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Explanation (Conversations 1968 - 1974)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- February 1, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: I have already told that religion means searching after God, every religion. The process may be different. The audience may be different. Just like in Christianity there is conception of God, "God created this world." So this is a fact. We also say. But we say in very lucid explanation from the Vedas. We don't stop, simply saying, "God created," but how created, how things developed, these descriptions are there in the Vedic literature. That is the difference. Otherwise there is no difference of opinion. The Christians accept God created this world; the Jewish religion, they also accept God created this world; the Muslims they also accept God created this world; we also accept God created this world. So "God is the supreme; God is great," that is accepted by everyone. But the only difference is that we give details so that modern mind, who are advanced in education and scientific knowledge, they can understand, whereas others, they cannot give in detail. Therefore they are deviating gradually because the modern, advanced, educated persons they want to know how God created this world, and that description is lacking. But we can give that. That is the difference.

Interview -- February 1, 1968, Los Angeles:

Interviewer: Yes, well, what is your explanation of the creation of the world?

Prabhupāda: That is a huge thing. That we have to see to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that God expanded Himself first of all in Mahā-Viṣṇu, He lied down on the Causal Ocean. And while He was in sleeping mood, from His breathing, innumerable universes came into existence. Then each and every universe, Mahā-Viṣṇu entered. Then again He lied down there, and from Him the first creature, Brahmā, generated. Then Brahmā created other planets. First there was creation of sound. From the sound, the sky came into existence. From the sky, air came into existence. From air, fire came into existence. From fire, water came into existence, and from water, this land developed. In this way, there are very detailed description in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So we have to take it that way.

Interviewer: Were you born in this country or were you born in...

Prabhupāda: No. I was born in India, Calcutta. My birthplace is Calcutta.

Questions and Answers -- Montreal, August 26, 1968:

Prabhupāda: So your question, Rukmiṇī's question, Lord Caitanya's opulence... There are six kinds of opulences: richness, then fame, strength, influence, beauty, education and renunciation. So He exhibited all these six. He was very beautiful; therefore His name is Gaurasundara. Very beautiful-tall and stout and strong. There was no comparison of His beauty at that time, He was so beautiful, fair complexion. This time He did not appear in black complexion because people after fair complexion. So... And son of a very respectable brāhmaṇa family, and very highly educated. His scholarly manifestation you'll find in the explanation of one verse:

ātmārāmāś ca munayo
nirgranthā apy urukrame
kurvanty ahaitukīṁ bhaktim
ittham-bhūta-guṇo hariḥ

This verse was twice explained, two times explained: once before Sanatāna Gosvāmī and once before Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya. Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya was considered at that time to be the greatest learned man in India. At that time nyāya-śāstra, logic, amongst the learned scholar logic is the greatest weapon to get victory over His opponent.

Questions and Answers -- Montreal, August 26, 1968:

Prabhupāda: This verse was twice explained, two times explained: once before Sanatāna Gosvāmī and once before Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya. Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya was considered at that time to be the greatest learned man in India. At that time nyāya-śāstra, logic, amongst the learned scholar logic is the greatest weapon to get victory over His opponent. So learned scholar is always a very learned scholar in logic, nyāya-śāstra. So this logic was taught in Bihar, Dharvanga. India, in different parts of India, different kinds of education was imparted. In Benares, the Mayavāda philosophy was very prominent. In Dharvanga, logic was very prominent. In Navadvīpa, philosophy was very prominent, and nyāya also. Similarly, in Bharampura, Bharatpura. There are many places, just like at the present moment there are many places, university. So He was great logician, Caitanya Mahāprabhu. In His boyhood He would ask His contemporary friends to argue with Him on a subject matter, and He'll defeat him. And again He'll establish it. The very point on which He defeated His friend, He'll again establish it, and again nullify it. He was so talented. His name was therefore, other name, was Nimāi Paṇḍita. One name is Gaurasundara, another name is Nimāi Paṇḍita. Paṇḍita means very learned scholar. And that is not hearsay, that because we are devotees we are speaking of Lord Caitanya very learned scholar. The evidence is there in the explanation of ātmārāma śloka.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: The spiritual master does not say such nonsense things. Man can achieve in a suitable body. Why don't you say that? But that suitable body is not...

Reporter: Yeah, well that's... When I talk to you, I find that the way you say it, if after the events are achieved, there could be explanations for it and there would be no crisis in faith.

Hayagrīva: He never came out and said that it's absolutely impossible.

Reporter: Right. Okay. Well thank you very much. I appreciate your tolerance of all my questions and everything.

Prabhupāda: You take this orange.

Hayagrīva: Do you want to take this, read these booklets? This one's just a running history of the Society and this is the magazine. So if you'd like, you can take it.

Reporter: Okay. Fine.

Prabhupāda: Our Kṛṣṇa... You should kindly note it that our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has nothing to do with this moon planet. But we are not aiming to go to the moon planet.

Press Interview -- December 30, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No. The thing is these western churches, just like Christianity, these gospels were spoken long, long ago to the primitive men, you see? Jerusalem. These people were living in desert, and they were not so much advanced. So at that time... Of course, in Bible or in the Old Testament, the idea of God is there, that is all nice. But they... Just like the statement, "God created this world." That is a fact. Now those people who are not advanced in those... Now, at the present moment, people are advanced scientifically. They want to know how the creation has taken place. You see? That explanation is not there, neither the church can give them. You see. Therefore they are not satisfied. Simply officially going to the church and offering prayer, that does not appeal to them. Besides that, practically, they do not follow religious principles. Just like in the Old Testament, there is, I mean to say, Ten Commandments, and there is Commandment that "Thou shall not kill." But killing affair is very prominent in the Christian world.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation Including Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.1-34 Recitation & Explanation -- April 1, 1969, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Yes, I'll chant. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Oh, thank you very much. All should be offered there, Jagannātha. The etiquette is nice. Everything should be offered to the, through the spiritual master. That is the etiquette. No direct. (Prabhupāda chants the second chapter of First Canto.) One chapter. Just play it. (break) ...have the sound only. (Laughs) The explanation... I shall give you little explanation.

Gargamuni: Isn't the sound, though, as good as the explanation?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hearing is always good.

Gargamuni: Although we don't know what it means, but just the sound.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Sound will act. Just like "Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa," is acting, similarly.

Gargamuni: What chapter is this, Swamiji?

Room Conversation -- April 11, 1969, New York:

Prabhupāda: Because, due to Śaṅkarācārya's propaganda, they have made their position as Vedāntists. But common men, they do not know that the Vaiṣṇavas are the best Vedāntists. We shall discuss Vedānta here also. Vedānta... In Rāmānuja-bhāṣya there is... Perhaps you know, in your country. There is Rāmānuja-bhāṣya Vedānta. Madhvācārya, he has also written Vedānta-bhāṣya. Not only Śaṅkarācārya. But because the Vaiṣṇavas, they know bhāṣyam brahma-sūtrāṇām **. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the actual explanation of Vedānta. So therefore they take more interest in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam because that is the actual explanation of Vedānta. Just like in the Vedānta-sūtra, the, what is Brahman, Absolute Truth. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. The inquiry is, "What is Brahman, Absolute Truth?" The Vedānta-sūtra answers... The Vedānta-sūtra is made like that, questions and answers like that. So answer is janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). "The Absolute Truth is that from whom everything is emanating." He is the ultimate fountainhead of everything. Just now we tried to explain that the state functions protecting the good citizens and punishing the criminals. That should be the state business. Wherefrom this idea came? The law and... What is called? The law and order department or what is that?

Room Conversation -- April 11, 1969, New York:

Prabhupāda: They are taking account of... 360 degree, the whole circle. They are taking account only 180 degree. And other 180 degree they're making void. But actually, the whole point is 360 degree. That is geomatrical calculation. If you simply know 180 degree, then the other 180 degree is unknown to you. So real life, real variety, real beauty, real knowledge, everything in reality is there in the spiritual world. It is only reflection. Therefore Bhāgavata explains that janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ (SB 1.1.1). The Supreme Absolute Truth is cognizant, abhijñaḥ. Cognizant and svarāṭ. Svarāṭ means independent. In this way, the explanation of Brahma-sūtra is given in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Therefore Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is vaiṣṇavānāṁ priyam. Yad vaiṣṇavānāṁ priyam. Yasmin paramahaṁsam ekaṁ paraṁ jñānam jñeyate. The knowledge of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is to be understood by the paramahaṁsa, the highest perfected man, paramahaṁsa. It is not ordinary thing.

