Prabhupāda: So in the Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya's house that chanting and dancing began with all the members, and gradually Caitanya Mahāprabhu came to consciousness. Then there was introduction of Caitanya Mahāprabhu through Gopīnātha Ācārya and Gadādhara. And Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya told that "You become my guest, you, all of you." And he gave them places. Then... Caitanya Mahāprabhu was only twenty-four years old, and Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, he was old man, about sixty years old. So by acquaintance it was disclosed that Sārvabhauma's father and Caitanya Mahāprabhu's grandfather were class friends. So Jagannātha Miśra in that sense... Jagannātha Miśra means Caitanya's father, was a relative, brother-in-law of Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya. So he took Him affectionately and told Him, "My dear boy, You have taken sannyāsa at a very early age. So You should be very careful to study Vedānta-sūtra from me.
Early (Conversations)
Expressions researched:
"earlier"
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Conversations and Morning Walks
1967 Conversations and Morning Walks
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Sannyāsī... Sannyāsa reason was different. There was some misunderstanding between His students and... They were of same age. Because Nimāi Paṇḍita was very intelligent boy, so He was teaching other boys practically of the same age. So there was some misunderstanding and the students wanted to retaliate. He went to strike them with a stick, Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And because they're of the same age they made a conference, "Oh, this Nimāi Paṇḍita has become very big man. He wants to strike us. Next time if He does so, then we shall also strike Him." Then He thought that "In this householder's position I cannot preach. I must take sannyāsa. Otherwise they will not respect Me." That is the system in India. A sannyāsī in this dress, whatever rascal he may be, he is offered immediately all respect. That is the system in India. So therefore He took sannyāsa early age, 24 years, 24 years of age.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we can show His mother and His wife crying because He is taking sannyāsa. They see Him in His...
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Nārāyaṇa.
Himāvatī: He was thinking but he was calling out to him, and after calling, he was reminded of his early life, of his worshiping the real Nārāyaṇa.
Prabhupāda: Nārāyaṇa.
Himāvatī: And therefore Nārāyaṇa saved him. Isn't that true?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.
Himāvatī: Not that he was simply calling and Nārāyaṇa had to save him...
Prabhupāda: But simply calling, "Nārāyaṇa," he reminded, he remembered. Remembered. Yes.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is psychological. They develop... Sex life, sex urge is there as soon as twelve years, thirteen years old, especially women. So therefore early marriage was sanctioned in India. Early marriage. Boy fifteen years, sixteen years, and girl twelve years. Not twelve years, ten years. I was married, my wife was eleven years. I was 22 years. She did not know what is sex, eleven years' girl. Because Indian girls, they have no such opportunity of mixing with others. But after the first menstruation, the husband is ready. This is the system, Indian system.
Śyāmasundara: So they are not spoiled.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest: That will be danger. But so far as the Gītā Ācārya's teachings, He is a different person. There's no reference to early life in Vyāsa's Bhagavad-gītā. The Bhagavad-gītā is simply about an ācārya. Occasionally He says "I am Īśvara," but He's an ācārya primarily. I need not..., I am not trying to sermonize to you. I'm trying to explain what I feel.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest: Very difficult doctrine of detachment. The Gītā Ācārya says sannyāsa is difficult, and you are likely to become a hypocrite if you, if you...
Prabhupāda: Mithyācāraḥ sa ucyate.
Prabhupāda: Kīrtana and bell in the temple, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong. This sound we will hear early in... (sound of rooster crowing in background)
Prabhupāda: In Hawaii, this disturbance is there. Always, ca-caw, caw. (laughter)
Devotee: There's not so much at Advaita Bhavan.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Devotee: There's not chickens at Advaita Bhavan.
Prabhupāda: No, in neighborhood. In Hawaii, they are very much fond of. Some of them eat dogs also.
Prabhupāda: No. Grains...Grains only bhoga-ārati and at night... Purī also grain. It is also grain. And during daytime, cāpāṭī, rice, dahl, like that. Breakfast, fruits, milk, sweets, breakfast. And early, maṅgala-ārati, condensed milk. And breakfast, butter, sugar candy, casein. You are calling Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme. You must offer Him nice things. Not a poor man gets like Him. He's the richest man. If a poor man can be supplied so many things, how the rich man should be offered? And as far as possible, distribute prasādam. (break) People should be called.
Sudāmā: So we should take the Deity prasādam and our prasādam and go to all the houses?
Prabhupāda: No no. You invite them, that "Anyone, you are welcome. Take prasādam." We can announce. Then you can judge how many people are coming daily. You should announce that "Anyone can come and take prasādam at noon." It is the duty of a gṛhastha to loudly cry, "If anyone is hungry, please come. We have got still food." That is the duty of a gṛhastha. If one does not come, then the chief of the house, he takes prasāda. If somebody says, "I am hungry," so he should offer his own food.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: For example, they will say that in early history people used to live in the caves and they used to wear skins.
Prabhupāda: That is your rascal's conception. They used to live in palaces. You are rascal; you do not know the history.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are saying that they used to live..., the history, because they don't have the complete information.
Prabhupāda: No, you are rascal, you have rascal's history. We are not rascal; we have got another history. Why shall I accept your history? You are rascal. You be satisfied with the history that your great grandfather and his father used to live in the cave. But we don't accept. Our forefather used to live in palace. Sixteen thousand palaces, Kṛṣṇa. (laughter) So you rascal, you live with your own history. Why you force your rascaldom history upon us? We are not going to accept.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Svarūpa Dāmodara: A few weeks ago, there was a supplement in the Times, the London Times. So they were describing about the very relationship between British and India, in the early British period and after the British period. There they talked only about very good points, whereas they never say anything about... All good points.
Prabhupāda: No, that... When they discuss, they must describe the good points only. But some of the British rulers were very, very unkind. And the last was that Jallianwalla Bagh massacre, created by Lord Chelmsford. Then the British rule finished. In 1917, and immediately Gandhi started non-cooperation movement. So after thirty years, the Britishers were obliged to leave.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The Scottish Church College in Calcutta...
Prabhupāda: Yes. I was student there.
Prabhupāda: Similarly these rascals are going to hell and we are trying to save them. That's all. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: I read an article by Śrīla Prabhupāda about sometime in 1935 or 40, early in the Back to Godhead magazine. In the earlier copies, the Prabhupāda writes about the standard of morality in one article.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: There everything is very nicely explained.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I wrote one time, standard of morality. (pause) We have got very simple formulas from the statement of śāstras. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇāḥ. Hari is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, abhakta, nondevotee, a person who is not a devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, kuto mahad-guṇāḥ, where is his high qualities? No, no high qualities.
Prabhupāda: Darwin is a rascal. What is his theory? We kick on your face. That's all. That is our philosophy. The more we kick on Darwin's face, the more advanced in spiritual consciousness. He has killed the whole civilization, rascal.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Even all the scientists now, the present scientists, their arguments are based on Darwin's early theories.
Prabhupāda: What they are...?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: That life started from matter and is evolving from the uni-cellular organisms to the multi-cellular organisms. So that means they are saying that there was no higher species at the beginning of creation.
Prabhupāda: Nonsense. So why there is now higher species? And the lower species also. As we see at the present moment, there is the most intellectual person and the most foolish ass also... So why do we see all the things simultaneously? Why ass is not abolished? What is their answer? So similarly, formerly also there was.
Prabhupāda: Not always.
Father Tanner: But in the West, you know, your priest is generally made a priest in his early twenties. Then he has thrust upon him the role of the wise man, which he doesn't always seek.
Prabhupāda: Just like these boys, they are very young, twenties, between twenty to thirty. So they are made here brahmacārī, and some of them are sannyāsī, but they are strictly following these principles. Because they are young men, there cannot be any concession that he can become intoxicants, he can indulge in meat-eating. No.
Father Tanner: But would you think of a young man as wise man? Isn't it normal that a young man is working his way towards wisdom?
Prabhupāda: The wise man becomes by knowledge, not by age. Even an old man, if he has no knowledge, what is...? He is not wise man. Wise means one who has attained knowledge. He may be young, he may be old. It doesn't matter. Vidyatvaṁ vayasā vinā. In Sanskrit word, that one becomes elderly without being advanced in age.
