Dust (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"dust" |"dust's" |"dusts" |"dusty"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Interviewer: One other thing, I went to shake hands with everybody and I found that all your right hands were wrapped. What is the significance of that?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That wrapping... It is not exactly wrapped. It is a bag for our beads. We are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. So the beads are supposed to be sacred and therefore we keep it in a bag so that it may not touch the dust or any other impurities. So it is not wrapping, it is covering of the sacred beads.

Questions and Answers -- September 6, 1968, New York:

Candanacarya: ...to know something about Kṛṣṇa. (indistinct) I think you have to know something about Kṛṣṇa before you know Him to love Him.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That I explained. For ordinary neophyte devotees... This is the highest stage. The stage of the gopīs or the cowherd boys playing with Kṛṣṇa, oh, they are kṛta-punya-puñjāḥ. Many, many lives they have undergone many types of sacrifices, austerities, penances, and then they have come to that stage. That stage is not ordinary stage. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, itthaṁ satāṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtya dāsyaṁ gatānāṁ para-daivatena, māyāśritānāṁ nara-dārakeṇa sākaṁ vijahruḥ kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ (SB 10.12.11). He is describing when Kṛṣṇa was playing with His cowherds boy. So he is describing that "These cowherds boy—who are they? They are living entities who have amassed volumes and volumes of pious activities." Kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ. "After many, many lives Just like bank balance increases, similarly, one who has increased the balance of pious activities for many, many thousands of lives, oh, such persons are now playing with Kṛṣṇa. They have taken the body of His cowherds boy, transcendental spiritual body, and just they are playing with Kṛṣṇa. And who is Kṛṣṇa?" Itthaṁ satāṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtya: "The great saints and sages who are trying to understand the Supreme Brahman, here is Kṛṣṇa. That Supreme Brahman is here, playing." Itthaṁ satāṁ brahma-sukhanubhutya dāsyaṁ gatānāṁ para-daivatena: "The impersonalist Brahman is... Because Kṛṣṇa's effulgence is impersonal Brahman, so here is He." And dāsyaṁ gatānāṁ: "Those who are devotees, those who have accepted Kṛṣṇa as the master, for them here is Kṛṣṇa." And māyāśritānāṁ nara-dārakeṇa: "And those who are materialistic—they simply think Kṛṣṇa is ordinary boy or man—He is also there. But who are these boys? They are playing with the same person who is Brahman, who is Bhagavān, or who is ordinary man, according to different calculation. But these boys who are playing with Him, they have accumulated many, many lives' heaps of pious activities." They are not ordinary men. So all these gopīs, all the cowherds boy in Vṛndāvana, they are not ordinary living entities. They have approached that stage after many, many pious activities. Yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ. After brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). Their position is different. Therefore they have reached that unalloyed stage: without any consideration, simply loving Kṛṣṇa. That stage they have passed already. There is no such consideration. Pure love. That is pure love. Pure love means anyābhilāśitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam (Brs. 1.1.11). There is no question of knowledge. What these gopīs...? They were damsels, cowherds girls. They had no study of Vedānta or anything knowledge. Simply ordinary village girls. How they attained such love for Kṛṣṇa? That is not ordinary thing. So it is not a thing that one should attain the transcendental loving platform of Kṛṣṇa by studying. No. vinā mahat-pāda-rajo 'bhiṣekam. It can be achieved by the grace of Kṛṣṇa or by the grace of Kṛṣṇa's devotees. It is not that because one is very learned, he will become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Or because one is rich, therefore he will become Kṛṣṇa conscious, or because one is great mystic, therefore he will. No. That will come... vinā mahat-pāda-rajo 'bhiṣekam. It cannot be achieved without touching the dust of lotus feet of a great devotee. That is the affect.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Lord Caitanya Play Told to Tamala Krsna -- August 4, 1969, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Then... That was... Caitanya Mahāprabhu already adored, He was. So, there is... Rathayātrā car festival, and Guṇḍicā-mārjana. Guṇḍicā-mārjana. Before the Rathayātrā festival, the system is Jagannātha goes from the temple to another place about two miles away. There is a big temple there also which is called Jagannātha Aunt's(?) house, Mahiṣī badi. So He stays there for eight days. Just like we make program in San Francisco to reside on seaside. So that temple was to be washed. Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to do it by His personal supervision. So all the devotees... And He will check how much dust you have recovered, and then you shall be rewarded. Otherwise, it should be understood that you have not labored nicely. (chuckles) So He'll sweep over the whole temple nicely and wash the ceilings and walls and everything so clearly. And He'll see in this way if there is any sand. If there is, "Oh, it is not washed." That means He would engage everyone. Then after washing, then call for prasādam and distribute Himself. This is called Guṇḍicā-mārjana. Actually, whatever He was doing, they were washing, "Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa," chanting. That's all.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 11, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: The same example: just like so-called scientists, Russian and American, for so many years they're trying to go to the moon planet, nearest planet. But here is no shelter. Actually, I do not know whether they have gone, but why they are coming back? Let them remain there, construct house there, there is everything. If there is no such possibility, why these rascals are going there? Practically, if it is full of dust only, why these rascals are going to see the dust every time? (laughter) Ask these rascals that "What benefit? You're spending so much money and going to the moon planet and touching, 'Now my flag is on the dust,' (laughter) and go back with little pebbles, 'Oh, we have gone.' " No. Moon-reaching day, holiday. Nixon, another rascal. Great rascal. Holiday. And what do you want there? Patanty adhaḥ. After so much endeavor, trying to go to the moon planet, they are failing. And what to speak of other planets? What to speak of the Brahmaloka, Tapaloka, Jana...? They are there. We are seeing every day, at night, there are so many. Who is going there? The nearest planet, which is about 200,000 miles, I think it is so, from here, the moon planet, and they cannot go. And what to speak of other planets? There are many. They do not..., cannot calculate how far they are, but we see every night there. So how imperfect knowledge they are. That is my point. And still they are going as scientists. Lokasya ajānataḥ. They are so fools and rascal, still they are passing on as scientists, big men, learned men. No. None of them. This is our challenge. None of them. And who is learned? Learned is Vyāsadeva. Learned is Kṛṣṇa.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Devotee (3): In Harvard Library, your Bhagavad-gītā—they have many, many Bhagavad-gītās, about four hundred, many, and Bhagavad-gītā As It Is was taken out of late, since it's been in there, more than any other ones. They all have dust, and yours has been taken out. And Kṛṣṇa book was never in, I could never see it in, because it was always out, from the very first day it was in. In fact, when it was going into the library, the head of the department, he took it right away.

Prabhupāda: Another thing happened in Los Angeles. I wanted some quotation from a place of this Teachings of Lord Caitanya. So the man came, he said, "Swamiji, first of all I must buy this book. Either you accept or not accept our quotation, what price I shall pay?" I said, "Give me six dollars." Immediately he took this book. "Such a nice book I have never read. So either it is printed or not printed in our press, I must take this book." Actually, these ideas what we have explained in our books, they're unknown to the modern world. Unknown.

Morning Walk Conversation -- September 28, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: The bubble. It is expanded and popped. It is like that. Kṛṣṇa says (Sanskrit) aśāśvatam, and we are seeing, experiencing every day. So why should we spoil our life by making adjustment in this popped universe? It will be popped, and all arrangement phat. Everyone knows it. Such a nice city of Los Angeles, there is no guarantee. Within a second, it can be inundated, go within the womb of this ocean.

Jayatīrtha: You can get any kind of insurance on a building here in Los Angeles but the only kind, it's so expensive, no one can afford, is earthquake insurance. Hardly anyone will write earthquake insurance because they have such a fear that the earthquake will come at any time, and no one wants to gamble their money on someone else's building, that it will not fall apart in an earthquake. The threefold miseries are always a factor. No one can avoid them. (indistinct) asked one question. Someone sent some dust from the...

Prabhupāda: We go this way?

Jayatīrtha: Somebody sent some dust from the bhajan-kutir of the Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana, and he was wondering whether it could be put on the altar in some little brass box, on Lord Caitanya's altar.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Altar is the seat of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The devotee's dust cannot go there.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Where it is coming now? It came in the past and not in the now, and not at present? Wherefrom an ant is coming from this dust. Is there any proof? Even an ant does not come.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In fact, there are several theories like that, about the origin of life. And they say starting from matter, all the living matters came from nonliving.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Why it is not coming now, rascal? I kick on your face with boots. Why it is not coming now?

Karandhara: If it happened before, it should happen now.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: And it is so amazing that people believe it.

Prabhupāda: That means fools.

Morning Walk -- April 28, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So here is water, here is desert. Why don't you do it? You cannot do anything. They are going to the moon planet, the dusty planet, to make it fertilized. Why don't you do here? Sahara desert, Arabian desert, or Rajasthan desert. And the sea water is there. Bring it, and make it fertile, fertilize. "Yes, in future." That's all. "We are trying." And immediately (indistinct): "Yes, yes, they are trying. Take all money. Take all money."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They do not give up hopes.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They do not give up hopes.

Prabhupāda: Even hope, there is no hope.

Brahmānanda: Blind hope.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Ask any doctor: "Now this patient is suffering. You are giving medicine, you are very expert. Life is guaranteed?" "No, that we cannot do. That we cannot do." "We are trying." Trying, everyone can try. Then what is your scientific knowledge? (pause)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So the real knowledge is taken away by ignorance?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The real knowledge...is taken away by ignorance.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then it says: andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). One blind man is claiming that: "I shall lead you, other blind men."

Morning Walk -- April 28, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, to another planet, Mars.

Prabhupāda: It is, it is finished? The moon planet is finished?

Karandhara: For the time being.

Brahmānanda: Yes, their, their travels there are finished.

Prabhupāda: Simply by taking some dust?

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That's all. Just see how much...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Millions of dollars.

Prabhupāda: How great asses they are.

Karandhara: Billions.

Prabhupāda: You, you work very hard. This rascal government takes taxes and spend unnecessarily. That's all. This is their intelligence. A set of asses. That's all. They have no sympathy "that this hard-earned money is coming from the public, and we are spending like anything." But nobody can check. This is going on. And they're giving another bluff. "Don't worry. I am going another planet."

Morning Walk -- April 28, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: You, you work very hard. This rascal government takes taxes and spend unnecessarily. That's all. This is their intelligence. A set of asses. That's all. They have no sympathy "that this hard-earned money is coming from the public, and we are spending like anything." But nobody can check. This is going on. And they're giving another bluff. "Don't worry. I am going another planet."

Brahmānanda: Yeah, right. Another one.

Prabhupāda: Yes. "From there, I shall bring more dust."

Brahmānanda: Another future.