Room Conversation -- April 11, 1969, New York:

Prabhupāda: There is everything in detail. A movie. Actually, the same man is laughing, walking, dress, everything, but it is all false. That they cannot understand. Therefore the Vaiṣṇavas say they are less intelligent. The real understanding should be that if in the real person all these features are not present, how they can be reflected in the photograph? The Māyāvādī says, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. Brahman, the Absolute Truth, is real truth, and this world is mithyā. Then mithyā means it is a reflection or shadow. Mithyā does not mean that it has no existence. The shadow is also existence. Therefore Vaiṣṇava philosophers say that mithyā means temporary. Now you have got this body. This is temporary. That's the real understanding. And if I say it is mithyā, then if I kill you, then why I am punished? I can say, "Oh, it is mithyā, it is false. So what is their fault?" No. It is not mithyā. It is temporary. Not mithyā. Mithyā how can it be? Because it is reflection of the reality, therefore it cannot be mithyā. Then the reality becomes mithyā. Mithyā means not fact. The real explanation is that this is shadow. Shadow, but the reality is in the spiritual world, and that is indicated in the Vedānta-sūtra, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). The fountainhead of all emanation. That is Absolute Truth.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: But it is the mission of human life to come to that point. So at least there must be some center or institution who may give them this idea. It is not that everyone will come. Just like there are many educational department. I know in Calcutta in our boyhood age, at that time Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee was vice-president. So he opened some classes in the university. In each class there were four or five professors, and at that time the professors' salary was 1300 dollar, 1400 dollar. And the fees were collected, at most thirty-six dollar per month. You see? But still the classes were to be maintained because the ideal must be there. So our mission is the intelligent persons of the world may know that this is not, simply seeking after sense gratification is not the aim of human life. Human life is meant by... Just like Bhāgavata says, jīvasya tattva-jijnasa. Vedānta says, athāto brahma jijñāsā. The same thing. Bhāgavata is nothing but explanation of Vedānta. So Vedānta says that this human form of life is meant for inquiring about Brahman. Atha ataḥ. Now. Atha means now. Atha, hereafter. That means after passing through all animalistic way of life, when a man comes to the stage of civilized life, perfect civilized life, at that time his business is to inquire about the Absolute Truth, what is the Absolute Truth.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So here is Kṛṣṇa. All-attractive. You now find out... You can say, "Why I shall accept Kṛṣṇa?" You can say like that. Your first question is the unifying agent. I say here is Kṛṣṇa. Now we can analyze, "Why you shall accept Kṛṣṇa?" Then I shall reply, "Why you shall not?" What do you want, expect from the Supreme or the unifying, what do you expect? Everything is there in Kṛṣṇa. Opulence-Kṛṣṇa. Beauty-Kṛṣṇa. Wisdom-Kṛṣṇa. Renunciation-Kṛṣṇa. Strength-Kṛṣṇa. Everything in Kṛṣṇa. Whatever you want you'll find in Kṛṣṇa. That is the unifying center. That I will convince you. He is the unifying center actually. And Bhagavad-gītā it is said, mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ partha sarvaśaḥ. "Everyone is trying to come to Me. Everyone is trying to come to Me." Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). "But he's realizing Me in My different phases. But everyone is trying." So so far unifying religion is concerned there are three groups: impersonalists, personalists, and localized. Some are trying to understand the Absolute Truth in impersonal way. Some are... The yogis, the mental speculators, they are trying to understand the Absolute in impersonal, without any personal form. And the yogis, they are trying to find out Kṛṣṇa within their heart, meditation. And some are trying to find out the Absolute Truth in person by reciprocating love. So all these things are in Kṛṣṇa. And Bhāgavata says after explanation of that verse that it is the only business of human being to find out the Absolute Truth.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Any religion. Any religion. If he's serious about religion. If he takes the religion as a scapegoat, that is different thing. If he wants to understand religion and if he takes seriously to religion, then he will understand. We want serious persons. Now, according to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, religion means creation of the laws of God. Dharmaṁ tu sakṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Laws of God. Who will deny it? Who will deny it? Any religion, Christian, Muhammadan or any. Who can deny that religion is the laws of God? Simple explanation. If you ask what is meant by religion, religion is laws of God. That's all. And if you want to know what is God, that is also replied. "The original source of everything." So one should try to understand in this way. But if one wants to remain in his compact ideas and does not want to go further, then it is very difficult. He should be open-minded and appreciating. Then everything is all right. We say, Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, it is not that you are necessarily to chant Kṛṣṇa, but if you have no suitable name, then chant Kṛṣṇa. Why do you make differentiate. Every name is the same.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 14, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Apparently the sunshine appears to be very, very big, but it is concentrated in sun globe. And when you enter the sun globe, it is concentrated in sun-god.

Allen Ginsberg: Where is the origin of this image of the sun? Where is the origin of this image of the sun? Is this a Vedic śāstric explanation?

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is śāstric information. He is incarnation of Nārāyaṇa, Sūrya-nārāyaṇa. He is powerful. He is driving in four horses. He has got chariot of four horses and very powerful. Yac cakṣur eśa savita. Savita, his name is Savita. The Gāyatrī mantra is oṁ bhur bhuvaḥ svāḥ tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi. That is worshiping the sun-god.

Allen Ginsberg: Do you use Gāyatrī mantra also?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Monitor, yes. Monitor. So He was monitor. That is the same. And He'll teach the students from grammar all Kṛṣṇa. Dhātu. Dhātu. There is subject matter. Dhātu means verb. So He will ex-plain... dhātu means, when a dhātu is taken away a man is dead, and this dhātu is Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa is the life. Without Kṛṣṇa a man is dead." In this way He explained. Kṛṣṇa explanation.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How old was He?

Prabhupāda: I may say, eight or ten years old.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think that what we will try to do is have Birbhadra come with us and he will play Lord Caitanya as a boy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That will be nice. And he is a very intelligent boy. He'll pick up.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Are there any other, any other nice incidences between this time and when Lord Caitanya got married?

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: Śāstra-vākya-pramāṇa. And it should be known through the spiritual master. Just like nowadays Bhagavad-gītā is being interpreted in so many foolish ways because they do not accept explanation from the authority. They become themselves authorities. Therefore misused. That is not explanation. Somebody is explaining that Kurukṣetra means this body, pañca-pāṇḍava means the senses. These are all nonsense. You have to accept Bhagavad-gītā as it is. When you cannot understand, you should get it explained by your spiritual master. Therefore one has to accept a spiritual master to understand. Tad-vijnanārtham. In order to understand that transcendental science one must approach a bona fide spiritual master. That is injunction. So here it is said that kānyakubje dvijaḥ. Dvijaḥ means he was offered the sacred thread. That means he was born in a brāhmaṇa family. Janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ. Everyone is born a śūdra, a foolish. Sudra means a foolish man who simply laments. That is the real meaning of śūdra. Anyone who has no intelligence, he is śūdra. We also generally say, gadāh, less intelligent. So brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, they are called higher caste. According to their... Brāhmaṇa, first-class because his intelligence is first-class. Kṣatriya, his intelligence is second-class.

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: First thing that you said, that Bhagavad-gītā was given in seven verses, and later on, Vyāsadeva has expanded. Now, suppose accepting that Vyāsadeva has expanded, do you find any difference between Vyāsadeva's explanation and the original seven verses?

Guest (1): No. Of course, that is... (unintelligible)

Prabhupāda: Then, accepting even that Vyāsadeva has expanded, so there is no difference. Therefore, even if we take the Bhagavad-gītā as it is presented by Vyāsadeva, so there is nothing to be said against it.

Guest (1): Nothing.

Prabhupāda: Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he gave us only eight verses, Śikṣāṣṭaka. But our Gosvāmīs, they have written volumes of books on that eight verses. But there is no difference of the writings of the Gosvāmīs and the original eight verses. That is not very important thing.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So we have translated in English the full, with the original Sanskrit text, its transliteration, an English equivalent for each word, then translation, and then purport, explanation of the verse. In this way there are 18,000's of verses in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And the ācāryas, the great saintly sages who are the preachers of this Bhāgavatam throughout India, their opinion is that it is the ripened fruit of the Vedic desire tree. Nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalaṁ idam (SB 1.1.3). And it is accepted by all, I mean, Indian scholars, and especially Lord Caitanya, He preached this Bhāgavata. So we have got that, complete in English translation. If you want to see some of them, we can show you.

Temple Press Conference -- August 5, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: It's Kṛṣṇa's mission to awaken man's original consciousness. At the present moment we have got designated consciousness. I am thinking "I am Indian," you are thinking Englishman, another is thinking American. But actually we are neither American nor Indian nor any that sort of designation. We are part and parcel of God. That is our real identification. If we come to that consciousness, then all the problems of the world will be solved. Now, due to our designated consciousness, we are thinking, "You are different from me, I am different from you," but if we come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then we shall know that we are one, the same spirit soul, maybe in different dress. That is the explanation given in Bhagavad-gītā. Just like we are all human beings, gentlemen, ladies. Maybe in different dress, but our aims and objects are the one and the same. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is purificatory process. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). To make people free from all designations. Tat-paratvena nirmalam. And in Kṛṣṇa consciousness they become purified. And when they're purified their activities by purified senses make them perfect. That is the ideal perfection of human life. And our process is also very simple. There is no need of becoming a great philosopher, scientist, or thoughtful man. Simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord we can immediately contact with the Lord, because the Lord as the person and His name and His quality are all absolute.

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

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) ...program he, I shall return to the USA by the month of March. So, December, January, February. (Hindi conversation) Thank you very much. (Hindi) We are dealing with facts. (Hindi) The..., already everything is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. We have to simply explain them. That's all. Explanation (Hindi). You cannot stop sunshine. That is not possible. But you close yourself in the dark room. It is not possible to cover Kṛṣṇa. That is not possible. But by jugglery of words you close yourself in a dark room. (Hindi conversation) Oh, thank you. All right, thank you very much. Come on. No. (Hindi) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (Hindi conversation) (break)

Guest: (indistinct) Any worship we first worship Lord Ganeśa, India.

Room Conversation -- December 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Devotee (2): Yes, it's from the Teachings of Lord Caitanya. I wanted some explanation about all this...

Prabhupāda: That explanation is there. Why you are asking me? That is... I do not remember exactly what is the features of Vaibhava. That is there. But the vaibhava, prabhāvā, vaibhava, vilāsa, there are detailed description of Kṛṣṇa's expansions. They are described there. You can refer to. Prabhāvā, vaibhava, vilāsa, they are expansions of Kṛṣṇa's different avatāra, incarnation, and part, part of incarnation. So it is a huge list, and it's not always possible to remember them in detail. Better refer to the book. Is that all right?

Devotee (2): Yes.