Prabhupāda: But... And nobody can talk with Kṛṣṇa also. Nobody is so qualified. So somebody who would talk with Kṛṣṇa who must be very qualified, but he's playing the part of a befooled man. Otherwise, he's not misguided. He knows everything. Yes.
David Lawrence: One other point, and again a practical point really, this one. This is about the nature of the book. I suggested early on that I hoped that I might get the cooperation of somebody like George Harrison. What would you think about this? Do you think, with your knowledge of the young mind, particularly the young western mind, that this might be a good means through to the young people...?
Prabhupāda: It is not the question of western mind, eastern mind. Any sincere student will take to.
David Lawrence: No, I was thinking in terms of the western mind with its culture, more than of philosophy.
Ambassador: Much too early.
Prabhupāda: So they have done nice?
Ambassador: They have done so well, you know. I feel...
Prabhupāda: So you kindly eat all of them.
Ambassador: I feel privileged(?), but I can't eat them all.
Prabhupāda: No, no. It is only two.
Ambassador: I'll eat only two parāṭās.
Prabhupāda: Ah, two parāṭās.
Prabhupāda: One has to understand that a lady should be respectfully called as mother. You call as mātā or mother, it doesn't matter. Yes, some rascals inquire from them that, "Do you know Sanskrit?" Where is the condition that unless one knows Sanskrit he cannot be a devotee? Where is that condition?
Guest: In the same way you see early Christians inquired, "Do you know Latin?" And that's why the whole of England wrote it and said we will do only in English.
Prabhupāda: So, one bābājī... I think that you were in Surat?
Devotee:: Yes.
Prabhupāda: You were Surat? He was asking, that bābājī, that, "Learn Sanskrit then you'll understand Bhagavad-gītā." So I immediately asked him that, "You go away, you go away from this place."
Prabhupāda: Yes. But their duty should have been, scientist's duty should have been that "God has created so wonderful things. So glorify God." That should have been the scientist's duty, "How nicely He has made!" That is scientist's duty, everyone's duty.
Prajāpati: In the early days of science, about three, four hundred years ago, Śrīla Prabhupāda, many of the early scientists were persecuted by the church for their discoveries. So since that time, the scientists have declared war on religion, and they have been doing their best to try to disprove all religious things.
Prabhupāda: What they have discovered? These four hundred years, the scientists said that there is no God?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prajāpati: In the early days of this movement, Śrīla Prabhupāda, in New York, devotees said they did not know how to treat Your Divine Grace. They did not know your exalted position. I think we are still very much offensive.
Prabhupāda: No, I am servant. I have no exalted position. Servant. Caitanya Mahāprabhu sat down in a place where people were washing their feet. Yes. (break) ...a representative of Kṛṣṇa. I came to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and Kṛṣṇa has sent so many representatives to help me. I consider like that. Without your help I could not do. So I wanted Kṛṣṇa's help, so Kṛṣṇa has sent you. Therefore you are representative of Kṛṣṇa. That is my conception.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I was coming here at six, but I caught cold. Therefore I have changed the time.
Guest (1): Yes, six is a bit too early.
Prabhupāda: Yes, too early. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...loving propensity, we want to love somebody, up to the dog, but we are not getting satisfaction because the love is placed in wrong place. But if you love Kṛṣṇa, then everything will be all right. (break). If you pour water on the root, it reaches to all the branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, everything. (break) (Hindi).
Guest (1): Disneyland, all sorts of shows and devices for children.
Prabhupāda: So children's father also go there?
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Then when it is sprouted, then active service. That is dāsya-rasa.
Dr. Patel: This is, in the very, I mean, very, the early preaching of all our Vaiṣṇava families...
Prabhupāda: Yes,
Dr. Patel: ...that all sannyāsīs and sādhus must be treated very well...
Prabhupāda: The sannyāsīs and sādhus, they are on the śānta-rasa, as you are. Yes, śānta-rasa, appreciating the greatness of the Supreme Absolute Truth. That is śānta-rasa. Brahman, Paramātmā. The Brahman feature of the Lord, all-pervading... Sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. That appreciation, that is śānta-rasa. Paramātmā. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). This is also śānta-rasa.
Prabhupāda: No, no.
Dr. Patel: That is what we have been taught from our early days.
Prabhupāda: These rascals, they do not know what is Kṛṣṇa or what is Kṛṣṇa's behavior.
Dr. Patel: And that is right. Even for them. I have no objection if you call me a Māyāvādī.
ṟ229 Prabhupāda: Yes, a Māyāvādī. I know.
Dr. Patel: I have no objection...
Prabhupāda: I know! I know certainly. I challenge you. In Karachi, there was Oṁ-sampradāya. And they were calling for young girls and your...
Dr. Patel: That is wrong.
Prabhupāda: Yes! That, the Māyāvādī! That Māyāvādī. Because he thought himself that "I am Kṛṣṇa."
Prabhupāda: Dharma does not mean so-called some religious fanaticism. Dharma means occupational duty. Just like you are medical man. You have practiced medical dharma. Medical dharma.
Dr. Patel: So I went yesterday early, after quarreling. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: Yes. That's all right. No, that's all right. One must... Just like Arjuna. Arjuna was a fighter. His dharma was to fight.
Dr. Patel: (Hindi) Fighter... I am wrongly placed in the medical profession. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: No. Dharma means one's sva-kar... Just like varṇāśrama-dharma.
Dr. Patel: That is the real dharma.
Prabhupāda: Yes. According to varṇa and āśrama. That is called varṇāśrama-dharma.
Dr. Patel: The greatest gift to the humanity is varṇāśrama-dharma by the ancient culture of India.
Prabhupāda: No, it is given by God.
Prabhupāda: No. I go to bed between ten to eleven.
Dr. Patel: I go to bed at nine-thirty. I must go to bed early. Otherwise, I can't get up.
Prabhupāda: All right, let us go. (break) ...dāla, cāpāṭis, (indistinct) brāhmaṇas cook.
Dr. Patel: He has a very good cook. That day I don't know how he ran away, or... You striked him, no?
Prabhupāda: No, sometimes they smoke bidis. That is the difficulty.
Indian (2): That is not in the presence of the kitchen itself, but outside.
Dr. Patel: They do all sorts of nonsense.
Prabhupāda: That is the difficulty.
Prabhupāda: ...-thirty they open. We have to wait.
Dr. Patel: You will have to order them to open early. You have the...
Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Why shall I? Their duty must be finished. You cannot ask God that "You... God... God! Please open. I want to see you."
Dr. Patel: Yes. You order God... The, the...
Prabhupāda: No, I can order. But that is not my business.
Dr. Patel: That is, that is... He understands the word. Even though you don't say by mouth, God understands. He's not...
Prabhupāda: No, no. It is not my order to order God.
Prabhupāda: (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...the other day that this Swami Narayan, not Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Indian man (4): Because tomorrow we'll say Prabhupāda. That we are teaching, but he died very early. He died at the age of forty-eight years.
Prabhupāda: That means that his followers are not well-conversant.
Indian man (3): Those who are not following the (indistinct).
Indian man (4): But then he was actually living. What type of...
Devotee: In England also they are chanting "Swami Narayan," not about Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Just see.
Indian man (3): No, they are also kṛṣṇa-bhaktas.
Devotee: How they are they chanting Swami Narayan's?
Indian man (3): They actually work for the Kṛṣṇa only, and they...
Prabhupāda: No, no, Kṛṣṇa recommends śāstra, harer nāma, harer nāma, harer nāmaiva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). So why they should chant "Swami Narayan"?
Prabhupāda: But that is now neglected.
Dr. Patel: So we have come.
Prabhupāda: Oh, thank you very much.
Dr. Patel: You came very early. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...guru more mūrkha dekhi karilā śāśana (CC Adi 7.71).
Dr. Patel: Now I own it.
Prabhupāda: It is better to remain a fool. That is very progressive.
Indian Man (2): Fools are always ready, receptive. (break)
Prabhupāda: "I am fool, I must receive." That... These Sikh section. The Sikh means you always learn. Sikh, Śikṣa. Go on. (break)
Girirāja: "...one who is expert in the knowledge of the Supreme."
Bhagavān: No. (more conversation with gas station attendant, etc.) (break) It is very known that the family is very strong, the family attachment is very strong. In America, people separate from the family very early. And in France, the family attachment is so strong. And many people, many families have come and asked us if we will be able to open school here for their children too. The interest is there. Everyone is afraid of this present system of schooling. Because they send their children there, and they come back so crazy.
