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Every year (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- July 29, 1971, Gainesville:

Interviewer: The expert is Kṛṣṇa. Yes. That much I understand. Yes. In fact Kṛṣṇa is everything. (Prabhupāda chants japa) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...so he is authorized.

Interviewer: So you are authorized.

Prabhupāda: I or anyone that follows Kṛṣṇa's instruction.

Interviewer: Well maybe, sir, (indistinct) followed Kṛṣṇa. I don't know him.

Prabhupāda: That I do not know.

Interviewer: Well, maybe you ought to find out, because, you know, this is widely distributed in the United States.

Prabhupāda: My book is authority.

Interviewer: Yes, I know.

Prabhupāda: Macmillan's publishes every year fifty thousand. (stage directions going on in background) You can inquire from your side any reading matter from Bhagavad-gītā original. That will be nice. Then I can explain.

Interview with Reporters -- November 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: I have no personal presentation. I am speaking only what Kṛṣṇa... Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Here is the book, you see. This book, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, which we are presenting, and publisher is Macmillan Company, and every year they are printing at least fifty thousand copies. This is for our fifth edition. They are printing this book since 1968. '68, '69, '70, '71, that, I think, I know they have, they are fifth edition, and people are reading it, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Our..., we don't change. Kṛṣṇa says, "I am the Supreme," and we are saying Kṛṣṇa is the same, Supreme. Even I do not understand what is Kṛṣṇa, I am simply presenting what is written in the Bhagavad-gītā. mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya: (BG 7.7) "There is no superior element above Me."

Interview with Reporters -- November 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: My feeling, I am very satisfied that Kṛṣṇa is accepted by presenting as He is. I must be very satisfied, because before me, who did not present Kṛṣṇa as He is, there was not a single Kṛṣṇa conscious person in the Western world. Now I have got thousands. So why I shall not feel satisfied? Those who misinterpreted Bhagavad-gītā—"This is this, this is that, this is that"—they could not get even one Kṛṣṇa conscious person, and by presenting Bhagavad-gītā, they are selling fifty thousand copies per month, and I am getting every year one thousand, two thousand Kṛṣṇa devotees. So why it is not practical?

Reporter: In India?

Prabhupāda: In India everyone is Kṛṣṇa conscious. They are trying to forget Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

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

Prabhupāda: At least three months.

Dr. Singh: Three months.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (indistinct)

Dr. Singh: Do you come every year, or is this the first time you have come (indistinct)?

Prabhupāda: No. I came last year (indistinct). (indistinct) so I went back again to Los Angeles in (indistinct), in June.

Śyāmasundara: Moscow, Paris.

Dr. Singh: How did you find Moscow?

Prabhupāda: Everywhere there is demand for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Simply artificially they have been checked. I find my market everywhere. I have sown the seed in Moscow. I have got one student.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: Thirty lakhs. But he has given me for fourteen lakhs. And that's also by instrument, in three years, or four years, without any interest...

Devotee: Who is that man?

Prabhupāda: Mr. Nair. Mrs. Nair. She is, she is also very nice devotee. So every year four lakhs of rupees, in three years, or four years, fourteen lakhs, without any interest. So we have got good facility. And in Vṛndāvana, some gentleman has given us the land.

Devotee: Is the land in Vṛndāvana, is it in the city? Is it on the outside of Vṛndāvana, or is it in the city?

Prabhupāda: No, it is just in front of Bon Mahārāja's college.

Devotee: It's in Rāman Reti.

Conversation with Bajaj and Bhusan -- September 11, 1972, Arlington, Texas, At Their Home:

Prabhupāda: This is published by Macmillan. It is eleven hundred pages. They printed in July fifty thousand copies. That is finished. Now they are going to print second edition. Since 1968 they are publishing our Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, and every year they are getting one edition. From the beginning... I think this is the fifth or sixth edition and their business manager, trades manager's report is that this Bhagavad-gītā is increasing sale, others' dwindling, because it is presented as it is. We present Kṛṣṇa as Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says, "I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead." We present Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Kṛṣṇa says, "You surrender unto Me." We teach people, "You surrender to Kṛṣṇa." Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). We say, "You become Kṛṣṇa bhakta. You offer worship to Kṛṣṇa." We don't change anything. And therefore people are accepting. Adulteration, how long it will go on?

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Karandhara: The Russian scientists are very proud in their working, and they're atheistical. But still they're not able to produce enough food. Every year, there's not enough food.

Prabhupāda: No. There's not enough food. Yes. I have experienced it. You cannot get food as you like. What government supplies, you have to accept. That's all. And that is rubbish, all rubbish. Generally, they supply meat. No fruit, no vegetable, no rice, no, nothing. You cannot get. You simply eat meat. That's all. And milk is available. This is their arrangement. And in all store, lines. You have to ask, even if you want to take meat only, you cannot go and immediately purchase. You have to wait for three hours, control. This is their position.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation). He is so complete that one minus one equal to one. That is Absolute. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is expanding Himself by so many energies, but Kṛṣṇa is the same. There is no loss in His energy. Even in a human being or animal, he produces so many children. Just like hog—he produces at least one dozen children every year, but the hog is the same. If a hog can have so much power... And formerly one man used to produce hundreds of children. Wherefrom the potency comes? If a man is giving birth to hundreds of children, but still, he is the same man, wherefrom the potency comes? Why man? Even the fish, thousands of eggs they produce, and thousands of fishes are again produced. Wherefrom the potency comes?

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: No, we have to depend...

Krishna Tiwari: No, we don't.

Prabhupāda: You theories changes every year.

Krishna Tiwari: No... Well it changes (laughter), because it is very...

Prabhupāda: Therefore we have to depend.

Krishna Tiwari: No. Change is the law of nature. Change is the law of nature. Change...

Prabhupāda: "Change is the law of nature," that's fine...

Room Conversation with Reporter from Researchers Magazine -- July 24, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: But we see everything has got Kṛṣṇa connection. Therefore we utilize it for Kṛṣṇa. Just like you're talking about Kṛṣṇa, it is being recorded. So it is useful for Kṛṣṇa's service. Why should I give it up? Because the airplane is there, therefore my preaching has been easier. Every year I'm wandering all over the world, twice, thrice. Because if you use airplane. So why shall I give it up? It is giving me facility to preach my Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, why shall I give it up? It is mithyā. Just like the Jains, they do not ride on car, but if by going in a car I can go and preach, very swiftly, and come back again, why shall I give up this car? So our philosophy is not like that. Nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate. It is yukta-vairāgya. We have no attachment for all these things. We are sitting in this palatial building, that's all right. But you can talk things under the tree. But if I sit down underneath a tree nobody will come to me.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, Dr. Suneson -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Professor: ...Yes. And, I think, he was ill also. He was quite weak.

Paramahaṁsa: When he died, he... Every year he was going to these trips to visit these Buddhist monasteries.

Prabhupāda: He was a little attached to Buddhism?