Prabhupāda: More dust. Now you have got handful of dust. I'll bring tons of dust. Don't.... And if I... "Oh, yes, now we shall get tons of dust." The rascal does not know, dust is dust, and tons... What is the meaning?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They believe there may be life in Mars planet. So they are very hopeful...

Prabhupāda: If they believe or not believe, what gain there is? Life is here also. You are fighting. This is your program. Here is life also. Here is human being. So suppose there is life. There is life, undoubtedly. But what he'll gain? What is your gain?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They're very curious to know what is going on there.

Prabhupāda: That means for their childish curiosity they're spending so much money. Just see the fun. To satisfy their curiosity, they're spending so much money. And when they're asked that: "There are so many poverty stricken countries. Help them." "No. No money."

Morning Walk -- April 29, 1973, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: Now in Russia, the people are starting to become disillusioned.

Prabhupāda: I, I, I am traveling all over the world. My opinion is that, materially, America is happy. And spiritually some portion of India is happy. Otherwise, there is no happiness all over the world. And material happiness is illusion. That is not happiness. Because it will break at any time. Therefore that is not happiness. And spiritual happiness is real happiness. So in Russia, there is neither material nor spiritual. So they are unhappy in all respects. I asked Professor Kotovsky to call for a taxi. So he said: "Well, it is Moscow. Very difficult to get taxi." So he came down himself, he showed us this way: "Please go in this way, in this way, and you get (to) your hotel." He's a big man. He knows that taxi will not be available. And there are few taxis only, show. I did not see any store very neat and clean, well-decorated. Not a single. All old with dust. As if antique shop. The antique shop, just like in your country. I was daily having my morning walk in the Red Square. The most dangerous square...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: What square?

Prabhupāda: Red Square. Yes. I think you have got my picture.

Karandhara: Yes.

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Prabhupāda: Only the mango tree I remember...

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Others have grown. At night in the forest pastimes, holding a principal part of the Kṛṣṇa-līlā. And when pasturing the cows, then also, forest is necessary. So it will arouse in your mind the memory of Vṛndāvana and the Gauravana. They have got their part to play. And what Uddhava says? (Sanskrit) "I aspire after the birth of a shrub or creeper or a grass in this land because I may have chance of being, having been tread by Your, those divine damsels. Then their feet dust will be on me." So that is a necessary and important part, this vegetable kingdom.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...of Vṛndāvana and Gauravana. They will arouse in your mind the first real memory of Kṛṣṇa and His pastimes.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And help you, help you. Green. (Sanskrit) But real sabuja is there in Vṛndāvana, the source of all sabuja. This sabuja will die, will be dried out.

Prabhupāda: Wither away.

Room Conversation with Anna Conan Doyle, daughter-in-law of famous author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Anna Conan Doyle: The fire, yes. Yes, oil and... Was it a third eye?

Prabhupāda: No.

Anna Conan Doyle: That means you are dust and you become dust again, or what?

Prabhupāda: No, we attended the ceremony. (laughter)

Bhagavān: It is a souvenir of the ceremony.

Prabhupāda: You were not marked because you did not attend the ceremony.

Anna Conan Doyle: I see. It's just a sign. It has no particular meaning.

Prabhupāda: No, this is the general meaning. And this is blessing. After, after the ceremony, if there is any blessing, you get the blessing. Yes.

Guru-gaurāṅga: It's a nicer kind of souvenir than the kind you find in Paris.

Anna Conan Doyle: Exactly, (indistinct) to my eye.

Prabhupāda: Just like nowadays, voting, the man who goes to put his vote, he's marked with a star here. You know that? That means he cannot come again. He cannot represent a false voter. Like that. (break) ...book you are reading now, my books?

Anna Conan Doyle: At the moment, Gītā.

Prabhupāda: Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Very nice.

Morning Walk -- August 30, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

David Lawrence: And they've had one or two cases at their hospital where they've gone out afterwards and they've seen babies moving! Terrible.

Prabhupāda: It has been seen in Calcutta also, in dust bin found out some child, dust bin.

David Lawrence: Terrible. Some are in such an advanced state of pregnancy that clearly life is a strong possibility.

Prabhupāda: Not advanced stage, life begins from the very beginning of sex. The living entity is very small. By nature's law, according to his karma, he's sent to the father's semina and that is injected and immediately the two secretions emulsify, the man's and the woman's, and it forms a body just like a pea. That is the formation of body. Now that pea-like form develops gradually. Then first manifestation is the nine holes. Everything is there in the Vedic literature. Nine holes, they have got nine holes. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. In this way gradually the senses develop and by the time seven months, everything is complete and the living entity's consciousness come back. Prior to the formation of the body, the living entity remains unconscious just like in chloroform, anaesthetic. Then he dreams and then gradually consciousness... At that time he becomes very much upset to come out, come out. Then nature gives him "khut!" He comes out. That's all. This is the process of birth.

Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So that is becoming, happening, that although they are American, European, Canadian, African, Australian, not all of them are Indian... Indians are also there. But because they are giving aural reception to this transcendental message, they are becoming enlightened. So anyone who will give aural reception to this message, first of all Bhagavad-gītā, entrance, then Bhāgavatam, then Caitanya-caritāmṛta, like books, then gradually, he'll be self-realized, fully cognizant what is God. What is God, this is... athāto brahma jijñāsā means what is God. So this institution is meant for giving chance to everyone to hear. It doesn't require education. Simply God has given him this ear. Let him receive the message from the ear. Śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ. This is the process. Very simple process. Simply to hear, sincerely, then everything will be done gradually. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). By hearing, the mirror of consciousness, consciousness is just like a mirror. It is now covered with dust. Mārjanam. Mirror, if you cleanse with a duster, then you can see clearly what is your face. So by this chanting process and hearing, gradually the dirty things in the heart will be cleansed. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). Simply hearing about Kṛṣṇa is puṇya, pious activities. Puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. Either you hear or you chant. Puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. Hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi. There are so many dirty things, nonsense things, within the heart. Hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi, vidhunoti, is washed. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. Who is...? Find out this verse. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. In the First Canto, first part, Third Chapter. Where is Paṇḍita Mahārāja? Call him. Śṛṇvatām, you can find out in the index.

Morning Walk -- December 3, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What is that history? We have got history that Brahmā was the first creation, and from Brahmā... Brahmā created this universe.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are saying that before, it was all gaseous dust particles and some gaseous materials which were floating and in due course it condensed and then it formed this...

Prabhupāda: So wherefrom the gas came? That they do not know.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, they say it was just floating.

Prabhupāda: Floating where. Wherefrom the sky came? They are all nonsense. Simply speculating and consuming cheap money from the government. That's all. This is their business. The government is exacting taxes from the hard-working men, and these rascals are devouring this money. That's all. And making theories. That's all.

Hṛdayānanda: There was one big scandal where they found out all the scientists were just taking money. Even by material standards it was unnecessary. It was a very big scandal.

Prabhupāda: It must be they are scandals. They are after money. That's all. Not after knowledge. And what knowledge they have got? Simply speculating and befooling other fools. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). This is their business. One blind man is befooling other blind men. That's all.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I don't know.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That increases. If you go, see today, and go ten years after, you'll see—take the measurement—it has increased. They'll go...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But they will say that because of the position of the dust particles the size will increase. Even a small...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. It is clean. There is no... It is being washed even. Its name is Tila-bandhesvara. (?) So there is no uncleanliness. Still, the body increases. There is still Tila-bandhesvara. (?) There is temple of Tila-bandhesvara. People go to see.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But the consciousness is covered there.

Prabhupāda: Covered, yes. Dullness means consciousness is covered. You put a child in open air. He'll not feel much cold. You see practically. He'll not feel. Because consciousness is not developed. Animal, they will not feel cold. But we feel.

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa shows by example.

Devotee: Would that be a young cow or a mother cow?

Prabhupāda: Any cow.

Girirāja: "The child was completely washed with the urine of the cow and the dust created by the hooves of the cows was thrown all over His body." (break)

Prabhupāda: ...if they kill Kṛṣṇa, then all these questions does not come. You see? Because they want to kill the cows. And if he worships Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme, then he has to accept these principles. Therefore they want to kill Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: So they can kill the cows.

Girirāja: "The transcendental body of Kṛṣṇa did not require any protection, but to instruct us on the importance of the cow, the Lord was smeared over with cow dung and washed with the urine of the cow, sprinkled with the dust raised by the walking of the cow." (break)

Prabhupāda: ...otherwise, yes. We shall come

Satsvarūpa: Ten to six.

Prabhupāda: No. Why ten to six? At least fifteen to six.

Morning Walk -- May 30, 1974, Rome:

Nitāi: The birds are also making their music.

Prabhupāda: No. That is another thing. But these deer and the snakes, many animals, they are very much fond of music. They enjoy.

matir na kṛṣṇe parataḥ svato vā

mitho 'bhipadyeta gṛha-vratānām

adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisraṁ

punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām

(SB 7.5.30)

Next question is "How one can become interested in the spirit soul or Kṛṣṇa consciousness? How?" This is the position. They cannot. So next proposal is, "How they can be?" Naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ spṛśaty anartha..., yad-arthagamam, niṣkiñcanānām, pāda-rajo-'bhiṣekam.

naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ

spṛśaty anarthāpagamo yad-arthaḥ

mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-'bhiṣekaṁ

niṣkiñcanānām (na vṛṇīta yāvat)

(SB 7.5.32)

Naiṣāṁ matiḥ. Eṣām, "of these rascals and fools," matiḥ, "consciousness," cannot be turned. Naiṣāṁ urukramāṅghrim, "towards the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa, Urukrama." Urukrama means "one who acts very wonderful." And his lotus feet. So naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghrim: "Their attention cannot be converted or turned towards the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa who acts very wonderfully." Anartha apagamaḥ: "And all these misconcepts of life becomes vanquished." How it can be? Now, "So long one does not touch his head to the dust of a devotee of the Lord who is niṣkiñcana, who has nothing to do with this material world, that devotee, who is simply interested in Kṛṣṇa." If one has got the opportunity of touching his head to the lotus feet, to the dust of the lotus feet of such a great devotee, then it is possible. Otherwise, it is not. Niṣkiñcana, mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo 'bhiṣekam. Mahīyasām, such glorified devotee, the dust of the lotus feet, can help him, that's all. Naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ spṛśaty anartha (SB 7.5.32).

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: And there is no water also.

Karandhara: No.

Bhagavān: No, water.

Yogeśvara: They say that the moon is covered by a very thick layer of dust.

Prabhupāda: But according to our śāstra, moon is one of the heavenly planets. (break) ...is moon in any way? Because there is no water?