Prabhupāda: Rogues. Rogues. After education, they are rogues only (pause) (break)
Bhagavān: ...take breakfast a little earlier. Is that O.K? And then this other gentleman can come with us and we can go faster that way. Because their truck is slow. (break) ...human being, those who have system of religion? Is that what makes them civilized? So the society today, even though it seems to be technologically advanced, can that society be called civilized? No.
Prabhupāda: So long technological advancement is meant for bodily comforts, so, so long one remains in the bodily concept of life, he's animal.
Prabhupāda: No. His demonic qualities will be purified. Otherwise, what is the use of preaching? If the qualities cannot be changed, then what is the meaning of preaching?
Bhagavān: No, I said if we begin education early, they can be...
Prabhupāda: Yes, as early as possible. From the very womb, you begin education. Let the mother hear about Kṛṣṇa. He'll be purified from the womb. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja became. He was born by a demon father. But his quality changed when his mother was instructed by Nārada Muni, everything was changed. If the demons cannot be changed, then what is the meaning of preaching?
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Hm. Teaching must be orthodox, otherwise what is the value? If the teaching changes, that is not very good.
Professor Fenton: Well, it may be that it changed in the early history of Christianity through Greek influence on its Jewish background.
Prabhupāda: It is changing now also, they are so... Change is of the material world, in the spiritual world there is no change, absolute. In the relative world there is change. So our definition of religion is little different from the worldly definition. Our definition... "Our" means there should be the real definition: religion means the laws which are given by God.
Professor Fenton: Sanātana-dharma.
Prabhupāda: No. Now they have made it Commonwealth, keeping some scent, flavor of British empire. Commonwealth.
Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda? In those early days of colonization they were trying to sail to India by a quick route to get the spices, and it was the same time that Lord Caitanya's movement began. So is that just a coincidence, that they were trying to go to India at the same time?
Prabhupāda: No. What it has got with Caitanya's movement?
Rāmeśvara: I heard... A devotee once told me that they were actually...
Prabhupāda: Oh, again, "heard it from devotee." (laughter) That is very dangerous. What Caitanya's movement has got with politics? Nothing. They drag Caitanya's movement, that. Many rascals do that. It has nothing to do with politics. It is simply spiritual. Rather, even the Mohammedans, they were very much respectful to Caitanya Mahāprabhu. They never took it as, His, the political movement. Now it has become a fashion to take everything from political point of view. Just like in India, they are suspecting you as CIA. "CIA has come to become Vaiṣṇava." (laughter) (break) That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu says.
Prabhupāda: Not so early.
Śrutakīrti: And no mango for breakfast.
Prabhupāda: No. You said that the man will not like this kind of job. Eh? Therefore there must be division of job. That is cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13). He is a śūdra. He does not want to produce his own food. If you give him some salary, then he will be satisfied. And then he will work with plow also. If you give him salary, he will accept that.
Paramahaṁsa: Actually in the West, more or less, that system, the division system, is accepted because we have businessmen, we have labor men, we have politicians, we have teachers and professors.
Prabhupāda: It is changed?
Śrutakīrti: Changed?
Prabhupāda: My wrapper?
Prabhupāda: Ask them to see me. What time we should fix up?
Brahmānanda: I think afternoon? You prefer afternoon? Or early time?
Prabhupāda: Afternoon is a nice...
Brahmānanda: Yes. (break)
Jayatīrtha: ...men from the University of Southern California wants to come and see you, the chairman and many of the members.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Then invite them and give them nice feast, yes. Make arrangement. Time, whatever suitable time you will fix up, I...
Jayatīrtha: We'll discuss it with Upendra when is the best time.
Prabhupāda: They are giving standing orders. They understand this is worthly. (break) ...is up? No.
Jayatīrtha: A little bit early still.
Prabhupāda: Then we can go this way. (break) ...many rooms are there in the new house?
Bahulāśva: Oh, there are many rooms. Two very, very large rooms, at least as big as the temple room in San Francisco, er, in Los Angeles, excuse me. Two rooms that big. Then there's about four rooms for living quarters, a big kitchen, and then several offices, and then a nice quarters for Your Divine Grace with a bath, with a shower right there.
Prabhupāda: What it was before?
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Brahmānanda: I didn't think you would come so early.
Prabhupāda: It is early?
Brahmānanda: Well, earlier than yesterday.
Prabhupāda: No, I don't think. What is the time?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ten minutes to six.
Jayatīrtha: Yesterday you left about 5:40 and today you left exactly at 5:30. So...
Brahmānanda: I came just after you left.
Prabhupāda: I think your watch is slow. (laughter) (break) ...actual time now?
Jayatīrtha: It's 5:51.
Prabhupāda: Hm? What is my?
Jayatīrtha: You can either come wearing clothes or not wearing clothes to this beach.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Lucky we come early.
Sudāmā: Just like the monkeys.
Revatīnandana: Oh, it was in Laguna that they repealed it.
Prabhupāda: But why, then, the lavatory they have made distinction for woman and for men?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now in the colleges there's no more distinction.
Jayatīrtha: Co-educational bathrooms.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One bathroom. One residence, one bathroom.
Jayatīrtha: They were accusing us of kidnapping their daughter. When I spoke with them I said, "Before your daughter came to our movement she was taking drugs and having sex life even though she was at the early age and so many nonsense things. But now she's not doing those things." They said, "I'd rather she be doing those things than joining your movement." So some people they can't appreciate.
Mrs. Wax: I understand Mr. Patrick kidnapped Lakṣmī-nārāyaṇa. Is he all right?
Jayatīrtha: Lakṣmī-nārāyaṇa, yes he escaped.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Jayatīrtha: There's this one fellow, Mr. Ted Patrick. He goes and he kidnaps the devotees. The parents pay him $1,000 up to $25,000...
Prabhupāda: Ācchā.
Prabhupāda: That should be followed in our system. Boys and girls must be separate. (break) ...introduce now. How long? What is time?
Brahmānanda: It's still a little early.
Prabhupāda: Early? (break)
Guru dāsa: The concept in sport of celibacy is also there. The best sportsmen are supposed to not take intoxicants or also engage in sex life. That was the training. (break)
Ravīndra-svarūpa: ...will end in this park here.
Prabhupāda: Oh. It will come this way?
Prabhupāda: No, now what is the time?
Devotees: Twenty to seven.
Prabhupāda: So we shall wait or shall go?
Jagadīśa: Well, I've sent the others on ahead to let them know that we'll be early. So it should be all right.
Prabhupāda: What is the scheduled time?
Jagadīśa: The Deities usually are opened at 7:10.
Prabhupāda: Oh. So we shall wait or go?
Jagadīśa: Either way.
Brahmānanda: What about we go and have the āratik first?
Jagadīśa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: If everyone is rascal, how he will think? We say mūḍha, all rascals.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But when the early scientists, they were analyzing the body, they tried to find the soul. They would look for the soul in different parts of the body. They couldn’t find it with their microscopes.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. That is his rascaldom. He's a rascal. But soul is there. Then find out what is the missing point of a dead man. If there is no soul, something is missing.
Harikeśa: Well, actually they’ve pinned it down to a little bit of a molecule that breaks down.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. Bring that molecule.
Prabhupāda: Never see. Ten years? Twenty-five years. They may go and see, give some gifts to the guru.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In the Western countries they criticize our gurukula that "This is inhuman, people sending their children away at such an early age, not seeing them."
Prabhupāda: And to kill, that is very human. Rascal. Kick them upon their face. You rascal, you are talking of morality, rascal, you go to hell. Your place is hell. "Devil citing scripture." You are not... You are so shameless that you do not be ashamed to speak like that. You are so shameless. Your civilization is so shameless. You are killing child in the womb, and you are talking "inhumanity." Just see. We have to deal with such fools and rascals.
