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Essay (Lectures & Conversations)

Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.8.21 -- Mayapura, October 1, 1974:

Therefore, to teach these rascals, Kuntī is pointing out, kṛṣṇāya vāsudevāya: (SB 1.8.21) "You rascal, you don't take Kṛṣṇa otherwise. I am speaking of Kṛṣṇa, the son of Vasudeva, Vāsudeva." Just like to identification in the court, if you give your name, then you must give the father's name, your village, your district, like that. That is identification. So therefore Kuntīdevī is pointing out: "It is no other Kṛṣṇa. The Kṛṣṇa whose father's name is Vasudeva, whose mother's name is Devakī, whose father's name is Nanda Mahārāja, whose mother's name is Yaśodāmāyi. That's all." When that Vallabha Ācārya... He wrote some essays and books, The Meaning of Kṛṣṇa. The Meaning of Kṛṣṇa. And he went to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and he wanted some eulogization that he has so many meanings of Kṛṣṇa. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "No, no, I know Kṛṣṇa's name, only two or three. That's all." He said, "I know Kṛṣṇa is the son of Yaśodāmāyi, Yaśodānandana. Kṛṣṇa means the boy who sucked the breast of Mother Yaśodā. I know that."

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival Conversation -- Los Angeles, June 20, 1975:

Prabhupāda: He thought disappointed. He has published. He has written very nicely.

Jayādvaita: He has written nicely?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayādvaita: We can publish it?

Prabhupāda: So we should... Yes, here is the... What is that?

Brahmānanda: "Illusion and reality," two essays...

Prabhupāda: He has presented very nicely. So we should encourage our men.

Jayādvaita: Publish it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And our men, all our men should write. Otherwise how we shall know that he has understood the philosophy? Writing means śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. Śravaṇam means hearing from the authority and again repeat it. This is our business, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23), about Viṣṇu, not for any politician or any other man. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ, about Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu. So that is success. Hear and repeat, hear and repeat. You haven't got to manufacture. Any one of us, simply if you reproduce the purport which I have given in the Bhāgavata, you become a good speaker.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Hayagrīva: This is John Stuart Mill. In his essay on nature Mill writes, "The order of nature, in so far as unmodified by man, is such as no being whose attributes are justice and benevolence would have made with the intention that his rational creatures should follow it as an example. It could only be as a designedly imperfect work which man in his limited sphere is to exercise justice and benevolence in amending." So Mill concludes...

Prabhupāda: In man dealing, not with any other living beings, only man.

Hayagrīva: Well man, Mill concludes that conformity to nature has no connection whatever with right and wrong, and that man must amend nature. He must not act according to nature, but must—the word he uses is "amend"...

Prabhupāda: Yes, amend. Not only amend. The nature, that we discussed, almost always, the nature is animal nature. But man must be above the animal nature. That is rationality. Normally a man is called rational animal, so he should advance in rationality. Just for eating, eating is common to the man and to the animal, but man should be advanced, what kind of eating it should be. Not only natural, although natural tendency is... Just like man, some of, not all, some of them want to eat meat. So rationality is that "If I have got better foodstuff, why shall I kill that animal?" This is then rationality. But because he can eat meat, he can kill animal, he should go on killing animal, that is less intelligence. God has given so many nice foodstuff. Take for fruits, there are varieties of fruits Kṛṣṇa has given to the mankind, and we can utilize milk in so many nice preparation. So the fruits are not eaten by the animals. The dogs, cats, they do not eat fruit. It is meant for human being, so similarly there must, discrimination is the better part of valor. Is that not English proverb? So man should have discrimination, and especially for eating. I think George Bernard Shaw wrote one book, You are What You are Eating.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: That is simply translation. But Caitanya-caritāmṛta is now presented in our TLC. Actually that is our conclusion. And Navina Rāya's translation, there are sometimes little defects, but not very dangerous, not very dangerous.

Hayagrīva: Should your... In the content, should we put in... How many articles can we put in by you? These are the most important contributions we have, and, say, would it be too much material to put in, say, an essay by you and maybe a lecture or...

