Taking His Kaumodakī club and moving very skillfully, Kṛṣṇa struck Dantavakra's chest so fiercely that Dantavakra's heart split in twain. As a result, Dantavakra began to vomit blood, his hair scattered, and he fell to the ground, spreading his hands and legs. Within only a few minutes all that remained of Dantavakra was a dead body on the ground. After the death of Dantavakra, just as at the time of Śiśupāla's death, in the presence of all the persons standing there a small particle of spiritual effulgence came out of the demon's body and very wonderfully merged into the body of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Few minutes
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
BG Chapters 1 - 6
BG 2.72, Purport:
One can attain Kṛṣṇa consciousness or divine life at once, within a second—or one may not attain such a state of life even after millions of births. It is only a matter of understanding and accepting the fact. Khaṭvāṅga Mahārāja attained this state of life just a few minutes before his death, by surrendering unto Kṛṣṇa. Nirvāṇa means ending the process of materialistic life. According to Buddhist philosophy, there is only void after the completion of this material life, but Bhagavad-gītā teaches differently. Actual life begins after the completion of this material life. For the gross materialist it is sufficient to know that one has to end this materialistic way of life, but for persons who are spiritually advanced, there is another life after this materialistic life. Before ending this life, if one fortunately becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, he at once attains the stage of brahma-nirvāṇa.
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 1
SB 1.13.29, Purport:
We are not ashamed to admit that this fact was experienced in our practical life. Were we not favored by His Divine Grace Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, by our first meeting for a few minutes only, it would have been impossible for us to accept this mighty task of describing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in English. Without seeing him at that opportune moment, we could have become a very great business magnate, but never would we have been able to walk the path of liberation and be engaged in the factual service of the Lord under instructions of His Divine Grace. And here is another practical example by the action of Vidura's association with Dhṛtarāṣṭra. Mahārāja Dhṛtarāṣṭra was tightly bound in a network of material affinities related to politics, economy and family attachment, and he did everything in his power to achieve so-called success in his planned projects, but he was frustrated from the beginning to the end so far as his material activities were concerned.
SB Canto 3
SB 3.5.45, Purport:
Such realization of consciousness is taught by Bhagavad-gītā within only a few minutes, whereas the so-called yogīs take continuous years to realize it because of their offenses at the lotus feet of the Lord. The greatest offense is to deny the existence of the Lord as separate from the individual souls or to accept the Lord and the individual soul as one and the same. The impersonalists misinterpret the theory of reflection, and thus they wrongly accept the individual consciousness as the supreme consciousness.
SB Canto 4
SB 4.24.70, Purport:
The word asakṛt is significant, for it means not just for a few minutes but continuously. That is the instruction given by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu in His Śikṣāṣṭaka 3. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ: (CC Adi 17.31) "The holy name of the Lord should be chanted twenty-four hours daily." Therefore in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we request the devotees to chant at least sixteen rounds on their beads daily. Actually one has to chant twenty-four hours daily, just like Ṭhākura Haridāsa, who was chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra three hundred thousand times daily. Indeed, he had no other business.
SB 4.28.16, Purport:
It is not infrequent for a person overly attached to the material body to request a physician to prolong his life at least for some time. If the so-called scientific physician is able to prolong one's life for a few minutes through the use of oxygen or other medicines, he thinks that he is very successful in his attempts, although ultimately the patient will die. This is called the struggle for existence. At the time of death both patient and physician still think of prolonging life, although all the constituents of the body are practically dead and gone.
SB Canto 5
SB 5.8.1, Translation:
Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: My dear King, one day, after finishing his morning duties—evacuating, urinating and bathing—Mahārāja Bharata sat down on the bank of the River Gaṇḍakī for a few minutes and began chanting his mantra, beginning with oṁkāra.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Madhya-lila
CC Madhya 8.138, Purport:
No one should mistakenly consider such desires to be material. In the material world, if one is sexually inclined and enjoys sex life, he enjoys something temporary. His enjoyment vanishes after a few minutes. However, in the spiritual world the same enjoyment may be there, but it never vanishes. It is continuously enjoyed. In the spiritual world such sex pleasure appears to the enjoyer to be more and more relishable with each new feature. In the material world, however, sex enjoyment becomes distasteful after a few minutes only, and it is never permanent. Because Kṛṣṇa appears very much sexually inclined, He is called the new Cupid in the spiritual world. There is no material inebriety in such desire, however.
CC Madhya 12.136, Translation:
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu also cleansed the Nṛsiṁha temple inside and outside. Finally, He rested a few minutes and then began dancing.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead
Krsna Book 89:
Instead of being angry or cursing Bhṛgu Muni, Lord Viṣṇu immediately got up from His bed along with His wife, the goddess of fortune, and offered respectful obeisances to the brāhmaṇa. He addressed Bhṛgu Muni as follows: “My dear brāhmaṇa, it is My greatest fortune that you have come here. Please, therefore, sit down on this cushion for a few minutes. My dear brāhmaṇa, I am very sorry that when you first entered My home I could not receive you properly. It was a great offense on My part, and I beg you to pardon Me. You are so pure and great that the water which washes your feet can purify even the places of pilgrimage. Therefore, I request you to purify the Vaikuṇṭha planet where I live with My associates. My dear father, O great sage, I know that your feet are very soft, like a lotus flower, and that My chest is as hard as a thunderbolt. I am therefore afraid that you may have felt some pain by kicking My chest.
Krsna Book 89:
Arjuna, however, did his best by chanting different mantras, and he shot arrows up and down to guard the maternity home from all directions. The brāhmaṇa's wife delivered a male child, and as usual the child began to cry. But suddenly, within a few minutes, both the child and Arjuna's arrows disappeared into the sky.
It appears that the brāhmaṇa's house was near Kṛṣṇa's residence and that Lord Kṛṣṇa was enjoying everything that was taking place, apparently in defiance of His authority. It was He who played the trick of taking away the brāhmaṇa's baby as well as the arrows, including the one given by Lord Śiva, of which Arjuna was so proud. Anta-vat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām: "Less intelligent men take shelter of the demigods due to bewilderment and are satisfied with the temporary benefits they award."
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Lecture on BG 1.23 -- London, July 19, 1973:
We are searching after ānanda, bliss, but we do not know where to get bliss. We are trying to get bliss in this material world by eating meat, eating wine, drinking wine, by sex. They are trying to get ānanda. That is not ānanda. Ānanda is what is satyānanda. These ānandas, these pleasures—flickering, for few minutes, for few hours. That is not ānanda. Ānanda means satyānanda, real ānanda, real ānanda. What is that real ānanda? Brahma-sukha. That ānanda is in exchange with the Supreme Brahman. Brahma-saukhyam anantam (SB 5.5.1). That is anantam, unlimited ānanda. Therefore ramante yoginaḥ anante (CC Madhya 9.29). Therefore those who are actually yogis, bhakti-yogīs... There are different types of yoga. So they ramante, they enjoy, ramante yoginaḥ anante, along with the ananta, unlimited. Kṛṣṇa is unlimited.
Lecture on BG 1.44 -- London, July 31, 1973:
Happiness is beyond your material senses. Ātyantikam. That is real happiness. Real happiness means it will never end, and you will never feel satiation, that "I no more want." That is real happiness. Material happiness, there is no such thing. That you will feel immediately satiation. After enjoying any material happiness a few minutes, you will feel "Again another, again another, again another." So therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tat (BG 6.21). So real, what is real happiness, that is not felt by these blunt material senses. So what is that sense? That is purified senses. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). When our senses are purified, tat-paratvena, for the sake of Kṛṣṇa, when our senses are employed for the sake of Kṛṣṇa, that is purified senses. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate. That is wanted.
Lecture on BG 2.13-17 -- Los Angeles, November 29, 1968:
Oh, yes. That I've explained just a few minutes before. The animals were put into the sacrificial fire. By Vedic mantra, he was given new life. But at the present moment such expert priests and brāhmaṇas are not available. Therefore it is stopped. Animal sacrifice is stopped. Because it is Kali-yuga. Nobody is reading, cultivating Vedic mantras. So in this age, this mantra is called mahā-mantra, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all. All Vedic mantras are now gone to hell. You see? Nobody can properly chant Vedic mantras and take the benefit out of it. But this mantra, any way you chant, neglectfully or properly, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and the result is there. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā. There is no other alternative, no other alternative, no other alternative, kalau, in this age. So the Vedic mantra is now gone.
Lecture on BG 2.15 -- Hyderabad, November 21, 1972:
So we are thinking that "I have now built a very nice house, skyscraper building." It is nothing but dream. Nothing but dream. Dream in this sense, that as soon as I give up this body, all my skyscraper building, business, factory—finished. Exactly the same dream. Dream is for few minutes, or few hours. And it is for few years. That's all. It is dream.
So one should not be disturbed by this dreaming condition. That is spiritual life. One should not be disturbed. Just like we are not disturbed. Suppose, in dream, I was put on the throne, and I was working like a king, and after the dream is over, I am not sorry. Similarly, in dream I was seeing that tiger has attacked me. I was actually crying "Here is tiger! Here is tiger!