Prabhupāda: So there is no formula of quality. It is to be understood by himself. Just like if after eating something you feel refreshed and get strength, that is quality. You haven't got to take certificate: "Will you give me a certificate that I have eaten?" You'll understand whether eaten or not. That is quality. When you will feel so much ecstasy in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, that is quality. Not artificially—"Chant. Chant. Otherwise get out." This is not quality. This is in expectation that someday you may come to quality. That requires time. That requires sincerity. But quality is there. Śravanādi śuddha citte karaye... It will be awakened. Not by force. Just like love between two persons, it cannot be forced. "You must love him. You must love her." Oh, that is no love. That is not love. When automatically you love one another, that is quality. Dora vede(?) prema. And therefore formerly, at least in the Indian society, at an early age they were married. There is no quality in that quality. But gradually, remaining together, the quality of love increases. Then the wife takes care of the husband, and the husband takes care. They become bound up, united in love.
Prabhupāda: Work is going on at night? No.
Devotee (2): They are digging all night.
Dr. Patel: These two architects are wonderful people. They are wonderful. They, very early they're getting up. I said it will not be so soon as that.
Prabhupāda: Now we are going to have the temple within three months.
Dr. Patel: But then drying of the cement, drying needs...
Prabhupāda: Everything is there. Just you take and... In Bombay, Calcutta, if you pay for, you can get tiger's blood.
Dr. Patel: That side, you can get tiger's blood and even tiger's milk. But then you can't get time. The cement a certain, takes certain time to dry, no?
Prabhupāda: Then the answer is... No, the architects have promised, within three months.
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (break)
Dr. Patel: Why I come so early and all that. Shall I say, sir?
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.
Dr. Patel:
- prasaṅgam ajaraṁ pāśam
- ātmanaḥ kavayo viduḥ
- sa eva sādhuṣu kṛto
- mokṣa-dvāram apāvṛtam
That is why I come so early. You may explain them, sir.
Prabhupāda: No, you explain.
Dr. Patel: It is said in Śrīmad-Bhāgavata that your mind, atmanaḥ prasaṅga, the saṅga. Saṅga means attachment.
Prabhupāda: Prasaṅgam.
Prabhupāda:.... very enthusiastic.
Dr. Patel: I got up very early today.
Prabhupāda: By the grace of Kṛṣṇa keeping good health.
Dr. Patel: Yes, I have got...
Prabhupāda: You never use the shoes.
Dr. Patel: But on sand this shoeless, this walking it is very...
Prabhupāda: Nehi, it is practice. So remember mahā jasha advertised.
Indian man: It is medicine.
Prabhupāda: No, not medicine.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Dr. Patel: Very early. And he never married again, and I was the only son and no other daughter or son. Many people requested him to marry, but he said no, he would not marry, because one son is sufficient.
Prabhupāda: Yes. putradi (?) bhāgya. Putra, when there is putra, what is the use of marriage?
Dr. Patel: I was five years old when my mother died. In that big, pandemic of influenza in 1918, that..., that...
Prabhupāda: Yes, war influenza, after war.
Prabhupāda: No, read it. Let us see.
Harikeśa: OK. "The fundamental premises of the theory of knowledge of Mock(?) and Averniu..., Avanarias(?) are frankly, simply and clearly expounded by them in their early philosophical works. To these works we shall now turn, postponing for later treatment an examination of the corrections and emendations subsequently made by these writers. 'The task of science,' Mock(?) wrote in 1872, 'can only be: 1. to determine the laws of connection of ideas, psychology; 2. to discover...' "
Prabhupāda: That is not science, ideas.
Harikeśa: He's saying to determine the laws of connection of ideas.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Harikeśa: He says he wants to determine the laws of connection of ideas.
Prabhupāda: But idea is also not fact. And what is other word?
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: You clean in the evening and in the morning it is so dirty?
Devotee (3): In the afternoon or in the evening, early.
Prabhupāda: You clean in the evening and in the morning it is so dirty?
Devotee (3): Well, they're passing through here to their living quarters.
Prabhupāda: And therefore it should be dirty. Then what for cleaning? Just see. What is the cleaning? You clean in the evening; in the morning it is dirty. Is that very good reason? Clean. Engage them. (break) ...you are chanting, śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nana-śrṅgara-tan-man..., tan-mandira-mārjanādau **. This is all temple. This is not ordinary hotel, free hotel. If they cannot take care as temple, they must go away. (break) ...eating, sleeping. That's all, not working. See that they do not make it a free hotel for eating and sleeping. Don't allow this. It should be clean. Why in the evening? Every morning it should be clean and washed and mopped. (Bengali)
Jayapatāka: Generally they chant the japa till about 7:15.
Hariśauri: I think it's just a little early yet, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Hariśauri: Just a little early. It's still dark. I think ten minutes should be all right. Has this been used?
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...is in ignorance. Combination of matter and soul, moving animals. Some of them are standing as trees and plant, and some of them are moving. Where is the science to study? What is your value of knowledge? Hm? If they do not know the fundamental things, then what is the value of their knowledge? Simply observation, superficial, externally. There is good scope. They are receiving these books. We should take chance of preaching this Bhāgavatam, and the classes should be held especially.... No, the religious classes are already there. Let them study Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā. And they will accept it. They are not fools. Simply we have to introduce it. The Western people, they are not fools, but misguided. So you take the charge of guiding them; then Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will be successful.
Prabhupāda: Soul-enrapturing kīrtana music was organized from one end of the country to another. A neo-humanism based on love regarded as the highest objective of human existence held sway. The difference between man and man was forgotten, and the fundamental unity of human nature and human destiny was stressed upon. But in the early nineteenth century, true religion was at a very low ebb due to lack of proper publicity of literature and also for want of great ācāryas to propagate the cults in their true aspect. It was a dark period for the Caitanya or Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism when it fell from its highest transcendentalism to the lowest possible degradation because of so many abuses and evil practices which crept into it through plenty of pseudo-followers. Vaiṣṇavism was almost abandoned by the educated section of people. Its literature was hardly read. Kīrtana was looked upon not as a form of prayer but as a means of gratification by people of loose morals.
Prabhupāda: We shall go? No.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If you like. It's a little early still. You could walk out to the front gate today and see how they are painting.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Yes. So let us go. (break) ...says, uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpta-varān nibodhata.(?)Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, jīv jāgo, jīv jāgo. Still he will sleep in this human form of life and remain animal, cat and dog. A simple word, jīv jāgo, jīv jāgo. This is Vedic instruction. Uttiṣṭhata jāgrata: "Get up. Be awakened. You have got this body. Try to understand God." That they will not do. They'll come to fight: "Oh, you are playing mṛdaṅga at four o'clock and disturbing my sleeping?" This is going on. "Let me go to the police. You are trying to awaken me from my sleeping? You are trying to make me intelligent? Let me remain fool. Why you are disturbing me?" Māyā's influence. Kota nidrā jāo māyā-piśācīra kole. Simply wasting of time. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau **. The Gosvāmīs, they conquered over sleeping first, nidrā, then eating. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau. What is this?
Madhudviṣa: The point is that many of the men that are following the principles strictly, due to his influence have gone away and have slackened their principles. And that is a fact. Like getting up early for maṅgala ārati. That is not stressed so much. And cutting of the hair. That is not stressed so much.
Siddha-svarūpa: How do you know these things? You have never lived with me, nor have you ever heard a lecture I have given.
Madhudviṣa: I have experienced the devotees who have been influenced by you.
Prabhupāda: Anyway, whatever is done is done. Now let us make some adjustment (chuckles) and work combinedly. That is my proposal.
Cyavana: Prabhupāda, in the early fifties the scientists performed an experiment which substantiates their theory that life comes from matter, and they actually created a one-celled being. They made one cell which had life in it. It moved like an amoeba.
Prabhupāda: Then why do they not do now? What is the wrong now?
Cyavana: Well, they've done it. They can do it by creating certain conditions.
Prabhupāda: But why do they not do?
Cyavana: They use amino acids and water and electricity.
Prabhupāda: Bluffing.
Mādhavānanda: Because I remember when you went, someone said, "You will miss the mango season, Śrīla Prabhupāda." And you said, "Preaching in the snows of Russia is more sweet than any mango." (Prabhupāda laughs)
Hari-śauri: Even though you went there in the early summer, there was no fruits or anything. No flowers.
Prabhupāda: Only these...
Hari-śauri: Strawberries.
Prabhupāda: They simply eat meat, that's all. And some milk preparation.
Hari-śauri: They can't even do that now. Someone was saying that they restrict them now. One day a week they have to eat fish because there is not enough meat.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Prabhupāda: I'll teach you. Chili?
