll become a doctor." But for a doctor the stethoscope is required. But a false man takes a stethoscope and declares himself a doctor, medical man, that is cheating. (pause) You get your puffed rice? No. Get?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes. Let me ask. We may have little bit.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Nandarāṇī: He wants a separate place. Because it is difficult for all of us to do two things. It's very..., it's just very difficult. So having two places would mean we could have one run like a temple and one run like a home. If many devotees come here and wear old clothes and live... Devotees, sometimes they want to dress in old clothes, they want to be very strict, they want to be very austere, but when the businessmen come and they see a devotee with shaved head and old rags on, then they think...

Prabhupāda: Shocked...

Nandarāṇī: Yes. "What is this?" you know. So, but at the same time we don't want to always dress very nicely, we want to be devotees.

Prabhupāda: We must be clean.

Nandarāṇī: Clean, yes.

Prabhupāda: The dress is not important-cleanliness.

Hari-śauri: You can dress in karmī clothes and still be very strict Vaiṣṇava.

Nandarāṇī: Here we wear mostly street clothes, like the Iranians, suits and dresses.

Prabhupāda: Just like he is not well dressed, but anyone who will see, he'll immediately find he's cleansed. That is wanted. Cleansed dress. Dress is not important.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: One can become clean with simply loincloth. It doesn't require dress. (break) ...Indian or here?

Hari-śauri: Which climate is better. (laughter)

Nandarāṇī: Well, I like India.

Prabhupāda: Come on.

Parivrājakācārya: We've got a couple of guests.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Nandarāṇī: Thank you.

Prabhupāda: Come on, bring. Come here, forward.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: This is the process, I've described. We have got Deity of the Lord, we offer foodstuff prepared very nicely, and whatever leftover is there, we eat. We dress very nicely with flowers, with ornaments; we give Him a nice place to sit down, to sleep. He also looks after our comfort. In this way, exchange of love.

Ali: Just like when there is a mutual understanding, then...

Prabhupāda: No, there must be practical display.

Ali: Practical display.

Prabhupāda: Yes, simply understanding will not do. That is not love, that is appreciation.

Ali: How can I be practical about something without understanding that thing, because I...

Prabhupāda: Understanding, guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati. You try to understand God, and He'll explain what He is. You try to understand.

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Harikeśa: Why is that?

Prabhupāda: No, the first thing is that we have to accept there is God. Now, to inquire about God, this facility is given to the human being. So you must utilize it. Otherwise you are not human. Your business is, by nature's creation, your business is. The human being... Just like you dress yourself nicely, you comb your hair. That is possible by the human being. An animal may have big hair, but it cannot dress because he has no intelligence. So if you have got intelligence, if you utilize it, then life's profit is there. If you don't utilize it, then you remain lower-grade animal. So in the human form of life, the preliminary is that he can inquire about God, he can understand about God. So if he does not utilize his life for that purpose, then he is animal. So Aniruddha Prabhu requires spectacle? Or it is...

Arundhatī: No, it is just a toy glasses, toy. He does not require.

Prabhupāda: You require spectacle, glass?

Arundhatī: No.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: They are younger. They are all my childhood playmates. Their older brothers, the eldest one was my very, very intimate friend, Siddheshvar Mullik. We used to ride on the same perambulator when we were three, four years old. And Ratha-yātrā ceremony was performed with all these guests. They were about, in our neighborhood there were four, five houses. So all the children of the same age, I was the leader. (laughs) Yes. I organized this Ratha-yātrā. I was performing Rādhāṣṭamī and Janmāṣṭamī, and I was learning how to dress the Rādhā-Govinda. Yes.

Hari-śauri: You used to go in and dress Them?

Prabhupāda: It is, actually, it was our house. Just three, four house after.

Hari-śauri: Rādhā-Govinda were the only Deities in the neighborhood?

Prabhupāda: No, only Deity, yes. And Rādhā-Govinda has big property. In front of the Deity house there is a very big building.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: If one goes in the village without any dress, without any, if he plays the part of Kṛṣṇa's and somebody plays the part of Rādhārāṇī, thousands of people will come. There is no need of film. Yatra-party.

Guest (4): Yatra-party, sir, in the films we do those...

Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say, that mass of people will come. As soon as they hear that here is some play going on, Kṛṣṇa pastimes, still in India...

Guest (4): It is there, sir, so what my submission was that what we do as film producers and in this line of business, that we do it more on commercial basis. Gimmicks are there, castings are there, but then it is not so much educative. What your Prabhupāda wants to convey. If, as a member of...

Prabhupāda: Education you cannot give. Education means it is practical practice. But to show something, that you can attract even without film. The yatra-party can.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Just like, practice is also not very difficult. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). So if you daily come to the temple, see the Deity, he'll have some impression and he can think of Kṛṣṇa, how He is playing flute, how He is nicely dressed, how Rādhārāṇī is standing (indistinct). Then man-manā, he can think of Kṛṣṇa very easily. So man-manā bhava mad-bhakto, and as soon as you think of Kṛṣṇa, you become a devotee. Because a businessman will not spare so much time thinking (of) Kṛṣṇa, how He is playing flute. He has no business. Without being bhakta, nobody will be interested to meditate on Kṛṣṇa, how He's standing, how He's playing flute. This is bhakta's business. So anyone who is planning some trying(?) to think of Kṛṣṇa, that means automatically he becomes bhakta, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto. Mad-yājī, then naturally if he becomes bhakta, naturally then why not offer to Kṛṣṇa something? Eh? Naturally. Give Him some fruits, some flower, some grains. Then Kṛṣṇa is accepting them, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). So to think of Kṛṣṇa, to become a devotee and to offer Him something, patraṁ puṣpaṁ, and offer Him obeisances, these things are development of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. And the result is, find out this verse, man-manā. Mām evaiṣyasi asaṁśayaḥ (BG 18.68), by simply executing these four principles, Kṛṣṇa assures that you will come, asaṁśayaḥ, without any doubt.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. And it details everything. So you purchase some copies. We have to prepare...

Maṇihāra: "...of varying degrees of education and from many walks of life, students, teachers, scientists, servicemen, laborers, and professionals—indeed numerous race, creeds and nationalities—are attached towards it. The unifying characteristics that brings such diverse individuals to Kṛṣṇa consciousness are high ethical standards and a sincere desire to understand spiritual truths. To make a pleasure-loving and easy-going Western youth to shed his fashionable dress and make him give up his dearly cherished beefsteaks, wine and women, cannabis and LSD, and don the saffron robe, shave his head, hold the daṇḍa, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, is no mean achievement. That ISKCON has made thousands of Western youths perform this seemingly impossible task is an eloquent testimony of the impact it has made on the life of the contemporary West. ISKCON does offer to the modern man a haven of refuge from the complexity of anxiety of present-day life. The society has indeed set before itself a noble and laudable ideal..."

Prabhupāda: When the Englishmen were ruling over this country and Gandhi had to do so much labor, his life sacrificed, some way or other they were gone. Now the same Englishman is working here as book distributor. (laughs) Who was our ruler. So whose achievement is better? Gandhi's or mine?

Gargamuni: Yours.

Room Conversation with Endowments Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Commissioner: Educational center.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Brāhmaṇas means they are teachers. Paṭhana-pāṭhana-yajana-yājana-dāna-pratigrahaḥ. So every temple should be educational center, and the brāhmaṇas should be engaged. They should be properly educated and they should teach others also. In this way, temple means education in spiritual life. And actually spiritual life is life. This material life, the bodily conception of life, is dead life. Aprāṇasyeva dehasya maṇḍanaṁ loka-rañjanam. This nice shirt you have changed because there is life. When there is no life, who is going to change dress? The body is there, but why you are not interested in changing the dress? Better interest... The sooner the body is thrown away or burned, better. So similarly... (break) There is a proverb that a vulture goes very high, but his ambition is where is a dead body. As soon as he finds a dead body, (growling sound) immediately. And we see, "Oh, how high he has gone." So what is the going up so high if your aim is to find out a dead body? And actually, these aeronautics, they went to very high, suppose they went to moon. But after going there they find, "Where is Moscow? Where is this?" The same vulture business. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is the only hope to give relief to the human society. So everyone should cooperate with this movement. Unfortunately, there are so many envious persons, they are writing against us, talking against us. They should be envious. Because they want to exploit, keeping the people in ignorance.

Morning Walk Conversation About Bombay -- August 29, 1976, Delhi:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: His father's the head pūjārī.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Very good pūjārī.

Children: You know the dress that was yesterday? Deity's dress? The same as your birthday dress.

Girirāja: The dress that was put yesterday was the same as the birthday dress?

Child: Of Prabhupāda.

Hari-śauri: No, the Vyāsa-pūjā dress.

Girirāja: Oh, the Vyāsa-pūjā dress.

Prabhupāda: What is that? You know?

Girirāja: What is Vyāsa-pūjā? (end)

Morning Walk -- August 31, 1976, Delhi:

Indian man (3): I personally feel that when you buy anything in the market, for example you buy a dress. Sometimes it wears for ten years, sometimes you are cheated and it wears only for two years. So this is also same way, you know. Sometimes early death means...

Prabhupāda: That is for the dress. What about the man who's using the dress? You are identifying the dress with the man. That is foolishness. As soon as you say "dress," you should have to find out the man who has got the dress. Then it is perfect understanding. But if you understand the dress and the man the same, then you are foolish. Dress is not the man.

Indian man (3): No, dress is not the soul, but dress is again the body.

Prabhupāda: Dress is the body. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). That is explained. This body is just like dress. So, but the dress is different from the man who puts on the dress.

Indian man (3): Well, that is different. Man is different.

Prabhupāda: The dress, it becomes old and it will be changed.

Indian man (3): But dress is the body. Dress is the body.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This is sādhu. Not the dress. Now what is the...

Harikeśa: "The symptoms of a sādhu are that he is tolerant, merciful, and friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime."

Prabhupāda: This is sādhu. The first qualification is titikṣava. very tolerant. And Cāṇakya Paṇḍita has said kṣamā-rūpaṁ tapasvinām. Those who are tapasvīs, their first duty is how much he is forgiving. How much he has learned to forgive. Kṣamā-rūpaṁ tapasvinām. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena (SB 6.1.13). So what is the explanation?

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They can. They'll not accept the process. They can. Everyone. Otherwise why these brahmacārīs? Just to be trained. That's all. By training we can find so many brahmacārīs. Just like by training you have given up so many things. You were accustomed to this illicit sex and meat-eating and... But you have given up. But why? By training. So if we request the government, "Let us open this brahmacārī..." They'll not help. But they'll make the other propaganda. They'll make contraceptive method, and naturally one Hindu widow is trained up not to marry again. Once she got a husband, that's all right. Now you convert your, you divert your attention to Kṛṣṇa. They'll make propaganda. "Why stop her sense gratification? Let her marry again, widow marriage." Why widow marriage? If there is voluntarily giving up begetting any more child, to avoid husband, why the widow marriage bill is introduced? Everything was natural, brahmacārī. The sterilization is already there. That will not be accepted. Widow, she's remaining refrained from. Just like we have now asked our girls not to dress attractively, widow. They should dress not attractively. Because after all, what is this sex enjoyment? It is not very good thing. By outward attraction they attract. Nice sari, nice,—one becomes attracted. Therefore this is psychology, that if the woman does not dress very nicely, she will not be attractive. Unnecessarily attraction she will avoid. But a woman is naturally, her psychology is dress very nicely so that man may be attracted. Because they want shelter. This is the whole psychology. They, although they declare independence, they cannot live independently. That is not possible. Therefore they are by nature accustomed to dress attractively so that one may accept her and give her shelter. This is psychology. Otherwise, why the woman are naturally inclined to dress herself nice. Man does not. This is the psychology. A boy, sixteen years old boy, he does not... He is roughly dressed, he does not... But a sixteen year old girl will never remain roughly. She'll always try to decorate herself very nicely and utilize her youthful beauty for attracting. Why attracting? Because she wants shelter. Therefore it is the duty of the father and mother that she is young girl, she wants shelter, and out of passion, lusty desires, her selection may be wrong. So before she selects out of her own way, let me, it is my duty, I am guardian. Give her some good shelter. This is Hindu process.

Room Conversation -- September 11, 1976, Vrndavana:

Dhanañjaya: Six inches, nine inches, twelve, fifteen.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And nice Gaura-Nitāi and Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. And they'll prepare nice dress and pack in a box and send to our different centers. There are hundred centers. If you can dispatch at least one dozen pairs, you can make business for twelve hundred pairs. It will be very big business. And if they are displayed, people will like to purchase. It will be very good business.

Dhanañjaya: Even here. For people coming to our temple, if we have display they will purchase.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We can have our shop here. We are getting so many shops. So one shop Deity and Deity clothes and mukuṭas. Just like they have got...

Dhanañjaya: In Loi Bazaar.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation (Bullock Cart SKP) -- September 12, 1976, Vrndavana:

Lokanātha: Just a propaganda.