Lecture on BG 2.22 -- Hyderabad, November 26, 1972:
(Hindi for a few minutes, then:) Everyone has prema, love. This propensity to love others. That is... There is, everywhere. But that prema, that love, is originally for Kṛṣṇa. Nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti. That is the original prema. But because we are illusioned, that prema is being applied or used for so many māyā. Prema I have got. I have got my love. That is a fact. But I do not know where to repose that love. That is my misfortune. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). "You have got prema. You apply it to Me. Then you'll be benefited." Prema is already there. You are simply misusing it. Therefore you are not happy. This is the process. Prema, you have got. But you are misusing it. But if you take Kṛṣṇa's word, that "Give your prema unto Me..." Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). This is the beginning of prema. "Always think of Me." I think of my son. I think of my child. I think of my wife.
Lecture on BG 2.25 -- London, August 28, 1973:
Aṇimā, laghimā siddhi. There are still yogis in India who early in the morning takes bath in four dhāmas: Hardwar, Jagannātha Purī, Rāmeśvaram, and Dvārakā. There are still yogis. Within one hour, they'll take bath in four places. Sarva-gataḥ, the speed. They'll sit down in one place and by yogic process within few minutes will get up and dip in here, in this water. Suppose in London you dip, take your dip in the Thames River, and when you get up you see in Calcutta Ganges. There is yogic process like that. Sarva-gataḥ. So the spirit soul has got so much freedom, sarva-gataḥ, anywhere he likes he can go. But this impediment is this body which is checking our freedom. So if you get rid of this material body and be situated in spiritual body... Just like Nārada Muni, he can move anywhere, he's moving, his business is moving.
Lecture on BG 2.62-72 -- Los Angeles, December 19, 1968:
Prabhupāda: Several times there were questions that "How long it will take to become Kṛṣṇa conscious?" I have also answered, that in a second it can be done. The same thing is being explained. Go on.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "It is only a matter of understanding and accepting the fact. Khaṭvāṅga Mahārāja attained this state of life just a few minutes before his death by surrendering unto Kṛṣṇa. Nirvāṇa means ending the process of materialistic life. According to Buddha's philosophy, there is only void after this material life. But the Bhagavad-gītā teaches differently. Actual life begins after the completion of this material life. For the gross materialist, it is sufficient to know that one has to end his materialistic way of life.
Lecture on BG 4.1 -- Montreal, August 24, 1968:
Prabhupāda: Thank you. Come forward. All come forward.
Janārdana: Swamiji, you'll have to excuse me just a few minutes early. I have an appointment with many people this evening.
Prabhupāda: Oh. At 8 o'clock you want to leave? That's all right. This is microphone for speaking, like this? Hare Kṛṣṇa. (someone begins to play harmonium) It has to be like this. All right. I can try. This is also (indistinct). Hare Kṛṣṇa. So just begin kīrtana. (kīrtana, prema-dhvani)
Prabhupāda: There is no support? Keep it like this.
Lecture on BG 4.7-9 -- New York, July 22, 1966:
Similarly, if one dovetails himself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then automatically he'll become a saintly person, automatically. Because his switch is made off. Just like the fan, when the switch is made off, the current supply is stopped. Now... There was a force of running. You may see that it is running for few minutes. But it will stop. Similarly, anyone, it doesn't matter what he is, if he puts himself, dovetails himself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he, all his material contamination will be washed off, washed off.
This is the easiest process. There was many examples. Of course, there are, in scriptures, there are many, many good examples. But it is a fact that anyone who takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he doesn't require to endeavor for becoming a good man, I mean to say, separately. That Kṛṣṇa consciousness will help him to be the best man in the world. Api cet su-durācāraḥ.
Lecture on BG 4.8 -- Montreal, June 14, 1968:
The tree... If you get the body of a tree, you stand up for ten thousands of years in one place. We have got experience when teacher punishes us, "Stand up on the bench," for a few minutes, we become disturbed: "Sir, please excuse me. I shall not do this." Now, if you have to stand up for ten thousands of years in one place, just see. These are the punishment to the miscreants. So this human body is the only opportunity to understand all these things and make your life successful so that you may not come again for standing up for seven thousand years or ten thousand years. Yes. But the miscreants will not believe this. They think, "A tree, it is another thing. I am perfect." He does not know that every chance there is that you also become a tree.
These are practical examples. You can study.
Lecture on BG 4.11 -- New York, July 27, 1966:
So that qualification is, here it is stated, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante. If you try to surrender yourself into Kṛṣṇa consciousness... Just like Kṛṣṇa is canvassing, asking Arjuna, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam: (BG 18.66) "You just try to surrender unto Me, and I shall give you all protection." And just I described a few minutes before that Kṛṣṇa is seated along with you in the same tree of this body. He is just waiting for your voluntary looking unto Him. That's it. He does not press you. He gives you all instruction.
Just like Kṛṣṇa gave all instruction of Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna, but at last, He asked him, "My dear Arjuna, I have given you all instruction. Whether you have understood it? And how you are going to follow? Have you decided to follow Me?" Just see. He does not say that "I force you to follow," no. He asked him, "Now, have you decided to follow Me?"
Lecture on BG 4.25 -- Bombay, April 14, 1974:
So this is one stage, power. In this way, one after another, when one comes to the supreme powerful, Viṣṇu, because that is the ultimate powerful...
So this is one type of yajña, understanding the supreme power. Just like I was talking a few minutes before, the power. But power is not ultimate. Ultimate is the conductor of power, or the powerful. Just like electricity. Electricity is power, but it is generated from the powerhouse. People generally understand that electricity is coming from the powerhouse. But the powerhouse is maintained by the resident engineer, a person. That is real understanding. Or just like this airplane is flying in the sky. A child may see what a wonderful machine is flying in the sky. He does know the importance of the pilot. The big gigantic airship can fly in the sky so long the powerful, or one who knows how to conduct the power, pushing the button.
Lecture on BG 5.22-29 -- New York, August 31, 1966:
That is your life. You cannot stop happiness. But happiness in the diseased condition is not happiness. That we must understand. So we have to cure this diseased condition and then enjoy happiness, then enjoy pleasure that will be unlimited. There will be no end. In the diseased condition... Suppose whatever pleasure we take, it is for fifteen seconds or few minutes or few hours or few days—it will end. But real happiness, what is real happiness, that is unending. Brahma-saukhyam anantam (SB 5.5.1). Anantam means unending. So we are meant for unending happiness. So Kṛṣṇa advises here that śaknotīhaiva yaḥ soḍhuṁ prāk śarīra-vimokṣaṇāt. Before quitting this material body, if one practices to tolerate the so-called urges of sense pleasure, then he becomes very happy at the long run. He recommends it.
Lecture on BG 6.1 -- Los Angeles, February 13, 1969:
So everyone is trying to have some taste from everything. We want to enjoy sex life. There is some taste. So that is called ādi—taste. So there are so many tastes. There in the Brahma-saṁhitā, ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. That taste, material taste, you may taste it, but it will be finished immediately. Immediately finished. Say few minutes. Suppose you have got very nice sweetmeat. You taste it. You get, "Oh, it is very nice." "Take another." "All right." "And another?" "No, I don't want," finished. You see? So material taste is finishable. It is not unlimited. But real taste is unlimited. If you taste one then you cannot forget. It will go on, increasing, increasing. Ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that, "This taste is simply increasing." Although it is ocean-like, great, still it is increasing. Here you have seen ocean. It is limited. Your Pacific Ocean is tossing, but it is not increasing. If it increases there is havoc, you see?
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Upsala University Stockholm, September 8, 1973:
Because it is complete, spiritual, śuddha. Śuddha means pure. Not materially contaminated. Material pleasure, any pleasure... The highest pleasure in the material world is sex. But you cannot enjoy it twenty-four hours. That is not possible. You can enjoy it for few minutes. That's all. Even if you are forced to enjoy, you'll reject it: "No, no more." That is material. But spiritual means there is no end. You can enjoy perpetually, twenty-four hours. That is spiritual enjoyment. Brahma-saukhyam anantam (SB 5.5.1). Anantam. Anantam means unending.
So in order to enjoy this spiritual pleasure, you have to practice some tapasya, austerity. Because you are spiritual, every one of us, spiritual. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. We are not this material body. We change. It is for certain years.
Lecture on BG 7.3 -- Montreal, June 3, 1968:
So any other question? Anyway, you are maintaining this institution. Thanks to you. (chuckles) Although the assembly is not as great as the hall, (laughs) but still, you are maintaining. It is nice. So our Indian brothers, they do not participate in this meeting? No. So it is past nine. We can have saṅkīrtana for few minutes. No other questions from anybody? This is newly partitioned?
Lecture on BG 9.11-14 -- New York, November 27, 1966:
You will find ananta. Ramante yoginaḥ anante (CC Madhya 9.29). Unlimited happiness which will never end, never end. Ramante yoginaḥ anante satyānande. That is real happiness that does not end. Don't you see? Is there happiness in the material world, in your sense enjoyment, which does not end? It begins and ends, say, for few minutes or few hours or few seconds. It ends. But real happiness has no end. That is real happiness.