Karandhara: They say that if they want to set up some houses there, they have to, everything has to be brought there. There's nothing there to use.

Prabhupāda: How the house will be brought there?

Karandhara: Well, they plan on in the future building stations and...

Prabhupāda: The water has to be taken from the station?

Karandhara: Yes. Air, water, everything has to be taken.

Prabhupāda: Oh. And still they must go there. And we are proposing another planet, Vaikuṇṭha planet. They are not willing to go there.

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Oh. And still they must go there. And we are proposing another planet, Vaikuṇṭha planet. They are not willing to go there.

Yogeśvara: They have found one use for all this space travel. They've decided to... They've experimented grounding lenses, grinding lenses in outer space since there's less dust. They can grind lenses that are more perfect.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Spectacle glass. Good advantage.

Bhagavān: There's another purpose. Instead of testing bombs on the earth, they are trying to test bombs on the moon.

Prabhupāda:

piśācī pāile yena mati-cchanna haya

māyā-grasta jīvera haya se bhāva udaya

Piśācī, ghostly haunted person, as he speaks so many nonsense, similarly, these persons who are captivated by māyā, they also speak all nonsense. Ghostly haunted persons. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (japa) What is that? You want to return?

Guru-gaurāṅga: There's a park over there. It's very nice to go to.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation with Professor Oliver La Combe Director of the Sorbonne University -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Nitāi: (reading) "In the Gītā it is clearly mentioned that material energy works fully under the direction of the Supreme Lord. It has no independent authority. It works as the shadow moves in accordance with the movements of the object, but still, material energy is very powerful, and the atheist, due to his godless temperament, cannot know how it works, nor can he know the plan of the Supreme Lord. Under illusion and the modes of passion and ignorance, all his plans are baffled, as in the case of Hiraṇyakaśipu and Rāvaṇa, whose plans were smashed to dust although they were both materially learned as scientists, philosophers, administrators and educators. These duṣkṛtinas or miscreants are of four different patterns as outlined below. Number one. The mūḍhas: those who are grossly foolish like hard working beasts of burden. They want to enjoy the fruits of their labor by themselves and do not want to part with them for the Supreme. The typical example of the beast of burden is the ass. This humble beast is made to work very hard by his master. The ass does not really know for whom he works so hard day and night. He remains satisfied by filling his stomach with a bundle of grass, sleeping for a while under fear of being beaten by the master, and satisfying his sex appetite at the risk of being repeatedly kicked by the opposite party. The ass sings poetry and philosophy sometimes, but this braying only disturbs others. This is the position of the foolish fruitive worker who does not know for whom he should work. He does not know that karma, action, is meant for yajña, sacrifice. Most often, those who work very hard day and night to clear the burden of self-created duties say that they have no time to hear of the immortality of the living being. To such mūḍhas, material gains, which are destructible, are life's all in all, despite the fact that the mūḍhas enjoy only a very small fraction of the fruit of labor. Sometimes they spend sleepless days and nights for fruitive gain, and although they may have ulcers or indigestion, they are satisfied with practically no food. They are simply absorbed in working hard day and night for the benefit of illusory masters. Ignorant of their real master, the foolish workers waste their valuable time serving mammon. Unfortunately, they never surrender to the supreme master of all masters, not do they take time to hear of Him from the proper sources."

Prabhupāda: Generally, we see now, especially in the western countries, they are working so hard. The master is wine and woman. That's all. Is it not? They have made their master wine and women. In Paris we see everywhere. On the street they are drinking and talking. In Germany also, I have seen. You have been in Germany?

Devotee: Amsterdam is the same way.

Prabhupāda: Amsterdam is a place simply for prostitutes.

Room Conversation with Pater Emmanuel (A Benedictine Monk) -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: So nowadays the rascal philosophy has spread that everyone is God, and therefore nobody is humble and meek. If everyone thinks that he is God, then why he should be humble and meek? So they are being educated how to become humble and meek. In the temple, to God, or to the spiritual master, the God's representative, they offer always respect by offering obeisances. That is humble and meek. They are doing very easily progress, you see, only on account of this humbleness and meekness. Even on the road, if they see me, they immediately fall down flat. Never mind there is dust. This very qualification is pushing them towards spiritual realization. In the Vedic scripture it is said,

yasya deve parā bhaktir

yathā deve tathā gurau

tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ

prakāśante mahātmanaḥ

(ŚU 6.23)

Yasya... "Anyone who has got unflinching faith in God and His representative, the spiritual master, to him only, the purport of the scriptures become revealed."

Room Conversations -- September 10, 1974, Vrndavana:

The Gosvāmīs also did it. Nānā-śāstra-vicāraṇaika-nipuṇau sad-dharma-saṁsthāpakau lokānāṁ hita-kāriṇau, for the benefit of the (indistinct). We are pushing this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement for the benefit of the whole world, not that for our individual person. Vaiṣṇava, whatever he does, he does for the whole world, not for his person. Bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī, they do for their own person. Karmīs, jñānīs, yogis, for their personal benefit. That is also materialism. Vaiṣṇavism, lokānāṁ hita-kāriṇau tri-bhuvane mānyau. Therefore, honored all over the three worlds, their activities and their person. Tri-bhuvane mānyau śaraṇyākarau. Therefore, they should be taken shelter of. Vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura confirmed, ei chaya gosāñi yāra, tāra mui dāsa, "One who has taken shelter of the six Gosvāmīs, I am his servant, nobody's servant."

ei chaya gosāñi yāra, tāra mui dāsa,

tāṅ' sabāra pada-reṇu mora pañca-grāsa

"I want to only eat the dust of the (indistinct)."

tāṅdera caraṇa sevi bhakta-sane vāsa

janame janame haya, ei abhilāṣa

Everything is there; simply we have to learn how to utilize it. Our Acyutānanda Swami has written that introduction, he's realizing (indistinct). This Kṛṣṇa consciousness means the life of realization, self-realization, what I am.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- March 13, 1975, Tehran:

Guest: Can the profit of the manufacture of something which is manufactured purely for profit be turned to good?

Prabhupāda: Yes, if he gives to Kṛṣṇa. Just like Arjuna. He fought. He killed. Killing is not good business, but he killed on the advice of Kṛṣṇa, and he became a bhakta by killing. Kṛṣṇa said, bhakto 'si. And what did he do? He killed, that's all. This is an example. Of course, bhakta never kills. Kṛṣṇa... Arjuna was not willing to kill. But when he saw that "Kṛṣṇa wants it, so this is my first business. Never mind I shall go to hell," that is Kṛṣṇa conscious. "By killing my brother I may go to hell. It doesn't matter. But Kṛṣṇa will be satisfied. That is my first business." Kṛṣṇa sometimes pretended to be sick. And many physicians came, they could not cure Him, headache. So He suggested that "I think if My devotee gives their dust of foot on My head, then I'll be cured." Then every devotee was approached that "Give your dust of feet. Kṛṣṇa wants it." Even Nārada. So Nārada said, "How it is possible I shall give my dust of feet to Kṛṣṇa? No, no, no, it is not possible." But when the person, messenger, approached gopīs in Vṛndāvana and they were informed that "Kṛṣṇa is sick. So He wanted the dust of feet of the devotee to be applied on His head. Nobody gave it. So we have come last to you," so immediately: "Yes, yes, take it, take it." Immediately. So so much dust was collected. And Kṛṣṇa was cured. So this is gopīs. Others thought that "If I give the dust of my feet to Kṛṣṇa, I may go to hell," but the gopīs thought, "Let us go to hell, but let Kṛṣṇa be cured." Therefore the gopīs are the first-class devotee. They do not care for themselves. That is recommended by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Ramyā kācid upāsanā vraja-vadhū-vargabhir ya kalpitāḥ: "The process of worship as it was planned by the gopīs in Vṛndāvana, there is no comparison. That is the highest devotion." They did not care for themself. They simply wanted to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa was playing flute at dead of night, all the gopīs were flying to Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:

Satsvarūpa: Just like we say God is svarāṭ, they say that the matter is svarāṭ.

Prabhupāda: Yes, in... Not svarāṭ. We never find a gas is svarāṭ, matter is svarāṭ. They... Just this body. Has this body come out itself? Because the soul is there, the body has developed. Therefore the cause of this body is the soul. The body is not independent. And the soul goes away. Then body's no more independent. It cannot move. It becomes just like dust. "Dust thou art; dust thou be-est." (break) ...like this body is moving now, but it is not independent. It is dependent on the soul. The soul goes away; it does not move. So how it is independent? And everyone knows that because the soul takes shelter within the womb of the mother, the body develops. If the child comes out dead, it does not develop. Therefore matter is dependent on the soul, living being.

Rāmeśvara: Their argument is that matter is always in motion, that it is always moving.

Prabhupāda: Where is moving? This is moving?

Rāmeśvara: Well they say the atoms, the molecules, are always in motion.

Prabhupāda: No, no. First of all prove that this is moving. Then all, say all this nonsense. First of all, why it is not moving? This, this piece of earth, why it is not moving?

Viṣṇujana: They say it's moving very slowly. You can't see it moving.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Eh?

Viṣṇujana: It's moving so slow, you can't see it.

Prabhupāda: Then you become blind. Then you can see.

Morning Walk -- April 7, 1975, Mayapur:

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: ...into the lower species of life.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They will fall down. Śāstra says. They will fall down. The same example: if I ask you that "You sit down in this vacant land and you live eternally," you will leave this place: "No, no, I don't want this eternity. Let me go to Calcutta." (laughter) (break) ...perpetually. So that is wanted. The spiritual kingdom is Brahman effulgence, and there are Vaikuṇṭha planets. So if you take shelter of the Vaikuṇṭha planet, then you can stay. And if you take simply the impersonal Brahmān, sky, you cannot stay there. Arūhya kṛcchreṇa patanty adhaḥ. So without varieties, simply impersonal conception of Brahmān will not make you happy.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: The descriptions of Goloka Vṛndāvana, that even the dust is personal... So we have experience of personal form. Even Kṛṣṇa's form is personal. How is the dust of Vṛndāvana personal? How is it individual living entity?

Prabhupāda: If you want something from this dust, you cannot get it. That is material. But in Vṛndāvana, even from the dust if you want any, he will deliver immediately.

Jayapatāka: Would you like to see the land that we have got here, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: The higher planetary systems are closest to the sun? And then...

Prabhupāda: No, sun is the middle. This is circumference. Sun is the middle. And the whole diameter is fifty lakhs and... What is...? And moon is above, 200,000 yojanas above the sun.

Paramahaṁsa: Ah. 200,000 yojanas. That means 1,600,000 miles above the sun.