Prabhupāda: No, they're thinking that so many people are coming to the cities, how we shall provide them? That's a problem. After all government has to supply them rations. Where is so much foodstuff? And if they are not supplied, then there will be resentment. That's a fact. What they are doing in the city, so many scooter (makes motor sound), going here and there. Actually no engagement. The girls are loitering in the street by dressing. It will become more and more problems, city life. So this is the solution, that they must go back to the village. But they are trained up to enjoy the facilities, so-called facilities, of the city. They are not going to village. But if we can introduce this hari-saṅkīrtana, and if they have little taste, that is success. It's a great program. And that taste will come-ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). If he simply becomes little sober that "I want to eat, I have to sleep, I want some sense enjoyment and defense. So if I can get easily in the village, why shall I go three hundred miles away? Just keep in mind the psychology. So that simple life will be possible if one is bhakta. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra syāt (SB 11.2.42). Only by devotion. Not by otherwise. Not by artificial means, by manufacturing toilet. Only bhakti. If they get little attachment for Kṛṣṇa the questions will be solved automatically. And they will be happy. Undoubtedly. That is the Caitanya Mahāprabhu's first instruction. Ceto-darpaṇa.

Room Conversation -- September 26, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: To learn how to sing them nicely. To learn how to sing them?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I can give them the tune. (chants first line of another verse) (break) ...ghnantaṁ go-mithunaṁ padā. This is Kali-yuga's king. Nṛpa-liṅga. Dressed like king. Nṛpa-liṅga-dharam, but śūdra. Nṛpa-liṅga-dharaṁ śūdraṁ ghnantaṁ go-mithunaṁ padā. Very expert in cow-killing. Hari-śauri: That's a very accurate prediction. Prabhupāda: Third-class, fourth-class men, dressed like President and king. Business: plunder money from the citizens and kill cow. 1965, 17 September, I landed at Boston. Hari-śauri: You've done a lot of things since then. Devotee: Changed the world. Prabhupāda: Much water has gone down. (end)

Morning Walk -- October 2, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...up and down. If we keep the temple clean, then our heart will be cleansed. This is the process. (break) ...should be engaged in flower business, in dress business, light and interesting to them. They should not be given any heavy work. Cooking, helping cooking, cutting the vegetables. (break) ...woman should be engaged in something. That is wanted. (break) And to paint these panels also.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, outside. So it will be painted. These decorations. Oh, the panels here?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Haṁsadūta: You mean the panels. Yes, inside and outside.

Prabhupāda: There are so many pictures. And what is that boy?

Hari-śauri: Viṣṇu Das.

Prabhupāda: He can do every panel in three days.

Garden Conversation -- October 9, 1976, Aligarh:

Prabhupāda: According to śāstra, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1), there is superior examination. Yamarāja is there. Now, this man is now dead, this soul is now changing body. What kind of body he'll get next? That is judged by the superior authority. Just like in the office a person is promoted. So his record is examined, how he has worked honestly to the interest of the establishment. All this consideration. Then he's given increment of salary or promotion to higher post. This is common sense. So it is not accident. A man is born from the very beginning, a rich man's son. That does not mean that it is accident. Daiva-netreṇa. By a superior arrangement he is given the chance to take birth in a aristocratic family or rich family or educated family or in a beautiful family. There is... But this is, so far it is concerned, it is body, and our movement, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is not of the body. Body is superfluous. It is spiritual movement. Kṛṣṇa therefore begins, asmin dehe, dehī. This body is external. Just like dress. We are having this dress. I am not this dress. I am within the dress. Similarly, the spirit soul is within this body, and spiritual movement means about that spirit soul. Not of this body. So that spirit soul is completely different from this body and... Just like a gentleman is gentleman. One may have a different type of dress. Not that everyone is expected of the same dress. But within the dress, a gentleman is gentleman. Similarly, although there are so many varieties of bodies, within the body the soul is pure part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Therefore they cannot explain, brainwash, mind control, charismatic, like that they use.

Hari-śauri: Yeah, he says that here, because of their own ignorance then they find fault. He goes on: "From this misunderstanding came fear then hatred and from hatred grew injustices and often atrocities. An injustice is now being perpetrated through ignorance. Are atrocities far off? This may sound like an overstatement, but for those who say, 'It can't happen here,' it already has, such as to the American Indians and to our people (of) Japanese descendant. The time to stop such action is at the beginning, now. The way to stop it is to replace ignorance with knowledge, and hatred with understanding. Sometimes people stand off at a distance and look at another person's belief and laugh at them or fear them. But as they get closer, they may come to understand how similar the observer's beliefs may be to their own beliefs. As a scientist, a psychologist, I have tried to learn about and understand the Hare Kṛṣṇa people. For nearly a year I have spent hours each week, talking with, reading about, and testing members of the movement. I have been to their temples in this country and in Europe. I have eaten in their homes and I have been to their children's schools. What I have found is a group of people trying to find God and live as closely to the way that He would like them to live. There is no place in their lives for immorality, for cruelty to other people or animals, for artificial stimulants or harmful chemicals such as alcohol, drugs, or tobacco. At first glance their approach to God may seem alien to us with their different dress, the incense, and the many statues and their unique ceremonies, but a closer look reveals similarities to our religious practices that are just the same. In Catholicism we find the holy water, chanting on the rosary, statues of saints and incense. And in Judaism we find the blowing of the shofar."

Prabhupāda: And they say, the cow's urine, they are forcing to eat. (laughter) (Bengali) ...that they are forcing the devotees to drink cow's urine. (laughter) These are the charges: brainwash, mind control, forcing cow's urine to drink. (laughter) How clever they are to find out some fictitious faults.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So is it not credit? We spend for God. We are servant of God. We want to see God gorgeously situated, and for us we have no comforts, we don't care for any comfort. We simply spend minimum just to keep the body and soul together, that's all. This is our principle. We don't spend a farthing for our sense gratification. This should be noted down if some case is there, this should be presented. We don't go to restaurant, we don't go to cinema, we don't spend lavishly for dress or something else, no. Neither for furniture (laughter). Eh? If you sit down in a, a pad is that faulty?

Hari-śauri: Then when they go to any of our temples, they're amazed because we don't...

Prabhupāda: We sit down, don't use any chair, any couches, unnecessarily, carpet. What expenditure? We have no expenditure for personal self. And still you are faulty? What can be done? We don't purchase any cosmetic, this clay tilaka is sufficient. We don't apply any pomade or cosmetic or ointment. Either for our girls or ourselves. We don't do that, we live very simply. After 15 days we shave, there is no use of cutting or decorating. Note down all these things. We have no doctor's bill even.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That enjoyment that God's children? They also thought it is enjoyment, you see? The hippies are thinking, enjoying. And others little polished way. They are also the same, in a polished way, by dressing nicely. Eh? Everyone is in ignorance, tribhir guṇamayair bhāvaiḥ. Find out this verse.

Devotee (1): Ebhiḥ sarvam idaṁ jagat.

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Devotee (1): Tribhir guṇamayair bhāvair ebhiḥ sarvam idaṁ jagat.

Prabhupāda: Nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam.

Devotee (1): This is from the 7th chapter.

Prabhupāda: Seventh, yes. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14).

Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh, then it is all right. That is all right. At least they must have rest, six hours, complete.

Jagadīśa: Oh, they get more than that.

Prabhupāda: Then it is...

Jagadīśa: Then they get ready, bathed and dressed, by about 4:10. So they chant japa from 4:10 until five o'clock under the supervision of their teacher. Then ārati, tulasī worship. And after tulasī worship they again have japa up until guru-pūjā, greeting the Deities.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Jagadīśa: From the time tulasī worship is over until the time of greeting the Deities.

Prabhupāda: How long it is?

Jagadīśa: That's an hour and fifteen minutes. Altogether they have japa time amounting to...

Prabhupāda: And who... They will... The small boys, they can devote so much time?

Jagadīśa: Well these are not small boys. These are...

Prabhupāda: Oh, teachers.

Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna: Sometimes you... I thought you said, for installation or at other times when the Deity is being bathed, to chant Brahma-saṁhitā prayers.

Prabhupāda: No. Within the Deity room there is no business. No business.

Jagadīśa: When we hear the chanting, that's where it's coming from in the morning.

Prabhupāda: Oh. They can chant outside, yes. The Deity bathing or whatever, dressing, may go on. You can chant not within the Deity room. That you can do outside. Then when their reading, writing begins?

Jagadīśa: That begins at 10:15, after prasādam. They take prasādam at 9:30, and then at 10:15 their English class begins.

Prabhupāda: Just after taking prasādam?

Jagadīśa: Yes. Fifteen minutes after.

Prabhupāda: Hm. What begins?

Jagadīśa: English class, that goes for one and a half hours. Then there's math class which goes for forty-five minutes.

Prabhupāda: Not continually. They should be given a recess ten minutes. Then again come to the class. And a class should not be more than forty-five minutes. One class should not be continued more than forty-five minutes, then ten minutes recess, then begin another class.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: You are seeing also Kṛṣṇa, but because you have no love, therefore you cannot appreciate how we are seeing. If you love some person you keep his photograph on the breast. Is it not? So you are seeing Kṛṣṇa in the temple, but because you have no love you think that "I am not seeing Him." That is the defect. They are seeing Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise why they have sacrificed everything for worshiping Kṛṣṇa, for dressing Kṛṣṇa, for feeding Kṛṣṇa? They are seeing Kṛṣṇa. They are not wasting their time. But you have no love for Kṛṣṇa. You're thinking that "They have not seen Kṛṣṇa. They are worshiping an idol." That is the difference. One who loves somebody he keeps his picture on his chest. He does not? He throws it, same picture. It is question of love. Therefore it is said, premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu (Bs. 5.38). One who has developed that love and bhakti, he can see Kṛṣṇa at every moment. Otherwise it is not possible. And because you cannot see, you ask them also, "Can you see?" But the seeing process is different. We do not know the process; therefore we are thinking that Kṛṣṇa cannot be seen. And one who knows the process, he sees every moment. Is it clear? You learn the process; you will see Kṛṣṇa every moment. Therefore this word is used, premāñjana-cchurita. By the eye ointment of love you have to smear your eyes; then you'll be able to see Kṛṣṇa. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ (BG 7.25). Find out this verse. Yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ. When one's eyes is covered by the yoga-māyā he cannot see, see Kṛṣṇa.

Press Conference -- December 16, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: It is allegation. And they are so fools that the Americans, they have come here to become Vaiṣṇava and starvation and they have become religious. They have no food there, and they have come to me and they have no dress, they have... And this boy is English boy. He is giving me massage as if he's a poor man's son. This is... Is he poor man's son? Why he is giving massage? We are Indian, poor Indian. He is not in need of money. He even buys his own cloth. The other day I was chastising him, "Why you are purchasing? You take." "No, I have got money." Just see. This is their position.

Dr. Ramachandra: May we take leave?

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Yes. (Hindi—jokes about CIA) (laughter)

Dr. Ramachandra: This is wild allegation.

Prabhupāda: It is no reason. (Hindi) As if they have no money to go to the hotel.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: There is no need. It is simply bogus. The first thing you require... You have got this body. You have to eat and you have to dress yourself. You can get from this land. Keep some cows, grow your agricultural products, also cotton, then all economic problem is solved. And save time and understand what is your relationship with God. That is India. This is Vedic civilization.

Mr. Malhotra: This era happened in the past, in the last five hundred years.

Prabhupāda: India is based on this principle.

Mr. Malhotra: In every era demons and good people must be.

Prabhupāda: That is there.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I say any religious stamp, material, there is no benefit. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). You have to give up all these designations. And bhakti, love of Godhead, or service to God, begins when you are relieved from these designations. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). When becoming God conscious, you become completely purified, then your devotional life begins. And so long you are entangled with this designation, there is no question of devotional service. Either you Hindu or Muslim or Christian, it doesn't matter. So our business is not that, that we convert a Hindu to a Christian or a Christian to a Hindu. That is not our business. They are thinking, because we dress like that, with tilaka, with māla, they think Hindu. But it's not our business to convert the Christians to become Hindus, as all other missionaries, they are doing. They are trying to increasing the number of Christian or Hindus. So our... There is no question of increasing. It is very difficult to accept.

Morning Walk -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Hari-śauri: Neo-sannyāsa he called it.

Prabhupāda: No, no, they dress like sannyāsī.

Yaśomatīnandana: They dress, but they smoke biḍi, they...

Prabhupāda: They say, nava-sannyāsa. They say, nava-sannyāsa.

Dr. Patel: Neo.

Prabhupāda: Neo-sannyāsa.

Hari-śauri: There were three or four of them came to stay at the guest house in Vṛndāvana, Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma guest house.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Husband and wife sannyāsa. (laughter)

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Women cannot do it.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And a lot of the tourists who come, they are husband, wife and all together. Why don't we let them wear normal dress but have men and women in the same class.

Hari-śauri: We could... It's just a suggestion, but what about if you have...

Prabhupāda: Normal dress, that is standard.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Or yoga pants. They can have pajamas and kurtās.

Hari-śauri: A separate woman's class? But that means, yes. That means you have to have women teachers.

Prabhupāda: These are artificial things.

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Women, it is only possible in our Vaiṣṇava bhakti-yoga—women and men can be given equal right. There is no other system.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They can wear a normal dress.

Hari-śauri: If they wear those big robes... Sometimes I see... It's a one-piece thing. It comes down to their ankles. If they wear something like that, it's all right.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Because they want to do something different. They want to see different things. If we give them a pajama and kurtā, we'll still make them do bhakti-yoga, but it's...