Prabhupāda: The teacher will remember all the work of the dictionary. (laughs) You can refer to the dictionary. (laughter) (end)

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1971, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: No, no, the thing is that one has to eat. And whatever you eat that is coming out of some living entity, even if you eat vegetables. The vegetable has also life, the tree, the plant. So, the real explanation is that you take which is offered to Kṛṣṇa. That is nice philosophy. Killing you have to do, either you kill vegetable or animal, killing you have to do. Therefore our proposition is that you take the prasādam of Kṛṣṇa, so if killing is bad then the responsibility goes to Kṛṣṇa. We take Kṛṣṇa's prasādam. This is the method. And Bhagavad-gītā says, yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ mucyante sarva kilbiṣaiḥ. Suppose you don't kill animal, but you kill vegetables, but still you are responsible. Bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt (BG 3.13). Anyone who is preparing food for his personal eating, he's eating all sinful activities. It may be vegetables or animals, it doesn't matter. Bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā. So this is the best formula. But therefore, for crude people, those who are accustomed to killing, for them this is best advice, "Thou shalt not kill". Next stage-prasādam. First of all let them stop. Generally, what is meant by killing... Actually vegetarians, they do not kill, because if you take fruit from the tree, the tree is not killed. Is it not?

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 1, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Oh, yes. Actually, if one is actually learned, scientific, he must admit. He must admit, unless he is a lunatic, rascal. He will say all these nonsense things, "Chance." Why chance? What is taking place within your practical experience by chance? If by prearrangement we would not come here, then who would care for it? Even on the street we could not lie down. Nobody allow. the police will arrest. "Who are these men?" How do you say chance? Everything is done by prearrangement. The chance is an explanation given by the rascals and fools. They are not sane men. There cannot be anything by chance. We got up on the train, and the train is running, and it is all chance? There is a huge management behind the train. Therefore we are comfortably seated, and we come to the destination right in the time. All these are chances? What is that...? He has written such a big book. What is his reason that chance? What reason he has given? I have not read. You have read?

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: Just see how Kṛṣṇa's creation, wonderful creation. And they defy, "Oh, what nonsense they are." There is no brain in creating such nice flower, flavor? "It is automatic, nature, nature." What is this nature? Rascal. Nature means rascaldom. Nature. What do you mean by nature? Just see how foolish they are. They cannot explain what is this nature. Simply say. I'm simply sorry that the so-called institution education simply making people all fools and rascals. That is my grief only. I am therefore trying to give them some intelligence. The whole program is to create some fools and rascals, that's all. Any philosopher, any scientist comes, I can say that "You are simply creating fools and rascals because you are also fools and rascals." I can say, challenge. Then let us come to argument. "You are such a fool and rascal and you are creating fools and rascals, that's all. That is your business." And that is going on as the advancement of education. You do not know. What do you... How do you explain? You say nature. That means you are fool. We have got our explanation. Kṛṣṇa, His energy is working. Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. His energy is so fine and nice that automatically it appears that the color has come, the painting has come, but there is working, very fine work, working. The modern science, you want to talk with a friend, immediately you pay something, telephone, "Yes, I am speaking."

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: The process is there. By electricity, immediately he comes. Is it not be possible? Process is there that he has to come or you have to go. But by electricity, it is shortened. Similarly, the working capacity is going there, but it is so shortened and perfect, you see, "Oh, it has come automatically by nature." (indistinct) The process is so nice and short. That is real explanation. Process is there. You cannot say that... It appears like miracle because your brain cannot accommodate how quickly all these things come. You have got poor brain, you cannot accommodate. You are thinking, "If I have to..., I have to paint this, simply painting I have to take so much time."

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Śyāmasundara: Once you said..., you quoted one verse in Māyāpur and you said that everyone is dancing under Kṛṣṇa's direction. I forgot your explanation.

Prabhupāda:

ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa, āra saba bhṛtya
yāre yaiche nācāya, se taiche kare nṛtya
(CC Adi 5.142)

Kṛṣṇa is so kind. As Māyāvādī philosopher you want to do something, Kṛṣṇa will "All right, dance in this way. Dance, all right dance. You talk like this." Kṛṣṇa gives him capacity to talk. Otherwise, he cannot talk even. So Kṛṣṇa gives him intelligence, counterargument: "All right, let the rascal speak as he likes." Therefore, yāre yaiche nācāya, He is allowing to dance everyone as he desires. But He says that "You give up all this nonsense, you simply surrender unto Me." That is His verse. Otherwise, if you want to dance, "All right, I give you facility to dance." The karmīs are dancing. "All right, dance." The jñānīs are dancing. "All right, dance. Go on speculating, but you will never understand Me."

Śyāmasundara: But He is always playing the tune, Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1972, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Law of gravity... The big, big planets are floating in the air. Now you can explain how it is it's floating. The hint is already there in the Bhagavad-gītā, that He enters. Viṣṭabhyā idaṁ kṛtsnam ekāṁśena sthito jagat (BG 10.42), (Sanskrit) that "I enter into this universe, and by My prowess they are floating." These hints are there. Now you are a scientist; if you are actually devotee, then you try to explain from your scientific explanation that this floating is possible because God has entered within it. That is your duty. And because you're scientist, your explanation from the scientific point of view, how God has entered, how He is acting, that will be very well received by the public. So that will be great service. Actually that is the fact. It is already stated there that "I enter." We can understand. Yes, we believe. I'll explain. Just like that balloon. What is that gas? Hydrogen gas?

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1972, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: You cannot create male aeroplane and female aeroplane so that you haven't got to manufacture a third one. The third one is produced. Why third one? Millions. And then from millions, another millions, another million. That is God's creation. That means He has got different energies. He pushes on one button of one energy and the production goes on. (Sanskrit) These are the Vedic explanation. His energies are so subtle. Just like nowadays electronic television button, you press, and thousands and thousands of miles away something is happening, you see. So if it is materially possible, it is nothing but exhibition of the energy of the human brain. So if human brain can exhibit such wonderful activities, how much God can do? He has got better brain, that's all, or the best brain. If you have got brain, that's all right, but He has got the best brain, param. Therefore He is called parampuruṣa, parameśvara. Parama means the best, the supreme. God is like you, like me. He has got also two hands, two legs, Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1972, Mexico:

Devotee: I'd like to ask what do the scientists explain is the origin of life? Do they have any explanation how life is caused?

Martin: Oh, scientists concern themselves with the process, not the reason. Right now, scientists are spending a tremendous amount of time duplicating this process, trying to be able to produce life in the laboratory. This now, they are saying that thus they will be able to say that this is how life started at the beginning of the world. It does not take... Scientists don't concern themselves with why life started, just how, what method.

Devotee: What do they think, how it started?

Martin: Oh, they think life started by the effect of the atmosphere...

Prabhupāda: Then the atmosphere is the cause. Then next question is, Who created the atmosphere? (break)

Morning Walks -- October 1-3, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Own master... He does not know how to become own master. That he does not know. He speaks only. Now, what is their explanation to become own master? How they explain? Explain.

Jayatīrtha: The idea is that they want to be... to determine their own destiny.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Jayatīrtha: They want to determine their own destiny. They think if they work very hard, they'll be able to build up their environment... (noise of plane taking off).

Prabhupāda: This is not explanation. Own master means master of the senses.

Jayatīrtha: That they don't know.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1973, Jakarta:

Devotee: Your explanation you've just given was so clear, Prabhupāda. We can easily see. It's so clear.

Prabhupāda: (chuckling) Yes, this is the explanation. There is no second explanation. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). This is the only explanation. What explanation can you... Who can give another explanation? There is no second explanation. Bhagavad-bhakti-hīnasya jātiḥ śāstraṁ japas tapaḥ, aprāṇasyeva dehasya maṇḍanaṁ loka-rañjanam. It's like if you decorate the dead body. It may be pleasing to some relatives of the dead body, otherwise what is the value of it? Others will think, "What a foolish man, he is, that decorating the dea..." Suppose if there is dead body and you're decorating (indistinct) flower. That may be your sentiment because the dead body belongs to your father or mother, like that. It is pleasing to you, but actually what is the value? So similarly, this human civilization is meant for understanding God. If that sense is lacking then it is simply decoration of the dead body. That's all. There is no value.

Room Conversation -- February 26, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda;: So religion must be there. Without religion the human society is animal society. There must be religion. And religion means to know God. That is religion. What is your explanation of religion?

Guest (2): Actually (indistinct) religion has to be defined as (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: What is that (indistinct)

Guest (2): :(indistinct) to understand religion is (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: :Yes. They must be the same. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣad bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Religion means the course, or the laws given by God. Just like law means the law given by the state. I cannot manufacture law. The citizen cannot manufacture law. The law is manufactured by the legislative assembly of the government. Similarly, religion means the order given by God. Now we have to understand who is God, and what is His order, and how it is applicable to everyone. That is the system of religion. We cannot whimsically give some rituals as religion. The principle of religion is to obey the orders of God. Therefore the first principle is to know who is God.

Room Conversation -- February 26, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Good citizenship means living under the direction of the government. That is good citizenship. Similarly, human life means to live nicely under the direction of God. The cats and dogs, they cannot understand. But the human life, (pause) That first verse: imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam, vivasvān manave prāha manur ikṣvākave 'bravīt (BG 4.1). So what is your explanation of this verse?

Guest (2): You want to explain this into er... Do you want to explain this?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam, vivasvān manave prāha manur ikṣvākave 'bravīt (BG 4.1).

Guest (2): Yes. This actually is explaining the origins of the law, ancient law, that's obeyed by the man. It's the law given from the Vedic literature...

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- February 26, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: That is the defect. Lord is the master of material nature, and we are conditioned by the material nature and still we are claiming, "I am God." Then?