Prabhupāda: Above the sun. How they'll go? (laughter) They are going to the wrong..., bluffing only. I am repeatedly saying, they have never gone, simply bluff. How it is that they brought some dust? So brilliant, it is blazing, full. There is fire blazing. (walking:)

Paramahaṁsa: They say that they measured the moon and that it's very small compared to the earth, very tiny.

Prabhupāda: All wrong.

Paramahaṁsa: If it's a longer distance than the sun but still it appears so big in the sky, it must be a very large planet.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Similarly Venus and others, they are also above.

Room Coversation with Psychiatrist and Indian Boy -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: So, everyone is attracted with the woman's body. In your country I have seen the advertisement: "bottomless," "topless..." That is the material attraction. Everyone is in this material world on account of attachment. And similarly, for woman, the man's body is beautiful. So in this way both of them are attached to one another. That is the basic principle of material life. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham (SB 7.9.45). They become attached. On account of sex life, they become more attached, and therefore both of them remain almost perpetually in this material world, and to satisfy different desires they transmigrate from one body to another. And on account of accepting this material body, there is always miserable condition. Therefore everyone requires the psychiatric treatment so that the mind may be transferred from matter to spirit soul. Then he will be cured. The disease is of the mind. Harāv abhaktasy kuto mahād-guṇa mano-rathena. Everyone is riding on the chariot of mind. And the mind is taking him here and there, here... And the yoga practice is also treatment. This is also yoga, bhakti-yoga, and this ordinary haṭha-yoga, that is also treatment of the mind. Treatment of mind means controlling the senses. Yoga indriya-samyamaḥ. Mind is the leader of the senses. So if the treatment of the mind is done properly, then the senses work properly. The example is the madman. Because the madman's mind is not controlled, he is acting in a way—people say, "Here is a madman." So everyone is more or less a madman in this material world, or, in other words, you can say anyone who is in the material world, he is a madman. He requires treatment. Just like anyone who is in the prison house, it is to be accepted that he is a criminal. Without any study, without any exception we can accept all the prisoners as criminals. (break) ...gradually appreciate. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ (CC Antya 20.12). This treatment is in the beginning just cleansing the mirror of the heart. That is the treatment. Just like a mirror, when it is overcast with dust, it requires cleansing. So the mental mirror is covered with material dust. So it has to be cleansed. That is the treatment. And when it is cleansed, you can see your real face in the mirror.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: That is... Unwillingly, when it is done, that is excused. And willingly, when it is done, it is cheating. That in your America there was a Moral Rearmament Movement. So it flourished for some days. Their process was admit, admission of sinful activities, that Christian method. "So I will admit. That's all. Again I do. 'Yes, I have done this.' Then my all reaction is gone. Then again I do it." That is described in the Bhāgavata, kuñjara-śaucavat, the elephant, elephant's cleanliness. Elephants cleanse very nicely in the water, and as soon as come on the land, they will take dust and throw, immediately. So what is the use of cleansing? Kuñjara-śaucavat. You cleanse; again you become unclean. Then what is the use of cleaning?

Paramahaṁsa: Many devotees wish... Now they have become devotees and have had so much bad training, they wish that they could have gone to Gurukula so they would not be so mistrained.

Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, one boy in Sydney, he has been a devotee for a few years, three or four years, but now he has fallen away because of lusty association, I suppose, or bad association. So is this unwilling or willing, because he has become attracted to women again?

Prabhupāda: That is one of the defects, our society, that women are there, and one falls victim of these women. And it is not possible to keep the society strictly for men. That is also not possible. But actually no woman should live in the temple.

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: So that we have to tolerate. Therefore it is called titikṣā. Śamaḥ damaḥ titikṣā ārjavam. Ārjavam means simple life, simplicity, that "If I can live in this way, why shall I acquire so many things for artificial life?" That is called ārjavam. Śamaḥ damaḥ titikṣā ārjavam, then jñānam. Jñānam means knowledge that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul. My..." Actually that is the fact. This body is not important. The living force within the body is important. As soon as the living force goes out of the body, what is this value? You may be a great geographer or scientist or Professor Einstein or whatever. As soon as the living force is gone, you are useless, this body is useless. You have to throw it. That is jñānam, that "I am taking so much care of this material body, which will not exist, which I shall, become... 'Dust thou art; dust thou beist.' Again it will mix up with these dirty things. I am taking so much care of this body. What about that living force, which is important?"

Morning Walk -- May 18, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: By argument, by teaching. (break) Just see how nice flower is coming from the sand. And they say there is no vegetation. What is the difference between this sand and that sand? Sand is sand. Huh? How they are coming? Wherefrom they are getting nourishment? If there no possibility of living being, who is coming to water it? Nobody is coming. In this place, flower, it is a good as the flower growing on the land. But they are growing in the sand, you see. You see actually in the sand things are coming out, and one rascal will say, "No, there is no life." We have to believe it? Even it is full of sand and dust. Here we see dust and sand produce life, so why shall I believe these rascals about sand? What is the difference between that sand and this sand?

Amogha: Some scientists admit there is life there, there may be life...

Prabhupāda: No, no, these scientists are all rascals; first of all take it, don't believe it. "Some scientists say"; then who is real scientist? This scientist says there is no life, another scientist says there may be, then who is right, hm?

Morning Walk -- May 18, 1975, Perth:

Amogha: But that heaviness they say is gravity.

Prabhupāda: You can call anything. (laughs) But if Kṛṣṇa desires, a football may not fall. Just like so many planets, they are carried up by the air. All these planets are moving only by the air. So the heavy land, heavy cloud is carried by the air. It is a question of adjustment of air, not the law of gravity. Now the whole universal planetary system are floating and rotating round the polestar. Is it law of gravity, they are rotating? It is the arrangement of the air, by the air it is up. Just like there is dust storm, so many are floating in the air. There is no question of law of gravity; it is the air. And the who is controlling the air? That is Supreme Personality. Just like in Darwin, the motor buses were floating by the air. It was a great storm there?

Amogha: Yes, hurricane.

Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: These chanting. Beads.

Jesuit: Oh, beads in there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I think in Christian there are beads also.

Jesuit: I saw them in the picture, they had'em, and I didn't know what it was.

Prabhupāda: This is covering of the beads because we put here, there may be some dust. So to show respect to the beads, we keep it covered. We do not touch on the floor. It is awe and veneration.

Jesuit: Well, I have kept you long enough. I...

Prabhupāda: No, you can keep me engaged whole day and night, (laughter) provided you have got time. We are meant for this purpose. If anyone can understand God consciousness, that is a great profit for us. Now our appeal is to everyone, every religious sect, that people are becoming godless generally at the present moment. So we should make combined effort to revive their God consciousness. Otherwise it is doomed. And there is no question of Christian God or Hindu God or Muslim God. God is one. So there should be no difference between the system. According to the time and circumstances, there may be little difference, but really if we can understand God, either through Christianity or through Hinduism or Muslim, that is our profit. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). "That is first-class religion, following which, one becomes a lover of God". You become a lover of God. That we want to see.

Morning Walk -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Huh? Space mouse.

Devotee: Space monkey also.

Prabhupāda: So since 1955 even. So twenty years, what they have done?

Devotee: Spent billions of dollars.

Prabhupāda: Yes, simply they have brought little dust, that's all.

Madhudviṣa: Now they have found that that same dust is here on the earth.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Simply propaganda. They are not going. Now the Russian scientist and American scientist are combined. Because both of them thieves, so one thief is asking, "Don't expose me. I will not expose you, so that our business will go on." This is the way. "Let us combine together and cheat these rascals, and otherwise, if you expose me, then I will expose you. Then our business will stop."

Devotee: They are cooperating.

Prabhupāda: Cooperating. Thief, thief's cooperation.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Four billion. So how they can calculate?

Paramahaṁsa: If they took a photograph of the earth planet from up in space, they would probably also say there is no life.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (3): They say because the atmosphere is not like this planet, others cannot live there.

Prabhupāda: Why not atmosphere? The moon planet, there is a planet. There is space. There is surface. There is dust. So why not atmosphere the same? It is made of the same ingredients, earth, water, fire. Why do you say that is not same atmosphere?

Devotee (3): They are saying that it's too cold or too hot.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That is here also. There are many cold places. Do they think that in the cold places there is no life? All nonsense. And only nonsense will believe them. I never believed it. Why? Here we see under this sand there is life. The crabs, what is called? They live within, so many hundreds of thousands. We have seen on the sand.

Morning Walk -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Our science is stated in the Vedas, yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavanti. Just try to understand Kṛṣṇa, and everything will be understood. So try to understand one, Kṛṣṇa, and then you understand everything. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavanti. (break) ...philosophy is, it is said, that bhaktim... śreya-sṛtiṁ bhaktim... śreya-sṛtiṁ bhaktim upasya, ye kliśyanti kevala-bodha-labdhaye. Kevala-bodha means just trying to understand this, that, this, that, this, that, this, that. In this way they are wasting time and giving up devotional service to the Lord. So what is the result? Bhaktim udapasya te vibho kliśyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye. Kevala-bodha. The duration of life is very short, and he is gathering knowledge by going to the moon. In this way he is wasting his time. So the result is that waste of time. That is their gain and nothing more. Just see that these people instead of teaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they wanted to study, go to the moon planet to understand. The result is, their only result is, that they have labored so much, and that is their gain, nothing else. What other thing they have made. Teṣāṁ kleśala evāvaśiṣyate nānyad yathā sthula-tuṣāvaghāṭīnām. Just like you beat the skin of rice paddy. You will not get rice. Simply your labor, "Gad, gad, gad, gad," that will be your gain. So their only gain is that they have learned that in the moon there is dust like here, that's all. This is their... (laughs) As if we are very much eager to know that there is also dust in the moon. (laughs) And they bluff people selling ticket for going to moon planet.

Morning Walk -- July 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, there is no life within the sand?

Paramahaṁsa: In the sun.

Prabhupāda: No, no, in the sand. You'll find so many lives, many millions. How there is life in the water? There is life in the water, there is life on the land, there is life in the air, so where is there no life? How you can say there is no life? That is foolishness. And they say that the dust brought from the moon planet is the same. It can be found here. So why there should not be life?

Paramahaṁsa: If there is life on other planets then they assume it's in a plant form or very, very low, like plants, bushes at the most.

Prabhupāda: That is their opinion.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? If these scientists, they landed on the Rahu planet, that means that...

Prabhupāda: That could be, but some... Just like somebody was saying that there are many planets unknown. They might have gone to some... Just like there are many parts of the world you have never seen. Even on this planet, you cannot say that you have seen all the parts of the world. That is not possible.

Morning Walk -- July 25, 1975, Los Angeles:

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, they say these complex chemicals came from the simplest chemicals.