Prabhupāda: Bhakti-yoga, chanting, dancing there will be. They can join.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, but...

Prabhupāda: But they cannot practice. They cannot sit down like this, the women. They'll be tired. This is real practice.

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There, but in plain dress. Yes, man must be there.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Plain dress or if they wear dresses, they can have pant-kurtā pajamas.

Prabhupāda: Why pant?

Hari-śauri: They can wear a long robe. That's better, like one of those complete robes.

Prabhupāda: Yes, long robe.

Hari-śauri: Rajneesh people wear them.

Prabhupāda: These Hare Kṛṣṇa nāmāvali robe.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, very good idea. We can make Hare Kṛṣṇa...

Hari-śauri: Out of a nāmāvali, yeah. Nāma cādara. Hari-nāma cādara.

Prabhupāda: You can have some robe...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, we can have...

Prabhupāda: ...some covering.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: All right. No, no, why you (indistinct). Young man... (break) ...the world... (break) (laughs) So similarly, if one is giving very important service, then even if there is some faulty thing, excuse. Service is so important. So in the Western country the woman can give very good service. Api cet sudarācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). This, our book distribution is the most important task in our society. Therefore I am giving so much stress and I am working so hard on this. Because this is my life and soul according to the order of my Guru Mahārāja. And by his grace it is to some extent successful. And I took it seriously. I take it seriously still now. That is my life and soul. I never tried in India to construct big temples or even in your country we didn't. I never tried. But I was selling personally books. That is the history. Sometimes they are criticizing, "What kind of sannyāsī? He is doing book business." (laughs) The other day that, what is his name? Bachu Hai came. Bachu Hai Dresswalla. You know him?

Girirāja: I know one Madanlal Dresswalla.

Prabhupāda: I think this is... There are two, three Dresswalla in Bhuvaneśvara.

Girirāja: Yes, he's also in Bhuvaneśvara.

Prabhupāda: Maybe their father. In the beginning I had no place so I was staying with, what is that? Prem Niketan?

Girirāja: Prem Kutir.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Reappear any... Soul is reappeared, bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). So reappearing, that is natural. That is not wonderful thing. Everyone is reappearing. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Suppose you are in this dress, and after one hour you come in another dress. So you are there. The dress is changed. That is happening by nature's way. It doesn't require any yoga practice. It doesn't require. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). These things are there in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Trivikrama: And the spiritual body? Spiritual body means...

Prabhupāda: Soul. Spiritual body is now covered with the material body. So anything material, that will not exist. So body is finished; then he has to find new body. Just like the dress is old; it is finished, you take another dress. And when you haven't got to take dress, or this material body, and you remain in your spiritual body, that is called mukti. That can be achieved only in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). Mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām (BG 9.25). If you practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness then it is possible; otherwise not. Tyaktvā deham. Everyone has to give up because this body will be old, and one has to give it up. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma (BG 4.9), he doesn't accept any more material body.

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Go on.

Jagadīśa: Sthairyam ātma-vinigrahaḥ, indriyārtheṣu vairāgyam anahaṅkāra eva ca.

Prabhupāda: Indriyārtheṣu vairāgyam, not to indulge in sense gratification, not to dress himself as a sādhu, as a swami.

Yogi Amrit Desai: Not external.

Prabhupāda: He's servant of his senses, and he has become a swami. Just see how cheating it is.

Yogi Amrit Desai: That's the real meaning.

Prabhupāda: Swami means who is the controller of the senses.

Yogi Amrit Desai: Master of the senses.

Prabhupāda: Senses. So instead of swami, he is servant of his senses, and he is preaching as swami. These swamis go to the foreign countries. Indriyārtheṣu vairāgyam.

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Closed? Maybe. What...?

Trivikrama: Because we are thinking of shifting to Hong Kong because our program mainly is in offices, you know. We go in office, and we dress with a suit and tie. So they're thinking that we're businessmen coming to buy something from them. So they treat us very nicely, "Oh, sit down. How do you do, Mr. Brown?" offer some tea or something. Then we immediately open up briefcase and present one of your Bhagavad-gītās. Then we preach a little bit. We tell them that "We've come here. This is the first time in Chinese language, a very wonderful book. So many men have recommended." And then they appreciate a little bit. Then we say, "If you could help some little donation," and they give us. But these are mostly high-class men in offices, you know. So now we're kind of depleted, because ordinary men don't speak English. So we're going to Hong Kong, but there's no temple there. We'll have to live in hotels.

Prabhupāda: And where is that boy gone that was in Hong Kong?

Trivikrama: He went to New York.

Prabhupāda: He is a Chinese man.

Room Conversation -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Here also, in Gujarat, they wear black, black sari.

Hari-śauri: Yes, right. And they wear black, and they don't dress attractively at all, and there's no question of marrying again.

Prabhupāda: And Russia also, respectable widows, they used to live in widow's home. They would never marry.

Hari-śauri: And they would wear black too.

Prabhupāda: I have seen that house when I was in Moscow. That was one of the... What is called...? They go to see, especially tourists.

Hari-śauri: Red Square?

Prabhupāda: Red Square. No, I mean to say what is that called when they go to see specially something? Foreign Mecca(?).

Hari-śauri: Sightseeing.

Prabhupāda: That, no. Sightseeing. So anyway, they took us to a house.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: It is very ludicrous. Even there is a promise that "We shall not fall down again," that is also not believable. What is the use? Better go and speak philosophy in your gṛhastha dress, not this dress, but you have nice coat, pants, gentleman. Who says no? I never said. Rather I shall be glad to see that up-to-date gentlemen with tilaka and śikhā are speaking. That is very prestigious everywhere. Why this false dress? What is the wrong to become gṛhastha? I was gṛhastha, pākā caliber gṛhastha. My Guru Mahārāja was brahmacārī, This is ever... Just see his character. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was gṛhastha, but when He took sannyāsa: "Oh, I am now..." For sober person. That is wanted. That is ideal. He married twice. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura married twice. Caitanya Mahāprabhu married twice. What is the wrong there? One has to become pure devotee, that's all. Other things, of course, are circumstantially favorable, either a gṛhastha, brahmacārī or vānaprastha or sannyāsa. Kibā vipra kibā śūdra nyāsī kene naya, yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā sei 'guru' haya (CC Madhya 8.128). You must know the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That makes you guru, not this dress. So what you are thinking of American program? Do it seriously. Balavanta is very expert. And all of you are expert. And do it seriously and systematically, not change the position, this side and this, change. That's not good. That makes fickle. Strength of mind wanted.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: If one is convinced about this favorably, that is success. It doesn't matter what dress. Let him teach his family, and the neighborhood. Let them do their own business. It doesn't matter. That is... Let them understand Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa science. That is wanted. Do that program. Make that program. He is coming, Rāmeśvara. Take to it very seriously. (break) I can cycle even now. In our childhood... I had car, but my nephew was driving. I never drove. In 1925, I purchased one Buick car.

Trivikrama: Buick? It's a good car.

Prabhupāda: At that time in India it was eight thousand rupees only, very strong car.

Trivikrama: From America it came?

Prabhupāda: Yes, American cars were selling during British days, Ford, Buick, Chevrolet. These cars were selling. Dodge. In 1925 I purchased one Buick car, eight thousand rupees.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: (laughs) Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu, sir. Even dog has in his day. There is the dominance of God.

Prabhupāda: No, no. We don't hate dog. We say that this life is meant for getting release from this repetition of birth and death. Otherwise punaḥ punaś carvita... Either you become a dog or a hog or a man or a god. The business is āhāra-nidra-bhaya-maithuna... (break) (bell rings)

Prabhupāda: That one thing is that this sort of publicity and this, this dress, is very nice. Girls who have no husband, they should dress like this, not attractive dress. A dress sometimes attracts the opposite sex. And women are... By nature they dress very nicely. (laughs) That is everywhere—to attract. The nature is that they are dependent, woman by nature. Do you admit or not?

Pālikā: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And the Western countries, they have been taught to become independent. That is artificial. That is all artificial. So, woman by nature... Manu-saṁhitā says, na striyaṁ svatantram arhati: "Women should not be given independence." They must be protected by the father, by husband, and by elderly sons. They are not independent. No independence. Even Kuntī, the mother of such big, big sons, she was not independent. The sons were sent to the exile; mother also went. Sītā... The father-in-law never said that "You also go with your husband." No. He requested Rāmacandra that "Your stepmother wants that You should be exiled. So please accept it. Accept this." And Rāmacandra said that "You are not exiled." But Sītā said, "I may not be exiled, but I am dependent on You. If You go to the forest I must..." You see? Just see, dependent.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...in Vṛndāvana. And try to organize this Gurukula as their world attraction. That will be your success. Simply teach them nicely English and Sanskrit. And our books are there. And regular habits: going to the Yamunā in procession, timely get up early in the morning, attending class, clean dress, clean bedding, clean room. Śikhā-sūtra. The Vāmanadeva gave this description. Where is that book?

Jagadīśa: I don't know. Pradyumna may have taken it.

Prabhupāda: There were two books. Woman... Girls should be taught how to become faithful wife, how to learn nice cooking, cleansing, dressing. Simple method. There is no objection of their becoming scholar, but that is not necessary. They have got natural inclination to give service by cooking, cleansing, dressing. Cleanliness is the first necessity. That is hygienic, spiritual, and calm, quiet. India has got special facility to remain clean. Only in this country you can take thrice bathing. In other countries... Easy there. In your country there is hot water. There is no difficulty if one practices. I think our men have such practice. But this cleanness is this taking bathing at least twice. That keeps a man very clean.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Let them chant and take prasādam. They'll... Everyone will get. Then gradually, as a snake charming, by chanting, chanting, chanting, then they will be subdued. And that is guaranteed process. There is no doubt. Anyone, even a man is like a snake. In material world everyone is a snake, envious. Snake is very envious. You are passing by the side, "Oh! You are passing by my side?" This is snake. No offense. Because he is passing—he has got the poison-he'll utilize it. This is snake. Without offense. If somebody hurts him or tramples him—no. "Oh, you are so daring? You are passing? You do not know I am snake." Sarpaḥ kruraḥ khalaḥ kruraḥ sarpāt krurataraḥ khalaḥ. There are similarly men also. Unnecessarily they are envious, offensive, unnecessary. They cannot tolerate others' opulence. Just like our Godbrothers. They are envious. What I have done to them? I am doing my business, trying to serve my Guru Mahārāja. But they are envious because I am so opulent. I have got so much fame, so many influence, so much influence all over the world. Everyone is praising me about... That is ignorance. And this is regrettable because they are posing themselves as Vaiṣṇava. Ordinary man can do that, but they are dressing like Vaiṣṇava, and they are so envious. That Tīrtha Mahārāja, unnecessarily he was envious, whole life fighting, fighting, fighting in the court and died. Simply planning. So who has gone for the beads? Simply planning. So who has gone for the beads?

Hari-śauri: She's just got some beads.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So the more they expose, the more implicated. (laughter)

Rāmeśvara: "Most people think of them, if at all, as loving, peaceful, prayerful children with strange customs and dress but low-key action and behavior."

Prabhupāda: What is that behavior, low...? Lowky?

Trivikrama: Low key.

Rāmeśvara: Means not violent.

Hari-śauri: Nice people.

Prabhupāda: That's a fact.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: If he's willing, he could give speaking engagements. I tell you, America is just wide open.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Why not take this... Suppose he is attracted by some woman. Let him dress like a gentleman and keep with the woman as husband and wife and preach. What is the wrong there? Whatever is done, you close up that chapter. Now you become a householder. There is no harm. And live as a gentleman householder and preach. But don't play duplicity in the dress of sannyāsī to keep private relations. That is not good. That is duplicity. Better openly become a respectable householder and serve Kṛṣṇa. Our service is main thing, either in this dress or that dress. So if you cannot keep yourself sincerely as a sannyāsī, then get yourself married. But you cannot keep the girl as friend. That is also not good.

Jagadīśa: But for Brahmānanda, he may remain sannyāsī? Brahmānanda?

Prabhupāda: That is his choice. But we say that "Don't be hypocrite." That's all. If he thinks now he'll be able to continue as a sannyāsī, he'll not fall down, he'll be careful, let him continue. That will depend on his sincerity. But I say that if you cannot remain as a sannyāsī, get yourself married, live like a gentleman and serve Kṛṣṇa. Why should you give up Kṛṣṇa's service? That is my point. As you want to live, any way, comfortably, do it. We never condemned gṛhasthas. If sannyāsa is not suitable for you, you remain as a gṛhastha. What is the wrong there?

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Trivikrama: No, but the priests nowadays, they don't always wear the collar, because they want to feel comfortable with the people. They dress...

Rāmeśvara: They say "If people knew you were the Hare Kṛṣṇa, they would not give you so much money."

Haṁsadūta: Even the police, in order to catch a criminal, they sometimes go in disguise. They act as criminals, in order to catch a criminal. So we also have to do that. We have to act like demons sometimes.

Rāmeśvara: (laughing) To catch a demon.

Dr. Patel: These boys are very clever. (laughs)

Jagadīśa: Vāmanadeva also went in disguise. And Kṛṣṇa, Bhīma, and Arjuna went in disguise. They killed Jarāsandha.