That you have to search, and for which you have to undertake some voluntary penance. You are trying to get the unlimited happiness and you are not prepared to sacrifice anything? What is that sacrifice? You have to sacrifice little time. Come here and hear this Bhagavad-gītā and chant with us. Is it very great sacrifice? And you will learn everything.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Mauritius, October 5, 1975:
Prabhupāda: Rāmāyaṇa, Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, that is also authority.
Indian man (2): We have listened to you very attentively and I have no doubt that the audience have learned much which is, could be practiced to help us in some way to realize what we are and to realize God. Now, if God Himself comes to teach to someone in this world, and if he has learned from God directly and he is satisfied that he has learned, that he has understood, can he, a few minutes afterwards, forget that he has received instruction from God and can he depart in a very ridiculous way from God, from what God has taught him in person?
Prabhupāda: Ridiculous way? What is that "ridiculous"?
Lecture on SB 1.5.14 -- New Vrindaban, June 18, 1969:
That is real happiness, spiritual happiness, eternal happiness. So therefore it is stated in the Padma Purāṇa that ramante yogino 'nante. Anante means unlimited happiness. They enjoy unlimited happiness. Ramante yogino 'nante. And satyānande. And that is real happiness. Happiness does not mean it is for few minutes. No. Happiness should continue, eternally. One should be situated in that happiness so that other, temporary happiness will not attract him.
So ramante yogino 'nante satyānande cid-ātmani. Cit, cit means that he's full of knowledge. That is not in ignorance. This material happiness is in ignorance. And spiritual happiness is śuddha-sattva. Śuddha-sattva means pure goodness. In the material world there are three stages: ignorance, passion and goodness. The goodness platform is very nice in the material world, but there is another platform, which is called śuddha-sattva.
Lecture on SB 1.7.30-31 -- Vrndavana, September 26, 1976:
The energy is there, but the material world means the energy sometimes manifested, sometimes not manifested. So we are in this material world. Not only. We are changing our body, one after another after some years... That is also according to our different forms of life. In one small insect, it may live for few minutes; some of them for few hours, some of them for few days, and some of them for few months, some of them for few years. And this yearly, we live, we human being, we live for a hundred years, and the demigods, they live for ten thousands of years. But wherever you live, either as insect or as demigod, there is no rescue from the process of janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). That you cannot escape. Either you become a small insect or you become as powerful as Lord Brahmā, you have to die. There is no escape. Brahmā, he has the greatest amount of years to live.
Lecture on SB 1.8.46 -- Mayapura, October 26, 1974:
It goes on. I have seen for generation. One generation passed another generation; the fighting is going on in the court. But if people are Kṛṣṇa conscious, it could be settled within few minutes. Still among the villagers the system is current in India: when there is some fighting, they go to a saintly person or in a temple to settle up. Just like when Sanātana Gosvāmī was there in Vṛndāvana, so in that area, whenever there was some fighting between two parties, they would come to Sanātana Gosvāmī: bābā, ap isko phars lakharji.(?) Bābā means saintly person. So they would come to Sanātana Gosvāmī, and they would ask him to become mediator, arbitrator, to settle up. And whatever verdict or judgment he will give, they will accept that "Bābā has said. That's all right." Therefore Śrīnivāsa Ācārya has prayed the Gosvāmīs, dhīrādhīra.
Lecture on SB 1.15.47-48 -- Los Angeles, December 25, 1973:
That is also: asadbhiḥ. Asadbhir viṣayātmabhiḥ.
Who is asat? Asat means that does not exist, or that will not exist. There are two things: one thing will exist permanently, and one thing will not exist. It may exist for few minutes, or few hours or years. So this material world is asat, because it will not exist. Just like your this material body, it will not exist. Everyone knows. Everyone knows that it is born at a certain date, it will continue for certain years, it will produce some by-products, it will change into different forms, and then it will become old and then dwindle and one day finish. This is called ṣaḍ-vikāra, six kinds of changes. It is not progress. If one is progressing in his age, it is not progress. It means he is going to death. Suppose I am seventy-eight years old. So I have... Seventy-eight years I have already died. Only, say two or five years, or something like remaining balance.
Lecture on SB 1.16.24 -- Hawaii, January 20, 1974:
He's changing an..." So actually we have no death. The change of body. So we are accepting this change of body as death. That is another illusion. Dhīras tatra na muhyati. One who is sober, he is not bewildered. He knows that... Suppose we are sitting here. We are sitting here, and after a few minutes we shall go away. That does not mean we are dead. We are in this apartment; we go to another apartment. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Similarly, nobody dies. It is change of body, from this body to another body. So we have no death. This is illusion. So what is your question?
Lecture on SB 2.1.4 -- Vrndavana, March 19, 1974:
Therefore this life is a sort of fight with material nature, which imposes death upon all. This is struggle. Everyone wants to live, but... He may live for some time—for few seconds, for few minutes, or for few years, or for few millions of years. But death will come. And our struggle is how to overcome death. In the human form of life a living being is competent enough to come to an understanding of this great struggle for existence, but being too attracted to the family members, society, country, etc., he wants to win over the invincible material nature by the aid of bodily strength, children, wife, relatives, etc. Although he is sufficiently experienced in the matter by dint of past experience and previous examples of the diseased predecessors, he does not see that the countrymen are all fallible in the great struggle.
Lecture on SB 2.1.7 -- Paris, June 15, 1974:
So either goodness or ignorance, this is bondage. This is bondage. Therefore one has to become above the traiguṇya. And that is called nairguṇya. Nairguṇya-sthā ramante. They also enjoy. What is that enjoyment? Ramante yogino 'nante. That is not limited enjoyment, for few minutes. No. Anante, eternal enjoyment. Ramante yogino 'nante. And that is satyānande, that is real ānanda. That is real bliss. When your ānanda does not stop, it continues, that is real ānanda. And the ānanda, or the pleasure, which is for few seconds or few minutes, that is not ānanda. That is illusion. Real ānanda is it will continue. It will never stop. It will never end. Therefore it is said, ramante yogino 'nante. Anante means unlimited. Ramante yogino 'nante satyānande. That is real happiness.
Lecture on SB 2.1.11 -- Los Angeles, August 1, 1970:
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Yes?
Karandhara: It's going to take a few minutes to get set up so should we just go ahead? It'll take a few minutes for the photographer to get set up, get ready.
Prabhupāda: He can take as we are going on. What is this? Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma... (pause) So when it is printed? I never saw it.
Dayānanda: From(?) New York.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Nice. Where is that slip yesterday you gave me? That mantra, nṛsiṁha-mantra? There was one extra mantra. You have got everyone, slip? This. (devotees repeat each word) Namas te, narasiṁhāya, prahlāda, āhlāda, dāyine, hiraṇyakaśipor, vakṣaḥ, śilā-ṭaṅka, nakhālaye.
Lecture on SB 2.9.2 -- Melbourne, April 4, 1972:
Any form Today we have got a form. Take a photograph of it, and few hours after, the form has changed. So that is not permanent form. It is changing. Just like you see in the cloud. From airplane you can experience. The cloud You are running. You are seeing one form. After few minutes, that form is changing to different form. Therefore it is called ivābhāti. You immediately see a cloud just like big elephant, but after a few minutes you see the cloud, the same cloud, is changed into just like a big hill, another, a big tree. So this is going on. Today I am Indian, you are American, but next birth or after few years, although American, the body is changing. Body is changing. Therefore it is written there, ivābhāti: "as if it has got a body." As if. Ivābhāti: "It appears." But māyā is so strong Bahu-rūpa ivābhāti... What is the next word? Māyayā?
Lecture on SB 3.26.22 -- Bombay, December 31, 1974:
We say clearly, "If you are not Kṛṣṇa conscious, you are rascal number one." "No, I am M.A. Ph.D." "Still, you are rascal." That is our verdict. "We don't care for your Ph.D. I know that you are a rascal because you do not know Kṛṣṇa." Just a few minutes before, one gentleman came to see me, and he advertised himself that "I have read Vedas, I have read the Purāṇas, I have seen Dr. Radhakrishnan, but I do not get peace of mind." So I asked him, "You have studied so many literatures. Do you know who is God?" And the God who has created this, what is His name, what is the address—that he does not know. Yes. This is going on. Vimūḍhān. They are proud of education, proud of learning, advancement, everything, all right, complete.
Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Tittenhurst, London, September 12, 1969:
For happiness. You go on. The happiness, your ultimate goal. But the happiness which you are now deriving from the sources you have manufactured, that is temporary. If you want to become happy by intoxication, how long? That is temporary. Any way. If you want to be happy by sex indulgence, how long? That is also for a few minutes, few seconds. But if you want eternal, continued happiness, then you have to purify your existential condition, you have to place yourself in the transcendental position, and you will feel that happiness.
Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- London, August 30, 1971:
That is called illusion, māyā. Actual happiness is not there. Therefore Vedic literature informs: ramante yoginaḥ anante (CC Madhya 9.29). The yogis, they enjoy happiness unlimitedly. There is no end. Here in this material world you may enjoy anything, but it will have its end after a few minutes. That's all. You cannot enjoy perpetually. That is not possible. Therefore... But we are hankering after perpetual happiness, continued happiness. So Ṛṣabhadeva advised, "My dear boys, you take to austerity." Tapo divyaṁ yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). "After you are purified, then brahma-saukhyam anantam, then you get unlimited happiness."
Lecture on SB 6.1.1-4 -- Melbourne, May 20, 1975:
You see? There are many trees, they are standing up for five thousand years, seven thousand years. In California I have seen one tree, they say it is seven thousand years old. So just imagine. If the teacher punishes a boy to stand up for few minutes, how much troublesome it is, and if one is ordered to stand up for seven thousand years, so just imagine what is the punishment. So that is punishment. These trees and plants, because they committed very sinful activities, they... Naked, to become naked, is also another criminal activity. Therefore, by nature's law, the trees, the, they are standing up naked. They do not dress. Similarly, if a human being does not dress, does not cover, then what is the difference between the trees and the human being? It is the human being who requires to be properly dressed.
Lecture on SB 6.1.19 and Room Conversation -- Bombay, November 15, 1970:
That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. (Indian man translates) (Prabhupāda speaks in Hindi) We have no other business, simply Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore anyone who joins with us even for a moment, even for a few minutes, still, it is so powerful that it can help you to save you from the greatest danger.
For this reason the temple is situated. In the temple generally ordinary man, woman, they come to see the Deities, hear the chanting, and sometimes play some instrument. All these help him progressing toward devotional service. Niveśitaṁ tad-guṇa-rāgī yair iha. Śrīdhara Svami says, bhaktiḥ svalpāpi punāti: "Bhakti, devotional service, is so nice that even it is done very little, still it purifies." Just like fire. Even a small fire can burn wherever it is placed.
Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Montreal, June 10, 1968:
Now... I can understand. Now suppose a boy in this classroom is given some task. The teacher says, "You are allowed two hours to finish this task." Now if the boy is intelligent he can finish it in few minutes. Or if he is not intelligent he cannot finish even in two hours. Similarly, that allowance is very nice, the 72,000 of years. But if you get the opportunity in 72 days to come out why should you not take that opportunity? Why should you put yourself into that 72,000 years? If there is a means to get out of this entanglement in 72 days why should you lose this opportunity?
Lecture on SB 7.6.6-9 -- Montreal, June 23, 1968:
That is meditation, real meditation. In all the standard scriptures and in yoga practice formula, the whole aim is to concentrate one's mind in the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is called samādhi, samādhi, ecstasy. So that ecstasy is immediately brought by this chanting process. You begin chanting and hear for the few seconds or few minutes: you immediately become on the platform of ecstasy. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommended this process not only for India but for all the people of the world. He said that pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma. Pṛthivī means "on the face of the world"; ache, "when there is." Nagar means "towns," and grāma means "village" or "county." So He said, "As many villages, towns, or counties, the human society, there are on the surface of the globe," sarvatra pracāra haibe more nāma, "My name"—means Lord Caitanya's name, because He introduced the simple method of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa—"will be celebrated." That is His prediction.
Lecture on SB 7.6.9-17 -- San Francisco, March 31, 1969:
This is subtle dream. And this existence, this bodily existence and relationship to this body, society, friendship, and love and so many things, they are also gross dream. It will finish. It will stay Just like dream stays for a few minutes or few hours when you are asleep, similarly, this gross dream also will remain, say, for few years. That's all. It is also dream. But actually we are concerned with the person who is dreaming or who is acting. So we have to take him out from this dream, gross and subtle. That is the proposition. So that can be done very easily by this process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and that is being explained by Prahlāda Mahārāja.
Lecture on SB 7.9.12-13 -- Montreal, August 20, 1968:
If you can become satisfied by serving this tiny government, why not become satisfied being the servant of the supreme government? So to become servant of Kṛṣṇa, or God, is the supreme satisfaction. It is not that that service is very valuable service. Sa-nātha-jīvitaḥ. Sa-nātha-jīvitaḥ means that service is not ended, only few minutes' notice. Just like government servant cannot be dismissed simply by saying, "Oh, don't come, come tomorrow. We don't want." So if government service cannot be terminated so whimsically, how Kṛṣṇa's service can be terminated whimsically? No.
Lecture on SB 7.9.55 -- Vrndavana, April 10, 1976:
So Sanātana Gosvāmī was elder brother, and Rūpa Gosvāmī was younger brother. So they were living underneath a tree. So they had no means. Rūpa Gosvāmī thought that "If I could get some articles, I could prepare something and invite my guru, Sanātana Gosvāmī." So just after a few minutes one very nice young girl came with so much presentation, rice, dahl, ghee, and so many other things. So She came and offered to the gosvāmī. The saintly persons are addressed as "bābā." "Bābā, please take this presentation. We have got some ceremony at our home, so my mother has sent. You take it." So he was very glad: "Oh, I was thinking if I could get some nice things, I could prepare and invite Sanātana Gosvāmī." So he was very glad to receive those articles and invited Sanātana Gosvāmī and prepared so many nice foodstuff and offered to the Deity, and Sanātana Gosvāmī was given the prasādam.
Lecture on SB 7.9.55 -- Vrndavana, April 10, 1976:
So in India also they are becoming like that. So this is māyā-sukhāya. They are thinking that "Getting a car, we shall be very, very happy," but there is no place to drive car. (laughter) Therefore it is called māyā-sukhāya. And for manufacturing this car there are three thousand parts. So many factories are going on for that. Who was telling me that within a few minutes a car is prepared in the Ford's factory? Somebody was telling. They bring the different parts of the car and mix and assemble them within half an hour. That means each half hour they are manufacturing car.
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 28, 1972:
Yes. Sense gratification... I, as I was explaining, a few minutes (I finished?) before. Caitanya-caritāmṛta Kaja says, bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī sakali aśānta. Bhukti. Bhukti means karmīs. They want sense enjoyment. So long they live here in this body, they enjoy their senses to the topmost, and they make provision for the next life, to be elevated in the heavenly planet to enjoy in the Nandana-kānana with the demigods. More standard of living, enjoyment more opulent. That is the desire of the karmīs. Jñānīs, they say, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. "This world is false. There is no enjoyment. Actual enjoyment, to merge into the existence of Brahman." So that is also a subtle sense enjoyment. Leave this world, and enter into Brahman. Then you feel happy. So that is also sense enjoyment. Similarly, yogis, they also want power, material power. Aṇimā laghimā siddhi. Aṣṭa-siddhi.
The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 10, 1973:
No, it is ordered not to come forward beyond this line. But the spiritual bliss type ocean is increasing. Ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam. That is the difference between spiritual bliss and material enjoyment. Material enjoyment is limited. You cannot enjoy unlimitedly. That is not possible. Just for few seconds, for few minutes, or for few hours, then it becomes disgusting. That is the material enjoyment. But the spiritual enjoyment, spiritual bliss is different. That is simply increasing. So, therefore in the śāstra it is said, ramante yoginaḥ anante (CC Madhya 9.29). Those who are yogis, bhakta-yogi, they enjoy unlimitedly. Rāmante yoginaḥ anante, and that is satyānande. That ānanda bliss is real bliss. This is artificial. This is perverted reflection.
Festival Lectures
Ratha-yatra -- London, July 13, 1972:
Revatīnandana: The spiritual master who has founded this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement will address in just a few minutes. Then we'll begin the procession to Trafalgar Square.
Devotees: Haribol!
Prabhupāda: Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you very much for your kindly participating in this festival, Ratha-yātrā festival. This festival is coming down since five thousand years when Lord Kṛṣṇa, along with His elder brother Balarāma and His younger sister Subhadrā, all together in a chariot came from Dvārakā to Kurukṣetra. Kurukṣetra is still existing, and the Dvārakā, the city, is also still existing. So according to Vedic culture, when there is eclipse, lunar eclipse, people take bath in sacred rivers. So especially they go to Kurukṣetra, a pilgrimage. So Kṛṣṇa along with His family members, brother and sister, came to Kurukṣetra, and receiving this news, the gopīs and inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, where Lord Kṛṣṇa lived in His childhood, they came to see Him. So amongst the gopīs, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī was the chief. And when she saw Kṛṣṇa in Kurukṣetra in all opulence, She said, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, You are also here; I am also here.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
Arrival Lecture -- Paris, July 20, 1972:
No. All of them think as part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. When we come to that platform and when we engage ourself in that positional occupation, then we are liberated.
So this movement is very important movement. It is not of course possible to give you all details within a few minutes, but if you are interested you can kindly contact with us either by correspondence or by reading our literature or by personal contact. Any way, your life will be sublime. We have not such distinction that "This is India," "This is England," "This is France," "This is Africa." We think every living entity, not only human being, even animals, birds, beasts, trees, aquatics, insects, reptiles—all are part and parcel of God. But the lower animals, the aquatics, birds, beasts, trees, plants, insect—they are unable to receive this knowledge. The human being has developed consciousness. He can receive this knowledge of spirit soul.