Devotee: "Unless one understands these bare facts it is not possible to achieve peace in the world, either individually or collectively. This is the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Predominator and all living entities, including the great demigods, are His subordinates. One can attain perfect peace only in complete Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In the Fifth Chapter is the practical explanation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, generally known as karma-yoga. The question of mental speculation as to how karma-yoga can bring liberation is answered herewith. To work in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is to work with the complete knowledge that the Lord is the predominator. Such work is not different from transcendental knowledge. Direct Kṛṣṇa consciousness is bhakti-yoga. and jñāna-yoga is the path leading to bhakti-yoga.

Room Conversation with Indonesian Scholar -- February 27, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: So only the translation is there?

Scholar: Yes. Translation and some explanations.

Prabhupāda: What is that explanation?

Scholar: He said that Vivasvān is the personification of Sūrya, the sun-god. He was the first man created by Brahmā and he learns yoga from (indistinct) himself. And then we..., Vivasvān taught yoga to Manu, who is the creator of the law, and of institutions. Just explaining only the, who is Ikṣvāku, who is Vivasvān, and so on. There's no philosophical explanation. Just word by word explanations. Because of course if you compare...

Prabhupāda: But er... He said that indirectly, in the Bhagavad-gītā, the original verse can you read? Original verse?

Scholar: Śrī Bhagavān uvāca: imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1).

Prabhupāda: Yes. This Bhagavān uvāca.

Room Conversation with Indonesian Scholar -- February 27, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: But where the translation that God said Brahmā... Bhagavān said that this was spoken by Brahmā.

Scholar: By him, no, explanations...

Prabhupāda: No, not explanations. First in the translations.

Scholar: In the translations. Mentions "I", "I," mentioned.

Prabhupāda: That is all right.

Scholar: Yes. It's mentioned there.

Prabhupāda: Bhagavān, that Bhagavān said that "I spoke." Is that?

Scholar: Bhagavān said that yoga has been taught by Me to Vivasvān.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Scholar: Yes. And then Vivasvān taught it to Manu and so on.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Room Conversation with Indonesian Scholar -- February 27, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: So Vivasvān is a person.

Scholar: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Vivasvān is a person, not the personification. What is the translation, explanation given?

Scholar: Vivasvān, in Indonesian is, Vivasvān (Indonesian) is supposed to be...

Prabhupāda: Now what he has translated.

Devotee: "The Blessed Lord said, 'I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun god, Vivasvān. Vivasvān instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu, in turn, instructed it to Ikṣvāku.' "

Prabhupāda: Now what is the explanation?

Room Conversation with Indonesian Scholar -- February 27, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Scholar: A thing about the Bhagavad-gītā also mentioned here, in the second verse. It's mentioned also that the Bhagavad-gītā is the oldest yoga. It's the oldest...

Prabhupāda: No, the thing is... The explanation: Vivasvān is personification of Sūrya. No. He's person.

Scholar: Person. I see. Yes. Person and ...

Prabhupāda: His name is Vivasvān.

Scholar: I see.

Prabhupāda: The predominating deity in the sun planet, his name is Vivasvān.

Scholar: Vivasvān, yes. And he's supposed to be the originator of...

Prabhupāda: He's the original person for the... There are two kinds of kṣatriyas. One coming from the sun-god, and the other is coming from the moon god, candra-vaṁśa, sūrya-vaṁśa.

Room Conversation with Indonesian Scholar -- February 27, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Personification means he... From the explanation it appears that actually there is no person.

Scholar: Yes. Originally there was person.

Prabhupāda: Not was, is, is still.

Scholar: Is still.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Their life is long duration.

Scholar: Yes.

Prabhupāda: There are kings, son of the Manu, they lived for eight, eleven arbuda years. One arbuda years means ten crores. One crore means ten millions. Ten million. So ten million years makes one crore. Such eleven crore years... There is history (indistinct) one of the Manus, he reigned over for eleven arbuda years. One arbuda means ten millions of years. So Vivasvān, Vivasvān he's living for so many years. Just like Brahmā's age is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā. You find out the verse, sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). What is the Chapter?

Room Conversation with Indonesian Scholar -- February 27, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: No, no, I want to know this (indistinct).

Scholar: He who knows that the day of Brahmā is thousand yuga and that the night of Brahmā is also 5,000 yugas is he who knows the truth of day and night.

Prabhupāda: Now, what is the explanation?

Scholar: The explanation is that, according to the traditions that Brahmā, the day or the night of Brahmā's is one thousand yuga.

Prabhupāda: What is that yuga?

Scholar: It's mentioned in Chapter 4, 8. Four, verse eight. Yuga is eighths, one yuga is, it's written here a hundred years. One yuga is one eighths between the one incarnations to another incarnations.

Prabhupāda: But he has not given actual calculation of the years.

Room Conversation with Indonesian Scholar -- February 27, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is... The Bhagavad-gītā is the preliminary study of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Just like before learning any literature, one has to read the first book, ABCD. The Bhagavad-gītā is the ABCD. It is just beginning of understanding of what is God. ABC. When one has passed the entrance examination, then he gets the opportunity of studying Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In the Bhagavad-gītā the last instruction is sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). That Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, is explaining Himself, and at last He says that you surrender unto me. That is the most confidential part of knowledge. So if one has surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, then He's admitted in the college of studying Bhāgavata. Before that he has no place. Just like without passing entrance examination, nobody's admitted in the college course. Similarly, without understanding Bhagavad-gītā perfectly well, one cannot understand what is Bhāgavata. Bhāgavata is the graduate study. So this Vedānta-sūtra, the Vedānta-sūtra is the summarized study of all Vedic knowledge. And Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the explanation of Vedānta-sūtra. So people are in darkness about this great knowledge and the science of God, all over the world. They are misled. They're being misled.

Room Conversation with Indonesian Scholar -- February 27, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: That is the fact.

Scholar: The explanation here is that from this śloka to the seventy-two...

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Scholar: From this śloka...

Prabhupāda: Which this śloka?

Scholar: From sixty-four.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Scholar: To seventy-two.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Scholar: Kṛṣṇa gains or speaks as a guru, guru-śiṣya-samudbhava.

Prabhupāda: Well, Kṛṣṇa is the original guru, (indistinct) guru for everyone.

Scholar: So here is as a guru.

Prabhupāda: Guru is the representative of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore guru will also teach to surrender to Kṛṣṇa.

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

Brahmānanda: They have no explanation.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Brahmānanda: They have no explanation.

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I think it's easier here.

Brahmānanda: They have no explanation for the author who, of the Vedic literatures. They say: "unknown forest sages."

Prabhupāda: Unknown, it may be unknown, but the things are there. Where from they got the brain? That is our question. It may be unknown to you, or unknown to me, but the brain work is there. The philosophy is there, and the... At least, the language, the poetic arrangement, the linguistic strength, everything is there. So you may not know the person, but you can understand the brain. Just like...

Brahmānanda: They think our brain is increasing, but actually we see it decreasing. Because we cannot duplicate that...

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

Prabhupāda: But that means that is not... Originally, it is from life. Seed is from the life. So where is your proof that matter produces life? Then you have to accept: life produces life. According to our śāstra, within the semina of the father, the living body, living entity, takes shelter. And it is injected to the mother's womb and the two matters mixes and the body forms. This is our śāstric explanation. Not that the semina discharged by the father, that is life. No. Within that semina, the living entity takes shelter. And it is put into favorable condition. Then it develops the body. This is... We, we find in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That putting of the living entity in a particular type of semina depends on higher authorities. The higher authorities will judge what kind of body this living entity, after leaving this body, will get. So by higher authority it will be directed to enter into the semina of such father, and it will be injected into the womb of the mother. Then you'll get, develop a particular type of body and come out and suffer or enjoy. This is the process.

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

Prabhupāda: That's all. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). Chewing the chewed. One scientist explained to some extent. The matter remained the same. Another rascal comes. He explains again. And the matter remains the same. What advancement you have made? Nothing. Simply some volumes of books. That's all. Just like there is petrol problem. What your this explanation will help? You have created problem. Now you are dependent so much on petrol. If the petrol supply is stopped, then what these rascal scientists can do? They cannot do anything. It is stopped. Now there is scarcity of water in India. What the scientists can do? There is enough water. Why the scientists cannot throw this water where there is scarcity of water? It will require the help of cloud. That is God's manipulation. You cannot do anything. Water is here, so much water. Why don't you make this sand fertile by bringing this water? Fertilization made by supplying water in the desert.

Morning Walk -- May 1, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is asking you that "You realize Me." "No, I cannot see You." "No, why cannot see you? Here is water. You are drinking water." "Yes." "I am water, I am the taste of the water. Why don't you see Me?" Prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ: "I am the sunshine." So who is not seeing the sunshine? Why the rascals says, "I do not see God"? God says, "I am here." But he says, "I do not see." Liar. If you are in my front, if I say, "Here I am," if you say, "No, sir, I don't see you," what is this? Similarly, God is before you in the form of sunshine. Don't you see the sunshine? Why do you say that I do not see God? Who has not seen the sunshine? In the morning, very early in the morning, you see God. That is Gāyatrī mantra. Oṁ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ tat savitur vareṇyaṁ bhargo devasya. That is the obeisances to the sun. Savitṛ. Savitṛ means, savitā means sun. In the very beginning we see God by the sunshine, and then think of the sunshine, how much potential it is, how everything is being produced by the sunshine. As soon as there is no sunshine, we become disturbed, so many business become disturbed. So why don't you understand that without God's presence, we cannot do anything. Where is the difficulty? Does it require any very big philosophical speculation? The rascal will not admit as directed in the Vedic literature. That is their fault. Otherwise where is the difficulty? No difficulty. What is the explanation of these scientists of the sunshine?

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is another explanation. It takes time. Besides that, according to Bhagavad-gītā, life is not killed by fire. Aśoṣyo 'yam adāhyo 'yam. You have not read it? Adāhyaḥ: "It cannot be burnt into fire." So how life can be killed by boiling water? That is their nonsense.