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom?

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, they say in space there are many, many particles.

Prabhupāda: How the space came?

Rāmeśvara: That's eternal. They say it's eternal. They say the space and the dust...

Prabhupāda: Then why do you bother? Stop speculating. Everything is eternal. Why do you bother yourself to find out something new?

Rāmeśvara: To control. To gain control.

Prabhupāda: No, you cannot control because you are controlled. That is eternally you are controlled. You are controlled.

Yadubara: Also, Śrīla Prabhupāda, they don't recognize that there are so many species of life. Just like the white man and the black man they will say is one species. And also the aborigine.

Prabhupāda: We... Let us accept forms, not species but forms. It doesn't matter. There is only change of words. There are so many forms.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: Picture you can manufacture here.

Harikeśa: And they have earth dust as if it came from the moon.

Prabhupāda: And the other scientist says this kind dust can be had here. So what is the proof they went there? It can be collected here.

Harikeśa: And their dust does not reflect. They say the moon is reflective, but the dust and the pictures, it was all dark gray. No reflection.

Prabhupāda: So therefore if I say that they did not go to the moon, how they can support?

Harikeśa: They cannot prove. They are so clever and sophisticated with their nonsense, they can even make the astronauts believe...

Prabhupāda: Therefore I asked you to ask them, "Why Sunday first and Monday next?"

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's very conceivable that they could have tricked everyone. They simply have a video. They go up in a space ship around. They simply show a film from the space ship back to the earth, how they were practicing in the Arizona desert and they collected some rocks and took it with them. It's very easy.

Morning Walk -- October 25, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: How do you say there is no life? You see in the sand there are so many lives. So there, if it is desert, there are so many lives.

Indian man: In the Sahara desert we can have life there, Swamijī?

Prabhupāda: They say, but we see practically there are lives. Why shall I believe them? Here I see so many lives are there within the sand. So why shall I believe you when you say that nobody can live there because it is sand or dust. I see practically.

Indian man: Here we have air and water.

Prabhupāda: There also there is everything. Therefore I say they did not go there.

Indian man: In the moon it may be. But where they went, there. There could have not been there. They say there no life there. It may be in Rahuloka, as you have said that.

Prabhupāda: No, there is life in Rahu.

Morning Walk -- October 26, 1975, Mauritius:

Brahmānanda: ...they quoted from the Bible about how wonderful the creation of God is, how He has made it.

Prabhupāda: And only they saw the moon planet is... There is no living entity. Why God made the moon planet? To keep it vacant? Full of dust?

Brahmānanda: Yes. They become more proud that this earth planet is so full and other planets are all vacant.

Prabhupāda: So God is so fool that He made all other planets vacant, and here for the rascals, there is... (laughter) Full of rascals.

Harikeśa: He had to put the dust somewhere. That's one of the theories, that all of the gas... In the beginning all the gas was circulating around and it solidified into different planets.

Prabhupāda: So why this planet is full of living entities? Why not others? What is that gas? What particular gas was circulating this planet? So take this gas, circulate over here, and get living entities there and live there. Why don't you do that, you scientists? Why you are disappointed? You are going to Venus. Just see. This rascaldom we have to believe.

Morning Walk -- November 12, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Such kind of religious system is rejected. Dharmaḥ projjhita kaitavaḥ. Kaitava means cheating. To cheat God or to be cheated by God, this kind of religion is rejected. But people are very much fond of that kind of religion by which the God is cheated and he is cheated. He will commit all kinds of sins and he will be excused. That means God is cheated. And if he thinks that "I will go on committing sinful; God will excuse me," that is also cheating. He is cheating himself, as if God is so fool that he will go on committing sin and God will excuse. These are cheating. This is not religion. God is personally speaking, yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām (BG 7.28), and he is thinking that "I will go on committing sinful activities and God will excuse." Why God will excuse? This is foolishness. He can excuse once, twice, thrice, but as a matter of routine, he will commit sinful activities and God will excuse—this is all nonsense. Parīkṣit Mahārāja has condemned this process. He has compared the kuñjara saucavat. Kuñjara means elephant. The elephant takes bath in the river or in the lake very minutely, becomes very clean. And as soon as he will come on the shore, he takes some dust and... You will find this. He's such a big animal, but he has no sense that "Now I have washed all dirty things. Again I am taking dirt?" So this kind of knowledge, that "Cleanse yourself by doing prāyaścitta, and again unclean." If you have cleansed yourself, then keep yourself clean. Why you are uncleaning again? This is foolishness. (break) "What is this, pious activities and sinful activities? These are all old, primitive ideas. Now we are advanced." (Hindi) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya (break) ...surfing introduced as (Hindi) ...Surfing sport... (Hindi) (break) ...that toothpaste within the box?

Harikeśa: Yes.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:

Devotee (4): Going about five, six months, they have traveled all over.

Prabhupāda: Many people assembled on the way?

Devotee (4): Yes, because they were stopping in every village and distributing literature, giving away prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Hm. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (pause) Hm. It is dirty.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very much dust.

Rādhāvallabha: Thousands of people went through last night.

Madhudviṣa: I don't think we can prevent that, Śrīla Prabhupāda. So much traffic.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Foot traffic. I think it should be dusted off.

Rādhāvallabha: The whole display will be cleaned this morning.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (break) Tokyo, Japan, and Philadelphia.

Balavanta: That's Philadelphia.

Rādhāvallabha: That was when you were there, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, yes. (pause) Therefore our mission is to bring Māyāpur everywhere.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So, so what is the cause of the brightness?

Pañca-draviḍa: The sun.

Prabhupāda: They have brought some dust, but this is not bright.

Trivikrama: They say it's reflected light.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. What is the material that makes it so bright so that whole universe is illuminated?

Haṁsadūta: There's no comment on that point.

Pṛthu-putra: They don't know that.

Prabhupāda: They have brought some dust, but that is not bright. They have said.... The other scientists, they said, "This kind of dust can be available here." Just see. Now, how it is bright?

Pañca-draviḍa: Well, they say that from space the earth would be bright also, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: The nonsense may say anything. But our common sense that if the, there is some ingredient in this moon which makes it bright, so they have brought the dust, but other scientists say that this dust can be available here.

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

Reporter (1): No, I mean, you are keeping it wrapped in a piece of cloth.

Prabhupāda: That bead.

Reporter (1): Why?

Prabhupāda: The bead is pure, so just to keep it aloof from the dust.... Just like we keep this drinking water covered. Why? This is common sense.

Reporter (1): Just to keep it pure.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Pure it is, but still, it is our duty not to treat ordinarily.

Reporter (1): Are your disciples supposed to chant the mantra all the time?

Prabhupāda: Yes. All my disciple is chanting.

Reporter (1): Are they supposed to chant the mantra throughout the day?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Mūḍha. (interference) ...rejecting Kṛṣṇa, you are rascals. We don't say; Kṛṣṇa says. Because you are not taking Kṛṣṇa seriously, you are mūḍha. And when he wants to know what is mūḍha, rascal.... (interference)

Guru-kṛpā: ...in this lifetime.

Prabhupāda: There is no question of becoming perfect. Try to become perfect. That is perfect. Don't become.... (interference) Remain always student and try to become perfect. That is wanted. Guru more mūrkha dekhi' karila śāsana (CC Adi 7.71). (break)

Guru-kṛpā: That is what Rahūgaṇa, he asked Jaḍa Bharata, "How have you attained such a perfectional stage?"

Prabhupāda: Rahūgaṇaitat tapasā na yāti na cejyayā nirvapaṇād...

Guru-kṛpā: That is our wonder, how Your Divine Grace has attained such a perfectional stage.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The conclusion was that only by the dust of the lotus feet of a pure devotee. (break)

Prabhupāda: That's all. (end)

Room Conversation -- May 3, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: Where is guru? Goru, you say goru. When it is pronounced guru, I say, you say, don't say guru, but you say goru.

Guru-kṛpā: Goru.

Prabhupāda: Goru, no, do you know goru? Goru means cow.

Guru-kṛpā: Cow. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: (laughing) Otherwise they're going to find out, then don't say goru. Guru.

Guru-kṛpā: Guru.

Prabhupāda: Goru means cow. Śrī-guru-caraṇa-padma. Śrī-guru. (laughs) So they're all gorus, nobody guru.

Guru-kṛpā: Yes.

Prabhupāda: All rascals. Now that Ravi Shankar has become George guru. Somebody.... You were telling me? That this boy has been taught to take the dust of the feet of Ravi Shankar in the stage, and people did not like it. So he has become unpopular accepting a goru. (end)

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Sarva-yoniṣu. All kinds of forms of life, 8,400,000 different forms of life. So "The material nature is the mother and I am the seed-giving father." Why they do not accept this philosophy? And everything is going on. Just like in the family the mother is there and the father is there. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is the father, and material nature is mother, and we are all sons. If we accept this simple philosophy, everything will be all right. Why they do not accept this philosophy, so many rascal philosophers? This simple philosophy. And this is a fact. What is this body? This body is this earth. "Dust thou art, dust thou beest." So the mother is this material nature. I've got this body. And the father, He is Kṛṣṇa, or God. What is wrong in accepting this philosophy? If this simple philosophy is accepted, the whole world will be happy. But they'll not accept it. These rascals will come, and speculate rascal philosophy. (laughing) With this simple philosophy... United Nations is there. Why do they not accept this simple philosophy? If God is the supreme father and in every religion they accept that, at least the Christian religion accept that supreme father, God, and the material nature is mother. And we are all sons. Not only human beings, every living being, even the dogs. This is philosophy, real philosophy.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1976, Honolulu:

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?

Hari-śauri: That description's given when after the brāhmaṇas killed King Vena, they saw a great huge dust cloud on the horizon from all the thieves and rogues rushing back into the kingdom (laughing) when there was no ruler.

Devotee (2): Why doesn't he come to his senses there and then that "What have I done? Why don't I become God conscious?"

Prabhupāda: That is māyā. Just like they surfer. What is that? They are in hell. But they have no sense that "What you are enjoying? It is hell." They are thinking they are enjoying. Is that enjoyment? It is actually hell. But he's thinking he's enjoying. That is called māyā. He's accepting something what is not. That is māyā. Hog eating stool, and he's thinking he's enjoying. This is called māyā. There are different grades of suffering, and still they are thinking they are enjoying.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is also, what is called, argumentative. Somebody says it is arbitrary arrangement.

Reporter: Hm. Laboratory.

Prabhupāda: Of course, we do not go into the details of this. My question is that why Sunday first and Monday second? Nobody can apli..., replies.

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda once also argued that the dust, the dirt that they brought back, it did not reflect any light, but the moon is always reflecting light. So it was a different substance than what must be on the moon surface.