Prabhupāda: Or whatever it may be. That any article may not be more than two, three pages, printed. That will be nice. And if the number of articles are more, how many pages we are going to print?

Hayagrīva: We're going to print more pages, aren't we?

Brahmānanda: Well, there's some discuss... If we print it on our own press we can print it, we could add eight more pages, which would make it forty pages. But we may continue with Dai Nippon in Japan. So I don't know if we'll increase the pages.

Prabhupāda: So by increasing the pages, what do we immediately get profit? Is there any special advantage we get?

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Mister Popworth and E. F. Schumacher -- July 26, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: We are becoming more and more entangled in material activities. We are trying to solve one problem, and creating another big problem. Just like I was reading the "Motor Car Crisis." We thought that with a horseless carriage it will be very convenient to travel. But against that convenience, so-called convenience, we have created so many inconveniences. It is very nicely described in that paper I was reading.

Revatīnandana: Was it this one?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: It's a reprint, "Economics of Permanence," your essay.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Revatīnandana: It's called "The Economics of Permanence."

Prabhupāda: Yes. "The Motor Car Crisis"?

Revatīnandana: Is it mentioned in that essay? I think it must be a different location.

Vicitravīrya: I think it was in one of the Resurgence magazines, perhaps. It was in one of the eight magazines, I think.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes. Here.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 18, 1975, Perth:

Śrutakīrti: It is like the Russians and the Americans. He doesn't want to offend the other scientists. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: If the other scientists condemn him, then he will not get service.

Śrutakīrti: That's right.

Devotee: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (devotees offer obeisances)

Prabhupāda: You can write one essay, I'll give you some hints. Bring your notebook and Bhagavad-gītā also. The defect of human society is that..., present human society is that there is no high-class men. The Bhagavad-gītā says, aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase (BG 2.11).

Amogha: Aśocam?

Prabhupāda: Aśocyān

Amogha: Aśocyān. Is that Chapter Sixteen?

Prabhupāda: No, second.

Amogha: A-s-a-o? A-s-a-u?

Prabhupāda: A-ś-o.

Amogha: Aśocyān anvaśocas tvam (BG 2.11). Hm. Two, eleven.

Prabhupāda: What is it?

Amogha: (reads Sanskrit and translation to Bg. 2.11)

Prabhupāda: So, these classes of men are now predominant.

Conversation with Professor Hopkins -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prof. Hopkins: So his problem was the effort to attempt to do this on his own without going through...

Prabhupāda: The guru.

Prof. Hopkins: The guru.

Prabhupāda: Therefore it will take time. Just like a man searching after the right path but he does not care to ask anybody, he is loitering in the forest.

Prof. Hopkins: You... I'm sure you're familiar with his essays on the Gītā.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Prof. Hopkins: Which I think are generally quite good, his essays on the Gītā themselves. Are there places there that you would strongly disagree with in his, what he says?

Prabhupāda: No, we disagree with the whole system because he is trying to understand the Absolute Truth by his own effort. That is not possible.

Prof. Hopkins: So you would say then that no matter... He may have the right idea, but he has not, he has not...

Prabhupāda: He may be a great thoughtful man but (indistinct) ...a realized man.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: If they understand any book, Īśopaniṣad, if they understand, they will get improvement.

Nandarāṇī: Any book. Some Bhagavad-gītās I do, but it's an exceptional Iranian who can even read the book, what to speak of understand the concepts. Īśopaniṣad is easier for them. We are very eager to translate into Persian.

Prabhupāda: Īśopaniṣad.

Nandarāṇī: Īśopaniṣad, yes. I think that will be our first big attempt. Some essays we will try to do. "Who is Crazy?" is very good for them, they appreciate that article, and...

Prabhupāda: They appreciate?

Nandarāṇī: Yes, we have explained to some of them the concepts in "Who is Crazy?" and Īśopaniṣad is a good book for them.