Karandhara: As soon the bodies become unsuitable, so the spirit soul leaves.

Prabhupāda: Aśoṣyo 'yam adāhyo 'yam. Adāhyaḥ.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But by putting proper chemicals, then they can see again. The ingredients necessary for the survival of the living entities, the necessary amounts, like source of protein, source of carbon, then the life is again started.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Wherefrom the life came?

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So if the tree can produce so much chemicals, how much the body of God can produce chemicals, we can imagine only. They are giving the theory that "From these chemicals life begins, or evolution begins." But wherefrom that chemical developed? That they do not know. That explanation is here, Kṛṣṇa: "I am the source."

Paramahaṁsa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or the Kṛṣṇa Book, you state that even clouds have souls. But then again they dissipate, in the rain they dissolve. Does that mean they die?

Prabhupāda: No. Just like your body dissolves. Does it mean you die?

Paramahaṁsa: So that means the life span of a cloud is very minute or very short. Is that so?

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, they have to accept. They have no explanation. All they explain foolishly. How the man is living, how there is consciousness, he cannot explain. Avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam. Consciousness, because the soul is there, if I pinch here, immediately I feel, I am conscious. Throughout the whole skin, I am conscious. Actually the soul is not there. If you cut it, chop it, nobody protests. Why this simple thing they do not understand?

Paramahaṁsa: That's the soul, Prabhupāda, but about God...

Prabhupāda: First of all let us understand the soul. Soul is the, a small God, sample God. If you understand the sample, then you can understand the whole thing.

Umāpati: Some scientists are claiming that just because they haven't yet discovered how to create life, they are soon to, and...

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. "God has only one son." Why? God one son? I asked the priest, that "God is limited or unlimited?" "Oh, unlimited." "Then why should you limit it by one son?" He could not answer. "Ordinary men have more than one son, and God has got only one son." Why? He could not answer. There is no philosophy. How people will...? This system, religion, was taught thousands of years, some shepherds, some fourth-class men. And now people are so much advanced in science, why they will accept it? Jesus Christ is preaching first thing, "Thou shalt not kill." That means he was preaching among the killers. So what kind of men they are? Tenth class of men. And how this tenth class man religion will be acceptable by the first class men? Now people are becoming first-class men. These things are go on, dogmas and nonsense philosophy. That will not stand. Automatically Christian religion is dead now. Nobody is going. There is no philosophy. There is no science. How it will be accepted. And they are violating, simply violating. Whatever it may be. Christ says "Thou shalt not kill." They are simply killing. How it will go on? How long you can cheat people? What is the explanation there? The first order is "Thou shalt not kill." Why they are killing? What is the answer?

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Good morning. ...that "Such chemicals, such molecules, such this, that," there are so many things. But (laughing) you have no power to drive it away.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah. They have no explanation how the mist is formed. They call...

Prabhupāda: That you can do. That is, I can do also. It is not very great credit. But if you know how it is formed, then counteract it.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We know how it is formed.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So you know, then you discover, counteracting. Just like formerly, in the warfare the atomic brahmāstra was thrown. On the other side... brahmāstra means excessive heat. So they caused something, they transformed into water. Because after heat, there must be water. So where is that science?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is just like milk. Milk looks white, but it is just water. They call it, it's a colloidal suspension of proteins, these caseins, in water. So similarly, this fog is just a colloidal suspension of water in the air.

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

Krishna Tiwari: Oh, I believe too, but this is... Belief, as somebody's belief. Say I may believe so many things, as you do, as Swamiji does, as everybody else does.

Prabhupāda: What is your explanation between dead body and living body?

Krishna Tiwari: As I said, you see, it's a very complex thing, and I would not say something that I know from which probably I don't know. What we can measure in a dead body is that we see many things, you know. Things, say organs are not working...

Prabhupāda: Apart from the soul, how, what is your explanation of this dead body?

Krishna Tiwari: We point that the organs get diseased, reactions do not take place as they do, and the nature of, law of nature takes over. We are the great believers of law of nature, better than, than religious people. We believe law of nature more than anybody else does.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kristo. This is called apabhraṁśa. Apa means perverted, perverted spelling of Kṛṣṇa.

Mr. Wadell: I do not know the true answer to that question, I'm afraid.

Prabhupāda: And the meaning, anointed. What is the explanation of anointed?

Mr. Wadell: I am not sure whether this was a title applied to him by his disciples or whether it was a title which he himself explained to them, and it makes a difference whether he regarded himself as being anointed... If so he would have said this was by the..., his father.

Prabhupāda: But Kristo is person.

Mr. Wadell: It is a name applied to...

Prabhupāda: It is a name, then it must be a person.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Mr. Wadell: Oh, yes, I agree with what you say. I am just adding another explanation.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And you cannot understand your father by any other process. This is the only process. That means things which are unknown, beyond our conception, you have to know it through the authority. Just like you know your father through the authority of your mother.

Mr. Wadell: Oh, yes, I agree. But...

Prabhupāda: But you cannot say that things which are beyond our imagination cannot be known. You cannot say that. Can be known, provided you have got the real process.

Mr. Wadell: I'm afraid I must make, so far as I am concerned, a clear division between what I know and what I believe. There are certain things... It is maybe, partly a use of words, but whereas I know that I am here and that I have people in..., I am in the same room with other men...

Room Conversation with Rosicrucians -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Why? You are describing so many thing in words and the ultimate goal you cannot describe.

Yogeśvara: He says that many great masters like you from the East tend to smile at their explanations, but he...

Guru-gaurāṅga: They tend to smile when this question is asked, "Who am I?" So what can I say compared to these masters?

Prabhupāda: That means his knowledge is not perfect.

Guru-gaurāṅga: His knowledge is not perfect, and like us, he is simply trying for perfect knowledge.

Prabhupāda: So unless you have got your goal perfectly known, how you can make progress? (break)

Room Conversation with French Nun -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Yogeśvara: She, she asks you for an explanation of an event that happened to her sister. Her sister died at the age of five and a half years. And just before her death she apparently was able to explain some of her past lifetimes to her mother, that she had formerly been a princess or of noble birth and that now she was being called. Is there some explanation for that?

Prabhupāda: Yes, she remembers of her last birth. That is quite possible. Because we are changing body. So one who can remember about his past life, they are called jāta-smaraṇa.

Yogeśvara: Jāta-smaraṇa?

Prabhupāda: One who can remember about his past life. (break) ...means forgetting everything of the past life. (break) ...times a person remembers.

Room Conversation with British Man -- August 31, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So far I understand, the Christians give explanation that Christ took the resultant action of sinful life of everyone and he condoned by his giving his own life. Is that not?

Haṁsadūta: Yes. It is.

Prabhupāda: So...

Haṁsadūta: But I think the idea is that on one condition, that the people, anyone who is Christian, they agree to follow his commandment, his order, which is so many things—thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery-on that condition, he gave his life in the service of God on this condition, to teach this message. Anyone who would accept him, they would become free from sin...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Haṁsadūta: ...if they accept his teaching, that is the meaning of the statement.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

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

Prabhupāda: They are also distributing our books, Macmillan Company. People are... Now there will be a big meeting on the 12th, September, how to organize. Because this kind of literature was there, there was none before this. The bhakti cult, this was never presented to the western countries.

Ambassador: Yes, yes. Mostly it was Vivekananda's explanation.

Prabhupāda: Vivekananda did not know anything about bhakti.

Ambassador: No, I mean he just, literally, it's not bhakti at all. Yes, it is...

Prabhupāda: Neither Vivekananda nor any swami. That is the regrettable fact. They, actually... Even Dr. Radhakrishnan, he could not present Bhagavad-gītā as it is. You see? He's impersonalist, and he presented in a different way, and now Professor, Dr. Pirindher...?

Haṁsadūta: Philinder.

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

Prabhupāda: No, nobody... In the material world there is no question of living forever. That is not possible. That is in the spiritual world.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, when the scientists explain why there are so many varieties of living entities, they have an explanation.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They say, "At the time of evolution, the cells, the genes, sometimes..." Normally the gene is perfectly copied for the next generation, but sometimes there is a mistake in copying. Just like in the printing press sometimes we do some mistakes. Just like that, there are some mistakes along the path of evolution. So those mistakes, sometimes they just, according to the circumstances, they can stand, and they form a different living entity because of the difference of the genes.

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

Yaśomatīnandana: Just like a prisoner trying to demand explanation from the King...

Prabhupāda: Let us go (indistinct).

Karandhara: Prabhupāda, we should go straight back; it's getting late.

Prabhupāda: Ah? No, no. What is the time now?

Karandhara: :Quarter to seven.

Prabhupāda: :Quarter to seven?

Devotee: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, when someone is sick, he willingly goes to the doctor.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (2): So...

Prabhupāda: That is the injunction of the Vedas. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva... (MU 1.2.12). Therefore these rascals should go to a bona fide guru.

Morning Walk -- December 8, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: But where is your superiority?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He was explaining like that.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. But what is your superiority. You're a servant now. You're śūdra. You're not even a brāhmaṇa. Superiority by simply explanation will not do. You must be (indistinct). Guṇa, karma, superiority means guṇa, karma. You must have the quality and you must work in that quality. You're a scientist, but after a few generation, a foolish boy in your family say, "We belong to the scientist's family." So what is the use of saying like that? You must become scientist. When you are a scientist then you are superior not by simply... This has killed the Indian, I mean Vedic culture when they began to claim superiority simply by birth without any qualification. That killed the whole civilization.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But I think tradition must be still...