Haṁsadūta: In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam you wrote about Prahlāda Mahārāja, they tried to find out "Where are these Vaiṣṇavas? They must be coming in disguise to teach the boys Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: What is the wrong there?

Dr. Patel: (indistinct) American gangsters.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Put in the posta. But you must (mash?) take out the skin.

Pālikā: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: These were taken just before I left Los Angeles. This is a figure of Kṛṣṇa from the rasa-līlā being dressed in cloth.

Prabhupāda: His face is like Acyutānanda. (Rāmeśvara chuckles) Acyutānanda's face is beautiful.

Rāmeśvara: This figure is going to be Lord Gadādhara in the exhibit of the Pañca-tattva dancing at kīrtana. She is just beginning to make the form.

Prabhupāda: So you have got any business?

Girirāja: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So let... Let me finish (break) ...but devotees of... Oh.

Rāmeśvara: These two pictures show dolls being painted.

Prabhupāda: Why not engage Govinda dāsī?

Rāmeśvara: If she will come, she can be engaged in many ways.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What are the small?

Rāmeśvara: Those are the Gandharvas. Each Gandharva... There are hundreds of them. They have their own outfit, different colored dresses and different ornaments, all made by hand.

Prabhupāda: So small?

Rāmeśvara: Yes. Because there are hundreds of them. But in the mirrors there will be millions of them.

Prabhupāda: Acchā. (laughs)

Rāmeśvara: Filling the whole sky and all directions.

Prabhupāda: Very good. So encourage them.

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

Guest (10): Faith. Firm faith.

Prabhupāda: Faith. Yes. Faith means firm faith. Faith does not mean... Anyway, ādau śraddhā. This śraddhā, if we increase this śraddhā, you have to associate with sādhu.. And who is sādhu? Bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva samantavyaḥ. He is sādhu, who is simply engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service. He is sādhu. Api cet sudurācāraḥ: "Even though you find there is some discrepancies in his character, because he is fully engaged in My service, he is sādhu." Sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ samyag vyavasito hi saḥ (BG 9.30). If he has got other engagement, he is not sādhu. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam: (Brs. 1.1.11) "Other engagement zero." That is sādhu. The sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83). You have to associate with such sādhus who are cent percent engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service. Ādau śraddhā tato sādhu-saṅgaḥ tato bhajana-kriyā. If you mix with the sādhu, then you'll learn the activities. Sādhu-mārgānugamanam. The sādhus are rising early in the morning; they are attending maṅgala ārati, they are reading Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then dressing the Deity and having ārati and so on, so on, so on. This is called bhajana-kriyā. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo 'tha bhajana (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). Then anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt: then all these material activities will stop.

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

Prabhupāda: Either you mention or not mention, unless they realize that it is good...

Rāmeśvara: Well, that they'll realize when they hear it. Just like our book distributors. They're not dressing as Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees; therefore they are successful. As soon as the people see that they are Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees, they do not want religion.

Prabhupāda: No... Suppose a military dress... Then there are different dresses. When it is understood properly, dress is immaterial. The military dress... Everyone knows that their business is to kill. That does not mean they are hated. Similarly, people see, and when they understand, that is the process.

Jagadīśa: In the Kṛṣṇa book, when Kamsa was being a little lenient with Vasudeva, Nārada Muni thought to speed things up, so he instigated Kamsa to become frightened about Vasudeva and Devaki and their children. So similarly, it appears that in order to speed up Kṛṣṇa consciousness's infiltration and overtaking this materialistic society, that all of these brainwashing charges and...

Prabhupāda: It has got... The chanting has got spiritual power. That will rectify everything. Even there is misunderstanding, it will be rectified. That is spiritual power.

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

Prabhupāda: Why they are envious of us? When we live very nicely, they are envious that "These people do not do anything, and they are living so nicely."

Rāmeśvara: They will not be so envious if they see that people who dress in Western style and keep their families and keep their jobs are also chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: We say... We say that, that we simply say, that "You change your consciousness."

Rāmeśvara: Not change your dress, but change your consciousness.

Prabhupāda: No, we never said. If you prefer that kind of dress, costly, you prefer it, but we are simplified.

Rāmeśvara: It's our choice.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: As a person becomes more purified, then he'll simplify himself anyway. And if he really cultivates a desire to...

Prabhupāda: Now, nowadays coat-pant is very costly. If you can spend your money, costly dress, we have no objection. Then you have to earn more; you have to work more. Therefore we are simplified.

Rāmeśvara: Ultimately, it is the best thing.

Prabhupāda: If they want to come in that dress, come in. If you want, come in.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, something "Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa" music must be there.

Rāmeśvara: Now, to make this group very popular, they have to have Western dress.

Prabhupāda: Never mind.

Rāmeśvara: That's no problem.

Prabhupāda: No.

Rāmeśvara: And they have to have long hair or wigs, or else they grow it. But somehow or other, they cannot be shaven-headed Hare Kṛṣṇaś.

Prabhupāda: Long hair is not... We should not do that.

Rāmeśvara: They have to have wigs then.

Prabhupāda: Why wigs?

Rāmeśvara: Because in America all the musicians have hair, because that way people become attracted to them.

Prabhupāda: No, we cannot take hair. That is not possible. We cannot become hippies.

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

Prabhupāda: Make public to become gentlemen. Formerly they had no long hairs. They dressed like gentlemen. That we cannot do.

Rāmeśvara: So it doesn't have to be very long. But I don't think it will become popular unless they are in disguise, wearing Western clothes and a little bit of hair.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's all right. But formerly your father, grandfather, they had no long hair.

Rāmeśvara: No, they will not dress like hippie. They will dress nicely.

Prabhupāda: Then that is allowed. But we cannot imitate the hippies.

Rāmeśvara: No. I'm just saying that it is a little difficult if they wear their dhotī.

Prabhupāda: No, dhotī, I don't say. You have nice coat-pant. I don't say that you have to... I never said that. You have adopted it. (laughs) I never said that "You put on dhotī." But those who are sannyāsīs, brahmacārīs, their dress is different. But it doesn't require that one has to become a sannyāsī.

Conversation and Instruction On New Movie -- January 13, 1977, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: And another big businessman, he is coming from business and sitting: "Hare Kṛṣṇa!" These cartoons are there.

Rāmeśvara: Yet now there is a new controversy in America because during Christmas season our book distributors dress themselves up as Santa Claus. You've seen Santa Claus?

Prabhupāda: They... They...

Rāmeśvara: Very fat, white beard. Christians got very angry. They think that Santa Claus is Christian, so we are impersonating to take advantage. But we were arguing that "This Santa Claus is not Christian or Jewish. He is devotee of God." Originally Santa Claus is a saint, Saint Nicholas. So we were arguing, "How can you claim exclusive property of Christian? He is a servant of God. You are using this Santa Claus..."

Prabhupāda: Even Americans use also.

Conversation and Instruction On New Movie -- January 13, 1977, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: But dressed as Santa Claus. And he is saying, "Would you believe Hare Kṛṣṇa?" So that actually is very good for us, that cartoon. They are putting us with Jesus. For them to do that is very good for us.

Hari-śauri: (indistinct)

Rāmeśvara: Yes. Somehow, whatever we do now, they find some fault and then they write about it in the newspaper, and millions of people read about us.

Prabhupāda: "Hare Kṛṣṇa." Svalpam apy asya dharmasya. Any way, if something is done in this connection, it becomes an asset.

Conversation and Instruction On New Movie -- January 13, 1977, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: And we were purchasing real milk (indistinct). So nice.

Rāmeśvara: So they may say this philosophy, that's like the communism, capitalism, Russia, America. The business of exploiting the masses is the same, they'll say. Different names, different dress, but the main business is going on.

Prabhupāda: Expert. Nobody is thinking (indistinct) "Everyone will be happy." That we are thinking because we are devotees. Otherwise what is the use of my going to America? So America is not in need of me, but I found there is need of me. So they are thinking, "This man has come to wash our brains." And I think that "Yes, we are going to do work (indistinct) they will be happy."

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, could I ask one more question about the records?

Prabhupāda: Mm.

Rāmeśvara: Suppose we make a profit. Someone may enquire, "Isn't it better to use the money to distribute more books rather than giving it to the food program."

Prabhupāda: No, no, books department, that is already sufficient income.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: It sounds like Bombay.

Gargamuni: And that Purī hotel was packed up with foreigners and with local people very nicely dressed. And this plot is just near the Purī hotel. So it's a nice area, and the breeze is wonderful, very nice breeze from the ocean. So if we build a nice multi-story, that breeze will be very healthy.

Prabhupāda: So...

Gargamuni: So I have to leave here tomorrow morning at 8:30 and meet with the man at around 9:30, 10:00, and he'll give me all the names and addresses, and he'll show me some other plots. Then, perhaps, if maybe you would like to see it the following day, we can drive there and show you the plot as soon as I get more information.

Rāmeśvara: Would you like to do that, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Oh, long distance.

Gargamuni: Yes. Very long flight. So I was number 15,000 on the list. Everybody camped out at the airport. Because of the war everyone wanted to leave. So there was a line of 15,000 people. They gave me my number. I was 15,000. So we waited at the airport. I said, "I can't wait here," because the bombs were dropping and the tanks were coming and the troops were coming and... I said, "I gotta get out of here." So I spoke with the commander, and I played him a tape of kīrtana. I had a tape, and they... All the officers, they were Mussulmen from Pakistan, and they started clapping: "Oh, kīrtana." You know. So I asked him, "Could you allow me to go on board before all the others? There's no use in us staying here. Who knows what will happen? We are foreigners." We were dressed as sādhus also. So he allowed us to go on in front of everyone. So we managed to leave.

Prabhupāda: What was the condition at that time, general, during the war?

Gargamuni: Where? In Dacca?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: I've seen one man. He comes sometimes to our temple dressed as a woman.

Prabhupāda: Yes, sakhībhekhī. Hari-śauri: Yes, I've seen him a few times. Prabhupāda: Sakhībekhī. There are so many apasampradāyas, thirteen at least in the counting by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura: āula, bāula kartābhajā, neḍā, daraveśa, sāṅi sahajiyā, sakhībekhī. This sakhībekhī. Smārta, jāta-gosāñi, ativāḍī, cūḍādhārī, gaurāṅga-nāgarī. These thirteen, fourteen apasampradāyas. They are passing as Caitanya Mahāprabhu's sampradāya. But they're the worst, rejected. The sakhībekhī, dressing like.... To cheat Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is after the gopīs, so they have dressed like gopī, and Kṛṣṇa does not know that he's a rascal man. (laughter) Just see. This is their intelligence, to.... "I have become a sakhī. Kṛṣṇa will embrace me and kiss me." So Kṛṣṇa is so fool. (laughs) These rascals are doing that. Sakhībhekhī. There was a Lalitā-sakhi in Navadvīpa. All women surrounding him. Somebody is dressing him with red, what is called? Satsvarūpa: kuṅkuma? Prabhupāda: No. Alta it is called. And gumta (?). Somebody is giving massage. Lalitā Didi. Rayarāma dāsa's guru-bhai. This Rāma dāsa's, I have... "Nitāi gaura rādhe śyāma." This Rāma dāsa and that Lalitā, they're Godbrothers. So many... And amongst them there was fight—"You said that you have done this wrong," "You said you have done this wrong." But both of them are dead and gone. There are so many that, Sakhībhekhī. All women. Sometimes he—I have heard all this—he will observe the menstrual period. (laughter)

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: What is the working? People are suffering; you are working. There is a Bengali proverb, sate kusti dolpe gelun.(?) There was a big fair. One has to go there. So he began to dress himself nicely. So the time occupied for dressing, in the meantime the fair was finished. (laughs) Sate kusti kolpe gelun.(?) These are practical. You need immediately water. These rascals say, "Yes, wait. Wait for future."

Satsvarūpa: "Wait and give us billions of dollars. Research."

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Why shall I wait? Immediately necessary. You have no such power to evaporate the water and make into cloud and distribute. Very easily it is being done. Then why don't you accept somebody's doing that?

Satsvarūpa: If a scientist will accept there is God, then there is no harm in making scientific progress.

Prabhupāda: Then they will hear the words of God, Bhagavad-gītā. Then everything will be solved. Yajñād bhavati parjanyaḥ (BG 3.14). Then he will hear. They will chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and there will be rain.

Room Conversation -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Big road.

Gurukṛpā: Yes. So many people coming, all respectable people.

Prabhupāda: Our gateways, you mean to say.

Gargamuni: This year we've noticed that more respectable people are coming, well dressed, from the areas.

Prabhupāda: That, er... Behind our new house, that Muhammadan wanted to sell that land. But if he wants to sell at our price, not his price, we can take it.

Gargamuni: Yes, at our price. He knows that. But he wants his price.

Prabhupāda: No.

Gargamuni: He wants... What is it? Five thousand per bighā. Something like that.

Prabhupāda: We can pay, utmost, one thousand five hundred, as we have paid.

Room Conversation -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Then he's safe. And as soon as he manufactures—finished. So don't do this. Yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau, tasyaite kathitā... (ŚU 6.23). This is the secret of spiritual success. Vṛndāvana, there are so many dangerous. All these bābājīs, they are... "Oh, I am not going out of Vṛndāvana." But he has got connection with so many women. So what is the use? Have you experience of this? He's attached to women and doing all sinful activities in Vṛndāvana, and he's a devotee. "He cannot go out of Vṛndāvana." This is going on, manufacturing biḍi, smoking biḍi, in the dress of Rūpa Gosvāmī, loincloth, big tilaka, kaṇṭhi, and what he's doing? Biḍi-making. Have you seen?