Kīrtanānanda: They are not ripe yet. The plants are still too small.
Prabhupāda: They are not giving chili?
Kīrtanānanda: Not yet, it is too early. In August. But I can get. I can get green chili. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...something to drink?
Kīrtanānanda: No.
Hari-śauri: I don't know what happened to that orange juice. Someone else was carrying it. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...because it is also nice.
Prabhupāda: Cabbage?
Kīrtanānanda: Cabbage, peppers.
Prabhupāda: That is nice, so many. Tomato.
Kīrtanānanda: But most things are not yet fructified. This is early in our season. Peas will be ready just shortly. Lettuce is ready.
Prabhupāda: Vegetables, ghee, milk, wheat, then what do you want more?
Kīrtanānanda: The wheat is just about ready for harvest.
Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say we can grow all these things and eat very nicely. Where is economic problem? Yajñād bhavati parjanyo parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ. (break)
Kīrtanānanda: It's full of cow stool and urine.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā, for fertilizer?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He's back in Europe. This letter's from Germany. He mentions that he's getting some more buses and about fifteen more men to come along with some preaching equipment. They plan on leaving early August and are reaching there late August sometime. And so far he mentions that he still has no definite idea how to keep the buses in India, so the other buses will be coming out and two more buses will be coming in. This is his plan. Then he mentions that he had some correspondence with Lokanātha Swami, who's heading up the traveling party while he's in Europe, and Lokanātha Swami mentions they've been doing saṅkīrtana in Darmashala on the way up to Sri Nagar, Kashmir. And he says they are doing well everywhere they go.
Prabhupāda: India, everywhere they'll be received very nice.
Vipina: Śrīla Prabhupāda, if we're born each with a qualification, how is this qualification developed in our early years?
Prabhupāda: There is no question of developing any particular qualification. Whatever qualification you are, if you agree to surrender to Kṛṣṇa, that is the best qualification. It doesn't matter what material qualification you have. It doesn't matter. You simply acquire this qualification, that "From this day I fully surrender to Kṛṣṇa." That everyone can do. Is there any difficulty? Simply he must agree, this qualification. That depends on him, agree or not agree. If you agree, then you become qualified. If you don't agree, you remain disqualified. So that is intelligence. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). After many, many births of struggle, one who is fully in knowledge, he surrenders to Kṛṣṇa. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān.
Prabhupāda: In our Gurukula we'll improve. But the parents do not want that their children should be religious, sādhu.
Rāmeśvara: In these schools, the children are given drugs by their schoolmates. Even at an early age, six, twelve years old, ten years old, they are smoking cigarettes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not only cigarettes, marijuana also.
Rāmeśvara: And all types of drugs.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I wanted to show you this banner closely, Prabhupāda, that we have a big banner, this is permanently hanging outside our building. You'll see it shows a picture of a devotee dancing with "Hare Kṛṣṇa" over it. See? Very attractive, people can see it. (break) "Founder-Ācārya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, founded 1966."
Hari-śauri: There's an example that's just going up to the courts now. There's one family, their daughter was being supported by one machine, so one day they went in early and pulled out the plugs. So now they are being taken to court. They stopped the machine because she'd been in a coma for so long, so they just pulled out the plugs and everything, the machine. So that's what they call mercy killing. They don't like the doctors just to keep them there uselessly.
Rāmeśvara: But then they want to kill the old people. This mercy killing, they think that "An old man is suffering, so let us kill him."
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They think if someone dies in their sleep, they are very lucky.
Prabhupāda: It is dangerous to die here.
Prabhupāda: How is that? In America, city, New York, they cannot pay?
Hari-śauri: New York almost went bankrupt.
Devotee (1): They have mismanaged the whole thing.
Hari-śauri: They had big strikes last year or early this year. They wouldn't clear the garbage away, and the whole city was piled up with garbage everywhere.
Devotee (2): Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says in this Kali-yuga they are all lazy, misguided.
Prabhupāda: So much drinking, they must be lazy.
Devotee (1): Yes.
Prabhupāda: So much drinking excessively. Drinking means laziness.
Prabhupāda: No, it is all Vedic system. It is Vedic system.
Interviewer: Is it better to do it the way you did it or to start from a very early age in the, er...?
Rāmeśvara: In other words, some of our members are sannyāsa at an earlier age.
Prabhupāda: No, if... The purpose is to train a person in brahmacārī, not to enter into the entanglement of this material life. That is Vedic system. Basic principle is that don't be entangled with this material energy. So at the early age, up to twenty-five, he's trained up. If he can, he can continue as brahmacārī. He directly can take sannyāsa. But if he's unable, so let him go by step by step. Let him become a family, householder life, then retired life, then... But sannyāsa at the end, that is compulsory, not that unless he is shot down by somebody, he's not going to give up family life. That is not Vedic system.
Prabhupāda: That means "I am first, I am first class." Less poison. "Nobody contains lower poison than me." (break) ...city, when it was constructed?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A lot of the buildings are from the early 1800s, 1850. Like the Museum of Natural History that we visited, that was 1869. It was settled even earlier than that.
Hṛdayānanda: It was always a very important city. For almost two or three hundred years it's been a very important city for trade, business, commerce.
Prabhupāda: When you first settled?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In the 1600s.
Ādi-keśava: It was settled by the Dutch in the 1600s. That's three hundred years ago.
Hṛdayānanda: Called New Amsterdam.
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.
Prabhupāda: No, they should not be taken away.
Bhagavān: Shouldn't be.
Hari-śauri: I think in all our farms they do that.
Bhagavān: I heard in New Vrindaban they took them away very early.
Hari-śauri: The problem is that the calves drink so much milk that they become very sick, so they have to separate.
Prabhupāda: Therefore they should not be allowed always. Once in a day, that's all.
Hari-śauri: Oh.
Prabhupāda: Not too much allowed, but once. At least while milking they should be allowed to drink little milk, and that will encourage the mother to deliver more milk.
Prabhupāda: Very nice. Hare Kṛṣṇa, thank you.
Bhagavān: He has worked very... He's been trying very hard to get the Kṛṣṇa book out, but he left a little too early.
Prabhupāda: Never mind.
Bhagavān: He told me that Prabhupāda was remarking how nice the Dutch Bhagavad-gītā was. He says that the next books he will print will be even nicer.
Translator: He's very happy to meet you, he says. He wasn't expecting it. He had many questions to ask you, a few questions, but he saw that you were tired today, so...
Prabhupāda: No, no, I'm not tired
Hari-śauri: (break) He says there's a lot of traffic even at six in the morning.
Atreya Ṛṣi: Iranians start work early. Some start at six-thirty.
Prabhupāda: Six-thirty.
Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes, this is a very busy city. Some people work two, three shifts.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that I can... Always traffic I see.
Dayānanda: But there is no work on Thursday.
Atreya Ṛṣi: Thursday is very easy. We can go very fast and come back very fast. I have to call...
Prabhupāda: That's all right, make arrangement.
Prabhupāda: That Empire State Building...
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: "Bhaktivedanta Book Trust tentative printing schedule: Vyāsa-pūjā." This is first the title, then the printer and the delivery date. "July: 2,000 copies, very early August. Nectar of Instruction goes to the printer in late July, 100,000 copies to be ready by early September. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, First Canto, Part 2, reprint, goes to the printer in late July: 50,000 copies ready by September. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Eighth Canto, Part 1, goes to the printer in August: 20,000 copies ready by late September. Bhagavad-gītā reprint goes to the printer in August: 500,000 copies ready by late September. Then there's a book by one of Prabhupāda's disciples, Satsvarūpa Goswami, goes to the printer in late August. Kṛṣṇa trilogy paperback goes to the printer early September: 100,000 copies each and ready by late September. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, First Canto, Part 3, being reprinted, goes to the printer in early September: 50,000 copies ready by late October. And three catalogues go to the printer early September: 55,000 copies ready early October. There's another new book by Prabhupāda: Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers, goes to the printer in September: 100,000 copies ready late October. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Eighth Canto, Part 2, goes to the printer late September: 20,000 copies ready early November.
Prabhupāda: Rain is not very strong.
Gargamuni: No. Monsoon is not strong.