Prabhupāda: Now, according to our Vedic scripture, Moon is one of the heavenly planets.

Reporter: Are there any other Vedic scriptures that you believe speak to a situation that is greatly misunderstood today besides this?

Prabhupāda: No. Vedic understanding means there is no different Vedic version.

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, it is very difficult to convince the people that they have not gone to the moon. I mean, that's a good logic, but they'll think that's very childish for us to say "Sunday first, Monday."

Prabhupāda: Well, let them remain as child.

Candanācārya: Śrīla Prabhupāda once said that if the moon is dirt and dust, how is it that it reflects the light of the sun so much that it lights up the whole planet?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The common sense. They have lost their common sense.

Candanācārya: It's so shiny that it lights up the whole earth planet at night.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Candanācārya: How can dirt reflect light like that?

Prabhupāda: That was my first question.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think that we should write a, we should publish a little book on this, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: If you can.

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jumping on the moon?

Prabhupāda: That was not shown.

Candanācārya: They may be hypnotized also.

Hṛdayānanda: Prabhupāda said they'd gone to Rāhu.

Rāmeśvara: They have got that dust. They say they got that from another planet.

Prabhupāda: Dust you can take it from here, from this beach.

Rāmeśvara: So then they're lying.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That means they're deliberately cheating, knowingly. And the government is backing them.

Prabhupāda: That is your business.

Rāmeśvara: What is the purpose of the cheating?

Candanācārya: Prabhupāda said to ask for taxes.

Prabhupāda: Lābha, pūjā, pratiṣṭhā. These three things are materially wanted. Some material profit, some reputation and some.... Eh?

Devotees: Distinction.

Prabhupāda: Adoration. These are the material demands.

Morning Walk -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: But why do they say the moon planet first?

Ambarīṣa: Because their senses are imperfect.

Prabhupāda: Svarūpa Dāmodara also, he also not replied satisfactorily. (break) ...do not count talking about sun, moon excursion. Why they are now stop, not talking anything?

Devotee (1): All they could get was some dust.

Prabhupāda: That is already known. Further?

Makhanlāl: They want to go to Mars and Saturn now.

Prabhupāda: Why? Moon finished? Simply by taking dust? And still the government is going to pay for Mars and Venus?

Devotee (1): They all do favors for each other. The government contracts big construction companies to build military bases for them. And then in turn they all have engagement, they all feed each other, like that. We met one boy in Houston, his grandfather was a disciple of Bhaktisiddhānta.

Prabhupāda: Indian?

Devotee (1): Yes. No, he is not Indian, he was German.

Prabhupāda: German. Yes.

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

Kathy Kerr: What purpose does the chanting serve?

Prabhupāda: Cleansing. The brain cleansed so that one can understand. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Cleansing. We have got so many dirty things within ourselves. By this chanting and following these regulative principles, it will be cleansed. Then just like a mirror full of dust, you have to cleanse it. Then you'll see your face very nicely. So this is the process of cleansing the mirror of heart. So when it is cleansed, then you can understand, "Yes, I'm not this body. I am soul. My business is different." That is wanted. Therefore we are encouraging people to come here, chant, dance, and take prasādam. Gradual process. They have come. In the beginning, I had no place to stay even. Now we have got hundreds of big, big palaces.

Kathy Kerr: Why is it that you seem to attract a large following of youth?

Prabhupāda: Because my..., it is fact, it is not a bogus thing. It is not some imagination, "By meditation you become God." We do not bluff like that. We give education, scientific education. The books are there. You'll find this Bhagavad-gītā... Have you read ever? No. Here, how to understand God and myself, my relationship. There is no such thing that "You sit down fifteen minutes and you become God." There is no such bogus thing. It is science.

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. That's ... Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja is struggling to construct a small residential quarter here, and he has to beg, he has to collect, he has done... Why the government does not pay? "Here so many people are living. Let them live comfortably." But they'll spend this money, millions of dollars, and to bring some dust. Is that very sane government? And people are so fool that they do not challenge the government, "Why you are spending for nothing?" They can do that. They brought back Nixon. Why not stop this unnecessary expenditure? Hm? Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja?

Interview with Mike Darby -- June 30, 1976, Wheeling, W. Virginia:

Darby: They get big profit, and no one else does.

Prabhupāda: And they are going to the moon planet, Mars planet, and bring some dust.

Darby: They try to keep the people busy by showing them other planets.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Busy means they can show all these bluff busy programs to the rascals, not to the sane man.

Darby: Could you tell us a little about your spiritual master's life? I've never heard anything.

Prabhupāda: This is spiritual master, one who is representative of God. And one who speaks what God has said, then he's spiritual master.

Darby: But I have never heard anything of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta, and I wondered if you would tell me a little bit about him, if you would.

Prabhupāda: What shall I say? He was my spiritual master, and whatever he taught, we are speaking, that's all. We don't talk any nonsense.

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: And why there is no life in moon planet? Some scientists say the temperature is two hundred degrees less than the zero.

Hari-śauri: Yes, at night when they said, because there's no atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: But why these rascals say it is full of dust, and how from the dust so much light is coming, illuminating the whole universe? What is their logic? They have already brought the dust. That dust does not illuminate.

Hari-śauri: Well, they say just like when the sunlight hits the earth, then the earth appears very bright from outer space. It appears very illuminating.

Prabhupāda: Who says?

Hari-śauri: This is the scientists' excuse. They showed some pictures taken from outer space that shows the earth glowing very brightly, like the moon. So they say in the same way when the...

Prabhupāda: Why the glow of the surface of the earth does not illuminate? It does not come between illumination?

Hari-śauri: Just like when the sun is here everything is bright.

Prabhupāda: That's all right, when the sun is there.

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Any sane man will be frustrated. Why you are spending money and going there? Kevala-bodha-labdhaya, kliśyanti kevala, bhaktim.... Kliśyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye teṣām asau kleśala eva śiṣyate nānyad yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām. Just like the husk... The outer portion of rice? If there is rice, you husk, beat it, rice will come. The rice is not there, simply husk, what is the use of this beating? It is like that. Rice will not come, simply they are trying to beat it. So the result is they become tired, that's all. They only result is they'll become tired. Kleśala eva śiṣyate, that's all. The result of hard labor is tiresome. So they'll get that only, that's all. They are satisfied, "Now we are tiresome, let us sleep." What you have gotten? "Dust." That's all. This is the philosophy. Bhaktim, what is that verse?

Pradyumna: Śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8)?

Prabhupāda: Huh? That's not it. Kleśala, kleśala.

Pradyumna: Kleśadikataras, kleśa?

Prabhupāda: Kliśyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye teṣām asau kleśala eva śiṣyate nānyad yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām.

Hari-śauri: It's from the Bhāgavatam?

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is mentioned in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Any process you accept, rejecting devotional service, the result will be that there is no profit. You simply labor for nothing, as much as to beat the husk, you'll never get the rice, you will simply be tiresome, that's all. Just like so-called religion. There is no faith in God. There is no need of God, and "religion." This is nonsense. Religion means without God? This is going on. God, you can accept anyone, Ramakrishna Mission. Any rascal...He was a fool, illiterate rascal, Ramakrishna. He became God. No standard, and they are propagating Ramakrishna Mission. As we are preaching Kṛṣṇa is God, they are preaching Ramakrishna. And who's accepting them? For the last hundred years, they are preaching. So who has become a devotee of Ramakrishna?

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: Institute, you have got sufficient subject matter as I was describing, this original source of life and the planetary system, as you are going to make planetarium. Who can say about so many planets in the sky? Who has got sufficient knowledge? They cannot even give... They think that moon is the nearest planet, but we do not think like that. But still they are unable to give sufficient knowledge about the moon. It is not vacant, it cannot be vacant. We do not find any part of the world vacant. There is living entities. This earth planet is part of the universe, and the moon is also part of the universe. If it is not vacant, how that can be vacant? You have got dust there, we have got dust here; you have got rocks there, here we have got rocks. And why it is vacant? We find in the dust also there is life. When we walk on the beach, it is simply sand, there are so many crabs. They are immediately flying, running, "Here is a man coming. Enter into the hole." So even the dust, in the sand, there is life. So why not there? In the water there is life, within the sand there is life, in the air there is life, everywhere there is life. Why it should be vacant? Hmm? What is the opinion of the scientists? How...? We are layman, talking like layman, but why there should not be life? And in the śāstra we get there is life. Not only moon, every planet is full of living entities. Jagat-kīrṇa(?). There is human being, there is animal, everything. How it can be vacant, God's creation?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They say they cannot see.

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

Guest (1): Simply our hearts are caked with dust.

Prabhupāda: Therefore we shall keep it dusty. If our heart is full of dust, cleanse it. That is intelligence. What is this, "My heart is dirty, let it be kept as dirty"? No, if it is dirty, cleanse it. It is the duty of every Indian to understand Kṛṣṇa and preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement to others. That is real Indian business. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission, that every one of you become Kṛṣṇa conscious and preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness to others who are unaware of Kṛṣṇa. That is the injunction; that is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission. He said bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra (CC Adi 9.41). Anyone who has taken birth in India as a human being—not as dogs manuṣya, manuṣya means human—his duty is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious and preach to the other people for welfare activities. Bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra (CC Adi 9.41). We should mark this point, manuṣya-janma. He's not requesting the cats and dogs. So in other words, that those who are not taking, Indians... Bhagavad-gītā is known to everyone, every Indian knows. But if he does not preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he is not to be counted as human being. Because He says manuṣya-janma haila yāra. If we claim to be human being, born in India, it is our duty to understand the value of life from Bhagavad-gītā and preach this cult to others to do real welfare activities. This is the duty of every Indian. Why Indians are lacking in their duty? They do not understand Kṛṣṇa and they do not understand how to do good to others. Now whatever is done is done. It is time, now that Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is here, the temple is here, you come, you understand the whole philosophy and distribute. That is your duty. In New York City we can open many temples, provided you come.

Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: No, that is another plan. At least she does not know how things are going on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually, unless someone gets one of your books, there's no way they can come out of the darkness of this material world. There's no other source of knowledge for the people nowadays.

Prabhupāda: That is a fact. Śrīmad-bhāgavate mahā-muni-kṛte kiṁ vā anyaḥ śāstraiḥ. When there is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, composed, compiled by Vyāsadeva, where is the use of other literature? Śrīmad-bhāgavate mahā-muni-kṛte. (pause) Dusty, eh? No one is taking care.

Bali-mardana: They cannot afford to pay the garbage men to clean up the mess.