Paramahaṁsa: Yes, like Śaṅkarācārya, remember, he was...

Prabhupāda: Impersonalist.

Paramahaṁsa: Yes. He was mentioning to you that he thought Śaṅkara's teachings were much more simpler, much more understandable, he said. Than, attractive, he said, than Caitanya Mahāprabhu's. This was his...

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: And that is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: anāvṛṣṭi, durbhikṣa and kara-pīḍita. One side, there will be no rain, and there will be scarcity of food grain, and government will tax heavily. In this way, people will become mad and they will give up their hearth and home and go to the forest. This is the foretelling also. This is going to happen. Actually, people are being perplexed in that way. There is scarcity of food, and there is scarcity of rain, and government tax is increasing every year. Read that.

Interviews with Macmillan and various English Reporters -- September 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: But in student life I had knowledge in Sanskrit, and that was utilized later on.

Prof. Gombrich: Yes, of course. And do you return to Vṛndāvana often?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Every year I go there, during the month of October.

Prof. Gombrich: Do you have a particular āśrama there?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Yes. Now we are constructing our own temple also, very big temple. You had been in Vṛndāvana?

Prof. Gombrich: No, I haven't, I'm afraid. No. And do you think that the message of Kṛṣṇa consciousness or Kṛṣṇa Caitanya is very different from the message of realizing God which is promulgated in other religions, for instance the Śaiva religion or...?

Morning Walk -- December 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: They get letters protest, that "You, rascal, United Nations, what you are doing for this?"

Karandhara: No, they're getting millions of dollars in contributions every year from people that think they're doing...

Prabhupāda: No, that "in future." No. That is his philosophy. (devotees laugh)

Karandhara: Our philosophy also. We say we can bring peace in the world, but that's in the future.

Devotee (2): No, but they are giving their contributions.

Prabhupāda: (aside:) No.

Morning Walk -- December 21, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So these rascals will change every year their theology. So what is the value of their words? Childish. (break) ...changes, he is a rascal. That is our... We say, "Kṛṣṇa the Supreme." We never change it. And "Surrender is the only process." We shall never change it. In any circumstance we will not change it. That is the difference. And these rascals will change every year their opinion. They are rascals. (break) ...They are rascals. (break) Kṛṣṇa said that "I am the Supreme." So Arjuna accepted, the Supreme. All the ācāryas accepted the Supreme. Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted, Supreme. My Guru Mahārāja accepted, Supreme. I am accepting, Supreme. I am teaching the same thing. So there is no change. Not that after a few years it will be changed. That never be. That is our position. (break) Changing means material. Anything material is susceptible to change. Like this material body. I am changing my body, but I am the spirit soul.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 20, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: So they are going there?

Sudāmā: Yeah, they're making plans to go there.

Nitāi: It's quite a bit further than the moon. They watch through their telescopes and every year they see that the surface of the planet changes, that there's certain dark areas which grow and then they recede.

Prabhupāda: Every day, every year changes? Why?

Nitāi: Well, it appears to be like seasons. First they grow big, and then they grow small, then they grow big.

Prabhupāda: Moon planet?

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So that Bhagavad-gītā as it is published by MacMillan Company.

Dr. Kapoor: I haven't read it through, but I saw the publication.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So they are having every year one edition.

Dr. Kapoor: Hmm. I see. Wonderful.

Prabhupāda: Yes, for the last, it has begun from 1968, it is still going on, every year, they publish and they send me royalty $2,000.

Dr. Kapoor: Good.

Guru dāsa: (indistinct) has read Nectar of Devotion.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Morning Walk -- March 27, 1974, Bombay:

Girirāja: Well, we've applied.

Prabhupāda: Every year we have to apply.

Dr. Patel: Yes, every year it should be applied.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Dr. Patel: That is the law. I give this warning.

Prabhupāda: That is the law of breaking temple. And when we want, that is the law, "No sanction." (Hindi) This is our position. If we go forward, then we are culprit. And if we remain backward, then we are culprit. Both ways. (Hindi)

Room Conversation -- April 26, 1974, Tirupati:

Prabhupāda: Yes, Bombay I have got my headquarters.

Indian man: And your friends were there at the airport, Santa Cruz Airport, and you came by plane, some two years back I remember.

Prabhupāda: No, I am going every year. Two times, three times, I have to go all round the world.

Indian man: I respectfully request you your name, please.

Prabhupāda: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. That's all. Call me Prabhupāda. I am preaching this cult, what you have come to see, this being expanded all over the world.

Indian man: Yes, yes. It's very good.

Prabhupāda: And we have got about hundred temples.

Morning Walk at Villa Borghese -- May 25, 1974, Rome:

Devotee: Kīrtanānanda Swami says that in New Vrindaban the weather is changing every year. It is getting nicer there. Much more sun and the winter is not so hard.

Atreya Ṛṣi: In New Vrindaban it's getting better.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because there are so many devotees. The people are still being maintained on account of our chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra.

Devotee: By the grace of pure devotee.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: What is that sun king?

Paramahaṁsa: Why do they call him "Sun King"?

French Devotee: Because he was very opulent.

Paramahaṁsa: Today, the French people collect millions of dollars every year from the Americans to keep Versailles beautiful.

Prabhupāda: American tourists pay.

Paramahaṁsa: Yes, many hundreds and thousands of American tourists come there every year just to see this opulence.

Yogeśvara: The Americans appreciate opulence. That's why we joined your movement.

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

Prabhupāda: No, this is the fourth visit.

Professor La Combe: Fourth visit, every year.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Last year also, I came. I installed the Deity.

Professor La Combe: You now come right from Vṛndāvana or...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I am coming from Vṛndāvana of course, via Delhi. Then Rome, then Geneva, then Paris. Then I shall go to Frankfurt. And from there I shall go to Sydney, Australia.

Professor La Combe: Oh, this is not the direct way.

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

Prabhupāda: Where is that poster? Australia? Yes.

Bhagavān: And in all these cities we are joined... In San Francisco there are ten thousand people who come at least every year to help pull the carts and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: In Chicago also. Philadelphia. There will be Ratha-yātrā. this is the...

Satsvarūpa: This is for Melbourne, Australia, Ratha-yātrā parade, (shows a poster), picture of the parade last year.

Professor La Combe: Last year.

Prabhupāda: No, this year they are advertising.

Professor La Combe: Which is to come.

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

Devotee: But more and more the people, especially in America, they are seeing how these politicians are cheating. Because every year, in every campaign, the same politician is saying, "I will do this, I will do that," and when he gets into office, he never does anything. But maybe now this time, when our Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees are running and they are showing the people what rascals... Just like Balavanta on TV, he was saying "How can these people be leader, when they are themselves permitting slaughter, drinking, smoking, having illicit sex life."