Srila Prabhupada Welcomed by Governor at Hotel De Ville -- Geneva, May 30, 1974:
Guru-gaurāṅga: (has conversation with someone in French) The president would like to talk to you for a few minutes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Give me little water. (more French conversation) I was formally received by the French Cardinal.
Guru-gaurāṅga: Danielou.
Prabhupāda: Daniel. (French)
Guru-gaurāṅga: He says that the discussion you had with the Cardinal was very interesting.
Initiation Lectures
Initiations -- Los Angeles, January 10, 1969:
Then, after some time, he came to his village, and all the friends and relatives gathered: "Oh, you have been so many years with yogis. What you have learned?" Actually yogis can do wonderful things. One yogi used to come to our house. He was my father's... My father used to respect him. So he told us that within a few minutes they will go several hundreds of miles. Simply he will touch his Guru Mahārāja and sit down, and he will see in another place within few seconds some thousands of miles away. The yogis can perform this. So one yogi, he came to his village, and all the people, relatives, surrounded him: "What you have learned, please?" He said that "I have learned this mystic power; I can walk on the water." This is called laghimā-siddhi, to become so light that one can fly in the air or one can walk on the water. So everyone became inquisitive.
General Lectures
Lecture to Technology Students (M.I.T.) -- Boston, May 5, 1968:
And anyone can accept it. It doesn't matter whether he is Indian or American or Hindu or Muslim or Christian. It doesn't matter. Simply this vibration: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
So I shall thank you if you join us with this kīrtana and at least for few minutes you chant this Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Thank you very much. Any question you can put. Yes?
Lecture -- Seattle, October 7, 1968:
And within the sun planet, there is the predominating deity who is called sun-god. But if you want to study all these things, first of all you come to the sunshine. The sunshine is impersonal. Similarly, there is a transcendental rays from the planet where Kṛṣṇa, or God, is there. Just a few minutes before I recited one verse from Bhagavad-gītā that na tad bhāsayate sūryo (BG 15.6). That means it is illuminating. There is no need of sunshine. Just like this planet is not illuminating; therefore we want light from the sun, from the moon, from electricity. But Bhagavad-gītā says that the planet of the Lord, there is no... Why planet? The sky. There is no need of sunshine. Every planet in the spiritual world is illuminating. So because every planet is illuminating, the whole spiritual sky is dazzling illumination. So one who approaches that dazzling illumination called brahmajyoti, they are called impersonalists. Is it clear?
Northeastern University Lecture -- Boston, April 30, 1969:
This meditation process is not practiced in a place like this, where many men are gathering. It is recommended, it must be a solitary place, sacred place, and alone. And then you have to sit, or you have to select your sitting place. There are so many things. Of course, those things cannot be explained within few minutes. If you are very much interested, you'll find in this book, "Sāṅkhya-yoga" chapter.
So one has to, from the bodily concept of life, one has to transcend himself to the spiritual platform. That is the whole, meaning of whole process. Just like I began to say that in the beginning our self-realization means we are thinking this body. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur (BG 3.42). Then one who has transcended this bodily concept of life, he comes to the platform of mind. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ. Manaḥ means mind.
Lecture at Engagement -- Columbus, may 19, 1969:
You practice it, you chant anywhere you like, either in your home or anywhere. There is no restriction, there is no hard and fast rules and regulation for chanting, and anyone can chant. You see all our..., you also chanted just a few minutes ago. You chanted. So it is not difficult. Give it a try. That is our request. We request you, most humbly, that you take these sixteen words, you chant, and your heart will be cleansed of all dirty things. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Every dirty things. Our, we do not know how long we are changing births—900,000 species of births in the water, and two million species of life as plants and leaves and trees, and so many lives as reptiles, and cats and dogs and so many... Now we have come to this, by evolutionary process, this civilized form of life, human form of life, very beautiful form of life.
Lecture -- London, September 26, 1969:
In this way, all our conception of life is on the bodily concept of life. But we are not body; we are ātmā. This is self-realization. This is self-realization. Self-realization does not mean that for a few minutes I think that "I am not this body. I am something extra." But what is that extra? That should be clearly understood, that "I am spirit soul," ahaṁ brahmāsmi. "I am Brahman." Then? Is that finish? Simply by understanding that I am Brahman? No. That is not finish. You have many other steps to go forward.
So simply by Brahman realization, you cannot stay on the platform of understanding that "I am not this body." You'll fall down again. You'll fall down again and accept this body, "Yes, I am this body." Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ (SB 10.2.32).
Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:
What you calculate as six months here according to the solar system, in the moon planet that six months equal to their one day. Similarly, thirty days, one month; twelve months, one year. Similarly, ten thousand years you get, life there. But there is death. Just like the small microbe; it has got life, say, for few minutes, and you have got life, say, for a hundred years. That does not mean that you are immortal and that the microbe is a mortal. Both of us. Similarly, there are, in other planets, the duration of life may be very, very, very long, but that does not mean that they will not die. The death is there. Death can be eradicated only when you go to Kṛṣṇaloka, or in the spiritual sky. Yad gatvā...
Lecture -- Jakarta, March 2, 1973:
Indian man: This is district of (indistinct). They want to construct here also, some kind of (indistinct). (Indonesian music plays for a few minutes) (welcoming speech in Indonesian in the background, being translated into English:)
Indian man: We (indistinct) Indonesia welcome His Holiness to this temple (indistinct). We are very grateful that His Divine Grace has make time to come and see us here. Later, after we pray to God for (indistinct) prayers, welcome, we ask His Divine Grace to give us some message to our Hindus at Indonesia. Before that, we are going to recite Gāyatrī mantra, to pray to God. (group chants mantras followed by chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa kīrtana)
Prabhupāda: (chants praṇāma mantras) So I shall sing Jaya Rādhā-Mādhava. You can play with me? (sings Jaya Rādhā-Mādhava and chants praṇāma prayers) So somebody translate? Somebody translate my...
Philosophy Discussions
Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:
Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like you are thinking that "I am this body." Most people, all people, they think "I am this body." That is not.
Devotee: The body is there, it's just not...
Prabhupāda: Temporary. Temporary, for a few years, for a few hours, for few minutes, that's all. Therefore we cannot say "nothing." The exact word is "temporary." What is that? You wanted to speak something?
Devotee: I was just curious about dreams. Sometimes (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: These are false.
Devotee: Did you say once that sometimes Kṛṣṇa will let you work off some of your karma in a dream (indistinct)?
Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:
Prabhupāda: That he does not know. That he has to learn from us. He may be a big philosopher in the Western countries, but our utility of pleasure he does not know. Our pleasure is... (break) ...incessant. It will not stop. That is the standard of high-class pleasure. That is quality. Here in the material world we have got experience, we get pleasure, but that is transient. Just like ordinary men, they understand sex pleasure is the highest pleasure. Actually, on sex pleasure the whole material world is existing. But how long this sex pleasure can remain? A few minutes. So our philosophy is we don't want that few minutes' pleasure. We want pleasure which will continue perpetually. Nityānanda. Nitya. Nitya means eternal. Ānanda means bliss. Satyānanda, real pleasure. Satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi (SB 1.1.1). We want the actual truth. That is quality. So that standard is mentioned in the Vedic literature, that those who are intelligent persons, those who are yogis...
Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Henry Huxley:
Prabhupāda: Yes. We are acting under certain designation, that just like Mr. Huxley said a few minutes before, that "We are Englishmen." So this is designation. So, so long you will work under designation, there is no freedom. Because under false impression that "I am Englishman," "I am Frenchman," "Let me work in this way," that means you are entangling himself, yourself into some other way, so that today you are Englishman, next day you may be Frenchman or dog's man, that you are entangling yourself. But when you give up this designation, that "I am no man, no other's man, but I am Kṛṣṇa's man," then you will save yourself. Otherwise... Therefore to become Kṛṣṇa consciousness, conscious, is actual platform of freedom from karma.
Purports to Songs
Purport to Bhajahu Re Mana -- Los Angeles, January 7, 1969:
Now Govinda dāsa is reminding his mind: "You have experience of your material happiness. So material happiness means, the ultimate goal of material happiness is sex life. But don't you remember how long you can enjoy this sex life?" Capala. "Flickering. Say, for a few minutes or moment. That's all. But for that purpose you are working so hard?" Śīta ātapa. "Don't care for snowfall. Don't care for scorching heat. Don't care for torrents of rain. Don't care for keeping night, night duty. Whole day and night you are working. And what is the result? Simply for that flickering momentous enjoyment. Are you not ashamed of this?" So śīta ātapa, bāta bariṣaṇa, ei dina jāminī jāgi re. Dina means day, and jāminī means night. So "Day and night, you are working so hard. Why?" Capala sukha-laba lāgi' re. "Simply for that flickering happiness."