Pṛthu-putra: I have seen some of them doing this, yes.

Prabhupāda: Not all of them. But they are also claiming they're on the stage of Rūpa Gosvāmī. We are preaching—we are lower stage. That is their opinion. We are preaching all over the world; we are in the lower stage. And because he has imitated the dress of Rūpa Gosvāmī, mālā, tilaka, and he's manufacturing biḍi-he's higher. This is going on. Therefore Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has condemned these rascals—that kali-celā—"the disciple of Kali." Ei ota eka kali-celā.(?) Here is a disciple of Kali. Who? Nāke tilaka galāi mālā. And sahajiyā bhajana kache mamu, saṅge lana pare bala.(?) He has tilaka and mālā, and sahajiyā, with other girls he's making parakīyā-rasa-bhajana. Kali-celā. Ei ota eka kali-celā. So we have to guided by our predecessor ācāryas. Then we shall be saved. Otherwise we are condemned.

Room Conversation -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Happy.

Pṛthu-putra: ...surprised. No, no, they were not so surprised. They were wondering how can I wear such a dress. So, but the difficulty is they immediately associate with the idea that I was a religious man, being in such a dress.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, in Muhammadan country also, there is dress like this. They are called peet.(?)

Pṛthu-putra: Yes. They have these big robes. When they go to the mosque, they put on the robes. In Cairo there is ten thousand mosques. It's incredible. Ten thousand mosques.

Prabhupāda: They're religious.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: No, but many groups, they are dressing as Santa Claus.

Hari-śauri: It's traditional.

Gargamuni: And people are more inclined to take your book or gift if it is Santa Claus during that time.

Prabhupāda: So for selling we can take any trick.

Gargamuni: Yes, they all do it. In Macy's department stores...

Prabhupāda: It is a salesman's trick. That is allowed everywhere. If I can sell more books by some trick, I must take that. That is salesman's trick.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In fact, Rūpānuga Prabhu abandoned completely the idea of this Santa Claus in Washington while we were having our meeting. Stayed about a few days. And then he had this telephone call from distance, from outside saying that "Tomorrow I'll shoot you. I'll kill you," things like that. They get this telephone call in the temple from outsiders, "If you come like that, in Santa Claus, we'll give you a bullet," like that. So Rūpānuga completely abandoned this idea. So he said, "Tell what we are, be honest, and do as we have been doing." And in fact, devotees are doing, and they got more the next morning, got more books sold just going as Hare Kṛṣṇa, in Hare Kṛṣṇa dress, instead of going as Santa Claus. So I think...

Prabhupāda: So now it is stopped.

Hari-śauri: That was just Christmas time.

Gargamuni: That Santa Claus is only used for two weeks.

Prabhupāda: So from next year we shall not do that.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: And what is the...? "Do you believe that the Hare Kṛṣṇas, they are in...?"

Hari-śauri: "Would you believe three Hare Kṛṣṇas dressed in Santa Claus suits?"

Prabhupāda: "...in Santa Claus?"

Gargamuni: I think people were more amused than they were angry.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is amusing.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: While slowly, then life will be automatically finished. Instead of seeing success, he'll be... He will die. Sarthe sarthe dal puriya gelun.(?) One man was to go to a fair, so he began to dress himself nicely. So dressing, dressing, in the meantime the fair is finished. (laughs) This is their program. You require water immediately: "All right, after three hundred millions of-water." This is science, all rascals. I use very strong word, but actually... Simply promising, no solution of problems. They do not know even what is what. But big, big words, jugglery of words... They are themselves rascals, and some rascals praise them, "Oh, you are..." Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ (SB 2.3.19). What they can do? Real problem, there is no solution. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Big, big scientists, why they not make provision that "My dear students, when I shall be dying, you give this pill and I shall again...," or "I am manufacturing another brain like me. You can utilize it"? Where is that science? The scientific brain of Einstein, he could not prepare another brain like his. Hm? Was he able to do that?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No. No. They have to...

Prabhupāda: But who made his brain? He is accepted as a great scientist because he has got good brain, but he cannot make that brain. There is another scientist. He has made this brain. So we have to seek that scientist.

Room Conversation -- February 2, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Therefore I have encouraged him to prepare Gaura-Nitāi and nicely dress. They can be sold.

Yugadharma: 'Cause Dhanañjaya and I get along very well. We are very good friends.

Prabhupāda: So they're already sending in foreign countries Gaura-Nitāi pair?

Satsvarūpa: Are they sending them yet?

Yugadharma: No they are making... They have twenty pairs made now, and I have bought them all. Also one who is interested is Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa?

Yugadharma: Yes. He has also has given $700 advanced order to Dhanañjaya also for San Francisco area.

Prabhupāda: Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa from...? Who was my secretary?

Satsvarūpa: Yes. He wants to help and come back a little.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, that's nice.

Room Conversation -- February 2, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And now they're getting two vans for book distribution.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And now Gargamuni is asking to purchase this van and with that money they will purchase Indian van. That will solve the problem. Those who are coming... (break) Anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ, sa sannyāsī (BG 6.1). Kṛṣṇa says. Anāśritaḥ, now you are working so hard not for your benefit, personal, and that is sannyāsī. That is sannyāsī. Anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryam. "Oh it is my duty to serve Kṛṣṇa." And he is sannyāsī. Anyone who has got this consciousness that "It is my duty to serve Kṛṣṇa. I must serve Him with my life and soul and everything," he's a sannyāsī. Not the dress. So you are doing that. Now fix up. Go on doing this. Life is successful. That's all. Anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ, sa sannyāsī. Find out this verse. Anāśritaḥ karma-phalam. It is so nice to work for Kṛṣṇa without any personal profit. This is Vṛndāvana. The gopīs, they sacrificed everything for Kṛṣṇa, their position, their honor, their prestige. So do like that. I am very glad to see when you work so hard for Kṛṣṇa. That gives me much pleasure.

Room Conversation -- February 2, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Purport.

Hari-śauri: "In this chapter the Lord explains that the process..." (break)

Prabhupāda: So this is sannyāsī. Sannyāsī is not the dress. This mentality, that is sannyāsa. So you have taken all prasādam? No.

Jayapatākā: Now you take rest, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes. So things are going nicely?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. (end)

Room Conversation -- February 3, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Hm. So there was the minister Nizamuddin, I think, he helped him to go out. He was going for evening walk with police force and other. So it became accustomed. Police became lenient, in the meantime slipped. And in a dress of a Kābuli, Kābuli-wālā, Pāṭhan he crossed India. In this way he went there.

Bhāgavata: I heard he took the dress of a Muslim?

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is called... Yes. This is called pāṭhan. So after going outside India, he organized this INA, Indian National Army. And Hitler helped him. Tojo also wanted to help him, but he had a plan.

Bhāgavata: Different motive. So Hitler, he had no...

Prabhupāda: No Hitler actually helped him, all the soldiers. And then the Sikh soldiers and Gurkha soldiers voluntarily surrendered to join INA. And this information obliged the Britishers to go away. Then "Now the army is joining national movement, so there is no hope." The Gandhi's noncooperation, the clerks' noncooperation the, some of these teachers' noncooperation what do they care for? But when they saw that "The soldiers are now going to join this non..." Gandhi diagnosed the disease rightly, that "The Britishers are here on account of our cooperation. Without this cooperation, they'll go away." That's a fact. So his noncooperation movement was... It was a good trick, but actually he did not succeed. And this movement succeeded. That "Now he's organizing Indian soldiers for national movement. There is no chance."

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Hari-śauri: No, it's not a cheap thing.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore this should be made. Vaiṣṇava, to become Vaiṣṇava, is not so easy. If Vaiṣṇava, to become Vaiṣṇava is so easy, why so many fall down, fall down? It is not easy. The sannyāsa is for the highest qualified brāhmaṇa. And simply by dressing like a Vaiṣṇava, that is... fall down.

Hari-śauri: So the varṇāśrama system is like for the kaniṣṭhas, Kaniṣṭha-adhikārī.

Prabhupāda: Kaniṣṭha?

Hari-śauri: When one is only on the platform of neophyte.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, yes.

Hari-śauri: Varṇāśrama system is beneficial.

Prabhupāda: Kaniṣṭha-adhikārī means he must be a brāhmaṇa. That is kaniṣṭha-adhikārī. The spiritual life, kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, means he must be a qualified brāhmaṇa. That is kaniṣṭha. What is esteemed as very high position in the material world, brāhmaṇa, that is kaniṣṭha-adhikārī.

Morning Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Homosex, what is that religion? And they're passing to homosex, religion. They're getting married man to man. Most degraded.

Hari-śauri: There's no difference between the behavior of a priest and the behavior of a gross atheist...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: ...except he's dressed as a priest.

Prabhupāda: That's all. Dress only.

Hari-śauri: But they have exactly the same mentality.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Business.

Hari-śauri: It's simply a way of making a livelihood.

Prabhupāda: That is everywhere. Here also.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That means you are not intelligent. That is the proof. "Beyond your intelligence"—that means your intelligence is not yet perfect. You're lacking in brain. (aside:) I see so many workers simply loitering. They are doing nothing. What can be done? So many. Simply they are taking money. Doing nothing. I see. There is nobody to see. They take advantage. Seventy-five percent of the workers, they are doing nothing. But the Gītā explains that within this body there is something. Not body itself is moving, but dehinaḥ asmin dehe. Within this body there is the real power, dehī, who has got this body. That is there. And because he is there, the body is changing. They cannot understand. No brain, exactly like the dogs and cats. The dog cannot understand that "Within my body, I am." They cannot. Therefore you are no better than dogs. And actual fact is you are not this body. You are within this body. It is a dress. In so many ways Bhagavad-gītā teaches, but you have no brain. Then where is brainwashing? You have no brain to understand your real position.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Brahmānanda: Burden of proof.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is your duty, not us. You have to prove it. (break) And now don't go to the court with any other dress. Preach like this. Preach there with this dress. Have they any objection with this dress?

Hari-śauri: In this dress.

Ādi-keśava: I agree. I think it is very good that they see us dressed like this in court.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we should...

Ādi-keśava: They will understand what we are.

Prabhupāda: We shall...

Hari-śauri: We have to represent our religion properly.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: In fact one time... Even the last time I went...

Prabhupāda: No, whatever is done, done. Now you make a difference. In any case, we shall go in this dress.

Hari-śauri: Tell Rāmeśvara that, too.

Prabhupāda: They requested me to change the dress. I have... The Ramakrishna Mission, that "Unless you dress yourself..." "I have no money. You give me three dress for public.(?) Then I shall do it. I know how to dress. In my business life I was dressing like that, but now I have no money. You give me money." (laughter) I told them that. (laughs) "I know how to dress like a gentleman. Every day it must be changed, must be nicely ironed. But I have no money. You need not required to teach me. I know how to dress like an European gentleman. And I have no money." (break) ...coat, same pant, same hat—I do not like that. If I dress like a European, I must change daily. Do they not? A respectable European?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, every day.

Prabhupāda: Yes, morning and evening.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just like a Deity.

Prabhupāda: Yes. "So I know that, but I have no money." I replied to that Mr. Mukerjee. He lives near that University, Columbus? Columbia? He's a teacher there. So he came to see me in the 100th Street West, and he requested me, "Swamiji, if you move in this dress, nobody will respect you." "It doesn't matter."

Brahmānanda: Who was this?

Prabhupāda: One Mr. Mukerjee. What is that?

Jayapatākā: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: So call him. That's all. (break) First of all say, "You have no brain."

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Therefore they say "brainwash."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We don't fit into the normal pattern of things—no jobs, no proper dress. Everything's strange to them, because we don't want their culture. It is so abominable.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is brahminical culture. They don't want it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. When the...

Hari-śauri: They don't have any culture.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When the British came here, they saw people sitting on the floor, they said, "Oh, uncivilized."

Prabhupāda: No, no. The British policy was that "If you keep the Hindus as Hindu, it will not be possible to rule over them." That was their policy. Therefore, from the very beginning childhood, everything Indian condemned.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Tilaka.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Policemen, they are dressed, but they have tilaka.

Prabhupāda: Manipur? Manipur?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, Manipur. And always give respect. Though I am nobody, but...

Prabhupāda: Tilaka.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow. The policemen wear tilaka. There is justice for sure.

Prabhupāda: So immediately do it. I shall go. If there is such possibility... Let us have a small ideal state. If respectable gentlemen take it, oh, it will be a great success, an ideal state throughout the whole world, Vaiṣṇava state.

Arrival of Devotees -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Ramakrishna Mission, in the beginning they asked me, "You be in coat and pant." Otherwise nobody will hear me.

Gargamuni: Ramakrishna suggested Prabhupāda use coats and pants.

Prabhupāda: Their sannyāsīs, they dress in coat-tie.

Brahmānanda: Swami Nikhilananda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you have seen.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were saying the cows, when they know there is something there, they stay away.