Prabhupāda: That is a fact. That is a fact. But why the leader? The public also drinks. They also encourage slaughterhouse. So if you say to the public that they cannot be leader, then there is no leader. They cannot find out any leader. The public will understand that "I also eat meat, I also drink, do the same thing. Why the leader should be something, saintly person? After all, he is our leader. So we are of the same character. So why the leader should be something different?" They cannot understand it.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What is this?

Rāmeśvara: Sometimes people order incense along with their books. Very rarely. The mail order business is now doing $100,000 worth of business every year and is always growing. It is almost doubled from last year.

Prabhupāda: Oh, you are printing these books?

Rāmeśvara: We're going to reprint them.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: 100,000 copies, with a color cover.

Prabhupāda: Nice. This, this, very nice.

Morning Walk -- February 21, 1975, Caracas:

Prabhupāda: University education is simply to learn some art, materialistic art. It is not education. Education is different. Education is brahma-vidyā, self-realization. Therefore in politics the so-called leader, because there is no standard, they change government, revolution. Why? From nature's study we can see one tree is producing a particular type of fruit and flower. There is no revolution. It is standard. But these people, because they have no standard, they change every moment, every year. Nature's way—the sun is rising from the eastern side—that is standard. (chuckles) These rascals, they will say, "Let the sun rise from the north." It is childish, simply childish. "Eastern philosophers, Western..." What is this philosophy? Philosophy is philosophy. Why they talk of Eastern, Western?" Eastern sun, Western sun." Sun is always Eastern, never Western.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: That's good answer. "You fourth-class man, you have created the situation. Now you save the situation."

Paramahaṁsa: They used to borrow money from the banks every year, the city government of New York. They used to borrow money from the banks.

Prabhupāda: Bank has refused?

Paramahaṁsa: Yes, they won't loan any more money because they know the tax money won't come in.

Prabhupāda: Just see the position. The bank is refusing loan to the municipal corporation, city corporation. They have no credit.

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

Prabhupāda: Heroism. Therefore the kṣatriyas are allowed to hunt in the forest to become hero because he has to fight. Just like in medical laboratory they first of all dissect some poor animal before touching human being. Therefore kṣatriyas are allowed to hunt to become hero. Facing the tiger, "Come on." And still, say, about twenty-five years ago, there was a native prince in Jaipur. Every year he would go to the forest and face the tiger, without any weapon. So that is required.

Guest 2: That is good?

Prabhupāda: That is required. Those who are politicians, those who are going to be president, they must be like that.

Guest 2: In our society that wouldn't be thought good.

Prabhupāda: No, your society whatever you may be, this is the idea.

Morning Walk -- May 23, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: That is the way of western civilization. They are creating motor cars every year, and the bank is prepared to give you loan so that you may work day and night. Take loan from the bank and purchase a motor car and repay him by working so their machine will go on. This is the policy, economic policy. Is it not? Yes. Keep them working, busy. But what is the purpose of this working? Now, when death is there, everything is finished. And everything will be finished, for that working? Just see their knowledge. Everything will be finished and for this purpose I have to work so hard?

Morning Walk -- June 26, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Black and white?

Jayatīrtha: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Negroes are envious of the white men.

Jayatīrtha: Yes. In Detroit every year one out of every five hundred people is murdered.

Prabhupāda: White man?

Jayatīrtha: White men and black men. Usually black men are murdering.

Prabhupāda: What is the reason? The same feeling as in India, Hindu Muslim. But it is not so strong.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Brahmānanda: In Time magazine they say that by the time the child is fifteen years old he will have seen eleven thousand murders on television.

Jayatīrtha: In Detroit one out of every thousand people gets murdered every year.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Jayatīrtha: In Detroit—that's the biggest crime city in America—one out of every thousand people gets murdered every year. If you live there for fifty years, you have one chance in twenty of being murdered. (break)

Prabhupāda: Prosperous. The business is slaughterhouse. All butchers. (laughs)

Brahmānanda: The butcher community.

Morning Walk -- July 31, 1975, Dallas:

Prabhupāda: I do not know why but I am not... Constipation? And now I'm feeling headache, some spasm.

Jagadīśa: Should we cancel the trip this morning? (break)

Prabhupāda: ...very hot place. So every year I used to resolute, "Now I shall give up this place," every year. So I was going Kashmir, Darjeeling. Bhavani, that is near Nainital. (break)

Brahmānanda: ...just in the hot climate. In the hot climate it is more difficult to digest?

Prabhupāda: Maybe.

Walk Around Farm -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans:

Nityānanda: There are some beehives down here behind this building. I have twelve, and every year we can get hundreds of pounds of honey. Honey is very nice because it does not spoil, just like ghee. It can keep for many, many months, or a long time. We can go up here to see the cows if you like. Right now they are milking them.

Prabhupāda: So if we go, it will be disturbed?

Nityānanda: Oh, no.

Prabhupāda: This is one sugarcane each? No. Two, three?

Car Conversation -- August 3, 1975, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Yes, face to face. Yes. Where there is tiger, a kṣatriya, would meet him with a sword. That's all. "Come on. You attack and be killed." Even twenty years before, the king of Jaipur, every year he should go in the forest and kill one tiger personally. And the dead tiger will be brought in procession. He'd be given... Just like a prince or king dies—his body is taken in procession-tiger would be brought that way. Both of them, kṣatriyas... So the tiger should be given the honor of a prince. (break) ...means enemy is going out of fear of life and showing his backside, then he will not be killed. (break) ...into Canada?

Brahmānanda: No, that's Detroit.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is Detroit.

Morning Walk -- September 3, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Then, immediately, he becomes friend. This is the way, going on. The whole arrangement is like that. So long we shall not surrender to Kṛṣṇa, we have to suffer so many ways, different species of life, different condition, different planets. This is going on. (break) ...indirectly forcing that "You be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Otherwise you'll be punished." Why police is so unkind? Because the indirect way is that "You become lawful; otherwise you'll continue to be suffering by us." So intelligent person thinks of it, and he becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious. And those who are rascals, fools, bewildered, they think, "We shall adjust it by manufacturing every year new type of motorcars." Although there is accident... The increase of motorcar means increasing the death rate of public. Huh? And still they'll do that. It is becoming problem in cities in Europe and America. All roads and streets are always congested. They cannot drive even at ten miles speed. Still, they are increasing. Still, they are increasing motorcar.

Morning Walk -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: So many things. So many things. The first ignorance is that accepting this body as self. Everyone.

Cyavana: The capitalists are so anxious for money that they exploit this tendency of the living entity to enjoy by tempting him. Every year they create some new way to entice him.

Prabhupāda: And taxation. And the taxation is divided among them. The tax is meant for public welfare. Instead of public welfare, they divide it amongst themselves and enjoy wine, women, motorcar and flesh. That's all. This is going on. All this income tax-plundering process. This income tax means a plan how to take away everything from the actually earning members of the society. That is income tax. And that is divided amongst administrators. That's all.