Prabhupāda: Why he's going there?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's another lake over there. So we are checking for tomorrow's walk, if it is also a good path. That's a natural, not natural, a little more natural lake.

Prabhupāda: Well, this is good lake. People are becoming dishonest. They'll take money and do nothing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'm seeing down at Dalhousie Square area that the government employees, they are constantly taking tea break. They come late to work...

Prabhupāda: I have seen in New Delhi, I was going to sell my Back to Godhead, so they were all sitting and gossiping, and files are piled up. If you want some file it will take six months. Doing nothing. Sixty percent of the employees are simply wasting time.

Morning Walk -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: No, without water there cannot be sand.

Hari-śauri:. So early in the moon's history, when it was first formed, when there was gaseous clouds, then there was the water in the atmosphere...

Prabhupāda: There was water?

Hari-śauri: But then, due to the atmosphere being dry, not being any atmosphere, now it's just rocks and dust.

Prabhupāda: Why the atmosphere changed? There was water? Why the atmosphere changed? (break) ...is water, there must be vegetation. So where those vegetation gone? All false propaganda. Even in the sea you'll find seaweed. Is it not? So as soon as there is water, there must be vegetation. And without water, sand does not come. If there is sand, there is water, there is vegetation.

Hari-śauri: So if there was originally an atmosphere, why is it not there now?

Prabhupāda: These are all rascal, "atmosphere." What atmosphere? Whole world is made of these material elements. Why the atmosphere should be different? Maybe more or less; that is another thing. Just like in the Western country it is very cool and the Eastern it is country hot. But that does not mean everything is changed.

Morning Walk -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Gurudāsa: The moon planet is said to be higher planet, but sand is not...

Prabhupāda: No, no, they say that moon planet, there is sand. They have brought sand. I say, "Wherefrom the sand came unless there is water?"

Gurudāsa: Yes.

Devotee (1): Came from Arizona. (laughter)

Hari-śauri: Actually when they brought that dust, they said they brought that dust back, they made the point that it's just like the dust here. That's the same things again. You pointed out, "Why they are mentioning Arizona when they're talking about Mars?"

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: That means they've never been past Arizona.

Prabhupāda: All business is going on in Arizona.

Gurudāsa: You once said there is a gross and subtle part of the moon planet. Is that so? No.

Prabhupāda: No.

Gurudāsa: You said one who had qualification could get to the actual moon planet.

Prabhupāda: Moon is one. There are not so many moons. Moon is one. You can go to the moon. By ritualistic ceremony you can get there ten thousands of years life and enjoy. That is the heavenly planet.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes.

Jayatīrtha: In all respects Paris is superior. (laughs)

Bhagavān: I was just thinking that if you wanted warm weather, it's very warm during the day, and the air is very clean. It's not so dusty.

Prabhupāda: No, in the village there must be.

Bhagavān: The trouble is if you get sick along the way.

Jayatīrtha: On the way back from the airport we had to stop twice.

Bhagavān: Anyway, that trip to India is also long, eight hours. It's also long.

Hari-śauri: Thing is Prabhupāda is thinking that if he has to go to India anyway, so he may as well go straight there.

Bhagavān: The thing is you may be bothered in India. There are so many people who come, even though you say no. Even though you say no, there's always people.

Prabhupāda: No, the present problem is that I cannot go out.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Sometimes they are called churchmouse. Churchmouse. A mouse in the church, what he'll eat? He's in a householder's place, a mouse is there, he can eat something. But church, nobody's eating there. Simply dust, that's all. (laughter) Churchmouse. Any new mail?

Harikeśa: Stacks of it. Quite a lot.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Where from?

Harikeśa: Want to go over it now? Shall we go over everything now?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhagavān: Jyotirmāyī is outside, and Yogeśvara. We can have them come in?

Prabhupāda: Just fix on the light.

Bhagavān: Is now the right time to ask? She has some questions on Gurukula. Is now okay?

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Harikeśa: They haven't come as yet.

Bhagavān: Yogeśvara has just come back from Italy.

Prabhupāda: What is the news, Italy?

Yogeśvara: They've finished the preparation for the printing of the French edition of Kṛṣṇa book and Śrī Upadeśāmṛta and the Italian Bhagavad-gītā, and they should be ready within the next ten days.

Prabhupāda: French language.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes, heaven on the earthly planet.

Parivrājakācārya: We noticed that in one of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatams you mentioned that Kardama Muni had his āśrama, Kaśyapa Muni I mean, on the shore of the Caspian Sea, which is just an hour from here by plane-it's ninety kilometers.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, Caspian Sea. This is made from a kind of fruit.

Nava-yauvana: Yes, a kind of melon.

Prabhupāda: They are saying that the moon is full of dust. And dust is so brilliant? We have to believe this? The rascals they are making this proposal. So what do you think?

Dayānanda: I don't think they know actually what they are talking about, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, actually this is fact. It is similar planet like the sun, but it is surrounded by cold atmosphere, therefore it is so pleasing. And because it is far away from the sun, the distance between moon and earth is more than the distance between the sun and the earth. Therefore sun looks bigger and it looks smaller. We are contemplating having a planetarium with electric arrangement. You'll have to work. The whole planetary system is moving from east to west, and the sun, moon and... They are up and down. (to child): Come on, Hare Kṛṣṇa, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. He can speak?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: No, just a few words.

Prabhupāda: Two years.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Haṁsadūta: If it's three rupees, thirty paisa a day for eating, soap, and toothpaste...

Prabhupāda: No soap. Take this Rādhā-kuṇḍa's... Why soap? You are so devotee of Rādhā-kuṇḍa, why you require soap? This is nonsense. You take earth from the Rādhā-kuṇḍa or Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana-dhūli. Why you require soap? (Hindi conversation to the effect that if one has the dust of Vṛndāvana or Rādhā-kuṇḍa, there is no necessity for soap) Nim datun? I was doing nim datun(?) until the teeth fell down. You will know that I was collecting nim. But now it is impossible. That also I have manufactured my own toothpaste. I purchase only the brush and I made my toothpaste at home. I never used any toothpaste. Even in my young days. I never used. You have seen it practically. Not only that now I have become sannyāsī. When I was gṛhastha I never used. When I was gṛhastha I was using that nim datun(?) regularly. And I can give you the paste. So if you cannot use nim datun, you can use this paste. Very simple.

Room Conversation -- September 17, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...one horse within the mouth—that is God. One hill. One Pūtanā, sucking the breast, her life goes. That is God. Why shall I take some cheap God? We are not so foolish. Here is the... So many great saintly persons hearing about God. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). They are fools, hearing about Kṛṣṇa? Such great, great personalities? And Śukadeva Gosvāmī is speaking. Are they fools? All of them fools? One, two may be fool. They were wholesale fool? All the great personalities, they're all fools? Asita, Devala, Vyāsa, Nārada—all big personalities. Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Caitanya Mahāprabhu—they're all fools? I may be fool. They are not fools. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). Why shall I accept a rascal God? Varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ (SB 2.1.1). "Oh, you want to hear about Kṛṣṇa?" Varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ. Śukadeva was praising: "Oh, glorious, you have taken... Yes." Here is God. Breathing, and innumerable universes are coming. Here is God. Sleeping and breathing is not unnatural. He is also. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaḥ-like us. But like not us. He can breathe and... That is the difference. Breathing is common. I breathe, He breathes. That's all right. But His breathing, my breathing is not the same breathing. He eats, I eat. That's all right. But when He eats, Mother Yaśodā sees all the universes are within Him. They cannot understand this. That we are equal, that's all right, but there is difference. So far, I am a living being, He's also a living being, but He's supreme living being. How? Because I breathe, some dust comes and goes out, and when He breathes some universes come out. This is the difference. So because He is breathing and I am breathing, therefore equal. No. Paśyaty acakṣuḥ. He sees, but not like us.

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: If that is not available, not possible, don't be very... But these things must be done.

Haṁsadūta: Yes. It's just that I want to comply with all your desires.

Prabhupāda: That may be taken as voluntarily. But nobody can sit idly. That is the point. If one is engaged in making for flower garland, all right, you may not take him. It is not compulsory for you. The twenty-four hours kīrtana may... Suppose if we haven't got sufficient men, it is not possible. It is required if there is sufficient men and they are not... We must see that they are not wasting uselessly time. That is the... If they are engaged in some business, there is no compulsory that he has to go and chant. But these things are... Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau **. That is compulsory. It must be done by you or me or... It must be done early in the morning. Whole temple should be... There is sufficient water supply in the pipe. Simply it takes half and hour. It is neglected. I see the temple is not washed. There's so much dust.

Akṣayānanda: We used to wash it three times a day.

Prabhupāda: It is stopped.

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: So this is a... In the battle between the demigods and the demons.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Hari-śauri: The verse was

teṣāṁ padāghāta-rathāṇga-cūrṇitād

āyodhanād ulbaṇa utthitas tadā

reṇur diśaḥ khaṁ dyumaṇiṁ ca chādayan

nyavartatāsṛk-śrutibhiḥ pariplutāt

"Translation: Because of the impact on the ground of the legs of the demons and demigods and the wheels of the chariots, particles of dust flew violently into the sky and made a dust cloud that covered all directions of outer space, as far as the sun. But when the particles of dust were followed by drops of blood being sprinkled all over space, the dust cloud could no longer float in the sky."

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Hari-śauri: "Purport: The cloud of dust covered the entire horizon, but when drops of blood sprayed up as far as the sun, the dust cloud could no longer float in the sky. A point to be observed here is that although the blood is stated to have reached the sun, it is not said to have reached the moon. Apparently, therefore, as stated elsewhere in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the sun, not the moon, is the planet nearest the earth. We have already discussed this point in many places. The sun is first, then the moon, then Mars, Jupiter and so on. The sun is supposed to be 93,000,000 miles above the surface of the earth, and from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we understand that the moon is 1,600,000 miles above the sun. Therefore the distance between the earth and the moon would be about 95,000,000 miles. So if a space capsule were traveling at the speed of 18,000 miles per hour, how could it reach the moon in four days? At that speed, going to the moon would take at least seven months. That a space capsule on a moon excursion has reached the moon in four days is therefore impossible."

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) So my reason is alright?

Hari-śauri: Oh yeah.

Prabhupāda: Modern scientists (Hindi—about challenge)

Guest: (Hindi conversation)

Prabhupāda: Whatever Mars going? Finished.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So ask them to chant and take prasādam. They will be rectified. Make them friends, family members. Just we organize, everything is there.

Devotee (2): Yesterday this truck came.

Mahāṁśa: Yes, I told Prabhupāda. (break)

Prabhupāda: It is full of dust, and we have to believe this.

Indian man: No.

Prabhupāda: Just see, a rascal scientist, "Full of dust."