Room Conversation with Latin Professor -- December 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So there is no difficulty to understand. So our method is easy. Instead of intellectual gymnastic, we take it very easily. And that acts. Now, so far our Society is concerned, we accept Kṛṣṇa as God. We're preaching Kṛṣṇa as God. So we have no difficulty. It is acting practically. So we... I may be Indian, Hindu, I may accept Kṛṣṇa as God. Maybe superstition, you may say. But why these European, Americans, Africans, they are accepting? And within very short time. Even Christian priests, they are astonished that "These boys, our boys, they did not care for God, never came to church, never inquired about God. Now they are mad after God?" They have not become mad. They are quite sane, educated. But why they are accepting Kṛṣṇa as God? Ask any one of them, they'll give explanation. And how it has become possible? Because they have accepted the method. So our guru's business is to teach him the method. Then he will understand everything. So far vegetable-eating is concerned, it is actually very scientific to eat vegetables. I think some German doctor proved it, that our teeth are meant for eating vegetables. So as devotee of Kṛṣṇa, we are not after accepting a vegetarian and rejecting a nonvegetarian. That is not our criterion. God is open for vegetarian and nonvegetarian, both.

Morning Walk -- December 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Candanācārya: Without theism?

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is not explanation.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Atheist means not believing in God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Say like that. Don't say in a negative way. In a positive way. What does it mean? Atheist.

Prajāpati: He says there is no God.

Prabhupāda: There is no God. Then what do you mean by God? Next question. Next question will be what do you mean by God?

Candanācārya: So he'll say the conception which has been presented by the different religions.

Morning Walk -- December 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, guru is considered as Kṛṣṇa Himself. Guru-rūpa kṛṣṇa hana avatāra. Just to teach the conditioned soul, guru comes himself, er, Kṛṣṇa comes Himself in the form of guru. Therefore we sing in the Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's prayer, sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstraiḥ: "In every śāstra, guru is accepted as directly Kṛṣṇa." Sākṣāt. Sākṣāt means directly. Sākṣād-dharitvena: As Kṛṣṇa, is accepted in every śāstra, sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair uktaḥ **, it is said, uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ **, and this statement is accepted by advanced devotees. It is not only statement, but it is accepted. But the next question is: "Does it mean that guru is Kṛṣṇa? Therefore no more Kṛṣṇa wanted?" No. Kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya: "Guru is exalted because he is very confidential servant of Kṛṣṇa." Here it is clear. Not that he is respected as Kṛṣṇa, therefore he has become Kṛṣṇa. This is Māyāvāda: "He has become Kṛṣṇa." No. Kintu: "But don't think that there is no more Kṛṣṇa, finished. Guru is here." Just like the Māyāvādīs say, just like this rascal Guruji, that "I am Kṛṣṇa." Not that. Kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya. He is the most confidential servant. Vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam. This is clear explanation. Although he is respected as good as Kṛṣṇa, but he never says that "I am Kṛṣṇa." He says, "I am servant of Kṛṣṇa." And actually he is the most confidential servant of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore we distinguish in this line that sevya-bhagavān and sevaka-bhagavān: "worshipable God and worshiper God." You follow? God, but worshiper God.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 10, 1974, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, what is the Vedic explanation of the working principle of the brain, how our brain is working.

Prabhupāda: Brain is working, because you living entity, soul, is there. Just like I am typing, and he is typing. I have got the latest mechanical, improved typist, and he has got old, bygone age typist, similarly, according to our karma, capacity, Kṛṣṇa gives us facility. So brain is that facility. Kṛṣṇa gives us. Not that... So far the brain substance is concerned, a dog's brain and your Professor Einstein's brain is the same. His brain, same. But because Professor Einstein is advanced in knowledge, he is working differently. Otherwise, when Einstein, the soul is off from the body, and the dog is off from the body, you will see the brain, equally the same. So this, your scientists, they do not know.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They say that there are about nine billion cells. They are called neurons.

Morning Walk -- January 11, 1974, Los Angeles:

Satsvarūpa: ...by reading the books, he'd understood that we should become completely desireless. So he wanted more explanation. And in the car coming out Śrīla Prabhupāda just explained that our desire can't go away because that's the symptom of the living entity. We have to have some desire. But real desirelessness means that you have no more material desire. Material desire: someone is always desiring from God, "Give me this, give me this." But when we become purified, then our desire is that "Kṛṣṇa, please take me. Please take me. Whatever service I can render, please accept it." But when one has not enough information, then he desires... His idea of desirelessness is to become like a dead stone. Simply to... Because desire causes suffering and it's bad, material desire, therefore let me simply stop it and become... That will be desireless. But that is not, that state is not possible because our symptom of life is to have desire. So we answer him in this way, to become purified and simply serve Kṛṣṇa all the time. Not that we stop any activities. Prabhupāda was saying he is working day and night. So you cannot become absorbed in nothing. In order to become purely desireless, you have to have some activity that will always... There is a place, there is a plane of spiritual desire, spiritual activity. So there's... (pause)

Prabhupāda: What do you have to say about this? Do you understand, desireless and desireful?

Morning Walk -- January 15, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: Thank you. (break) ...savitā sakala-grahāṇām. Gāyatrī mantra is worshiping the sun. Yac cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇāṁ rājā samasta-sura-mūrtir aśeṣa-tejāḥ, unlimitedly powerful, unlimitedly heated. Aśeṣa, how much heat is there, your brain cannot accommodate. And therefore it is said, aśeṣa-tejāḥ: "without any limit." This is God's creation. Where is the scientist who can create a small sun? How this water is going there? Where is the pipe? You rascal, if you want to pump your water in the skyscraper building, you require pumping and pipe and so many things, but where is the pipe? And where is the pumping station or pumping machine? But you'll find so much water. How the water is transferred there? What is their explanation? They'll use simply some bogus jugglery of words. That's all. But produce it, without pipe, without pump. Let the water go up, up. "Yes, we are trying. In future we shall do it." And what about of the present? Who is that scientist?

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1974, Hawaii:

Bali-mardana: I think it is in the opposite direction of the temple.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (break) ...formation of water?

Devotee: Do you know? A scientific explanation of water?

Bali-mardana: H-2-O. Hydrogen, two molecules of hydrogen, one molecule of oxygen.

Prabhupāda: So in anywhere there is water, that formula is applicable?

Bali-mardana: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So, within the dob there is water.

Bali-mardana: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So who supplied the chemicals?

Bali-mardana: Within the dob?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bali-mardana: The chemist. The supreme chemist.

Prabhupāda: So that is our theologist's... What is their explanation?

Morning Walk -- February 23, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Janmādy asya ya... (SB 1.1.1).

Dr. Patel: Ah! Janmādy asya. It becomes very difficult for me to understand.

Prabhupāda: It is not difficult. No. Because the question... It is the explanation of Brahma-sūtra. So the Brahma-sūtra, the beginning is athāto brahma jijñāsā. "What about Brahman, the Supreme Absolute Truth?" The next verse is, immediately, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), "The Supreme Absolute Truth is that..."

Dr. Patel: "...from which everything is born."

Prabhupāda: "...everything is born." Now that Bhāgavata begins the answer: janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1).

Dr. Patel: From the second line of the sūtras.

Morning Walk -- February 23, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So we have got some discrimination! Our is only point: If anybody is a Māyāvādī, he's a dog. Kick him on his face!! That's all.

Dr. Patel: Māyāvādī means those people who...

Prabhupāda: No! Māyāvādī means Māyāvādī. That's all. No explanation.

Dr. Patel: What do you mean by Māyāvāda?

Prabhupāda: Māyāvādī means who thinks like that...

Dr. Patel: All right, now, that is right.

Prabhupāda: ..."Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is different from His body." That is Māyāvādī.

Dr. Patel: There is no body of Kṛṣṇa. Whole thing is body.

Prabhupāda: So Māyāvādī does not know that.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. This is intelligence. How Kṛṣṇa is all-pervading, you have to learn from Kṛṣṇa and think like that. That is meditation. That is meditation, how Kṛṣṇa is all-per... Just like in the beginning also, Kṛṣṇa said, raso 'ham apsu kaunteya (BG 7.8). So similarly, another explanation is going to be set up here.

Dr. Patel: Now

śrī bhagavān uvāca
hanta te kathayiṣyāmi
divyā hy ātma-vibhūtayaḥ
prādhānyataḥ kuru-śreṣṭha
nāsty anto vistarasya me

Prabhupāda: Yes. So "If I go on speaking, there is no end. But some of the chief principles by which I am all-pervading, I shall speak to you."

Dr. Patel: And the first important:

aham ātmā guḍākeśa
sarva-bhūtāśaya-sthitaḥ
aham ādiś ca madhyaṁ ca
bhūtānām anta eva ca

Prabhupāda: Yes, ady anta, this creation. Before this creation, Kṛṣṇa was there. Kṛṣṇa was there. When the creation is going on, it is maintained by Kṛṣṇa, and when it is dissolved, then it enters into Kṛṣṇa. Prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikam.

Morning Walk -- April 4, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: It is in relation to the previous, this thing, that Tenth that He showed you all the vibhūtis in various conditions of the creation, and by understanding the various vibhūtis, Arjuna said that "I have practically got disillusioned by this explanation." That is what he said. Is it all right?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now it is clear. Any question on this?

Dr. Patel: All right. Shall I go on?

Prabhupāda: No. So what is the translation?

Girirāja: "Arjuna said: I have heard Your instruction on confidential spiritual matters, which You have so kindly delivered unto me."

Dr. Patel: There you see here the last, last... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...means, now we have discussed Tenth (break), what is the confidential?

Satsvarūpa: About Kṛṣṇa Himself.

Morning Walk -- April 6, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not Darwin's theory. Darwin's theory is no explanation that whose evolution? Evolution is of the soul. The soul is changing in different bodies, one body better than the other. That kind of evolution.