Jayapatākā: Our aus(?) crop has been hampered because of lack of rain and early monsoon. Only in the past week there's been a little rain. Otherwise, before, there was very little rain. Not fully drought...
Gargamuni: But less rain than previous years.
Jayapatākā: Everything is very green and nice, but so far as agriculture is concerned...
Prabhupāda: It requires more rain.
Gargamuni: But less rain than previous years.
Jayapatākā: Everything is very green and nice, but so far as agriculture is concerned...
Prabhupāda: It requires more rain.
Jayapatākā: It requires more rain and early tide. Right now the river is full, but it is not flooding. It is full. See, Mr. Choudhuri, he was interested. At that time when the Chief Minister wrote that, then he wrote this, that "If you were to see the Chief Minister, then this type of letter could be submitted and he would definitely see you, "although it is not necessary to see him.
Prabhupāda: Do you think it is?
Prabhupāda: Four o'clock. All right.
Mahāṁśa: Today so early now? But your rest. It's time you take rest, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: I take rest up to four or half past four.
Mahāṁśa: Can you come at five o'clock?
Endowment Commissioner: At five o'clock there will be another program of our ministers.
Prabhupāda: So I will go. You send car?
Endowment Commissioner: Car, I will send one car.
Mahāṁśa: As soon as your car comes, we will leave.
Indian man (3): I personally feel that when you buy anything in the market, for example you buy a dress. Sometimes it wears for ten years, sometimes you are cheated and it wears only for two years. So this is also same way, you know. Sometimes early death means...
Prabhupāda: That is for the dress. What about the man who's using the dress? You are identifying the dress with the man. That is foolishness. As soon as you say "dress," you should have to find out the man who has got the dress. Then it is perfect understanding. But if you understand the dress and the man the same, then you are foolish. Dress is not the man.
Prabhupāda: Why so early?
Jagadīśa: Why 3:30 and quarter to four? That's what time we all get up.
Prabhupāda: We are holding maṅgala-ārati at five. So why 3:30?
Jagadīśa: Well, they do japa before maṅgala-ārati.
Prabhupāda: No, no. It will be too early for them. They first of all...
Jagadīśa: They're accustomed to getting up at...
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Jagadīśa: They've been getting up at that time for years.
Prabhupāda: If they are accustomed, that is all right. But otherwise it is not needed, so early. When they go to sleep?
Jagadīśa: At 8:15.
Prabhupāda: Oh, then it is all right. That is all right. At least they must have rest, six hours, complete.
Jagadīśa: Oh, they get more than that.
Prabhupāda: Then it is...
Jagadīśa: Then they get ready, bathed and dressed, by about 4:10. So they chant japa from 4:10 until five o'clock under the supervision of their teacher. Then ārati, tulasī worship. And after tulasī worship they again have japa up until guru-pūjā, greeting the Deities.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Jagadīśa: From the time tulasī worship is over until the time of greeting the Deities.
Prabhupāda: How long it is?
Jagadīśa: "But such tactics are a gross violation of fundamental human and constitutional rights are to go without saying. In cases where victims have instigated charges of kidnapping against parents and deprogrammers, grand juries have thus far refused to issue indictments apparently because the work is done at the behest of parents or other relatives and ostensibly for the good of the victim. The situation which has prompted me to communicate with members of the professional psychiatric community involves sweeping implications of a very important legal case which will be going to trial sometime in the late winter or early spring. Some background of the case may be helpful here." Then he explains about the case. Anyway, it's very nicely written. And he's mostly trying to expose that the psychiatrists have to take an objective standpoint. Otherwise, there are some psychiatrists who are atheistic and they are contending that any religious experience or so-called religious consciousness is a...
Prabhupāda: Artificial dependence.
Prabhupāda: No no. Kane. After... Because formerly the girls were married early. So after getting puberty there is one ceremony, it is called diti-abhi-bha.(?) Another ceremony. And then she goes to her husband's house. So she was going there with presentation of father, mother. So she was covered. So another young girl, up-to-date, she was doing like this. They were girls. One can touch another. So once, twice. When it made thrice, that village girl slapped her, "Hut!" I said, "Yes, you have done right." She was thinking, the city girl was thinking, "What is this nonsense?" She wanted to criticize... (laughs)
Guest (1): She got a slap.
Prabhupāda: And she gave a good slap. I've seen it. She's up-to-date and she became surprised. Lifting the avaguṇṭhana. So the whole train, they became laughed. And woman, the shyness is the only protection for them.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: No, no... Anyway they may find, early or later, but how you can stop them finding? It is simply impossible.(?)
Hari-śauri: Anyway, they expect that something coming from India is going to have something to do with God.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We are saying... What I said is Bhaktivedanta Book Trust is dedicated to publishing books on ancient Indian culture.
Prabhupāda: You say like that... Whatever you like, you can say, but when they read the book it is simply...
Jagadīśa: Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa. That's all.
Prabhupāda: Woman infidel, they are stoned among the Muhammadans. Christian also. "You have done..." Woman proved unchaste, she was punished. Is it not? The public would stone and kill. You know that punishment? Stoning?
Hari-śauri: Stoning, yes. It's mentioned a lot in early Christian times. They used to stone.
Prabhupāda: Everyone will throw a stone. Very tortuous death, stoning.
Hari-śauri: I remember my auntie's mother. She was Italian, and she used to wear black all the time. Just like the widows here, they wear white, so she was wearing black. She was a widow. So all the widows, even I saw some young women...
Prabhupāda: Here also, in Gujarat, they wear black, black sari.
Prabhupāda: You told him but he does not do.
Jagadīśa: It's still early. As soon as...
Prabhupāda: Early... When it will be late, then it will be not done. Immediately do it. When I am giving him, it must reach timely to save the situation. So go and do this first. (break) This is our latest publication. (break)
Indian (1): They should see the Almighty. They should repeat it. They should recite the name. Physically, they should be strong and stout and be the brothers of everyone. There should be a brotherhood. Gopāla Prabhu has got some grasping capacity. He can understand something. We know the principles in the life according to Bhagavad-gītā, Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaṇa, Bhāgavata.
Prabhupāda: Saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ.
Prabhupāda: Everything they are doing. That is... Because these American boys and girls they are cooperating, this movement will advance. Otherwise I don't get any cooperation.
Guest (2): I wish to retire soon from this my professional business as early as I can, and settle here.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Guest (2): With your graces it can materialize.
Prabhupāda: Give prasādam.
Guest (2): I got prasādam. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Thank you very much for your coming. Jaya.
Prabhupāda: Bhikṣa-mātā. Bhikṣa means giving alms. At least every woman becomes a bhikṣa-mātā, alms-giving mother. This is system. My mother was bhikṣa-mātā to one brāhmaṇa. He is the son of our priest. Family priest, family guru, vipra-mātā, still in Hindu family, the system is still going on, brāhmaṇa visiting daily, informing, "Today is this tithi. The duty is this, the sunrise at this time is..." This is brāhmaṇa's duty, to go to the neighboring householders, and whatever they give, take. That is brāhmaṇa's art. At the same time, they keep some medicine. Every house there is some ailments. They'll give some medicine. Still. Now it is not so... In our childhood every day some brāhmaṇa visitor would come. So I will take massage like yesterday, early.
Hari-śauri: Right here?
Prabhupāda: Hm, hm. I want to show again.
Prabhupāda: It may be. But their, that association is very undesirable.
Gurudāsa: Yes, Yes. What if someone is willing to follow the regulations?
Prabhupāda: First they should be shaved, clean-shaved. Will they accept that? They must take early in the water, take bath. Cleanliness.
Gurudāsa: No, they won't do. So I won't have that. I just thought it was a preaching opportunity.
Prabhupāda: Preaching, if there is not clean even, what they will understand?
Gurudāsa: Well, when I came, I was not clean either. By your grace I cleaned up.
Hari-śauri: They won't clean up.
Gurudāsa: No, no. I accept what, you know. I want to do...
Prabhupāda: People may not misunderstand that "This is hippie camp."
Prabhupāda: So we shall go down? No.
Hari-śauri: No, but we can. We have ten minutes still.
Dr. Patel: You're too early, sir. Ten minutes more. Fifty-six, six fifty-six. You go after seven, five.
Prabhupāda: There is walking facility?
Gurudāsa: Oh, yes.