Morning Walk -- October 4, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Hawaii Island is better than this island. Huh? Is it not?

Harikeśa: It never becomes cold there. It never becomes cold.

Prabhupāda: No.

Cyavana: Here they suffer from the cyclone every year. And every fifteen years it is treacherous.

Prabhupāda: Cyclone, typhoon is there in Japan also.

Cyavana: Yes. Only thing, here there is Indian culture.

Prabhupāda: What Indian culture? They are killing cows. (laughter) What is Indian culture?

Room Conversation with Professor Olivier -- October 10, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Prof. Olivier: And especially the youth at university, as I have always indicated and I tell them every year that they’ve got to experiment with the spirit to the same extent that they experiment in their laboratories with pieces of animal tissues or grass or what it is that they’ve got to analyze. But the real tragedy is that we have wandered away so far from the spirit and from the spiritual laboratory...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Prof. Olivier: ...that we don’t know where to start. I was telling them the other day that when the Americans sent their first man to the moon, they had a laboratory of about four thousand men at the controls. The one was doing this and the other one was doing that, but this was a huge human laboratory. That is only while they experiment, and then by that... (break)

Prabhupāda: He is my student. He practices like him.

Morning Walk -- October 25, 1975, Mauritius:

Brahmānanda: It used to be ten thousand.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Oh, fifty thousand. That was years ago even.

Prabhupāda: So this is the advancement. Every year one city is finished. This is the advancement.

Brahmānanda: They were making one joke that on the independence day of America everyone goes out in their car and celebrates. They were making a joke that more people will die by the celebration than died in the original battle of getting the independence. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Just see their intelligence. Andha yathāndhair upaniyamanas te 'pisa-tantryam uru-damni baddhaḥ (SB 7.5.31). By nature's law they are bound up hands and legs, and still, they are trying to do something independently. That is their fault.

Morning Walk -- November 14, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What is that festival?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's... It happens every year at this time.

Prabhupāda: What is this time?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: (break) Bengali Gītār Gān is ready and Jayapataka Swāmī is taking delivery of it in the morning.

Prabhupāda: (break) Copies. (break) They could not conclude when the battle of Kurukṣetra was fought.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They are speculating, though. There is one school which says it wasn't fought in Kurukṣetra.

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: And the lowest was in 1930. Then it rose. Then in 1935 it was thirty rupees and in 1940 it was thirty-eight, and 1950 it was fifty rupees. And 1956 we bought at the rate of fifty-six rupees. I still remember that because we have been buying gold every year.

Indian man (2): 1959 or '60 the price was ninety-six rupees.

Dr. Patel: Then suddenly it rose. Now, because Americans are buying gold, the gold standard has been left out. They have taken, cornered the gold of the whole world. But I have heard that the Russians have got some gold mountains on the surface. They can take out gold very easily from there. Here you have to dig up deep down.

Prabhupāda: No, in South Africa there is gold. In the city there are so many gold mines in South Africa.

Dr. Patel: Yes. South Africa is today supplying more than half of the world gold. Our mines are getting exhausted in Kolar(?) and all this, Mysore State. America, they have not been able to search out gold anywhere. Perhaps in South America they may be having some gold mines, but they have not made any survey. But the Russians, they say there are very huge mountains, gold on the surface.

Morning Walk -- November 30, 1975, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Old and creating sound so much.

Tejās: They are losing several crores of rupees every year. One man told me that he rents buses to them, one of the men who came two, three days ago. So, he was telling before, he rents buses to the D.T.C., to the Delhi Transportation Corporation. He rents it to them for a rupee a kilometer and he makes about forty paisa. And even though they are getting it for a rupee a kilometer, they are still losing money on it. He is making profit and they are losing it. Because they sell the spare parts. They're so corrupt.

Prabhupāda: Take away the...

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 4, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like this earth also. According to them it is going around the sun. But we don't feel anything. According to them. And according to..., it is running at the rate of twenty-five thousand miles, and if you, in airplane, it is going six hundred miles per hour, and still there is so many jerking. That is your creation, tiny machine. And God's creation, it is moving. Even it is moving, you cannot understand. That is perfect creation. Pūrṇam. The word is pūrṇam idam, everything perfect. Pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate (Iso Invocation). Because God is all-perfect, whatever He has created, they are all-perfect, relatively, all perfect. Just like this earth. It is all-perfect. Whatever you want, you inhabitants of this earth, they are all there. You want air, water, light? Everything is there. Pūrṇam idam. Pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate, pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya. So you are using so much water, so much light; still, it is perfect. Just like the cultivation. Every year you are taking so much production.

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Bengali culture was very much adored. Surendranath Bannerjee started the political movement, and he was so well known. Even in Parliament, the Englishmen, English M.P.'s, he... They were speaking of Surendranath. They used to say "Surrendered not." "Here is a person who is not 'Surrender not.' He'll never surrender. 'Surrender not.' " Actually, the British Empire was startled by the agitation of Surendranath Bannerjee. The Congress was started by Surendranath Bannerjee, this one Congress. Two Bengali and one Englishman started this Congress sometimes in 1887, 1867, like that. So in our childhood we used to see that Surendranath Bannerjee was being elected president of Congress almost every year. And Gandhi came into prominence when Surendranath Bannerjee surrendered. Formerly he was not surrendering. But the government gave him the first ministership, that "You become minister."

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Haṁsadūta: They seem to be well and happy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Arrangements are getting better every year.

Trivikrama: The devotees are getting better every year.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Pañca-draviḍa: The devotees aren't eating so much and sleeping so much this year.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, they don't sleep at all. They get up at one-thirty.

Pañca-draviḍa: Yeah, they're very good. (break)

Jayapatākā: ...make a suggestion before they leave, have a little meeting, things that could be improved. Then next year we could even make it better.

Prabhupāda: Very good. Yes. Make that suggestion.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: This special exhibition building?

Prabhupāda: Bhāgavata. Take every page of Bhāgavata. And I think every year there should be change.

Haṁsadūta: New exhibit.

Prabhupāda: New exhibit.

Haṁsadūta: Otherwise it will become stale.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Haṁsadūta: 'Cause we have so much material.

Gurudāsa: It should be done very easily.

Morning Walk -- March 22, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No. Therefore, why they are changing? We don't change, millions of years. What Kṛṣṇa said, we are following the same. But they change every year.

Pañcadraviḍa: That Vairagi Bhava, he showed up in Hong Kong, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Pañcadraviḍa: You know that person who gives us the mandir in Vrndavana and... What's his name? We stay at that Fogal Ashram every year? Vairagi Bhava?

Prabhupāda: Vairagi Bhava.

Pañcadraviḍa: He showed up in Hong Kong. He said that "There are two great influences in my life: one Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who taught me service..., who taught me devotion," and he said, "Ramakrishna, who taught us service to man." He also showed up with one woman sannyāsīni or something.

Morning Walk -- April 17, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...is real scientist. Those who change every year theory, I don't like that scientist. Do you like that scientist?