Prabhupāda: So your daughter is good assistant in the matter of cooking?

Nandarāṇī: Yes, they are both very good in cooking. And they clean the altar and they do some maintenance of the altar and the temple room, and they cook and sew, and I give them class in the morning, Bhagavad-gītā in English.

Prabhupāda: Yes, teach them personally. That Aniruddha is always chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Never mind. I'll... After hearing this book I'll let him know.

Jayapatākā: After they write everything, then I also read it in Bengali. I can... And if I see something that seems a little impersonal or something, I say that...

Prabhupāda: Correct it.

Jayapatākā: Yes, correct it. That much I can do.

Prabhupāda: Impersonal idea is in everyone's head. "God has no legs, no head. Simply he has got head."

Jayapatākā: I can also write to the... Previously in 1971-72 at the pandals you used to speak in Bengali some days. I'll write for those tapes. We can...

Gargamuni: Oh, those tapes. I asked for those tapes so long ago. If we can get those Hindi and Bengali tapes we could have them transcribed, and they can make very good essays.

Jayapatākā: All the big English Back to Godhead articles are actually your lectures simply transcribed. So we could transcribe those tapes and we could have originally your words.

Gargamuni: Yes. There were ten days when Prabhupāda spoke in Bengali.

Jayapatākā: Twice. Once in Deshapriya Park and once at Maidan. Even today people talk about both festivals.

Prabhupāda: Bhagavāner Kathā.

Jayapatākā: Bhagavāner Kathā. Devānanda Gauḍīya Maṭha. Paper of Gauḍīya.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Gauḍīya it was published continuous.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: So always your writing, people were attracted by.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is a fact. Even my teachers were attracted in school days.

Jayapatākā: Recently that..., some professor said that you are the veritable incarnation of Vyāsadeva for Lord Caitanya.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Some have said like that. In my matriculation class I wrote some essay and I got out of 100, 85 marks. But the teacher came to the class, "Who has written this?" So I stood up, and he thanked me, "Yes, it is very nice." He especially came to thank me for that essay.

Gargamuni: At least from the human standpoint, it is not humanly possible to have so many books in such a short time. There is no other author, at least that we know.

Jayapatākā: I showed your "As Brilliant as the Sun" to Tarun Kanti Gosh and one other minister, and when they saw that, then after, for ten minutes, all they could say was how Prabhupāda, how he is empowered by Lord Gaurāṅga.

Prabhupāda: They said like that.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Maṇihāra: "Hare Kṛṣṇa swamis. Man has unraveled many mysteries in his progress from barbarianism to civilization in his relentless pursuit of knowledge and his bid to add to his storehouse of information about the myriad mysteries of the universe. He has outstepped the boundaries of the earth and turned his attention to outer space, and at present he is trying to determine whether life exists on Mars. But even though he has climbed a long way up the ladder of knowledge, the great mystery of all baffles him still—the mystery of God. Who is God? What is the relationship between man and God? Why should man try to realize God? These are some of the questions which have been engaging the attention of all thinking men from time immemorial. The search for God has been going on down the ages because the Supreme Being is God, and to know Him is to know the truth of all things, in all forms in time as well as in space. The destiny of man is unity with God, for man is essentially inseparable from God. It is this knowledge which helps man to attain the state of eternal satisfaction or mokṣa. But for self-knowledge, mokṣa would be impossible. And self-knowledge would be impossible of attainment but for those divine messengers who throw light on the path of our lives. Whenever true knowledge, spiritual knowledge, begins to vanish from the face of the earth and tends to lapse into oblivion, the divine messengers revive that knowledge and nourish it with the vitality of their own experience. These divine messengers seek to awaken man to the knowledge of his real heritage. One such divine messenger is His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda..."

Prabhupāda: He has made the ground. (laughter)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's really like an essay.

Gargamuni: We should send this to Blitz, this article. Because they have said "ungodly," and he is saying "divine messenger."

Prabhupāda: Yes. You please send this. Get some copies and send this rascal editor Karanji. He is known to you? He is a Parsee?