Dr. Patel: Water must be extremely cold.
Gurudāsa: No. No. In the morning the air is cold, but the water is warm, warmer than the air, very nice.
Prabhupāda: Yes. The earlier you take bath, it is warm.
Prabhupāda: Huh? Cheated him. He was such swine. He was such big swine.
Rāmeśvara: And right after he was killed, anyone who followed him, they made the lions eat them. It's common knowledge that the early Christians were dragged into a big arena, and the lions were let out of their cages and devoured them. And the people were cheering. The public was invited to the event, and they were cheering.
Prabhupāda: That Rome.
Rāmeśvara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Your civilization is such.
Hari-śauri: Mr. Gupta just sent a big basket full of oranges from Nagpur.
Jagadīśa: This is a tarshi? Are they named tarshi?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Their intelligence is so sharp. (laughs) This is the basic principle of their civilization.
Nanda-kumāra: They found some books now that... Theologians consider that they are books of the Bible that were omitted by the early Christian Church to keep the people in ignorance where Jesus states very clearly, "No meat."
Rāmeśvara: What book is that?
Nanda-kumāra: The Essene Gospel of John the Baptist. It was translated from the original Aramaic scrolls. And it's in the Vatican library, but the Vatican doesn't...
Gargamuni: I've met some vegetarian Christians. I met them in Los Angeles when I was there.
Nanda-kumāra: But in this... Jesus stated very strong. It is very strongly vegetarian.
Hari-śauri: Yes. It says in the Acts of the Apostles, actually, they stopped the Gentiles from taking anything with blood. They were told "No blood."
Gargamuni: I have met vegetarian Christians, and they say, "Thou shall not kill," so they don't kill anything, at least any animal.
Prabhupāda: That's all. And eating the fetus. So civilized, advanced, scientists. (laughs) Just see. Ludicrous.
Nanda-kumāra: They found another book where Jesus spoke about reincarnation, about transmigration of the soul, but that was also omitted by the early... When Jesus set up the disciplic succession...
Rāmeśvara: What book is that?
Nanda-kumāra: I read it in a theologians thing...
Gargamuni: But nobody know about these things. It's the Aquarian Gospel.
Rāmeśvara: That's not accepted.
Gargamuni: See, there's no disciplic succession, so no one can really know the actual truth.
Prabhupāda: That is faithfulness in God. Why a preacher should be bothered about maintaining himself?
Rāmeśvara: Actually there is some good lessons to learn from them, because they were persecuted, they were killed by the government even. But they didn't give up their faith. They remained very faithful, the early Christians.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: And also later missionaries went all over the world alone, to Africa, all countries of the world, converting people, although it was very difficult. So they had a very good missionary spirit formerly. When I went to Fiji I saw many Christian churches in Fiji. Right next door to the house where Vasudeva lives there is a Christian tabernacle, and they wake up every morning at 4:30 and they have hymns-same practice as we have, but it's Christian hymns.
Prabhupāda: So Vṛndāvana we may not go? What is the wrong there?
Hari-śauri: About a week.
Gargamuni: Yes. 'Cause when does monsoon start here? In June? Starts very early.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Ah, yes. In June.
Gargamuni: So we have to go before. That gives us...
Hari-śauri: We don't have to be in Bombay for any reason though, now, because the opening is not going to take place till late.
Prabhupāda: So if just after Māyāpur festival, if you go to...
Gargamuni: From Calcutta.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Hari-śauri? You close this part of the door. Yes That's all. That's all.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Mr P. K. Sanyal from Balliganj.
Prabhupāda: P. K. Shah?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Sanyal. Sanyal. He's in late sixties or early seventies, very old. We became very good friends. He's a very nice man.
Prabhupāda: On the plane?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: On the plane. When I went also, we were in the same plane, because he was making a bridge in Manipur. So he invited me to come to his place in Calcutta, in Balliganj. When also I came back we were in the same plane. It just happened. So he started talking to me that he lost about forty thousand rupees because bridge was broken, and so he said he was feeling very bad, very sad.
Prabhupāda: No, no. The British policy was that "If you keep the Hindus as Hindu, it will not be possible to rule over them." That was their policy. Therefore, from the very beginning childhood, everything Indian condemned.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So this is the same mentality in America now. They are seeing us... Just like the gurukula, their opinion of gurukula—"Oh, children are getting up early? Forced to get up early? Forced to eat on the floor? Not being given proper diet?"
Hari-śauri: "Don't sleep on beds?"
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Same mentality as the British had when they came here.
Prabhupāda: But India, there is no such objection.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: None at all. Rather, they like our movement. So we should concentrate a lot of our energy here.
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Prabhupāda: Why not? He is honoring you.
Girirāja: Yes. So he said that he would ask the organizer that he should speak early in the program so that he can be free and come here as early as possible. So he is very serious. I don't think there will be any delay.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is his name?
Girirāja: Ratan Singh Rajda.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is his exact position?
Girirāja: He is a member of parliament from Bombay South, which is the most prestigious district, from Kalabha up to (indistinct), something like that.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He formerly helped us?
Girirāja: Yes. When Mattrey was, did that demolition attempt, so he was one of the leaders in the corporation. So he fought for us. In fact today also he asked if there was any trouble, because he still is also maintaining his position in the municipal corporation. So I think when he gets back from Delhi in a week, I might bring up some of our little problems.
Prabhupāda: She is not leader, she is a prostitute. Woman given freedom means prostitute. Free woman means prostitute. What is this prostitute? She has no fixed-up husband. And free woman means this, daily, new friend.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who is Indira's husband, a congressman?
Girirāja: He died at an early age.
Prabhupāda: Hm? Who?
Girirāja: He was asking what happened to her husband. I said he died. He was a Parsee. As Your Divine Grace had said, that due to the saṅkīrtana movement an auspicious atmosphere is being created all over the world. So is it not possible that at least for the time being things will improve?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Improve. Not for the time being. For ten thousand years.
Girirāja: Yes. Out of 427,000 years I was taking that 10,000 as for the time being.
Prabhupāda: It is nothing sport.(?)
Prabhupāda: The idea is everyone wanted some food prepared by me. They wanted my preparation. All right, do it.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All the devotees in the early days.
Prabhupāda: No, not devot... When I was doing here and there. Like Dr. Mishra's place.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was very fond of your cooking.
Prabhupāda: He got a good cook without paying. (laughs) And I had no other alternative. I liked it.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Was he paying for the foodstuffs?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. He was giving his place and foodstuff. I was preparing and eating and giving them. I will not pay him, no. Everything he was paying.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But the lift wasn't working, so he couldn't come upstairs. That's why Karttikeya left early, because he was waiting downstairs.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Karttikeya brought him actually. They live in the same house, apartment complex, downstairs, this man. And at one point he expressed that he had a great attachment for his wife, and his wife died about three years ago because of cancer. So since that time he said that he find no peace, and he's looking...
Prabhupāda: He has no children? He has no children?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: We didn't talk about children...
Prabhupāda: No, no...
Prabhupāda: Ācchā?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Looks like the rainy season has come, but very untimely, a little too early. But it has been almost flooded.
Prabhupāda: It is cool now.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. But now the rain has subsided now. It's very cool. Calcutta was very pleasant. It's very comfortable. (laughs) And Manipur is especially nice because...
Prabhupāda: It is good that so much rain has fallen.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, because there was some scarcity of water just a few weeks ago, but now it is...
Prabhupāda: This is due to Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.
Prabhupāda: There is no marriage. And in Bhāgavata says, "There will be no more marriage. Agreement."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sex agreement.
Śatadhanya: And in Switzerland, in the schools, they teach small children, "You should have sex at early age." They teach in school.
Prabhupāda: Switzerland.
Śatadhanya: Switzerland, yeah. They say they are the most liberal.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Therefore it's easy to see why your Guru Mahārāja said that this world is not a fit place for a gentleman.
Prabhupāda: As I told you last time, in the Western countries, so long I am in the temple, I am safe. And as soon as I go out of the temple, it is hell. And implica..., as they are attached. How they are doing?
Prabhupāda: Distribution.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Practically you learned all these things in those early days...