Dr. Patel: No.

Prabhupāda: Then who? Nobody, no gentleman likes that.

Dr. Patel: He's not a scientist, who changes himself.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You cannot change your position. That is science. Kṛṣṇa has said that mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). So nobody has become greater than Kṛṣṇa up till now. That is science. Can anyone challenge Kṛṣṇa? No. And He has said, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). So that is scientist.

Dr. Patel: No, but the scientists try to unearth the secrets of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: So how nature is working, he does not know. Then his knowledge is imperfect. Nature is working how, that we know. That is very sober understanding. We say that nature is working under the superintendence of Kṛṣṇa. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Nature.... We see nature. Generally we have got idea of the material nature, that the sun is one of the part and parcel of nature's working. The moon is also, the seasonal changes. So many things, nature is working very systematically. The summer season will appear exactly in the month of June and July. The fall begins in September every year. One can foretell that "Next September this will happen," because nature's routine is very fixed up. So this systematic work of nature, how it is possible if there is no supervision?

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: And there is the soul within the body, and when the soul is gone, transferred to another body, it is dead. Dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). One who is actually scientist, he is not surprised. He knows the soul has transferred to another body. That's all. That is scientist. (break) ...real scientist, not a rascal like you. We don't give.... (break) You cannot act. We accept Kṛṣṇa as scientist because He explains. You cannot explain. How we can accept you as scientist? You are rascal. Up till now, nobody was able to explain—simply vague. How we can accept these vague explanation as scientist? And daily changing, every year new theories. And I have to accept you scientist? Kṛṣṇa said tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13) five thousand years ago. It was known very well, and it is going on. That is science. You cannot give any solution, you are changing your ideas and theories every year, and we have to accept you as scientist? (break) ...speaking something, and I have to accept him as scientist? Madman, crazy fellow, saying something today, saying something other next day.

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

Prabhupāda: You give some opinion, and after some years you change it. So what is the.... How can I rely on your opinion?

Reporter: Would Darwin's theory of evolution and other evolutionary theories...

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be. If it is being changed every year or every ten years, then what is the value of this opinion? There is no value.

Reporter: Well, but religious thought in India has changed over the years too.

Prabhupāda: No. Nothing. We do not change. Just like your Bhagav...

Reporter: Well, others ...

Prabhupāda: Bhagav...

Reporter: Others change.

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: We've been planning for some time to prepare one flyer advertising our Vṛndāvana guesthouse, because every year college professors take students to India. They all go to see the Taj Mahal, so they pass through Mathurā, so they can easily stop.

Prabhupāda: Agra they must go. Every foreigner, they go to Agra.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Agra.

Rāmeśvara: So we want to make some propaganda, and Air India will help us distribute it. So the question is, these students and professors, they cannot control their senses from smoking and so on. So do we want to allow them to stay in our guesthouse, because it is certain that they will smoke in their room.

Prabhupāda: That is very difficult thing.

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are spending money to save income tax. They have got enough income. So instead of giving to the income tax, they are thinking that "Why not provide some serfers(?), some drivers, some servants, and repair the house every year." In this way, spend money (laughing). It is good policy. Money's distributed to the poor instead of going to the government pocket.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's got at least thirty-five servants, and it is only father and son and daughter-in-law.

Prabhupāda: (laughing) That's all. No children even.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Prabhupāda stayed there. They gave us much, er, attention.

Prabhupāda: They are very favorable to us. Especially the father.

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

Prabhupāda: The changing.... When the child is born dead, why he does not grow? (laughter) Therefore they are rascals.

Mahātmā: There was one boy in Berkeley, and he worked for a company that would record facts and figures, and he said every year the Navy would pay this company something like sixty thousand dollars and would give them their theories that they knew were wrong, and this company would supply false facts and figures to coincide with the theories—make up facts that would support their false theories.

Prabhupāda: What is that false theory?

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: First of all, life comes from rats (laughs). Every year, they are changing their theories.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Actually, their philosophy came from rats.

Prabhupāda: Hmm? What is that philosophy? Rat philosophy? This is called vṛścika-taṇḍula-nyāya in Sanskrit. The scorpion is coming from the stock of rice. Actually, the scorpions they lay egg within the stock of rice, and by fermentation the eggs become scorpion and come out. Not that the rice is producing scorpion.

Rādhāvallabha: The scientists know about that, and they say yes, that is very laughable, primitive. But their new theory is simply that life comes from chemicals. So it is actually the same thing.

Hṛdayānanda: Yes, because life is also chemicals.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But the fact is that they cannot even manufacture a tiny seed which will fructify.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: They have another trick. Now they make them very cheap so the cars will break down every year.

Prabhupāda: But if I don't want it, either cheap or dear, who cares for it? If I don't want that. There was a statement by some Pope that "If the crown of England is offered to me at very cheap price, so why shall I accept it? What shall I do with it?" That is the..., that if I don't want a car.... Suppose if we advance our farming program, who will want the car? Theoretically, accept it, that we shall remain in the farm. Then where is the necessity of car?

Mādhavānanda: Therefore the government will not like.

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Quarter for the proprietor?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. There are many people that have a lot of land, and they don't want to do it themselves. But the hay has to be cut every year, otherwise the trees come, and then the land degenerates. So they like to have it cut. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...land can be cultivated also?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, it could be. It would be very good land. (break) ...our own lumber now also. Cutting our own trees.

Prabhupāda: That is the nature's way. You cut the lumber and make cottage, and the land is clear, then cultivate, get you food, and cows, give them grass.

Kīrtanānanda: (break) ...woods around here.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes, there was a constant... It was just always packed.

Pradyumna: Every year, before, last year, year before, year before, Caitanya Math, only, not...

Prabhupāda: Nobody goes.

Pradyumna: No, only their Math people, and some people they invite from Calcutta. But the regular people all come in to our place.

Prabhupāda: Sometimes we went to Mādhava Mahārāja's temple?

Hari-śauri: In Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: In Vṛndāvana. Who was there?

Interview with Newsweek -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Rāmeśvara: He might. But there are many projects in India now. That we can talk about.

Prabhupāda: Every year, almost six to seven months, I pass outside India.

Rāmeśvara: Wanda, do you have any more questions you'd like to ask?

Interviewer: I'm looking. (pause)

Rāmeśvara: We've taped the conversation, and we're going to transcribe it for you and send it to your office.

Interviewer: Oh, we would certainly appreciate it. (break)

Prabhupāda: They are on the same plane, but different consciousness.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't think she was the senior editor that was supposed... (break) ...someone like her that...

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

Rāmeśvara: He asks if you are going to participate in the Ratha-yātrā Parade.

Hari-śauri: This is the parade that it's based on.

Rāmeśvara: This is a photograph of what takes place in India every year. It's a traditional festival in India, we are bringing it to New York. We've got our permits and everything.