Purport to Bhajahu Re Mana -- Los Angeles, May 27, 1972:
Kṛpaṇa, they will not, never, be engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but I am engaged in their service." So this is general, not that every, every family. Mostly 99.9. So biphale sevinu, "In this way I am wasting my time. And what is the pleasure?" Capala sukha-labha lāgi' re. "Few minutes' sex, that's all." Behind the sex, so many labor. Therefore Govinda dāsa says that "You are trying to enjoy wealth," ei-dhana, yauvana, putra, parijana. Material happiness means to acquire money, dhana;, and then jana, many adherents or dependents-wife, children, friends, society, so many things, country. So putra, parijana, ithe ki āche paratīti re. "You cannot have any transcendental bliss in this." kamala-dala-jala, jīvana ṭalamala. The life is tottering. You cannot say when the life will be finished. The example is given, kamala-jala-dala. Just like lotus leaf. If you put water on the leaf, it will not stay; it will be tiltering. At any moment it slips.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:
Devotee: We can use our hands.
Interviewer: Get everybody on the mike. Okay. (Prabhupāda and devotees all chant in unison, clapping hands, for a few minutes) (Prema-dhvani by Prabhupāda)
Interviewer: That is the opening of your ceremony?
Prabhupāda: That is, at the end we...
Interviewer: At the end.
Prabhupāda: Yes, thanks(?) to the devotees.
Interviewer: All right, thank you. Caller, you're on the air with the Swami on KGO.
Room Conversation -- March 25, 1968, San Francisco:
Prabhupāda: There was one clergyman lecturing in a Sheffield coal-mine that, "If you don't worship Jesus Christ, then you will go to hell." So first of all one man asked him... First of all, the clergyman inquired, "Do you know Jesus Christ?" So they were silent. So one of them inquired, "What is his number?" They thought that "Jesus Christ must be one of us," I mean to say, workers in the mine. So he must have got a number. "So what is his number?" Then the clergyman could understand that "To whom I am speaking." So then he explained, "Oh, Jesus Christ is not one of you. He is son of God. He has come to deliver you. If you don't worship Him, then you will go to hell." Then one of them said, "What is hell?" Then he described, "It is very dark, moist, and so on." So they were silent, because they work in the mine. (laughter) They were silent. "What is this hell? It is all right." Then the clergyman thought how to impress them. Then, after a few minutes, he said, "No. The hell is very dangerous." "How?" "There is no newspaper."
Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: No. There is suggestion of the scientist that there the temperature is two hundred degree below zero. I have read some paper. So if it is a fact then how you can live? You feel uncomfortable even in the Arctic region within this planet. How you can go and stay there even for a few minutes where two hundred degree...
Reporter: Yes, that's an argument based on logic,...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Reporter: ...and given the information about the degrees... But obviously, they're going ahead with plans to do so, and you have a transition period, for instance, between the part of the moon that is in sunlight and the part that is darkness.
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Radio Interview -- February 12, 1969, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Yes. First of all we pray to God to help us in the, our, I mean to say, preaching or chanting process. Then we begin chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, conjoinedly, congregationally. And it immediately transfers the atmosphere to a spiritual feeling, and if you sometimes attend our class, you can see practically how the boys and girls, they become ecstatic and chant and dance. So after chanting and dancing for a few minutes, say, fifteen to twenty minutes, then we speak something from Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam about theology and philosophy, ethics, morality. Then again we chant and pray to God and then close our class.
Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 14, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:
Prabhupāda: "How is that, that you can repeat? How is that?" "Oh, that is grace of mother Sarasvatī. Just like you can compose a hundred verses within a few minutes, I can, whatever you say, I can remember immediately." Formerly that was the system of understanding Vedas, śruti, simply by hearing. Once they hear from the spiritual master, they will remember. The memory was so sharp. Therefore this brahmacārī system is so nice. They can enhance their memorizing power, brahmacārī.
Allen Ginsberg: Did Caitanya, did Lord Caitanya worship Sarasvatī? No.
Prabhupāda: No. He was Vaiṣṇava. But every demigod is worshiped. It is not that one should neglect...
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation -- London, August 10, 1971:
Mr. Arnold: Mr. Dwyer was very anxious that the Dawson Place should have been purchased, or some house of a similar nature, because these can be used.
Śyāmasundara: (re: Mr. Ahujya) He'll be calling up in a few minutes. He's just gone out. She said she would tell him. He has an Indian Handicrafts house.
Prabhupāda: Suppose we can arrange for the money, somehow or other, half. Half a million required?
Mr. Arnold: For, for the new premises.
Prabhupāda: One fourth million if we can arrange. So is it possible to arrange for the other one fourth million from the bank?
Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:
Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no chance of escape. Chant constantly, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. It remains in the heart. Not only my heart. Others' heart, they also joke, "Hare Kṛṣṇa!" If it can remain in others' heart, why not my heart? Those who are joking me, imitating me. We... Last time, when I was going in Africa, I stopped for few minutes in Athens. Some of the younger residents chant, "Hare Kṛṣṇa!" You see? As soon as they saw us, they began to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. They could understand, "These are Hare Kṛṣṇa people." Yes. So by their dress, by their tilaka, they oblige others to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, either for imitating or for joking. So they gain. But if Hare Kṛṣṇa chanting has got any effect, even by joking like that, he'll get gain. If it is actually spiritual, by simply joking he will get gain.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation with Maharishi Impersonalists -- April 7, 1972, Melbourne:
Prabhupāda: Rāma. Rāma is enjoyer. Ramante yogino 'nante. Yogīs, they want eternal enjoyment. Here in this material world you can enjoy something for some few minutes or few hours, but if you want eternal enjoyment, ramaṇa, then Rāma, that is Rāma. (break) Tarko apratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnaḥ. Neither by reading so many books because each book is written in a different way. Tarko apratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnaḥ nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam (CC Madhya 17.186). If you consult philosophers, then everyone will give you a different opinion.
Impersonalist: They could be saying the same thing, even though they are saying different things.
Room Conversation -- July 4, 1972, New York:
Prabhupāda: Yes. So I shall go? No.
Devotee: A few minutes, I think, 'cause they are still packing.
Prabhupāda: All right.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: None of these religions have produced a sannyāsī.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: None of them. A person who is detatched from material life.
Jayādvaita: I was reading in the Bible...
Prabhupāda: Therefore I refused this Bhāgavata reader. He wants to come here, and no, we don't want these professional men. We want men who have sacrificed their life for God. We want such men, not professional. The so-called priests, they are professional. They are earning money. That's all. Just see, they, how the karmīs are earning money by their business, and it has become a business. Everywhere, religion has become a business.
Room Conversation -- July 4, 1972, New York:
Prabhupāda: That's right, don't touch the mouth. That's all. (children pay obeisances and leave)
Ātreya Ṛṣi: Jaya. Śrīla Prabhupāda, it will be possible for us to have a few minutes' conversation, for them to..., for as an interview, so that they can film?
Prabhupāda: What interview?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: I will ask some questions about how..., when you came to this country.
Prabhupāda: That you know. You can say. These are ordinary things.
Interview -- July 20, 1972, Paris:
Prabhupāda: Yes. This is penetrating. Just like here in France, in your country, how these young men they are taking part unless it is penetrating?
Devotee: He says thank you very, very much. (indistinct) ...very much trouble before meeting you... (indistinct) Thank you very much for the few minutes you've afforded to us. (indistinct) ...for a long journey.
Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.
Frenchman: Merci.
Devotees: Jaya! (end)
Morning Walk Conversation -- September 28, 1972, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: That means they are rascals. They do not have clear eyesight, clear insight. They do not know whether they are degrading or developing. Just like the flies, with great force they will go into the fire. They think they are making progress, they are going to the light. They think; otherwise how they are going? Such kind of advancement. They are going to die, be annihilated, and they still, "Oh, we are going force, by force we are going to the light. Here is darkness, there is light." This is their philosophy. Just like a mad driver drinking drives recklessly to die, that's all. But he is thinking, "Oh, I am going with so much great speed." He does not know that he is going to die after few minutes. And that is their development.
Introduction Speech By Dr. Kapoor and Conversation -- October 15, 1972, Vrndavana:
Dr. Kapoor: Yes. You are very lucky in almost getting I think that big building on the bank of the Yamunā. (indistinct) Kuṭir. It's a huge thing. A huge thing.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (conversation in Hindi for a few minutes) Rādhārāṇī asked him that he must do. She is also pakka baniya. (laughter) Without the order of Rādhārāṇī,... He has got... But when he says Rādhārāṇī, Rādhārāṇī is asking, then he cannot refuse. Thank you very much. Ācchā? So prasādam. Give them prasādam. Is there any prasādam?
Gurudāsa: Oh yes.
Prabhupāda: So distribute. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation with David Wynne, Sculptor -- July 9, 1973, London:
Śyāmasundara: Prasādam...?
Bhagavān: Prasādam will be here in a few minutes. Our position, I guess, is just to make it an easy choice for people.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Paramahaṁsa: To come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Prabhupāda: But choice means, a child cannot be given for choice. He must be forced. Right child is a rascal. So you cannot give him choice. He must do it. That's all.
Revatīnandana: Or like, like our festivals.
Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- July 11, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: (Hindi conversation continues for some sentences.) Who is practicing this? Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). He cannot be called a brāhmaṇa unless he acts according to his guṇa. If he's acting in differently, he should be... (break) ...utilized by the liberated person, still we can use it, provided we stop this process of animal killing. Then it will be very easier. This medicine... The doors will be... Vinā paśughnāt (SB 10.1.4). Therefore whoever comes to us to become our student, our first proposition is that "You should give up these four principles, illicit sex, animal-eating, gambling and intoxication, up to drinking tea, coffee, cigarette." This is our condition. So the more you practice to these four prohibitive regulations, then you realize. Śrotramāno 'bhirāmāt. It will be very pleasing to the ear and to the mind. And unless anything is very pleasing, you cannot continue. Artificially, you can chant for few minutes. But if it becomes pleasing to you, then you can chant twenty-four hours, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. Caitanya Mahāprabhu advised, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ.
Room Conversation with Sir Alistair Hardy -- July 21, 1973, London:
Sir Alistair Hardy: Yes, well, that's... Yes. Well, I agree. But I must think of getting back to...
Revatīnandana: They're bringing some fruit for you.
Mukunda: In a few minutes they're bringing some refreshments.
Prabhupāda: Can you wait?
Mukunda: I can take you straight to the station.
Sir Alistair Hardy: And I must catch at least the 7:15 train.
Mukunda: Oh, yes, definitely.
Sir Alistair Hardy: 7:15
Revatīnandana: 7:15 there'll be plenty of time. If we leave twenty minutes from now, by that time you will have had a little...
Sir Alistair Hardy: Yes, I...
Revatīnandana: They're bringing something right now.
Garden Conversation with Mahadeva's Mother and Jesuit Priest -- July 25, 1973, London:
Jesuit Priest: Well, all right.
Mother: A lot of people have that.
Prabhupāda: But that is not killing.
Jesuit Priest: No, but... By, fa..., er, look at it this way. You've just said a few minutes ago there are eight million different kinds of life. Would you agree that the potato, the cabbage...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Jesuit Priest: ...and what have you also has a life?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Jesuit Priest: Because there's vegetative life, there's sensitive life, there's rational life...
Morning Walk -- December 3, 1973, Los Angeles:
Karandhara: Looks like the water is coming up, Prabhupāda.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The waves are very big.
Prabhupāda: Now, such a huge quantity of coloring, wherefrom coming, red color? And it will disappear after few minutes. Have you got any control over it, scientist?
Karandhara: Now there is a big scarcity of dye, coloring dye.
Prabhupāda: Ah, take from here red color. Yes, they can increase the scarcity. That's all. That is in their power.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: But they will try to make more, reduce the scarcity.
Prabhupāda: Where is more? Now, because the petrol stock is decreasing, they are disturbed, increase it, increase it.
Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Hrishikesh, yes, that is Haridvar. So one yogi friend was coming to my father. He said that, he said that "I went with my Guru Mahārāja." They simply sit down and touch guru and after few minutes, he's in Dvārakā. This is, this is yogic power. What your aeroplane will do? Just like Durvāsā Muni, he traveled all over the universe, up to the Vaikuṇṭhaloka within one year. But according to modern calculation, they say, with light year, in forty thousand light years we can approach to the highest planet. Is it not? If they want to go to the topmost planet, how much, how many years it will take? Is there an estimation? But, so far I know, I heard it that, someplace... They have estimated it will take forty thousand leap year. Now, leap year is beyond our calculation. What is called leap year? Light year.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:
Devotee: No.
Guru dāsa: No?
Devotee: I wasn't here. I went to sleep for a few minutes.
Prabhupāda: Thank you. You have come from where?
Guest (1): Just now from the Hanumān Mandir, just down the road there, not far, but I'm, we're all from America.
Prabhupāda: Here you are remaining there?
Guest: We live there during the day, and at night we stay at the Jaipuria Bhavan(?), a guesthouse just down (indistinct).
Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: That's impossible. So this is a wrong theory. Because I am a living entity, I have got my activities. I can remain void for few seconds, for few minutes. (Guests enter and pay obeisances) Very glad to see you. (indistinct—break)
Dr. Kapoor: As I understand (indistinct). The export minister (indistinct). (indistinct) C. D. Gupta, the old chief minister, you see. He is coming and I take they have arranged a program in his honor. I don't know how they will make this program fit in. I don't think..., huh? (break)
Prabhupāda: In the road they are announcing that Śrī Bhaktivedanta Swami American śiṣyas...
Press Conference -- April 18, 1974, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: ...I shall speak.
Mahāṁśa: First His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda will speak something about our philosophy for a few minutes, and then you can ask questions.
Prabhupāda:
- yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā
- sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ
- harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā
- mano-rathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ
- (SB 5.18.12)
yasya—anyone; asti—one, anyone who has; bhagavati—in the Supreme Personality of Godhead; akiñcanā-bhakti—unalloyed devotion, faith; sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ—with all the good qualities of the demigods, he is bestowed upon.
Morning Walk -- May 30, 1974, Rome:
Prabhupāda: Yes (laughing). His kleśada is if he keeps tenant, that is more miserable than without keeping tenant. Is it not? Yes. Therefore he keeps without. Because so much taxes will have to be paid that it will be more miserable than keeping tenants. So he is avoiding that. So while constructing, it was troublesome; now, keeping this, it is also troublesome. To find out pleasure they have manufactured so many things. But still, they cannot enjoy it. For few minutes they can enjoy; again it is nonsense. "Let us go away." (break)
Satsvarūpa: ...that I can actually become a bird or a dog because...
Prabhupāda: What are these... Wherefrom these birds and dogs are coming? Let them answer. Wherefrom they are coming?
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Bhajans and Room Conversation -- March 8, 1975, London:
(Prabhupāda plays harmonium and sings "Gāy Gorā Madhur Sware" for a few minutes, then stops.)
Prabhupāda: Just try.
Haṁsadūta: I can't. Nobody can do like you do.
Prabhupāda: Gāy gorācand madhur sware. I think I have sung this song. Huh? (Prabhupāda continues playing and singing for a few more minutes) Wherefrom you have purchased it?
Haṁsadūta: This harmonium was originally made for Nara-nārāyaṇa, and then it was... but it was never delivered to him. It was picked up by Maṇibaṇḍha. And Maṇibaṇḍha left it in Amsterdam, and so they did not like it. So I gave them a harmonium that I had, and I took this one. (Prabhupāda chuckles) Because I think it's very good, huh?
Prabhupāda: It is not very good.
Haṁsadūta: But it's nice. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: So kīrtana is going on, here and there.
Morning Walk -- March 11, 1975, London:
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Brahmānanda: He was recording like this.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, just the last few minutes. (laughter) I was listening though, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, will the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will take over the world eventually?
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Devotee (1): Is going to take over the world eventually some time during the Kali-yuga, in this Kali-yuga?
Room Conversation with Press Representative -- March 21, 1975, Calcutta:
Prabhupāda: He is simply getting more attached to this material world, where he will not be allowed to stay. This is his foolishness. Naturally, we are sitting in this room, and if we say that "I can spare only two minutes," then will you be very much eager to decorate the room? So that warning is already there. Everyone knows that "I will not be able to stay here," and they are making skyscraper building. How foolish they are. He knows that "I will not be allowed to stay here," and he is busy whole life how to make fogscraper, skyscraper. The same example. If I say, "You cannot sit here more than few minutes," then will you be engaged how to decorate this room? You'll know naturally that "I am here for two minutes. Why shall I take, waste my time to decorate?" They are doing that actually. So are they not foolish? (Bengali)
Morning Walk -- May 7, 1975, Perth:
Amogha: They seem to like everything about our philosophy, except when we explain very clearly that everyone is sinning and under the control of lust and that we must become free from lust. Then they become disturbed because they don't know how to do this, and they want to disclaim it. Just when I was saying that in one class, they all understood very clearly by examples that we are all controlled by our senses, and this microphone speaker came on for all classes, interrupting my speech, and a voice announced in the Catholic school, "Would all the students whose parents purchased tickets for the wine-tasting festival tonight please report to the office," and they all began to laugh because they were embarrassed, because they could see that actually they were engaged in sinful activities. They are also very amazed when they see your books. Sometimes we take ten or fifteen books-Bhagavad-gītā, and ten Śrīmad Bhāgavatams, Caitanya-caritāmṛta—and we line them all across the front wall or desk, maybe fifteen books. And I begin by saying, "I'm sorry there's only a few minutes to talk, because our Bible is very big," and then I explain, "This is Bhagavad-gītā, and then Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam's sixty volumes. Caitanya-caritāmṛta-twelve volumes." And they become very much amazed that this is our..., beginning of our Bible. (break) What can we say to Communists to attract them to Kṛṣṇa consciousness?
Prabhupāda: To make their Communist philosophy perfection. That your Communism is not perfect. By Kṛṣṇa consciousness you can make it perfect. Take for example that you are sympathetic to all living beings that they must eat. But why you are eating animals? They must eat also. Why don't you allow them to eat? That is you defect. We allow everyone to eat. Not only human beings, but also animals, birds, beasts, they should live comfortably and without any disturbance, they must get their food. That is our Communism. But where is your Communism?
Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:
Prabhupāda: Without tasting, you say poison? First of all taste. (laughter) If you die, then you say it is poison.