Prabhupāda: Hm. Hm.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...at Rādhā-Govinda Temple.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that was the training in the childhood. This Ratha-yātrā, Rādhā-Govinda sevā, prasāda distribution. Only the new thing I am doing-writing of books by the order of Guru Mahārāja. Otherwise, whatever I have introduced, I was trained up in childhood. I simply imitated. I am simply surprised. Now nowadays, even a low class... Formerly all our maidservant and neighborhood maidservant, they had two business, one prostitute and one maidservant. Otherwise they could not maintain. Simply by becoming maidservant, no sufficient income. We were paying them for not whole time three rupees.
Prabhupāda: Hm. (pause)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If you're feeling tired, maybe you'd like to take a little rest, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's still early now.
Prabhupāda: Hm. I have been taking rest in... (break)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are all rascals and they're all crazy.
Prabhupāda: Who?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The karmīs. They don't know what is what. They don't know what is good for them. If they have their choice, they won't immediately talk with a devotee. But we are like the doctors. We don't consider what the patient says. Somehow we have to administer the medicine because we know it will be good for them. There's a letter that just came from Satsvarūpa.
Prabhupāda: Have my keys...
Prabhupāda: Yes. By procession...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The early pioneers in America, they would also go in the wagons, covered wagons. Now I understand we have one wagon going in America. It's heading towards Washington under the banner of "Simple Living and High Thinking." That will be unique.
Prabhupāda: And everywhere, how they were well dressed, well fed, and rich in milk products. When called, people, the brāhmaṇas give in charity cows, not at all poor.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were reading that one king gave fourteen lakhs' elephants covered in gold, and another king was giving something like 21,000 cows to each brāhmaṇa. Who could imagine? Now the only kind of cows anyone will give you is those that don't give milk.
Prabhupāda: The cows were decorated with cloth, gold necklace, and heaps of grains.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The cow horns were sometimes with gold on the end.
Prabhupāda: That means gold and silver and jewels and cloth sump..., more than... Milk products, grains. This was richness.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, this is half hour?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Hari-śauri? (break) It's starting to get darker early. Sun is setting earlier now, I think, than it was when we were last here. (break) ...to see that things are going on.
Prabhupāda: The leaders are... Similarly, leaders of this temple, they will have to organize.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hm? No, we're able to see these things are going on.
Prabhupāda: But you never inquire.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, the bell went off on time.
Prabhupāda: What kind of ringing was going on? If it is going on whimsically, then that is not very good. I don't think I have seen Akṣayānanda from the morning.
Prabhupāda: ...palace, when it will be ready?
Kīrtanānanda: Early spring. Soon as the weather starts to warm up. It just gives you a little time to recuperate here and then go to Bombay and open the temple there and then come to your palace. I have about fifty or seventy-five letters from the devotees at New Vrindaban. They're just all begging you to come. They say their life is finished if you don't.
Prabhupāda: Hm. So let me take a little rest. Then I shall take strawberry.
Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Brahmānanda: Thank you very much.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: While you're resting you want soft chanting? Soft kīrtana? Haṁsadūta?
Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda ki...
Devotees: Jaya! (break)
Haṁsadūta: Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Girirāja? Did not go to the bank?
Prabhupāda: Viśvambhara, everywhere they want me. You also...
Viśvambhara: I can give my life, Prabhupāda. I can give some of my years. I pray that I may go early, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: No, why you should go early? You live on.
Viśvambhara: Prabhupāda, you stay. I wish that... I told you already earlier here that please at least complete this Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: That is my desire also.
Viśvambhara: Will Kṛṣṇa not fulfill your desire?
Prabhupāda: Oh, Kṛṣṇa is independent.
Prabhupāda: No, no. Subhasya(?) śīghram. As early as possible.
Girirāja: Yes. So the reason we selected January 8th was because many of the important devotees like Yaśodānandana Swami, they're going out of India for collecting during the (indistinct) time, so they felt that it would be easier for them to be back by January 8th.
Prabhupāda: No, no. It cannot remain vacant. Consult with Jayatīrtha.
Hari-śauri: Jayatīrtha's here.
Prabhupāda: I'm asking Girirāja.
Hari-śauri: Consult with Jayatīrtha.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? For the Bombay opening, is it necessary to have those South Indian brāhmaṇas? If Yaśodānandana Mahārāja knows the ceremonies...
Hari-śauri: Which he does very, very well.
Prabhupāda: Then why?
Prabhupāda: Any... Early as possible. That would be nice, Guru Mahārāja appearance day. It is...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's his disappearance day.
Girirāja: The disappearance day is on December 29th, which is just the correct time when we want to open.
Prabhupāda: Ah, that's nice.
Girirāja: So we could begin...
Prabhupāda: We have no such difference, disappearance and appearance.
Girirāja: Except in your case. We don't want disappearance.
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Jīvo vā māro vā. Because we are going to accept eternity, so appearance and disappearance of this body is no a very important thing. Nitya-līlā, eternal life—that is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, as early as possible. Take as far as possible our men. We can keep some assistant, local brāhmaṇa.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But, Prabhupāda, one thing is that if you expect to simply naturally feel like doing this or that, how can you expect something..., to feel naturally hungry if you're ill? Unless the disease goes away... Then naturally you'll feel like drinking and eating. Just like you described to us, when a person is not Kṛṣṇa conscious he has to force himself to get up early, force himself to chant, force himself to go to ārati. Naturally he doesn't feel like these things in the conditioned stage. So similarly, when one is in a diseased condition, naturally he won't feel like taking the medicine or taking the necessary foodstuffs. But if he doesn't force himself, then he can't get out of that diseased condition.
Prabhupāda: So that condition is finished. I have no stamina to force.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You won't let us help you to have that stamina?
Prabhupāda: How you can?
Prabhupāda: You had to take care. But if by Kṛṣṇa's desire I do not exist during Bombay opening ceremony, then the ceremony should be very gorgeously performed, and everyone should be given sumptuous prasādam, whoever comes. Of course, the opening ceremony should be performed as early as possible.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here is Girirāja now, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: So?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Girirāja?
Prabhupāda: You repeat what I have sa...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda said that if he does not exist till the Bombay opening, then it should be performed very gorgeously, and everyone should be fed sumptuous prasādam, and it should be celebrated as early as possible.
Prabhupāda: But what kind of responsible?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, I don't think it's irresponsible. This is still too early to be expecting that we would definitely have heard anything. Sometimes... There's so many reasons why it would take this long to even contact the man. Supposing the man has gone out of the city for a day. It's entirely possible. I mean, naturally because you're ill, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you're feeling, you know, immediately to want news of him. (pause) Do you think that this M. M. would try to cause any trouble in the future? Or is he so useless that he won't do that even?
Prabhupāda: He has taken power of attorney from his mother. I think whatever money is going to his mother.
Prabhupāda: A new light.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: There's going to be an international symposium in Madras early next year about the what they call complex light molecules in evolution and there's going to be some Nobel prize winning scientists. So we'll be writing a letter to present our paper in that symposium. That's first week of January next year. If we can present one paper that will be I think quite good. (break)
Prabhupāda: (Hindi with Kavirāja)
Adri-dharaṇa: Did you have good rest last night, Prabhupāda?
Kavirāja: (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: At the end of the night.
Prabhupāda: Call one week early.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One week. Very grand event. There is no such project like that anywhere else in India, or in the world. Would you like to hear kīrtana, Śrīla Prabhupāda? (break) (kavirāja arrives—Hindi discussions; Bhagatji arrives)
Bhakti-cāru: It's less now, this restlessness and the pain.
Kavirāja: (Hindi conversation)
Bhakti-cāru: He didn't pass urine after that. Last one is at five past twelve.
Bhavānanda: That's all. He hasn't passed any.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Bhakti-cāru: He asking about urine, Śrīla Prabhupāda, whether you passed urine afterwards. (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: Tamāla is there?
Prabhupāda: Rest assured. I will not die in one day.
Haṁsadūta: So we should go to Govardhana? Because tomorrow is Govardhana-pūjā.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And we shall make our cooking there and...
Lokanātha: We should start early.
Prabhupāda: He has got experience. Dig the ground and make our foodstuff. Very good picnic.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Very good picnic.
Haṁsadūta: If we go to Govardhana, we would take the prasādam that was prepared here and bring it there, so that many people can take.
Prabhupāda: I have no objection.
| Page Title: | Early (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | SunitaS, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 24 of Aug, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=108, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 108 |