Jagad-guru: Their brains are full of dust.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They have never gone to the moon planet. Simply bluff. (break)

Devotee (3): ...this a reflection of the sun or is it his own light?

Prabhupāda: Own light.

Devotee (3): It comes also from the living entities on the moon?

Prabhupāda: No, there are fire, just like there is fire in the sun, but it is covered with ice. Therefore it is cooling.

Devotee (2): You mean ice is covering the fire?

Prabhupāda: Yes, surrounding, cold atmosphere. Something like... But it is fiery. And how they say that sun reflects some dust? Eh? How people believe it? (break) ...to be given in charge some plot of land to develop it.

Mahāṁśa: One problem that could arise by giving them a fixed place, especially giving these labor people, if we give them a fixed place, then tomorrow they may... If they break the principles we may want to remove them.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: That is a individual fact. But...

Rāmeśvara: But they cannot condemn the movement because of that.

Prabhupāda: We never said that "You be..." I never said. And when Brahmānanda was initiated, his mother was standing. I asked Brahmānanda, "Take the dust of your mother's feet first. Then you offer me obeisances." Ask Brahmānanda. So he first of all offered his obeisances to his mother. I told him like that, "You have got good mother." I told him like that, "Otherwise how she has got a son like you?" I always say like that. I never said, "Disrespect." But in particular case, if the father and mother is demon, he must give up their... It is not our business to...

Rāmeśvara: The whole controversy centers around this point of breaking up the family.

Prabhupāda: We never said. Breaking up the family... So many ways they are breaking up, the hippies are also breaking.

Jagadīśa: The fathers and mothers are also breaking. Divorce.

Prabhupāda: Father and mother, yes. Why they divorce?

Hari-śauri: Seven out of ten marriages.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: It is condemned. My position is different. Why shall I die? The rascals, they agree to die. We do not agree to die. We want to come to our original position, no more death. This is our motto, because we get information from the Bhagavad-gītā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). I do not die on account of my material body mixed up... "Dust thou art; dust thou beist." This body is made of five elements: earth, water, air, fire, ether. And this is my gross body. The gross body is finished, but my mental, subtle body—mind, intelligence—that is not yet finished. That is carrying me to another body. Just like we have got practical experience. I am sitting here, you are sitting here. Mind carries me to New York, and I am now dreaming or thinking I am sitting in that room and talking with somebody. I have forgotten this, but... It is practical. Although I am sitting here, I have forgotten it, and I am working, thinking myself that I am in New York. Similarly, in dream my body is on the bed. I am thinking I am on the Himalayan top. So as it is possible even in this body, similarly, I get another body, gross body. Then I forget this body. This is transmigration. I have explained it. This is the factual.

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Indian man (1): Mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke (BG 15.7).

Prabhupāda: That's all, part and parcel of God. (aside:) So why these people are outside? The jīva is a small sample of God. That example I was giving you yesterday, that you take a big brick, and you just strike it on the floor. There will be so many fragments. (aside:) Why you are busy now? Come here. Finish. Then you can leave. Why you are disturbing now? Keep it behind this post. You can leave it. Yes. So when the brick is broken, some parts of the..., bigger, some smaller. And at last, the dust. So all of them are the parts and parcels.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: "Probably." Their science is "probably." Probably it is science; otherwise it is nonsense. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It says here, "The moon is 238,860 miles from the earth. It has no atmosphere, no weather and no wind."

Prabhupāda: "Probably." Everything "probably."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It says here, "There is thick dust covering and no evidence to suggest that the moon has ever supported life." In that newspaper article the man who is exposing them said—because they say it is covered by dust—"How is it that no dust is shown on the astronauts' suits when they walked around?" He says, "If there's such a thick dust, then, when the rocket landed, it would have made a pocket within that dust." He says, "But there's no crater around the rocket. Then how it is possible that these things are like that?" 'Cause actually they forgot. When they were making the stage setting in Arizona, they forgot these things.

Yaśodā-nandana: One argument Your Divine Grace gave in 1971 was that if they went to the moon and they found it was rock, how do they explain the moon is so shiny and gives such a cooling effect? They cannot explain that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Look at the earth. Now, this is a real question that we still have to answer. They picture the earth round, and we say, no. Bhū-maṇḍala is like a lotus, like this, and the earth is only one part of one island in Bhū-maṇḍala, and it's not, you know, it's not round(?). It doesn't look like that. And all the pictures they take of the earth when they go up in their satellites show round. And we're going to tell them that it's not. This is a very tricky question. In other words, if this is the picture of the world, like this, and we say that... If we take an airplane from here, from Los Angeles. Now, supposing we go to India, which is here. So there's two ways to go. One way, you can go like this, and the other way, you can go like that. But if the earth is not a round globe, then how is it sometimes people go from Los Angeles via Hawaii to Japan and then India? So we can't figure this out. We have experience, those of us who have flown, that actually the plane went from Los Angeles to Hawaii to Tokyo to Hong Kong and then to India. So it doesn't work out in our maps so far, right? We can't figure it out. This thing has to be very complete in its answers. Otherwise everyone will laugh at us. We can't leave any loopholes.

Prabhupāda: So are you thinking on this?

Bhakti-prema: In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam... According to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is (indistinct).

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It says here that "Only our knowledge of the crust of the earth is based on direct observation, but studies of paths of earthquake waves..." Then it goes... The only way they can understand is by direct observation. And that's very limited. Says, "All the planets were probably formed at much the same time." It doesn't sound like they have very much knowledge, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Everything is "probably," "maybe." Says that "Probably all the planets were formed at much the same time from the same great dust cloud." After you create this planetarium, Śrīla Prabhupāda, they'll have to rewrite all of these books. These businesses...

Bhakti-prema: Another book has to be written. Its name should be Easy-to-Read Geography or Advanced Geography. And also about history we have to write. Your Divine Grace will write Advanced History, and there the complete lifetime of Manus and Indras should be given.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: According to the modern thinkers, any further back than about three or four thousand years ago, everyone was living in the caves. So they think that all of our books are mythology, some dreamt-up stories by some people...

Prabhupāda: So how they are writing of millions of years ago?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is all according to their mythology.

Prabhupāda: No, they are suggesting.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And, of course, they say that there were no humans around, just dust and water and earth. There were no brains at that time.

Prabhupāda: Only brains are developed now.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, especially now, this century. Before this, everybody was unintelligent, and now man's brain is developing to a higher and higher degree, and he can finally understand what is what. I don't think that... Your descriptions, especially this planetarium, will at first meet with a lot of heavy reaction. It is not going to be embraced immediately very favorably. It means that everyone who calls himself a Ph.D. is a fool, that students will laugh at their teachers, if what we say is correct. There will be chaos in educational circles. (Prabhupāda chuckles)

Prabhupāda: All right.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)

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

Prabhupāda: Gradually they are becoming very expert.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Should I read Bharadvāja's letter, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Um-hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda: I fall down in the dust of your lotus feet, in desperate hope of being purified of countless offenses."

Prabhupāda: So "You have done superexcellent mūrtis. Thank you very much."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Should I go on reading? "I am lowborn and completely disqualified from the exalted position of your servant, yet I cannot give up the desire for it. Please be merciful to me."

Prabhupāda: That is Kṛṣṇa's mercy. That you are feeling like that, humbleness, that is Kṛṣṇa's mercy.

Room Conversation -- October 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So that is my proposal. Now you think over seriously and arrange for.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now you will shower your mercy upon the Vaiṣṇavas of Bengal, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Or I shall go there to take their dust of feet.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Take the dust...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Of their feet. I think this is the right plan, Śrīla Prabhupāda, because by then, by March of April, it will be time for you... The festival will be there. And then, with hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands of ISKCON Vaiṣṇavas from all over the world, you will be better. And then with a great contingent we will travel around the world.

Bhavānanda: Jaya.

Devotees: Jaya. Haribol.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here is Bhakti-prema Swami.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So Bhakti-prema, you are also coming?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda's thinking to go to Māyāpur. He says are you also coming with him?

Bhakti-prema: Certainly, Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: So let us go in a team. (laughter)

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The future of this movement? Page 88. "The future of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement can save the world. 'Kirāta, hūṇāndhra, pulinda, pulkaśa, ābhīra, śumbha, yavana (SB 2.4.18) and the khasa races, and even others who are addicted to sinful acts, can be purified by taking shelter of the devotees of the Lord, due to His being the supreme power. I beg to offer my respectful obeisances unto Him.' Purport: 'The above-mentioned historical names are different nations of the world. Even those who are constantly engaged in sinful acts are all corrigible to the standard of perfect human beings if they take shelter of the devotees of the Lord. Jesus Christ and Hajrat Muhammad, two powerful devotees of the Lord, have done tremendous service on the behalf of the Lord on the surface of the globe. And from the version of Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī, it appears that instead of running a godless civilization in the present context of the world situation, if the leadership of world affairs is entrusted to the devotees of the Lord, for which a worldwide organization under the name and style of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has already been started, then by the grace of the Almighty Lord there can be a thorough change of heart in human beings all over the world, because the devotees of the Lord are able authorities to effect such a change by purifying the dust-worn minds of the people in general.' " Then it gives so many other quotes. "Kṛṣṇa consciousness will spread all over the world." Then it quotes from the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. " 'The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will inundate the entire world and drown everyone, whether one be a gentleman, a rogue or even lame, invalid or blind. When the five members of the Pañca-tattva saw the entire world drowned in love of Godhead and the seed of material enjoyment in the living entities completely destroyed, they all became exceedingly happy. The more the five members of the Pañca-tattva caused the rains of love of Godhead to fall, the more the inundation increases and spreads all over the world.' " (break)

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Room Conversation -- November 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What is that sound?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's one of the brahmacārīs shaking out the dust in the rugs. In my office we have some rugs, so he takes them outside and shakes them. He's a nice brahmacārī, young boy from the Gurukula, from Mexico. Is it time to go on, Śrīla Prabhupāda? (break) ...today. So I would meet him last night, and if he was to come this evening I wouldn't think that there would be any harm, that he could come this evening, I think it's not bad in that it sort of sometimes has an effect to encourage the patient if the doctor or kavirāja comes. It's reassuring. So I think it's nice that he comes. There should be someone with a little bit of knowledge who we can consult each day. He may not be as expert as the Calcutta kavirāja. Still, he is more expert than we are. And he was appointed by the Calcutta kavirāja to come and check up on you and see how you are doing, see if there were any side effects. The real question is that your kidney and liver should be getting better. There's no doubt that you're getting weaker now. That I can see. I've never seen you this weak. But according to the...

Prabhupāda: Very weak. I sit up..., oh, everything...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Finished.