Prabhupāda: No. They can understand that "These people are going to kill us. These people will not kill us." They can understand. You know that when I was in America some incident took place, that some slaughterhouse livestock, the..., somehow or other, it was open, and they were fleeing away, going away. Something happened. They were going up on the slaughterhouse, and some of them were shooted.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The cows were running away?

Prabhupāda: Hm. Unless they could understand that "We are kept here for being slaughtered," why they were running away?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They speak of peace, such nonsense. How can they expect peace when they're slaughtering?

Prabhupāda: All do. It is very, very demons', the Western civilization. No social structure, no mercy. All good qualities devoid. Simply animals in good dress. That's all. (end)

Evening Darsana -- February 26, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: But we must know what benefit is essential. Therefore I am trying to explain that there is body and there is the owner of the body. So which is important? There is this dress and the owner of the dress. If you simply take care of the dress and do not take care of the owner of the dress, do you think that is very good intelligence?

Guest (1): Sir, taking care of the society, of the countries, there is no difference?(?)

Prabhupāda: Society means... Suppose you are taking care of your own dress and if you take care, all the men, sitting here, their dress, you become washerman. That's all. (laughter) This is your improvement. Now you are soaping your own dress, personal, and if you soap the dresses of all these people, then you are elevated to the position of a washerman. If you are satisfied to become a washerman, that is very good. But that is not very important thing. Real important thing is whether you should take care of the dress or the owner of the dress. That is to be... So people are interested to become washerman, but they are not interested that we have to take care of the owner of the dress. That is the... So therefore spiritual knowledge begins when you understand that this body is not important. The owner of the body is important. Then spiritual knowledge begins. Otherwise, simply to take care of one's own dress and to take care of many others' dress, that is not improvement.

Guest (2) (Indian man): But who was responsible for bringing this body into existence?

Prabhupāda: You are. You are. You have selected your own dress.

Evening Darsana -- February 26, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: You are. You are. You have selected your own dress.

Guest (2): The owner?

Prabhupāda: Just like you are in white dress and he is in brown dress. That is your selection. You like this white dress; he likes that brown dress. So for the dress, you are responsible. That is you.

Guest (2): Who is "you"?

Prabhupāda: You are... Therefore you do not know who you are.

Guest (2): That is what I am asking.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Evening Darsana -- February 26, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: There is no conflict. I am saying, talking, that you are, you are taking care of this dress. That's good. But simply for taking care of the dress if you forget yourself, then you are a foolish. That is my point.

Guest (2): But there is no conflict.

Prabhupāda: There is no conflict.

Guest (2): Then we should not be afraid of this body also.

Prabhupāda: But people are interested with the dress only. That is foolishness. That is foolishness. Suppose you are driving one car. You are driving one car, and the car is also important, but you are not the car. But if you think that you are car, then you are a foolish. You have to take care of the car so far because it is plying, it is giving you service. You must keep in order very cleanse. That's very nice. But if you simply absorb in the service of the car, you don't take care of yourself.

Evening Darsana -- February 26, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So this dehātma-buddhi, "I am this body," is very strong at the present. They think dehātma-buddhi, extended, is very good. And that I was speaking, that a person is taking care of his own body or own dress, but they say, "We shall not take care of my body but for others body also, my son's body, my grandson's body, my relative's body." So that means extending the activities of taking care of the dress. So that I said, that a washerman is taking care of many people's dress, but that does not mean that he is very elevated man. He is nothing but a washerman. But people are interested to take care of the dress. This body is described in the Bhagavad-gītā as dress. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). We are changing the dress. And so long we are interested with dress of the body, not of the body, so the person who has got this body will remain animal. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). So people are not prepared even to hear about this distinction, that "I am not this body; you are not this body." The modern civilization has trained up, educated people, in such a way that the more you think yourself, "I am this body—'I am American,' 'I am Indian,' 'I am brāhmaṇa,' 'I am this, I am that' "—and you feel and act like that and create trouble like that, then you are called civilized.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- February 28, 1977, Mayapura:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They even suggested that in the future, if we had any plan like that, we should just let them know about two or three weeks ahead so they can arrange others also in the other departments.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Do immediately. Your business is that. You take these scientists and other intelligent... Everyone is intelligent, but especially to convince them... "Birds of the same feather..." Otherwise they'll not mix. We are already haṁsas, but to mix with the crow, we shall dress ourself like a crow. (laughter)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Just like I went with pant...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Otherwise the crows will make a noise, "Kaw, kaw, kaw, kaw, kaw." (laughter) Because this whole society is full of crows. They are not even nice birds. So what can be done?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's very encouraging.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: After all, they are human being.

Girirāja: Yes. Actually most people are. They see the book distribution, the construction, and the time factor, that we are still pushing on. We're not going away. Many factors. They see the leaders are also appreciating our activities. Actually our movement is very all-encompassing. Our movement is all-encompassing. I mean I've really seen from Svarūpa Dāmodara that... Your same teachings we can dress up in different garbs and present to anyone, and they will be convinced, unless they are very envious.

Prabhupāda: Iron-clad demons, they will be made remain.

Girirāja: But innocent people, they can be convinced. One thing I was concerned about for the pandal is that many of these leading personalities, they want to meet Your Divine Grace. But at the same time it might be very strenuous for you to come from Juhu every day.

Prabhupāda: Not every day.

Room Conversation with GBC members -- March 2-3, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Satsvarūpa: So today the presidents had their meeting and they went over all our resolutions. This year it went very smoothly. They finished their whole meeting in a couple of hours. The president of the meeting was Girirāja. And they made some amendments to our proposals. I don't think I have to read all of them. Some of them are just minor adjustments. But some of them are... One was... We read the other night that we would not do the Santa Claus dress any more for saṅkīrtana, but they changed that at their meeting. They felt that the publicity was not actually so detrimental around the world, and that the advantage for book distribution and collecting was very great. So they said, "Do it." And then we had our final meeting this afternoon, the GBC, to review their meeting, and we agreed this time with them. But we put an amendment on it that they could dress in Santa Claus or other costumes only after getting permission from the local authorities by permit to do that. So there wouldn't be illegal.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Satsvarūpa: Many of these other points are very minor. Also the committee you requested was formed for investigating the Hyderabad farm, of the three Indian GBCs, Balavanta, and Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja to go after the festival. So are these resolutions in order, Śrīla Prabhupāda? These resolutions that we passed...?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is all right.

Room Conversation -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They come to see the painting.

Dhanañjaya: They come to see everything—the painting, the way the Deities are dressed. Now we are offering many sets of clothing for the Deities. We have offered already four sets of new clothing to the Deities. And everyone comes to see the beauty of the arrangement in the temple. The clothing and the painting. Everything is improving so nicely. They are becoming....

Prabhupāda: If you become nice devotee, everything will be improved. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). The more you increase your devotional service, everything will be increased. Who expected such temple here? You wanted from me fourteen lakhs. I had no fourteen hundred even. With so much difficulty we collected the money. Bali-mardana sent from New York, ten lakhs. Girirāja, you were from the very beginning, no? At that time you were in Calcutta.

Room Conversation -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ten thousand dollars means one lakh of rupees. So we shall save from that luxury department. And this is solid work, yes. It must be done. Without any hesitation, without any impediment. That will increase our prestige of the movement. And go in good dress because people...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In suits.

Prabhupāda: In suit, yes. You get first dress, then address. (laughter) But tilaka must be there. You dress like up-to-date gentlemen, but tilaka must be there. That is our trademark.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Some hair for him is all right? Little bit of hair.

Prabhupāda: I don't think hair is required. Nowadays many gentlemen shaven.

Room Conversation -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I would use tilaka many times when I was doing my thesis, also like this, but in giving lectures, especially amongst the scientists, sometimes if we come with head shaved, sometimes they think it very strange. We can do it when...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Don't disturb them, that "These are strange people." No, we don't want that. But we must have our position. Tilaka is our position. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's stricture. You will not see one face if there is no tilaka. He used to say it is cremation ground. Yes, without tilaka. Pasanta mukha.(?) Tilaka must be there. And so far dress is concerned, you can dress up to the taste of the modern people. So what is your breakfast time here?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Nine o'clock.

Prabhupāda: Nine o'clock?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. Jaya. (end)

Interview with Mr. Koshi (Asst. Editor of The Current Weekly) -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). So just like if you take, become a police officer, you must take the dress.

Mr. Koshi: Uniform. No, but say the avoidance of tea and coffee and all that.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mr. Koshi: Is something wrong with tea?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is sinful, pāna.

Mr. Koshi: By itself it is not bad.

Prabhupāda: Itself is bad, sinful.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: All nonsense.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is why we rejected our so-called religious heritage. We could see that there was no substance to it. And the leaders were just like normal debauchees of any other groups. They weren't spiritual. I used to remember seeing the priests and the rabbis getting drunk, smoking cigarettes, talking nonsense just like everybody else. There was no difference except for the dress. Prabhupāda: This is everywhere. In India also. Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Girirāja, did you get those passbooks by any chance? Girirāja: Amogha-līlā was... Mr. Krishnamurti didn't come back until the afternoon, so it couldn't be taken for being brought up to date. Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So I'm going today. I have to meet with Girirāja about a number of things, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)

Room Conversation -- April 13, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But first of all we must know also what is the position. If we also become enamored by the so-called scientists, politicians, philosophers, then we cannot preach. We must definitely be convinced that they're all rascals. As a gentleman, I can give him some respect. That is another thing. But he's a rascal. You must know that "I am talking with a rascal number one." So I... He cannot deviate me from my position. But I can talk in a nice way, gentlemanly. That is another thing. That is courtesy. But I know that these rascals, number fools, number one fools, they have no idea. Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore said, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). In this way they are rotting within this universe. Kabhu svarge kabhu martye narake ḍubāya. Sometimes by puṇya they are in the higher planetary system, some powerful lokas(?). Sometimes fish, sometimes demigod, sometimes dog and cat. This is going on. Kṛṣṇa says. Nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani (BG 9.3). Mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani, botheration. Then there is... We have got this... Any intelligent person gets the Bhagavad-gītā. The rascals are reading Bhagavad-gītā, do not understand a line even. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). They do not question even. And after the destruction, body, I am not annihilated. Then where I am going? What is my next life? Na jāyate na mriyate vā. He does not die. The body is changed. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). So everything is clearly said. They do not inquire even that "After changing this body or change dress, what kind of body or dress I am going to have?" Answer is there. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu. Everything there. And they are reading Bhagavad-gītā. Gandhi's reading Bhagavad-gītā.

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ordinary man.

Girirāja: Yeah, right, ordinary man, that's right. In a different dress, an ordinary man.

Prabhupāda: And our is ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhrami..., kona bhāgyavān jīva. It is not for ordinary. Anyone who understands thoroughly Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he's not ordinary man. He's liberated man. It is not for ordinary man. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, kona bhāgyavān: "Somebody very fortunate." Not for ordinary man. Still, we are trying to give to the mass of people as far as possible.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But we cannot compromise to do that.

Prabhupāda: It is not for ordinary man.

Conversation with Yadubara (after seeing film) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Sober man, cool-headed man, he can be convinced. So this is a childish civilization. This is not sober civilization. There is no full-brain man. All restless dogs and hogs. And they have taken it is first class, dogs and hogs. Actually, they are living dogs and hogs, and they are claiming civilized. There is no difference dogs and hogs life and the modern man. The dogs and hogs whole day work. Kaṣṭān kāmān arhate. In London, in New York, early in the morning they will to the work, put-put-put-put. They could not take rest even at night peacefully. The anxiety is "If I do not reach early in the factory, I will (indistinct). The whole day's salary will be..." He is anxious. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyām. Always full of anxieties. Asad grahāt. On account of this body. The same principle is being followed by the hogs. "Where is food, where is food?" So where is the difference, the hog civilization? Simply by dressing. If you dress a hog, he becomes human being? So they are after this dress. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni. They do not know what is his civilization, what is life, nothing. And when you go to preach, "Ah, we have to take from India knowledge, a poverty-stricken?" They do not know this is not that India, poverty-stricken. It is full of knowledge India, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then there is no poverty. Those who have left this knowledge, they are poverty-stricken. We are not poverty-stricken.

Conversation: Vairagya, Salaries, and Political Etiquette -- April 28, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Because they have no valid philosophy. It is simply official. They have nothing, no knowledge, no nothing, simply that dress and cloth. That's all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just like the original... When Jesus was there and he had twelve disciples, they simply gave up everything and traveled with him and tried to preach. So they were renunciates, living simply whatever they could take, nothing more, and devoting their lives to God. But the followers later on, more and more they added the degree of sense gratification, till now you can't see any renunciation at all within their order.

Prabhupāda: No, they are drinking. They are having homosex. They are encouraging homosex, giving man-to-man marriage. You know that? This is going on. Doing everything nonsense.

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: That is next. First of all, as you say, in Christian there is rules, there are Muhammadans' rules, there are Hindu rules. Rules are there. Now you have to select which rules you shall follow. That will depend on your dress. But rules you have to follow. That is everywhere. If you think that "There are so many rules. I won't follow," then you are lost.

Indian man (1): Follow some rules.

Young man (6): There are some rules, I mean...

Prabhupāda: Everywhere.

Young man (6): Yes.

Prabhupāda: So you have to follow rules. Now it is up to you, which rule you shall follow.

Young man (6): Yes.

Prabhupāda: That is your choice. That requires brain.