Prabhupāda: We have already got in San Francisco, in Chicago...

Rāmeśvara: Philadelphia.

Prabhupāda: In Philadelphia.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Pradyumna: Sahara Desert. It used to be very rich thousands of years ago, but then became desert.

Hari-śauri: It's supposed to increase its size by ten miles every year.

Pradyumna: Desert growth. Formerly, that city Carthage used to be there. Carthage was fighting Rome. Carthage was very rich, all farms.

Prabhupāda: Cartharian civilization was very big civilization. The thing is that the more people become sinful, they'll be disturbed by this natural atmosphere. Therefore I'm surprised that moon planet is inhabited by pious inhabitants, how there can be desert?

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore wanted.(?)

Yaśomatīnandana: Vaikuṇṭha Ekādaśī. In Shri Rangam they have this giant festival every year, the biggest festival in India. It's Vaikuṇṭha Ekādaśī in December.

Guest: Last December we went there.

Yaśomatīnandana: November-December is a very good time. Pañca-puram. Bharadvāja.

Guest: (Bengali) This is the original birth, Shri Rangam.

Prabhupāda: Now with Suraji's(?) cooperation make a program.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: I think he has got two or three devotees now. This man himself is a pretty capable worker. He's somewhat like Prabhu Swarupa, only a little older, little more mature. He's about forty-five or so. He's been able to collect about, what I can see, about fifty thousand rupees for one nātha-mandira. And he has a couple thousand people. I heard from the Gauḍīya Maṭha. They say they have big utsavas there. Every year two three thousand people come.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatākā: So he's a capable...

Prabhupāda: Manager.

Jayapatākā:...manager in his own right. He wanted to meet you.

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: I know that so many people come, even in ordinary years.

Saurabha: They were sitting everywhere, even on the balconies and in the scaffolding. They were everywhere. Very crowded.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The press and the television people came? Every year the television comes. They televise this?

Saurabha: The Telenews.

Prabhupāda: I was surprised when I heard five hundred. They boycotted or what?

Saurabha: For the abhiṣeka ceremony, that lasted about an hour, up till one o'clock, and everyone remained. There were thousands of people. They were just everywhere around.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Gargamuni: Yes. You have to get new type every year, and that is very costly.

Prabhupāda: Nowadays there is no need of letters, I mean to say...

Jayapatākā: Type.

Prabhupāda: Type. (break)

Gargamuni: ...on all the equipment.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: That is not so much for the amount of books that they have been able to produce in such a short time.

Prabhupāda: We can produce one book daily, the machines are so expert.

Jayapatākā: They do outside work as well?

Gargamuni: What for? We have unlimited...

Prabhupāda: Why? Botheration. You have to satisfy your customer, waste time.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Hari-śauri: The biggest one I think was that centennial, bicentennial issue. What was that? It increases, anyway, every year.

Prabhupāda: Brahmānanda was hesitating how 20,000 per month we shall consume.

Gargamuni: Yes, we were all afraid.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) I said, "Yes. You order. We shall consume." Then this Tamāla Kṛṣṇa, he helped.

Hari-śauri: He was in book distribution from the start.

Gargamuni: Yes. From Los Angeles. From their sales they were sending.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He gave impetus for distribution. Then we got encouragement. Other party, another party. Where those mimeograph machine gone?

Room Conversation with Pandita from Tirupati and Government Minister -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: They have no idea.

Paṇḍita: No facility. So I left there. I came all the way, decided to select a place for myself. After touring Mathurā, Vṛndāvana, all these places, Kāśī, I came to Lucknow. In Lucknow Ramakrishna Mission I had been to. There was one Gauda Shivananda. He discussed with me, and he directed me to Calcutta. Then I went to Calcutta, and when I went to Calcutta, that Swami Gambhirananda, who is the general secretary now, was there. He asked me to join the Mission. I joined Ramakrishna Mission. I was in Ramakrishna Mission in Calcutta for one year. And I was taking care of their printing section, this proof-reading, editing, etc., Ramakrishna Vivekananda literature for one year. But still, my idea of going to the original texts of this Vedānta commentary etc., was not fulfilled. So I was not satisfied. Then I left that Ramakrishna Mission and traveled all the way from Calcutta to Kerala. There is another āśrama at Kerala, Parlika near Trichu, where there was one Swami Purnananda Tirtha who used to come to Bombay every year for giving lectures.

Meeting With Member of Parliament, Mr. Krishna Modi -- August 31, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Paramahaṁsa: Yes, fifty thousand people come every year.

Prabhupāda: And this time, New York, the government, the police, they appreciated that this kind of dancing, it is not artificial. So here is life. They appreciated. What the American boys have got to dance for Kṛṣṇa unless it is from the heart? They are not dancing dogs that I have trained them and they are dancing. So there are so many things to be done in India but I am, without getting any cooperation, I am getting opposition.

Krishna Modi: Quite. Now let us, we must be active. We must be active.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Okay.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: "This society was formed strictly for the purpose of spreading God consciousness. We briefly submit below the misleading information as reported by Blitz and humbly inform you of the fact." What I've done is I've shown each point that Blitz has incorrectly said and then responded to it. Should I read? Okay. "Point one. Blitz Ungodly Face of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. ISKCON: The International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness is a worldwide community of devotees practicing the Vedic teachings, the eternal science of rendering devotional service to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Society was founded by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, a pure devotee of God, who is coming down in paramparā started by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa five thousand years ago. In other words, the roots of this movement trace back to at least five thousand years. It is not a modern concoction. In India our Society is registered under the Society Registration Act #21 of 1860. As we are a registered nonprofit organization, we are required to maintain complete account of all donations received, both within India and from abroad. Thus keep a complete account of all our expenses. Our accounts are audited every year and submitted to the income tax authorities and the charity commissioner.

Morning Walk -- October 2, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Pigeons will come. (laughs) They'll enter with this.

Devotee: In the grills.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, but even here a screen can be put.

Devotee: Every year we'll have to change the screen.

Haṁsadūta: It is too much endeavor.

Prabhupāda: Much ado about nothing. (break) ...or not?

Akṣayānanda: Now I don't know. Previously they were... (end)

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

Prabhupāda: No. It comes in rotation, every four years.

Mr. Malhotra: So there are sort of ardha-kumbhīs and then kumbha.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In Allahabad they actually hold every year. Māgha-mela.

Mr. Malhotra: Māgha-mela. But this is not every year, this time people are...

Prabhupāda: It is very, I mean to say, atmosphere becomes surcharged. Great spiritual advancement. Very nice.

Mr. Malhotra: (Hindi conversation)

Prabhupāda: Iran is like, that but no green, simply sand.

Mr. Malhotra: These are the mountains of Deccan. They say that these all mountains were under sea.

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What is the public opinion?