Mahāṁśa: No, I don't know him.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Go on.

Morning Walk -- December 30, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Vinoba Bhave is also not cent percent.

Girirāja: Oh, I know. But by chance, on this particular point...

Prabhupāda: He has written books, Bhagavad-gītā Pravacana. In his bhāṣya there is no kṛṣṇa-bhakti. So what is this Bhagavad-gītā Pravacana. Why he has avoided kṛṣṇa-bhakti? What is the reason?

Girirāja: He's envious.

Prabhupāda: Gandhi has... He's envious. The same thing. Bhagavad-gītā, he is writing essays on Bhagavad-gītā but the main principle of Bhagavad-gītā, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65), mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. What is that?

Girirāja: Mām evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te pratijāne priyo 'si me.

Prabhupāda: So where is that?

Girirāja: They don't follow.

Prabhupāda: This is their defect. Therefore they are failures. Must be failure. They do not take Bhagavad-gītā as it is. They mix with their false ideas. And therefore spoil, adulterate. And bhagavad-bhakti is without adulteration. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (CC Madhya 19.167). Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). Pure. No adulteration. That is bhakti. Jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam (CC Madhya 19.167). Sarvopādhi vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). That is not nirmalam. Sa mala it is. With mala. With mala. Mala. It cannot be. Proportionately. So where she has sent this article?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Nobody is interested. That is the difficulty in this age. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). They do not know how one can become happy. They are simply hoping against hope. Durāśayā. Aśayā means hope, and dura means which will never be fulfilled. Durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ.

Pradyumna: You wrote that essay one time, "Hope Against Hope."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hope against hope is which is never fulfilled.

Mr. Asnani: Living in the fool's paradise.

Prabhupāda: Yes. "This plan has failed. Now let me this, make this plan. And then again fail? All right, let me this." This is hope against hope. He's thinking that "This plan has failed. Let me do this plan." Again failed? "Again another, again another."

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? I was thinking to, if I had some free time, that I could work on writing some essay about nationalism.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, you've been mentioning so many times about how foolish the..., so many people are. Under the banner of nationalism they are basing their whole life.

Prabhupāda: But they'll not hear. If you forbid the dogs, "Don't bark," it is like that. Why waste time? He'll go on with all politics. Negative, as soon as you say, they'll neglect.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is there some subject matter...?

Prabhupāda: It requires training.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is there some subject matter...?

Prabhupāda: Just like so much training we are giving; still, there is falldown. So simply by saying...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So you had... There was a newspaper article about a few weeks ago, and you had said that something could be written on this subject. That's the only reason I...

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Hm.

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

Prabhupāda: Just see. Such a good certificate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Satsvarūpa, American-born personal secretary to Swami Bhaktivedanta, presents the official Hare Kṛṣṇa approach." They don't even identify you. They know who you are. You are so well known in these literary circles now that someone says, "Swami Bhaktivedanta." They don't have to say "Founder of ISKCON." They know already from your other books. "...presents the official Hare Kṛṣṇa approach in an articulate and highly serviceable introduction to this immense body of literature. The readings include the Īśopaniṣad, the Bhagavad-gītā and excerpts from Purāṇas, supplemented with a glossary and index. Preliminary essays detail the logic by which his group rejects both the academic experts and the rival approach of advaita-vedānta that Westerners know through the writings of Vivekananda and Radhakrishnan. This is a book long needed to balance out the monist theology that is but one aspect of Indian religious thought." In other words, this is one of the first books to present the Vaiṣṇava viewpoint, not simply the Māyāvādī viewpoint. He says, "It's well needed." That's all he's written.

Prabhupāda: Very appreciated. Very much appreciate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Satsvarūpa writes that this will very much help the... He says it will help its sales in America. Then this article...

Prabhupāda: It is very thoughtful article.

Page Title:Essay (Lectures & Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti
Created:22 of Feb, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=3, Con=12, Let=0
No. of Quotes:15