Evening Darsana -- May 15, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Janeṣu abhijñeṣu. Sādhu means one who is in the knowledge. Otherwise anyone can become a sādhu by changing the dress.

Indian man (1): (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: A sādhu... The description of sādhu is given in the śāstra, titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ... Titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ... (SB 3.25.21).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Suhṛdaḥ.

Prabhupāda: Suhṛdaḥ sarva-bhūtānām. And before that, there is... Suhṛdaḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ sādhavaḥ sādhu-bhūṣaṇāḥ. These are the description of sādhu. Sādhu titikṣavaḥ, very tolerant. For preaching work they have to meet so many obstacles, and still, they go on, titikṣavaḥ. Titikṣā is the qualification of brāhmaṇa. Śamo damas titikṣā. So a sādhu... Titikṣavaḥ. He has to meet so many obstacles. Just see this judgment. We have to meet so many obstacles. But we cannot give up. Despite all obstacles, we have to go on. So titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ, suhṛdaḥ sarva-bhūtānām. A sādhu is not a friend of a particular community, person or religion, no.

Evening Darsana -- May 15, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Just like in the Upaniṣads it is said, paśyaty acakṣuḥ: "He sees, but He has no eyes." So what is that? How we can think of, one is seeing without eye? Aiye. There are so many. Śṛṇoty akarṇaḥ: "He has no ears..." So both things are there. When it is said, paśyaty acakṣuḥ... Mean cakṣuḥ, eyes, as soon we think of eyes, we think of our eyes, own eyes, and therefore it is forbidden, "Not like your eyes." Paśyati. He can see everywhere. Therefore we have to discuss śāstra. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti paśyanti pānti kalayanti ciraṁ jaganti (Bs. 5.32). The aṅga, the different parts of the body of Kṛṣṇa, has got all the qualities of other aṅga. Just like we can see with eyes, but Kṛṣṇa can speak also with eyes. He can eat also with eyes. That is difference. Aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. So paśyaty acakṣuḥ means He has different type of eyes, not like our eyes. When there is nirākāra... Nirākāra means He hasn't got a ākāra, a form, like ours. That is nirākāra. But He has his form. And Kṛṣṇa says... So dehino 'smin yathā dehe: (BG 2.13) "Within this body the owner of the body is there." But if the owner of the body has no form, how the material form has come into existence? Just like this shirt has got hand. Because I am the owner of the shirt—I have got hand-therefore the shirt has got also hand. I have got my leg; therefore the pant has got leg. If you say, "The pant has got leg, the shirt has got hand, but the owner of the shirt has no leg, no...," is it possible? And this external body described as dress... Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). Vāsa, dress. Dress cannot show any hand and leg unless the man who is dressed, he has got his hand and leg. So how He is nirākāra? (Hindi)

Evening Darsana -- May 15, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: If the dress has got hand and leg, then the person who is putting on the dress, he must have hand and... So this is the conclusion. When in the śāstra it is said that "God has no leg, no hand," that... In the Upaniṣad it said that "He has no leg, but He can walk swifter than anyone." So that means He has got a different type of leg. And that is summarized, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). His vigraha, His form, is not material form. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśri... (BG 9.11). Because Kṛṣṇa comes as a human being, the foolish mūḍha-mūḍha means rascal-rascal thinks that "He is also one of us." But Kṛṣṇa says, "No, no," sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā (BG 4.6), "I come here in My original, spiritual form." Sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā. So these are to be understood. So manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu (BG 7.3). Because they cannot understand—they cannot make distinction what is spiritual, what is material-therefore they cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye. First of all one has to understand what is material, what is spiritual. So unless one comes to the spiritual understanding, he cannot understand Kṛṣṇa.

Short Dissertations -- May 24-25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They have nothing. Still, they have got... That is called in Bengali, bisnai kulavane cakra(?). There is no poison, but the hood is: "Arrhh." (laughs) That is their... Even this bite, there is no poison. But they are showing kulavana cakra(?). Still, it is bhayaṅkara. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says, maṇinā bhūṣitaḥ sarpaḥ kim asau na bhayaṅkaraḥ: "A snake..." Sometimes snake has got some jewel on the hood. So he can go in the darkness by the light of the hood. If somebody thinks, "Oh, here is a snake with jewel. Let me embrace him," no, no, no, it is very ferocious. Even it is jewel there, it is ferocious. Similarly, these people are envious. Although they have become so-called Vaiṣṇava, they are ferocious. They have not acquired the qualification of Vaiṣṇava. Simply vesopidin(?), by dress. So what is there? They could not do for the last fifty-sixty years. Still... They wanted to exchange. I stopped it, the Mohini Babu. Mohini... Bali hatti zamindar(?). So if we do not get that place, we can get other place?

Jayapatākā: Oh, yeah, there is no difficulty.

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Mahāṁśa: And this is a very nice thing he said, Prabhupāda. He said that "We want to improve things in the countryside to an extent that people from the cities start running to the villages."

Prabhupāda: Yes. That I want. I... Everywhere I go and say, how these rascals...? So much land is lying, and these rascals are not developing. And they are making... What is that? Coal stone. Coal. They are interested with these bricks and stones, not green vegetables. Such a rascal government. Give them facility. We know how to do it. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ, yajñād bhavati parjanyaḥ (BG 3.14). Let them engage in kīrtana. There will be more water for gardening, and it will be moist, and then produce fodder for the animals and food for you. And animal gives you milk. That is Vṛndāvana life. And they are absorbed in this so-called opulence. Kṛṣṇa has taken birth. They are bringing so many nice, pleasant foodstuff, very well-dressed and ornamented. These are description. In the morning we were reading. How they were happy, the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana with Kṛṣṇa and living and cows. That I want to introduce. At any cost do it and... Don't bother about big, big buildings. It is not required. Useless waste of time. Produce. Make the whole field green. See that. Then whole economic question solved. Then you eat sumptuous. Eat sumptuously. The animal is happy. The animal even does not give milk; let them eat and pass stool and urine. That is welcome. After all, eating, they will pass stool. So that is beneficial, not that simple milk is beneficial. Even the stool is beneficial. Therefore I am asking so much here and..., "Farm, farm, farm, farm..." That is not my program-Kṛṣṇa's program. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). Produce greenness everywhere, everywhere. Vṛndāvana. It is not this motorcar civilization. If it has taken in his brain, then it is to be understood that he can do this plan. He'll be able. Somebody said that he is eager to see me.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: When Ādi-keśava went to court the first time...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: ...he had suit and hair, and they wondered why he was dressed like that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then cheater.

Hari-śauri: Yeah, they accused...

Prabhupāda: That means, of course, indirectly hinted that "Now you are cheating. You are known as shaven-headed. Now you have kept hair. What is the purpose except cheating?"

Hari-śauri: On saṅkīrtana all the distributors wear wigs and like that to..., because it's much easier to distribute, to distribute books.

Prabhupāda: I do not know all this. Formerly, shaven-headed, they used to distribute. Now it is not possible.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Then why don't you dress like European, half foreign dress and half hair? Who is that foreign and European and gentleman? What is the use of wig? Keep regular gentleman's hair. There is no need of saffron dress. If by ordinary dress you can sell more book, there is no need of saffron dress. So what is the time now?

Gargamuni: 9:30.

Bhavānanda: Kīrtana, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Bhavānanda: Kīrtana?

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Bhavānanda: Would you like to have kīrtana now?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...come directly, brāhmaṇas sometimes brahmacārī, gṛhastha. That will impress. (break) ...hodgepodge. Respect is no. Ideals become a leader. He'll do. He'll do. There must be some strong men. Tilaka always must be there. That is our great standard. Kaṇṭhī-mālā. Every fifteen days you should be cleansed. (break) (indistinct) Don't be in all this (indistinct). Go on very nicely. Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhu Nityānanda, Śrī Advaita Gadādhara Śrīvāsa... (break)

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (extremely faint) Grandson says? What is that? "Grandson says"? Supersoul? Something very extraordinary. Triumphant. "I shall be triumphant." (break) (indistinct) That is Indian style. "Kṛṣṇa we must move. Now this child is trying to turn Himself. Turn Himself." There is ceremony. This is ceremony. This is Indian way of raising up children. Sad-bhakṣaṇa.(?) When we were small children, we were all, brothers and sisters, three mo..., three years before us. So naturally, when mother was young, she became pregnant. So there were three, four ceremonies during, within the period of three years. One is called sad-bhakṣaṇa. Sad-bhakṣaṇa. The idea is... That (indistinct) he is dangerous. At the time of delivery the woman is in danger. There may be so many dangers. Therefore twice sad-bhakṣaṇa, at the period of seven months and perhaps in nine months. Whatever she likes, she should eat. So that ceremony, new cloth, very nicely dressed, taking bath, all the children, not only her children but other children also, very nice foodstuff made, and sit together, and with the children the mother will eat. And the brāhmaṇas should be given some charity. They will chant Vedic hymns. The same thing is being observed by Mother Yaśodā. That was the saṁskāra. Then utthāna.(?) Then anna-prāśana, when the child is... So much care is taken for the children. And these rascals are killing children. They are civilized? To avoid botheration. What a terrible civilization. And they are claiming to be civilized. Full day(?) pregnancy their children will be there. And man and woman... That is meant for the woman, but... And before childbirth there is propaganda to kill. What is that?

Śatadhanya: Abortion.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- June 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Another example you can give. Suppose a man is high-court judge, very... Now, his mother is feeding him, sitting down. And if the son says, "No, let me dress like a high-court judge, then I shall eat," will the mother like it? That is like...(?) "You become high-court judge and be satisfied."(?)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Once I gave a lecture at Emory University to the scientific community, and I tried to introduce this bhakti-yoga in a scientific language and found it difficult, but I tried to bring the idea by comparing that an electron... In order to study an electron, we actually take advantage of a field where an electric current can be generated. Otherwise the property of electron cannot be studied in a scientific experiment. Similarly, we established that ātmā, being nonphysical and nonchemical, is spiritual and also has personal character. We must take advantage of a personal feature where one can have direct relationship between this individual ātmā, and there should be also a supreme ātmā. And the relationship of the study of this will be the experimental study, and that experiment is bhakti-yoga.

Prabhupāda: I have several times stressed that living being is a sample of God. If you study living being, you understand God.

Morning Conversation -- June 23, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hippie. The result is hippie. In Western countries I see and lament. So many percent of their population are hippies. What is the benefit? They cannot do anything, useless population. They cannot utilize. And in America the Vietnam was selected—"Let them die," in disappointment. Useless waste of... They require... Could not manage. "Let them die." Marawara gar leka.(?) When we have finished all sorts of condemnation, we say, "You die." That's all. Tell them. They have no idea how to reform this degraded population. This is the only way, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In New York I have seen in ordinary places how niggardly they live. No human being can live like that. In good places, nicely dressed, nicely... But in East... East Village or something?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, in the East Village.

Prabhupāda: No gentleman can live. So niggardly. The shops, the neighborhood, the area, all...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's where you went to begin the movement.

Prabhupāda: No, no, I did not select that. Unknowingly I was thrown. I did not know which quarter is good way.

Talk About Varnasrama, S.B. 2.1.1-5 -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even the village.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You'll find description in Bhāgavata. They were coming to congratulate Kṛṣṇa—so nice dress, so nice ornament, so nice foodstuff made of ghee, grains in our...

Śatadhanya: Sometimes the rich Marwari ladies, when they come to Māyāpur, once in a while they give some ornament to the Deity. They'll give one ring or one bracelet, gold.

Prabhupāda: That was always. They would offer some ornament to the Deity.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, there's the example...

Prabhupāda: That Sākṣī-Gopāla. The queen wanted to give her nose pearl. Very happy spiritual society.

Conversation about Old Days in Calcutta -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Dress, jewelry, and foodstuff, oh... Would offer kacuris, very big, first-class, and luci, all very crispy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ah, crispy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And ghee and rābṛi and similarly other... In the plate, you see?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow!

Prabhupāda: And it was the custom of the Mulliks, daily prasādam, they should not eat all of them. Keep something as a balance—some neighborhood men, they will sell. This was...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Distribution of prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Distribution.

Room Conversation With Son (Vrindavan De) -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Indian culture.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You remember that lady? You were walking and some old lady, she didn't know you, but just by your dress and the way you were walking...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...she offered her respects.

Prabhupāda: Yes. On the whole, they are good. Culture is Indian.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Eastern culture.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But they are imitating.

Room Conversation during lunchtime -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: If I dress myself in a particular way, who can check it? They cannot check. I like this dress. That's all. That is not violation of law.

Upendra: Do they wear tilaka? Santa Claus? No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They can't do that. They say, "You're misrepresenting yourselves because..."

Prabhupāda: I'm not misrepresenting. I like this dress.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say this dress indicates a Christian...

Prabhupāda: Whatever indication, I like this. You cannot check my liking. Just like an Indian dresses like a European, or a European dresses like Indian. Does it mean that he has become Indian or he's American? He likes it. That's all. Can you object if a girl dresses like Indian with ladies' sari? Can you object? It is something like that. "Oh, why you have become Indian-like? Why you are imitating?"

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say, "Well, no, you can wear your Santa Claus suit, but you'll have to wear a Hare Kṛṣṇa button."

Prabhupāda: That we can do. Never mind. But that is not under your dictation. If I like.