Guest (1): Public opinion, people like us who have been abroad for, say, quarter of a century or so... I have been to the States. I almost go every year. And this is the right thing. This is the right thing. When I was child, about fifteen, I went to Japan, and all my life I am abroad. This is the right thing. This is simple. It's only a matter of conviction. If you have faith, then everything becomes quite all right. There is nothing much that is extraordinary that could not be done. It's a pure, simple, good life. Get up early in the morning.

Prabhupāda: (aside:) They supply water regularly.

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

Prabhupāda: No, no, that's all right. So the visa problem is a great problem for us because in India for conducting our movement, we have to import the white men. Our Indians, they are not joining. So that is a great problem for me. They have to come, and they have to go again. And each time, coming and going, ten thousand rupees. And that is happening at least for hundred cases every year. Ten thousand, hundred times. Just imagine. This is my economic problem. Therefore I'm asking, "If you are Englishman, please stay." Because here, in India, they will see that "The white man dancing, let us see." They will never join. They are busy with their own affairs. They will advise, "Do this, do that," but they will never come. This is my position. Practical. Therefore I'm begging the Englishmen, the Canadians, the Australians, "Please come and stay." Because huge establishment, who will manage? I am managing with them, but there is economic question.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, I know. I was in Allahabad for thirteen years.

Guest (5): I know.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This Kumbha-mela we had every year.

Guest (5): First of all, you see, we have taken just near Yamunā bridge. As soon as the pilgrims come from various parts of the country we have got a...

Prabhupāda: Yamunā bridge, there are two bridges.

Guest (5): Just near Yamunā bridge there is an institution which belongs to Bombay and that institution is reserved for us just to give a shelter first to people who come by rail.

Prabhupāda: So take all these notes. We'll save so much money.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Easy Journey to Other Planets. They finished printing it yesterday and they're binding it together. One or two days, it always happens. When I give a date sometimes it gets delayed. So I figured the distribution of Hindi books will be very good. Ludhiana and Mathurā and also not much investment will be required. It's very common, devotees go every year and they are tired of it. So this year we should concentrate on book distribution. If we have a pandal in Mathurā every evening starting at six o'clock. If we can reach Mathurā at five for book distribution it will be nice. Actually I was also thinking of having a three day pandal in Agra.

Prabhupāda: Agra is very good.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: But we were just thinking that if Prabhupāda spends a few months every year outside of India, his time won't be so occupied by all the particular management things that he has to think about in India.

Hari-śauri: Give Prabhupāda some relief.

Rāmeśvara: There'll be some relief.

Hari-śauri: At least when you go to Hawaii you always get a good rest and there's no visitors, and it's very... Your translation work increases tremendously. It's very nice there.

Prabhupāda: Our immediately problem is toward my health. I am not digesting food, so therefore there is some swelling in the hands and the legs.

Room Conversation -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Every year, the new batches of students, and you'll have opportunities of selling a new set. If the university professors cooperate—they must; they should—then we'll have every year a large number of books sold to the...

Hari-śauri: If you bring more small books... Like you were going to do Padma Purāṇa...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That we can give.

Hari-śauri: ...and the Upaniṣads, like that. Those will also be very...

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Mother asked... Mother Durgā asked the devotee... Because Durgā comes every year. Asked the devotee, "My dear son, you are happy?" "Yes, mother, very happy." "So there is no complaint?" "Only two complaint." "What is that?" "There is no food and there is no cloth. Otherwise we are very happy." (laughter) Two difficulties: no food, no cloth. That's all. These rascals are like that. Everything advanced, but when the question of death, "Oh, that..." Einstein also died.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In open discussion they come around to this point, that they're lacking some fundamental knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that we have to prove. Therefore I am teasing you. Prove that they are passing on as very intelligent, very advanced, but all rascals. Let them admit that "We are rascals without God consciousness." That is my propaganda. (break) Let them understand that without God consciousness they are rascals. And why the rascals should pass on as very intelligent in the rascal society? Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ (SB 2.3.19). He's rascal, and some other small rascals, they are praising, "Oh, you are so great. You are so great."

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is not bad. (break) ...must go on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Double.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At least every year.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It doesn't matter how they are opposing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think the book sales will tremendously increase this year in India especially.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Yes. And India, if we are popular, oh, then government will see.

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

Rāmeśvara: We had a ceremony for our new warehouse, opening up of the new warehouse, and they published one article in the papers in California. It circulates about almost fifty thousand, this local paper. It says, "Hare Kṛṣṇa publishing office opens. Culver City councilman Paul Jacobs, assisted by Hare Kṛṣṇa leaders, cut the ceremonial ribbon last week at the grand opening of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement's new office building in Culver City Business Park at 8500 Higuera Street. The new 30,000 square foot warehouse and office building will house the organization's publishing arm, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, parentheses, BBT. BBT prints millions of dollars' worth of books every year and is the world's largest publisher and distributor of books on the culture, religion and philosophy of India."

Prabhupāda: Present this in the court.

Room Conversation 'GBC Resolutions' -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Kīrtanānanda, president, er, chairman. Eh?

Satsvarūpa: Chairman. Jayatīrtha, vice chairman. Satsvarūpa, secretary. And then, in that regard, we passed a resolution that the position of chairman can only be held one year consecutively, every year changed, whereas vice president, secretary, may be held three years consecutively.

Prabhupāda: Why? That should be also one year.

Satsvarūpa: Also one year.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We felt that this would give everybody an opportunity to experience that position.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Guru dāsa: Yes. I went to the visa department. I just thought I should go. And I spoke to one man there. And I said, "Why is that we always have to spend five or six lakhs going and coming for no use? We are doing such good work, we could put that five or six lakhs into India." He said, "What can I do? I am under the law also." I said "The law is needing some change." He said "Your organization already changes the law." He said, "You never follow the rules." So I said "That is indicative that the law is not good." So then he said, "Let us see after the election." Anyway, I spoke to him that this is useless, that we spend five or six lakhs every year going and coming for no need.

Bhavānanda: We don't stay out. They tell us to leave, we leave, one week later we're back.

Prabhupāda: Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). Everywhere they are doing this. (Sanskrit) The world is misled in this way by bad leaders. We are trying to get (indistinct).

Morning Talk -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We are throwing five lakhs of rupees that could be well utilized every year.

Prabhupāda: We are not... We have no interest in politics. What interest do we have in this phantasmagoria? We are not so fools. And there are so many people, they are taking part in politics. Is this sane?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's the argument I always use when we are preaching to get someone to join. They say "Well, we want to be a doctor or we want to be..." I say there are already so many millions of doctors, so many, but there is only...

Prabhupāda: And doctor is canvassing, "You become my patient."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yesterday that man was canvassing you. That Āyur-veda man.