Acyutānanda: Darwin has no individual evolution, but the evolution of a species, like, they say, there were horses. And then when they had eaten up all the food on the ground, so they started to get the food on the trees. So their necks became longer. And those with longer necks lived, and the others died. So then there were the giraffes. So they moved like that. "Survival of the fittest." That's his theory. Then the more intelligent animals will live more than the less intelligent. So they will die out and then they will be up to the human. But that doesn't explain why there are still lower species of life, that why are there still animals?

Morning Walk -- April 10, 1974, Bombay:

Makhanlal: What's the explanation then? They are slaughtering more cows in the United States, but there is still more fortunate situation there materially.

Prabhupāda: No, that is now dwindling. The hippies are coming out. So one day it will be finished. One day it will be finished. That... It has already begun. The future hope is now becoming hippies. So who will manage this? It is already there is a problem how to maintain the industry, how to... This has become a problem. So naturally, when the, there will be all hippies, not to work, then everything collapses. The so-called prosperity will be finished. (break) Nobody is working sincerely. Here also in India, all government servants, they do not work. The manager of the government coal company said that "The workers in the mine, they are not working. Therefore we have to increase the price." So now, everything dependent on one another, so if one side there is noncooperation, the whole thing will collapse. (break) ...college they don't work. One thing is that draft board chasing all young men. (end)

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, that does not mean... There are ghosts. Ghost means subtle life. It is not gross. So people know and has got some idea of the ghost, but they have no descriptive idea. Here is a descriptive idea. That is śāstra. Just like less than the śūdras, it is called pañcamas. How many pañcamas are there, that is described in the Bhāgavata. Kirāta-hūṇāndhra-pulinda-pulkaśā ābhīra-śumbhā yavanaḥ khasādayaḥ (SB 2.4.18). That is śāstra. Gives full explanation, full knowledge. Śāstra cakṣuṣā. We have to accept through the śāstra. Not that "Because I have not seen, therefore it is false." No. Vyāsadeva has no business to tell you something false. Otherwise he would not have been accepted as the supreme guru by all the sampradāyas. You cannot defy Vyāsadeva. He is saying, you have to accept. "I have seen. I have no experience," that doesn't matter. So many things you do not know.

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 2, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...nāmāny anantasya yaśo 'ṅkitāni yat śṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanti sādhavaḥ. Even there is some broken language, abaddhavat api. Abaddha, not systematized. Because there is explanation, nāmāny anantasya yaśo 'ṅkitāni, therefore śṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanti sādhavaḥ. Sadhu, they do not take care of this. They see what is the bhava there. Budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ (BG 10.8).

Dr. Patel: Something they'll say, "Why do you want to go after Sanskrit? That will be all right if you are merged with God."

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is real thing. God is not concerned with any language.

Girirāja: "Out of fear they could only cry in agony and stand erect on the banks."

Dr. Patel: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Oh yes, that is their... That is right.

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

Bhagavān: There's original text in Bengali. This book is in Bengali.

O'Grady: And Sanskrit.

Bhagavān: Sanskrit, which Prabhupāda translates himself and gives the explanation and purport. Every night Śrīla Prabhupāda dictates into a dictaphone, and his secretaries type and edit. And then we have a press in New York which composes and prints.

O'Grady: It's a very nice edition, that Macmillan edition. Very nicely done.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they have fifth edition within two years. Five editions.

O'Grady: Five editions in two years.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And each time they print fifty thousand books.

O'Grady: This new printing.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. In London about few months ago we got report they sold thirty thousand copies in two months.

Room Conversation with Catholic Cardinal and Secretary to the Pope -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Cardinal Pignedoli: Well, thank you for your explanations.

Prabhupāda: And it is being effective. It is being effective. In our group we find Africans, Americans, Indians, Europeans, Canadians, Japanese, Chinese, everyone.

Monsignor Verrozano: And what concern the Buddhist countries where God is not so, at least, the prayers or the name of God is not so well known. I am just coming from Bangkok where we had a meeting with Buddhist monks of the (indistinct), and have you also some movement, some kind of action to spread love of God to (indistinct)?

Prabhupāda: Well, Buddhists, they do not believe in God.

Cardinal and Monsignor Verrozano: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So according to our Vedic conception, Buddhist philosophy is atheistic philosophy.

Room Conversation with Biochemist, Dr. Sallaz -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Dr. Sallaz: For our opinion, scientific knowledges, they speak about the genetic code, and for us, the genetic code is very simple, and we have prepared a revolution, for instance, in the genetic questions in replacing the thousand of books of explanation, scientific, with a single truth, and this truth explains all the genetic code, very simple. (break)

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom the energy comes?

Dr. Sallaz: From where it comes, our poor human knowledge cannot gain something precise about it. We must believe it—it comes from very high—but to explain it scientifically is completely foolish. That is our opinion. And further, as I said to you when looked at everywhere, if I take India, explain it coming here, that... I received it about ten or twelve years ago. That is what the Christians would speak about, a mystery, something extraordinary. I received from a holy man in India, with which I was corresponding from time to time. Without asking, I received a big book in Sanskrit. I could not understand a word about it. Well, I put it aside preciously...

Prabhupāda: What is that book?

Room Conversation with Biochemist, Dr. Sallaz -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Dr. Sallaz: We can feel it. We can believe it, but we cannot explain it.

Prabhupāda: No, if there is explanation by a person who is not a human being, say, God.

Dr. Sallaz: Yes, we say God.

Prabhupāda: Then why should you not take it? (French)

Dr. Sallaz: We'll accept. (French)

Yogeśvara: He said if it were presented he would accept it and try to promote it.

Prabhupāda: Just find out this verse, Eighth Chapter, paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ avyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20). Find out the index.

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Robert Gouiran: Yes, it's just a word to define something.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but we mean, anti-matter means there are two things, spirit and matter. So anti-matter means spirit. That is our explanation. It is not matter. Just like matter is destructible. Anti-matter means which is not destructible. That is... Any matter... Find out this verse, acchedyo 'yam adāhyo 'yam aśoṣyaḥ akledyaḥ... Find out...

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa:

acchedyo 'yam adāhyo 'yam
akledyo 'śoṣya eva ca
nityaḥ sarva-gataḥ sthāṇur
acalo 'yaṁ sanātanaḥ

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: "This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, all-pervading, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same."

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Paramahaṁsa: My question is: A pure devotee, when he comments Bhagavad-gītā, someone who never sees him physically, but he just comes in contact with his commentary, explanation, is this the same thing?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can associate with Kṛṣṇa by reading Bhagavad-gītā. And these saintly persons, they have given their explanations, comments. So where is the difficulty? Everyone is helping you.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: You've said that the Bhagavad-gītā is Kṛṣṇa's mind.

Prabhupāda: Bhagavad-gītā is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is not different from His mind. Why do you say like that? This is material conception, the soul is different from body, the mind is different from soul. But Kṛṣṇa has no such difference. Therefore He's called absolute. Advaya-jñāna. His mind and Kṛṣṇa are the same. Kṛṣṇa and His name is the same. Kṛṣṇa and His words are the same. This is Kṛṣṇa understanding. Jesus Christ simply said that "Hallowed be Thy name." That means there is name. Now the question is why he did not say or utter the name? Now, there is already name. Why should he utter?

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Right.

Room Conversation -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: One tiger and one lion. And he was playing with that tiger, lion, just like one plays with dog. They can be trained up. They can understand also that "This man loves me. He gives me food. He's my friend." They also appreciate. Just like this picture, you have seen, Haridāsa Ṭhākura? The big snake is going. The snake also knows that "He's saintly person. He may not be disturbed. Let me go away." And from reason also, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe... (BG 18.61). Kṛṣṇa is everyone's heart. He's dictating. So Kṛṣṇa can dictate to the animals, to the serpent, to the man, everyone. Such nice foodstuff. And mostly they are made of milk. These people, they do not know. They kill the cows and throw the milk away to the hogs. And they are proud of their civilization. Like jackals and vultures. Actually, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will transform these uncivilized men to real civilization. Their civilization is now compact in masonry work, collecting stones and bricks and piling them. This much, their civilization. Actually, apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām (SB 2.1.2). The explanation I gave this morning. They do not know what is ātma-tattvam. Bahir-artha-māninaḥ. The external feature, material nature, they're interested. These scientists, these philosophers, the man, they're simply interested in the external features. Internally, what is important, they do not know.

Room Conversation with M. Lallier, noted French Poet -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

M. Lallier: Yes, of the flow (?) of the four ages.

Yogeśvara: So, so far, to this point, we've been speaking about a gradual evolution of consciousness through the species. So what is the explanation, what is the reason for which there is a degradation of the human consciousness through the four ages?

Prabhupāda: Where there is evolution, there must be degradation. Otherwise, what is the meaning of evolution? Why it should be stagnant? If you go, ascend, then you can descend also. Now, the Mr. Nixon was elected president, and why he's being dragged, "Come down." He is not coming down, but he has already come down, degradation. Nobody likes him.

M. Lallier: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And the more he sticks to his position, he's becoming unpopular. So his degradation is already complete, but because he's in the office, post, he does not agree that, "I am degraded." But from the public point of view, he's degraded. Is it not?