Room Conversation during lunchtime -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That we can do. Never mind. But that is not under your dictation. If I like.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They actually made us in New York, the court.

Prabhupāda: No, then there is no objection. But you cannot dictate...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What dress.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I may dress myself to your liking; I may not. Rather, you like the Santa Claus dress. You are Christian. I am pleasing you by dressing myself like this. Why you are not pleased? I am trying to please you.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say, "Well, actually you're concealing your identity."

Prabhupāda: That is my liking. You cannot dictate. I'm not pickpocketing you. What is the objection?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say, "Well, why don't you tell people who you actually are? Why don't you say you're a Hare Kṛṣṇa?"

Prabhupāda: No, that is my desire. You cannot dictate.

Room Conversation during lunchtime -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: But is there any law that nobody can dress like that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. We're only...

Prabhupāda: Then?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There was a lot of publicity.

Upendra: You once gave that Bengali saying, "When you eat, you eat for yourself, but when you dress, you dress for others."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Apake khana para...(?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I'm not so much speaking from the point of view of law. I'm just wondering whether it was... From the point of view of publicity for our society.

Prabhupāda: Publicity, if we find that this dress will attract more, why not? We shall do.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Maybe I should show you the pictures first. I've brought your glasses. These are the photographs, Śrīla Prabhupāda, of the Deities to be installed in Fiji. He's sending to you for your approval. First, this is Śrī-Śrī-Guru-Gaurāṅga in day dress.

Prabhupāda: First class. Just like life.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Phew. Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Very, very nice. They're superexcellent. Not only excellent but superexcellent.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here is a picture of the same Guru-Gaurāṅga in night dress.

Prabhupāda: You can say, "It is superexcellent."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I have written it three times. (laughter) Here is your Guru Mahārāja. He looks like a young man, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (chuckles) Very young. Here he is with full dress and garlanded. Here is Your Divine Grace, mūrti, fully dressed and garlanded.

Prabhupāda: Everything superexcellent.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here is the Deity of Lord Nityānanda dressed and undressed, so you can see. They've done very nicely with the two photographs. You can get the full idea. I think the proportions are first class. Just accurate.

Prabhupāda: Gaurāṅga.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Fishlike.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Not dressed?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They will be. That's just showing you the mūrtis. Here is Kṛṣṇa-Kāliya. Here is a full picture, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Oh, it will attract so many people.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Lalitā, Viśākhā. Those are just, I think, temporary dresses to give an idea. Day dresses. Here is the Deity of Kṛṣṇa without clothing so you can see. Look at this material.

Prabhupāda: Indian art and American artist. I want this combination. It is coming. Gradually develop.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "I have received your merciful letter, dated April 8th, in which you have instructed me to fashion Pañca-tattva vigraha for the Hawaii yātrā. You also revealed your desire to see photographs of the completed set of mūrtis for the Kṛṣṇa-Kāliya Mandir in Fiji. In regards to the Hawaii Deities, we have just now been able to begin the work, and it will be completed some time in the end of August. We have already received remuneration for fifty percent of the cost from Śrutakīrti dāsa. As far as the Kṛṣṇa-Kāliya temple vigrahas. I beg to inform you that they have been shipped two weeks ago along with two sets of dresses, one for the day and one for the night, for all of them. Enclosed please find a complete set of photographs of the Fiji mūrtis."

Prabhupāda: They're all superexcellent.

Room Conversation Varnasrama -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Today I passed stool again before going to the temple. (pause) So many... Actually we enjoyed life in our childhood. Although we were not very nicely dressed and not very comfortable, the so-called comfortable. We could sleep anywhere. We did not require any nice dress or nice food. My mother used to prepare very nice food. We were glad in that way. Nice paraṭā, nice vegetable, ācāra, so many things she used to prepare. Always preparing some food. Puffed rice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She was cooking with ghee?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Our family with ghee. Some fried. That is used, oil.

Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And everywhere, how they were well dressed, well fed, and rich in milk products. When called, people, the brāhmaṇas give in charity cows, not at all poor.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were reading that one king gave fourteen lakhs' elephants covered in gold, and another king was giving something like 21,000 cows to each brāhmaṇa. Who could imagine? Now the only kind of cows anyone will give you is those that don't give milk.

Prabhupāda: The cows were decorated with cloth, gold necklace, and heaps of grains.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The cow horns were sometimes with gold on the end.

Prabhupāda: That means gold and silver and jewels and cloth sump..., more than... Milk products, grains. This was richness.

Room Conversation Gaurasundara, Dr. Kapoor -- July 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh. Never mind. These are all material things. It should be more than that. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means forgetting material things, coming to Kṛṣṇa. Now forget your past misdeed and take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness gradually. Deity worship is the first work, step. How many dresses you have prepared for the Deity? What is the name of?

Woman devotee: They each have twenty-two.

Gaurasundara: Twenty-two for Rādhā, twenty-two for Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Very good. Ornaments?

Gaurasundara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: You can take supply from...

Gaurasundara: Yes, we are getting more things here.

Prabhupāda: From where?

Gaurasundara: In Loi Bazaar. Loi Bazaar.

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśomatīnandana: Don't go to the cities.

Prabhupāda: No. Be man of character. No illicit sex, no intoxication. Vaiṣṇava. Eat sufficiently, dress sufficiently. Live very comfortably. Whatever profit is there, it should be invested again for books. That's... Because we are investing money, our land... Therefore we are not profited. Beneficiary, you. It is a cooperative society. You produce your needs, live comfortably, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Our only interest is that you are taking interest in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, working. Otherwise we don't want to exploit you. That is not... If there is no sufficient, you can... We help you manage it. You manage your own affair. We give you direction. Live happily, chant. This should be... Will not they agree?

Yaśomatīnandana: Yes, they will very much agree.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: Should Kṛṣṇa be dressed very, very opulently like this, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Hari-śauri: Yes. They had a question in Fiji. They wanted to know whether He should be dressed simply or opulently.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa-Kāliya temple (Bengali).

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Elegant.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very elegant. All the scientists who are attending, they're dressed a little informally. But our men are very formal. They have the ties on. Everybody has a badge. All the people who are attending have a special badge mentioning the scientific conference's name and the individual person's name. That's in one place. Then in another room is the conference room. It was the room where we were going to have the bank there. Really big room with fancy backdrop. Some decorator has come and made a very fancy backdrop with a big... There's a long table and podium with microphones and very nice seats. In the dining hall all the seats have special white linen cloths over all the chairs. Very fresh looking and clean. And in the other room it's very cool. There's curtains so that the sun can't come in, and now there's a big yajña going on. Yaśodānandana Mahārāja and the Gurukula boys are inaugurating the conference by chanting Sanskrit mantras, and some of the scientists are... Actually they were very amazed to see how our men could chant like that. The whole building is first-class for this purpose. When we build this Bhaktivedanta Institute hall... It's the most wonderful idea to have this conference here, Śrīla Prabhupāda. These scientists, they're going to be converted to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I was certain of it by seeing these arrangements. They never could have... They're being tricked.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is wanted.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very good. And then our sannyāsīs look so nice. There's Akṣayānanda Mahārāja and Bhakti-prema Swami. They were both there, very nicely dressed, with daṇḍas. It's really... The whole thing is complete. They get to stay in a nice guesthouse. Then there will be building of Bhaktivedanta Institute Hall. All of these things are a complete arrangement. I think these men are surprised to see that how such a thing has sprung up, and they have not been aware of it before. And when they see these books, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that the scientists have written, I think that will floor these men. They will be completely amazed to see it. Normally, if anyone else dared to do such a thing as this, to prove by science that life comes from life, it would be a very immature attempt by some religious person, and it would not have very much weight. But here they are coming face to face with people who are actually scientists, and they will not be able to deny our arguments. I think that your Guru Mahārāja is very pleased with this program, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: I have given the ideas. Now you give the shape.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. We shall do.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And also I took darśana of Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma, and Lord Balarāma's club looks like it will destroy anyone (Prabhupāda chuckles) who dares to interfere with Kṛṣṇa's plan. He has a very big club, silver, all silver. And many people were coming, many pilgrims. Just you were asking me whether there's many people coming as when we were previously here. There are as many. The temple was very much crowded with people having darśana. I could tell that some of the people were pāṇḍās, the guides. They have to bring everyone to this temple, because the people want to see Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Mandir. People were making a lot of expressions of joy to see Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. They were very surprised to see how beautiful They were appearing. And also Rādhā-Śyāmasundara is very big attraction, because that boy dresses Them very beautifully. All the Deities look very nice today. They look especially happy about this science conference, I think. If we do this in Bombay, also Śrīla Prabhupāda, it will be tremendous success. I think that Kṛṣṇa postponed...

Prabhupāda: Bhakti-caru? (Bengali with Bhakti-caru)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It might be that Kṛṣṇa postponed the opening of Bombay to get you..., so that you could have enough time to get a little health. It could be.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) He has arranged alone.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What is the time now?

Hari-śauri: Five past six, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why don't you come around this side? They are all dressed in their shirt and ties, Śrīla Prabhupāda. They looked just like the scientists.

Prabhupāda: Give them chair.

Hari-śauri: Chairs.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We're all right, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: You have got coat-pant. Sit down at the...

Hari-śauri: Prabhupāda said you've got coat and pant. He was concerned about whether you should sit or...

Prabhupāda: So sit down. Sit down on the chair.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You'll get one corner light.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: See how they're all dressed, Śrīla Prabhupāda? Nice looking.

Hari-śauri: Shirt and tie.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And tilaka.

Prabhupāda: Now you are seated comfortably?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We're comfortable.

Prabhupāda: So?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So, we are learning, Śrīla Prabhupāda. This is our first conference. And we... We are confident that we can do it.

Prabhupāda: Who is seated over...?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Where is Brahma-tīrtha? He's the Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers, one of the authors. Next to him is Sadāpūta, who wrote two books on quantum physics and the laws of consciousness, demonstration by mathematics that life cannot arise from matter.

Room Conversation -- October 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhavānanda: Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja and I went into the temple for darśana, and we were commenting how the people are so impressed by the Deities, all of the visitors, especially Rādhā-Śyāmasundara. They're so beautifully dressed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bhavānanda Mahārāja was saying how last night you were saying that there's nothing nicer and more fortunate than to be the pūjārī of a Deity. (break) We'll just get the sum and substance. He's offering his obeisances to Bhavānanda Mahārāja and the other devotees he met here. He says he's very anxious about your health and progress. He requested me to give him a report. He says as regards to starting of the dispensary and also organizing a health teaching center for educating the boys by the latest audio-visual methods, he said that you seemed to be very earnest about it. In fact, he says that you told him to start as soon as possible. But he wishes to explain some of his difficulties. So Sharma and Jagadīśa, the director of education, and... They they've promised to go through the idea. But he didn't find that Dr. Sharma showed much inclination for this idea. The actual thing, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is that we want him to have a dispensary. We're not so much eager for his educational training. Naturally Dr. Sharma was not so enthusiastic.

Prabhupāda: No. Ours is spiritual education, no medical education.

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is another thing.

Pañca-draviḍa: And no money also. (laughing)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. We were vagabonds. We were loitering in the street, and you invited us into your home. That's actually a fact. You fed us prasādam, cooked for us. You taught us how to be human beings.

Pañca-draviḍa: Just like these Gurukula kids. You have also taught us even how to dress ourself.

Jayādvaita: And you brought us to Vṛndāvana, richest place.

Pañca-draviḍa: Full of desire trees and jewels.

Prabhupāda: You can provide five hundred students very easily.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Such a nice building. Who would not like to go to school here in Vṛndāvana? Nice, pure atmosphere. (break) (Bengali)

Śatadhanya: ...Vrindavan, he's going to Delhi. From Delhi he'll go to Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, Vrindavan.

Room Conversation -- November 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: All right. (break) San Diego, we have got a temple.

Jayādvaita: Oh, yes. We have... They just moved to a nicer location, nicer building. They have maybe seventy devotees. It's quite large temple near the ocean in San Diego. They have... Every year at Govardhana-pūjā they have a very nice festival in the park. They have chanting and discourse and distribute prasādam. Then in the spring again they have a very nice festival. You were there one time. You spoke. Your Divine Grace spoke at one festival in the park in San Diego. They also go to preach just over the border in Mexico, and many Mexican boys join our San Diego temple, Mexican boys who've come to America. They join our temple in San Diego. The Deity there is very beautiful and very nicely dressed also in San Diego.

Pañca-draviḍa: Their new temple is very nicely decorated, with arches and everything. Rādhā-Giridhārī.

Jayādvaita: The president is Guṇa-grāhī Prabhu. He's been a devotee for a long time. The management is also very nicely going on. (break) You sent Bhavānanda there many years ago when they were in Brooklyn and ordered him to make the devotees happy. And ever since then, they've been peaceful... (indistinct) Even before that. I remember when I first came to New York, when the storefront was there. I came on Sunday, and there were so many different preparations. Haṁsadūta Mahārāja was cooking. And so many different preparations. And after taking that feast I decided that I would not leave—"This is too nice." So they're going on, still very opulent, sumptuous prasādam. And people are deciding that "Oh, this is very nice. Let us not leave. Let us go on taking prasādam." And in the restaurant very respectable people come. (pause)

Prabhupāda: You read some more.