Prabhupāda: As soon as he wanted history I rejected him. He is not Ayurvedic. And Karttikeya was sorry that I did not give him for one and a half hour.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "To Ratansingh Rajda, Member of Parliament, Bombay. Dear Sri Rajda, We thank you very much for visiting us at Hare Krishna Land and for sympathetically hearing our divine master Śrīla Prabhupāda. His Divine Grace mentioned several difficulties which are impeding his great work, and you have been kind enough to promise to remove these obstacles. 1) Our men are regularly being asked to leave India. How can we manage such important projects when our men are forced to leave? Every year we have to send so many men away from India and then again we have to bring them back. For every man who comes and goes like this, we have to spend Rs. 10,000, and in this way we are wasting not less than Rs. five to six lakhs each year.

Morning Talk -- April 25, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Actually Paramānanda was telling me that, you know, he's made some very close friends amongst the farming people, not our own people. So every year he goes back to near New Vrindaban, 'cause he made friends with the local people there, and he spends a week with them, and Devakī-nandana also. So he says that now he helps them. Whenever he goes, he helps them with the farming because their sons are all starting to marry the girls from the city, and they're not so much inclined towards the farming work. So the father and mother, even though they're getting older, they have to more and more work because the children are not helping them.

Prabhupāda: The city girl, she does not wish to come.

Conversation with M.P., Shri Sita Ram Singh -- May 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Missionary visa... (Hindi) That because he's Vaiṣṇava, he'll not go.

Sita Ram Singh: You see, seven lakhs of rupees are unnecessarily used every year.

Prabhupāda: And just now I have got news. We have got a branch in Ceylon. So we thought that instead of going back to U.S.A. or Europe, let him go to Ceylon and renew the visa. So I hear that they have been forbidden, not to issue visa to our boys. (Hindi)

Sita Ram Singh: (Hindi) Rather, the Constitution is molded from bad to worse. This point should be repaired. I have got feeling for that.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is already known, "Hare Kṛṣṇa movement."

Rāmeśvara: Every year we are selling at least fifteen to twenty million books now, books and magazines.

Prabhupāda: It will increase more. People will be inquisitive. Yes, everything there is. What is the wrong? We are talking of Kṛṣṇa, and all of a sudden I collapse. Oh, that is the greatest profit. Greatest profit. Kṛṣṇa tvadīya...

Ādi-keśava: Kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam adyaiva viśatu me mānasa-rāja-haṁsaḥ (MM 33), prāṇa-prayāṇa... Ordinary dying, kapha-pitta-vāyu: "Ghara ghara ghar," choking and... But in the kīrtana if we die, oh, it is so successfully... Injection, operation... Who needs it? That atmosphere death and kṛṣṇa-kīrtana death? Glorious death. Oxygen gas... (laughs) Dying and so much trouble. Never call. Please accept my request. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, bas, and let me die peacefully. Never be disturbed, call doctor—no. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Go on chanting. Chanting, hearing, chanting. You have got so much material. Read. Read something from this book. Rāmeśvara, you can read. It is your book.

Room Conversation with Devotees -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhakti-caitanya: They do that. There was one Indira Gandhi's..., like as a guru, Dhirendra Brahmacari, and now every day news, bad news, are coming in the newspaper, we understand, because he becomes very much close to Indira Gandhi and his son. All his yoga-āśrama in Kashmir... He built up big āśrama, and the government, they were giving him aid, many lakhs rupees, every year. Now this Janata government took over. He had a... They took over the land and everything, and now they are going to send even back here, because he was so much mixed with the politicians.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Yaśomatīnandana: Just now this is the first year, and it has not been used for three, four... It is not that fertile. It is not too much fertile. For rice you have to prepare the ground. Some part of it is there. Once we develop, then we can develop it for rice. That area is doing maximum rice. Bhogilal's men grows fifteen lakhs' worth of crops every year. He has thousand acres, and most of it is even unfertile. Only in certain part of it, fifteen lakhs.

Prabhupāda: So why not our farm?

Yaśomatīnandana: We cannot get that much. But we can easily go up to two lakhs.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Per year.

Yaśomatīnandana: Per year. This is at least.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And he donated it free. Yaśomatīnandana said Bhogilal will be coming here for Janmāṣṭamī to be with you.

Meeting With Governor of Tamil Nadu -- July 31, 1977, Vrndavana:

Governor: I am meeting the Home Minister tomorrow also. I will also talk to him, Charan Singh. The meeting is. He's mainly going.

Prabhupāda: Because every year I am losing five to six lakhs of rupees for their going, again coming. Just like he's acting my secretary. Now his visa is finished. He has to go, and again he has to come back. And that means ten thousand, more than ten thousand. So in this way so many workers are...

Governor: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: So they will never do anything harm and never take part in politics.

Governor: I know it. I know it.

Prabhupāda: So kindly try to help.

Room Conversation With Svarupa Damodara -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Vṛndāvana is so beautiful at this time, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Everyone's... The sky is so clear, the stars are so bright, and also the weather is so beautiful. We have a nice decoration of the hall. Last night one of the professors from Agra told me that he wants to have us organize this conference next year. He said this should be an annual feature, a science conference in Vṛndāvana every year.

Prabhupāda: Let them make advance in scientific research, but still they cannot capture the real thing.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Just like I have heard it, when Socrates was condemned to death, the judges inquired that "How Mr. Socrates wants to be entombed?" When the judges inquired Socrates, "How you want to be entombed?" Socrates: "First of all capture me. Then to the question of entomb me." What he said?

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's taking some medicines, but he's had fever on and off. He gets it regularly every year. This is the fourth time he got.

Prabhupāda: What medicine?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Quinine, and I think Śrīdhara Swami is arranging some other medicines. There is malaria epidemic in India. In Hyderabad every family, at least one person, has malaria. It's all over India, even in big cities. Bhakti-prema Swami, he also has malaria. Mosquitoes seem to be a very envious creature. Are you liking the massage, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because, Śrīla Prabhupāda, our Society cannot loan money for a business like this. This is not our Society's business at all. You're not... Of the one lakh of rupees' worth of books, only six thousand rupees is from ISKCON's books. So how can we loan one lakh of rupees? We can't start loaning money for these kind of businesses. It's against the Society's memorandum and rules that money can be given to individuals for their personal businesses. This is a charitable society. It's bounded by the Society's charity laws. So, Prabhupāda, whatever money he has, he has got as a binamida of the Society. He may donate the money in the sense of giving a stipend to family members. That's different. But as far as giving loans for business purposes to an individual private business... I mean we would lose our charitable status, because the accounts are audited every year. So it will look very... In fact, if we do that, then they may raise objection to the stipend also. Now they can't raise objection, because it's given as a stipend to the family, former family of this ācārya. They won't say anything. But if we start taking Society money and loaning it to a private business, which is the way they'll see it, then they'll raise objection. Furthermore, then we'll have to charge interest, and if we charge interest, that gets us into a lot of trouble also. As a Society, we're not supposed to be doing business, profit-making business.

Prabhupāda: So when the certificates matures, what is the amount?

Room Conversation -- November 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

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

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

Page Title:Every year (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:05 of Mar, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=94, Let=0
No. of Quotes:94