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Thank you. That's all right. But thing is that we must know that he has spoken about Ramakrishna and Aurobindo. They also center their propaganda on Kṛṣṇa. Just like I already told. Ramakrishna said, "I am the same Krishna." That means he takes to Kṛṣṇa. Aurobindo, he has written "Life Divine." That is his explanation of Bhagavad-gītā. He takes to Kṛṣṇa. This Maharishi, he has also presented Bhagavad-gītā; he (has) taken to Kṛṣṇa. So their importance is by taking to Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, they are valueless, nobody. (French)

Yogeśvara: He says that for him, that's not really a problem. He says rather than referring to the person Kṛṣṇa, he just goes directly to the teaching of the Gītā, and he profits from that.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: The māyā is explained very nicely in the Bhāgavata, yathābhāso yathā tamaḥ. Just like sun is reflected in the water, and the light is reflected again on the wall. This is the exact explanation of māyā. Reality, this material world, the man who manufactured all these things, nobody knows where he has gone, but these things are taken as reality. This will be also finished. It will remain as relics, as Rome, relics, but when it was..., the houses were prepared with great enthusiasm as reality. And now it is as relics. So the energy expended for manufacturing those house, that is also māyā, and now they are being visited as relics. That is also māyā. So all these things are māyāra vaibhava, expansion of māyā. So if somebody says that you don't appreciate these things? No, we appreciate, very much appreciate intelligence. But if you, for this appreciation, if you forget, then it is māyā. Forget Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation with Mr. Deshimaru -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: How you can explain? Why the body's hand is there, leg is there, head is there, why it stopped working? (French)

Yogeśvara: He says that when there is no longer any movement in the cells, scientific explanation.

Prabhupāda: So why don't you... If you know that, then replace that cell.

Karandhara: The scientists don't have a perfect explanation either. They don't know exactly what death is.

Deshimaru: They cannot know also what life is.

Karandhara: They do. They know this much, that life is what is not present in a dead body. So it must be different than the body.

Deshimaru: But the death is... You can change also what you say.

Room Conversation with Mr. Deshimaru -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: No, we say the soul goes away from this body. Just like if I am sitting here, I can go away from this room, so similarly, the soul is within the body, he goes away, and therefore the body is dead.

Devotee: That's our explanation, but what is his explanation of death? If the soul and the body are the same then what is the cause of death.

Prabhupāda: That he does not know, he cannot explain.

Devotee: Is it that the soul gets old, and then because the soul dies, then the rest of the body doesn't work? (French)

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Take it. Make arrangement within. (French) (end)

Room Conversation with Mr. Tran-van-Kha, and President & Members of the Society of Buddhists in France -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: But that idea is wrong.

Yogeśvara: (French)

Lady (1): (French)

Yogeśvara: She was open to receive a more detailed explanation of the process.

Prabhupāda: First of all, let us see what are the symptoms of having soul.

Yogeśvara: (French)

Prabhupāda: See, you can come here. Let her come.

Yogeśvara: Ask the lady to have a better seat.

Prabhupāda: Come.

Pṛthu Putra: See, there she has a seat.

Room Conversation with Mr. Tran-van-Kha, and President & Members of the Society of Buddhists in France -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Yogeśvara: This young lady suggests that the animals do have a soul, and that they also pass from body to body, and perhaps ultimately can come to the human form.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the explanation. You are right.

Guest (2): (French)

Pṛthu Putra: He says the evolution was already before, because in the vegetables is already this process of evolution of the soul.

Prabhupāda: Every living entity has soul. The body is just like the dress, just like you are sitting here under different dresses, but that does not mean we are different. That is stated in the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni. Find out this, vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22).

Yogeśvara: Second Chapter.

Prabhupāda: You can take it. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya, navāni gṛhṇāti naro 'parāṇi.

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: That is their punishment. They remain always in darkness that Jesus had a material body. (French)

Jyotirmayī: So he's saying that he respects your explanation, but that the Christians, they have another explanation, and that if we...

Prabhupāda: But we must come to the reason before giving explanation. You cannot explain...

Yogeśvara: What is the reason for his incarnation?

Prabhupāda: You cannot explain whimsically. You cannot explain whimsically. If Jesus Christ is son of God, he has... That means he has got spiritual body. You...

French Woman: Yes, we accept that he got the has got spiritual body, but we say that he assumed also a material body.

Prabhupāda: Now, then, then, another thing is: you accept Jesus Christ the only son of God, is it not? So when you pray in the church, you address God, "Oh Father." Then why "only son"?

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: If you don't like to chant Kṛṣṇa you chant in your own way. Chant the name of God. If you know the name of God chant it. If you do not know then take it from me. (laughter) We are recommending to chant the holy name of God. If you know, you chant that name and if you don't know then take it from me. (German) (break) ...explained by Caitanya Mahāprabhu that God has many thousands of names or God has no name. No name means He has, He has got so many thousands of millions of names that you cannot say, "This is only God's name." This is one sense. But how God names are understood? The God names are understood by His action. Just like we say Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. God is all-attractive. God is attractive for the Hindus, for the Muslim, for the Christians, for everyone. Therefore, being all-attractive, there's a Sanskrit word of all-attraction, Kṛṣṇa. This is the explanation of the attribute of God. Similarly, if you've got similar name which explains the attributes of God, that is also God's name. (German) I think Lord Jesus Christ said "God, hallowed be Thy name."

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prof. Pater Porsch: No, my question was perhaps a little, not quite clear. Many of us here, myself felt, represent not only our personal selves but are here on behalf of certain institutions and we are active in some form or other of public service, these gentlemen probably also. And in what way, for example, would we serve your movement by giving a clear explanation about the aims of your activity, for example, removing prejudices and supporting Sanskrit studies and the better distribution of the Bhagavad-gītā in this form, in such ways, perhaps?

Prabhupāda: Yes. We are writing these books for distribution.

Prof. Pater Porsch: Yes. Yes. Yes, I've already suggested that one.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And they are not manufactured knowledge. They are standard knowledge, Vedic knowledge, I am explaining for understanding of the people in general. Each word is being explained. Here is my dictaphone. I am sitting here. So as soon as I stop talking, I shall write immediately. At night also, I get up at two o'clock, one o'clock, and write these books.

Morning Walk -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Anybody can understand. I am coming, going, but when it is a question of vacating, I go out of the apartment, but I never come back again. I will enter another apartment. "The soul enters another body" means enters the womb of another mother. And there the suitable body is created and again mother delivers the child. Again new chapter of life begins. Where is the difficulty to understand? But they are so rascal and dull-headed, the simple thing they cannot understand. And still, they are big, big scientists, philosophers, and cheating others. They are unable to understand, themselves, and the same rascal knowledge they are distributing to others and taking Nobel Prize. This is the mūḍhas, the society of the cheaters and the cheated. Where is the difficulty to understand the simple thing, how the soul is transmigrating? They sometimes say that "We do not see how it is going." No, how...? Can you see the mind? But can you deny, "There is no mind?" Mind is there. Everyone knows I have got mind, you have got mind, but do I see your mind? Therefore I shall deny the existence of mind? Mind, intelligence and ego—these three things are there, but we cannot see. How my mind is working, can you see? Or how your mind is working, can I see? And because I cannot see, therefore shall I conclude that you have no mind, I have no mind? How foolish they are. Just see. What is their explanation, Satsvarūpa?

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Haṁsadūta: And the lecture was very, very nice.

Prabhupāda: Good morning. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So last night our explanation was right?

Devotee: Yes. Lots of people of the country was in the football, was going in the football.

Haṁsadūta: This week is the big world football matches. So everyone goes to see that. They either stay at home and watch television or they go to the fields.

Prabhupāda: Because they have been taught like that. What is their fault? They do not know the importance of human life. "Eat, drink, be merry, and enjoy." That's all. And then become a dog. That's all. They do not know. And they say, "Never mind I shall become a dog. After all, I will forget everything." (Haṁsadūta translates into German)

Prabhupāda: There are so many planets, so many different standard of life. Nothing. They do not know anything. (German)

Room Conversation -- June 28, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: They'll never admit. Neither they will explain how it is. They know it, how it is done. It has been done, or it is being done by somebody. That they do not know, who is that somebody. And when we say it is Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa says, "It is I am," they'll not agree. This is their position. They do not know who is that somebody, and when we say, "Here is that somebody," they'll not believe it. This is mūḍha. Therefore it is said... The mūḍha cannot explain all... And at the same time, will not accept the real thing. That is mūḍha. Mūḍha means rascal. And they will set aside the thing, "Yes, scientifically we are searching. In future, we shall be able." And when that future will come? Past, present and future. The future will become past also. Just like tomorrow, 29th June, this is future. Now, day after tomorrow, it will be past. (laughter) So if you are talking of future, but where is the history... In the history the future is past. This is common sense. So therefore they have discovered this nonsense ad infinitum that future will never come. And still, they will set aside the business to some future and take the credit. Yes. "In future we shall be able to do it." And that future will never come. And still, they will take the credit. (laughter) Just see. Therefore mūḍha. This is the explanation of mūḍha. It is just like somebody offered you a post-dated check, and then he wants to clear his debt. Suppose I am debtor by hundreds of dollars to you. I give you a post-dated check, and still I say, "Now I am clear of your debt." And that post-dated check will never be paid. This is their theory. Na māṁ prapadyante mūḍhāḥ duṣkṛtino narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). (pause) The government has recognized us as bona fide religious sect.

Morning Walk -- June 29, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: "You cannot understand"—that is also good. Suppose a child cannot understand. But there must be some explanation. Otherwise, how in advanced stages one can accept. They will say, "dogmatic." This body means this material body, and this material body has got so many shapes, 8,400,000. So hell means... This is also hellish. A tree is standing for five thousand years or five hundred years. Is it not hellish? If I ask you, "Stand here for five days," you will die. (laughing) If there is such order from the government, "You stand here for so many days..."

Satsvarūpa: Naked. Naked too.

Prabhupāda: Naked. This is hellish. (dog barking) Now this, another hellish life. His only business is to bark. The master may like to keep a dog, but if he is said that "You also become a dog," he will not agree. Will he agree?

Page Title:Explanation (Conversations 1968 - 1974)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:07 of Nov, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=97, Let=0
No. of Quotes:97