Devotee (1): This is a candlenut tree, Śrīla Prabhupāda. They take these nuts and in old Hawaii they string it through a coconut frond, and then they light it, and it used to burn for a few minutes. It's full of oil. Candlenut.
Prabhupāda: What it is written there?
Paramahaṁsa: "Sir Betare (?) tree."
Devotee (1): They told me most of the fruits here are poisonous except for one mango.
Indian man: That yellow kind of campaka?
Prabhupāda: No, it is not campaka. It is called kaiku(?). (break) ...Melbourne?
Room Conversation with Dr. John Mize -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:
Dharmādhyakṣa: Dr. Mize finds that he's chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa a little in the shower now. When he takes a shower, he chants a little.
Prabhupāda: One press reporter in the Berkeley University in the beginning, he wrote his article and he wrote that after hearing this Hare Kṛṣṇa for a few minutes, I came home chanting all the road, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa." He gave this report.
Dharmādhyakṣa: I think many scholars have a hard time realizing how just by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa...
Prabhupāda: Yes, it is so nice and so easy.
Dharmādhyakṣa: ...that the highest philosophical realization can come from chanting.
Room Conversation -- October 4, 1975, Mauritius:
Prabhupāda: But you... You... Because you are rascal number one, you don't worry, but that is the psychology. This is the example.
Harikeśa: But I want to enjoy right now.
Prabhupāda: Suppose that you enjoy this woman for few minutes. Then you will be shot down. Then will you be able to enjoy?
Brahmānanda: Actually they do that. When some man is to be executed in the prison they give him one woman the night before as a special consolation.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They finish him off completely. They ruin him. (laughing)
Cyavana: But death is very far away from me. I am only thirty years old. I don't have to worry about death.
Morning Walk -- December 19, 1975, Bombay:
Dr. Patel: His mother. She was dying, and she said, "I don't want to see anybody; bring only Kṛṣṇa's photo before me." (Hindi to other man) No, no. His mother-Mr. Jani's. And then looking at the photograph of Kṛṣṇa, she breathed her last.
Prabhupāda: I saw in Delhi one old man, just a few minutes before his death he asked his son to bring Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa picture, and it was put before him, and he died.
Dr. Patel: And my father died saying oṁ tat sat śrī-kṛṣṇāya namaḥ, and then he stopped it, breathing, in the morning at six o'clock.
Man: Morning, that is very good.
Dr. Patel: Yes, six o'clock. And my wife was daily saying bhaja govindam, bhaja govindam before she died.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:
Prabhupāda: That is a nonsense. You make such root and bring water here. Then your scientific knowledge will be proved. But you cannot do it. Can you do it? We are spending so much money for bringing water. Bring that root and bring water.
Madhudviṣa: We have done better. We can do it faster. Within, within a few minutes we can bring so much water here. You must...
Prabhupāda: But if I don't pay you, you'll starve. You'll never be able to do it if I don't pay you.
Madhudviṣa: Well, we have money. So we have become more...
Prabhupāda: No, you have no money. You have not money. Therefore you are working on my order. You have no money. You have no money.
Room Conversation -- Honolulu, May 20, 1976 :
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Devotee (5): First their..., first the telephone service were not free, and then their line was busy for some time. So I just got through to them a few minutes ago, and he says it wasn't printed by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.
Prabhupāda: Then?
Devotee (5): He said they did it independently, unauthorized from Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, and he already chastised them for using the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust label, 'cause it has nothing to do with the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.
Prabhupāda: Who is he?
Room Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: You don't think, but he thinks that "Here is happiness." You cannot induce him. He thinks. Just like few minutes ago you said that there is no obstacle, but we think there is obstacle. There is different thoughts. They don't care what is God, what is.... "I don't want to know what is God. I'm getting happiness," finished.
Richard: Okay, but continuing, you know, continuing, people are, okay.... People I think are basically the same in many respects as far as...
Prabhupāda: No, no, that is wrong. That is wrong.
Richard: That is wrong. Okay, why?
Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:
Jayādvaita: We got a phone call today from someone in Kalamazoo-it's many hours away. And he met some devotee in a store who was there for purchasing something, and just by talking for a few minutes he decided that he wanted to come here and see you in Detroit. So he was calling on the phone, when would you be here.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (pause) If we get this land we can cultivate some grains, foodstuff. On account of this water facility you can grow so many things, vegetables, fruits, foodgrains, very nice. Keep cows. (break) Industrial civilization will fail. They are manufacturing simply cars. The time is approaching very swiftly when there will be no more demand for cars.
Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hari-śauri: You want to go out?
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Hari-śauri: All right. So in a few minutes just to set up...
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (break) Yes, I'll inform them: "If cart is not possible to be made or (indistinct), then they can do it on the back of a flat truck with a canopy with a nice cloth."
Prabhupāda: Kīrtana party and truck, all Indians will come.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: One thing though is, July is, like in Melbourne, it's wintertime there. So is it okay if they have the festival in summer months?
Prabhupāda: Not necessarily.
Garden Conversation -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:
Prabhupāda: "Take rain." That is merciful. Without any discrimination, whether you want or not want, "Take it." That is mercy. You can show your mercy when there is scarcity water—you can bring some tanks of water from other places and put here—but how long you'll do it? But when the God is merciful, He'll pour rain so in large quantity that everyone will benefit. That is God's greatness. You'll have to spend so much money, labor, to bring a few buckets of water from other place. Beyond that, you cannot do anything. But God is so powerful, so great, that within a twinkling of, within a few minutes only, immediately He can overcast with cloud and overflood the whole tract of land. That is God's greatness. You have to understand God's greatness in that way. If the sinful, number of sinful men are great, God immediately starts one war, and within few years, all finished. Russia finished, America finished, everyone. That is greatness of God.
Room Conversation and Reading from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1 and 12 -- June 25, 1976, New Vrindaban:
Prabhupāda: Vāyasaṁ means crows. The crows, they take pleasure in a place where all rubbish and refuses are thrown. They take pleasure. So what is this newspaper? All rubbish things, they are collected together. Nobody likes it to read. They just glance over for a few minutes, and then it is thrown away, rubbish. And even it is thrown, nobody touches. So they are spending huge, so many newspapers. Each newspaper several editions in a day, huge establishment, but there is no substance of life. That is being described. Na yad vacaś citra-padaṁ harer yaśo. Read it?
Room Conversation -- June 29, 1976, New Vrindaban:
Prabhupāda: Yes. They can do anything, take the dead cows. I do not know if there is any chemical composition change. They are eating so many dead animals. Take for fish. The fish is never killed alive, because as soon as you take it out from water, it is dead, after few minutes.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: And they don't consider whether it's a young fish or an old fish.
Dhṛṣṭadyumna: If that was the system, people will not get sick. They will not get sick from eating old animals.
Prabhupāda: No, no. This is all wrong conception.
Dhṛṣṭadyumna: They will say..., simply think the taste there is too tough, the skin may be older.
Prabhupāda: They are eating so many rotten things.
Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:
Prabhupāda: Just like every religion has got some condition, monastic, is it not?
Hari-śauri: Yes, every religion has a system of priests.
Prabhupāda: (Coughs severely for a few minutes) Monastic condition?
Hari-śauri: "Practice of sacred rites."
Prabhupāda: So, without reference to God, what is the meaning of sacred rites? Everything is reference that accepting the supreme controller. That is the real meaning. At least, Christian religion accepts God, Muhammadan religion accepts God, or Hindu religion accepts God. So without God, how it can be religion? If there is no understanding of God, the conclusion comes that there is no religion. Fictitious. "We trust in God," but do not know what is God. This is going on. So we have to fight against all this nonsense. Nonsense scientists, nonsense religionists. What do you think? It is not easy-going, sleeping business. We have to fight with so many demons. Otherwise, kava dava adakanam (?), my Guru Mahārāja used to say. Beg some rice and bring it and cook it and eat and sleep.
Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:
Hari-śauri: Yes, a very low conscious level. The metabolism is very much slowed down. The breathing and heart rate and everything goes right down, and they stay like that, completely relaxed, for twenty minutes, and then for a few minutes they come out. That is the...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can also do that; we'll hit them with our shoes. (laughter) For twenty minutes they can go unconsciousness. Free, we don't charge.
Hari-śauri: This opening comment in this magazine is very good, it says, "What is surprising about the International Society for Krishna Consciousness is not its conquest of the West, the USA in particular. The cultural impact of this institution, borne on the shoulders of Westerners in the main, has already reached amazing proportions in India."
Prabhupāda: That is my policy.
Devotee (1): That's nice.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whew. That's why they are afraid of you in India, Prabhupāda. The government is very much afraid.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, government is alarmed.
Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:
Prabhupāda: The important so far—not all-important. Not all-important.
Mike Robinson: I see. Can I come back to a question that is interesting me, and that is when we were differing a few minutes ago, you were saying don't bother, you know, don't bring the scriptures in, use common sense. But what part do the scriptures have in your religion? How important are they?
Prabhupāda: Our religion is science. As we, when we speak, that a child grows a boy, it is science, it is not religion. Every child grows to become a boy. Where is the question of religion? Every man dies. Where is the question of religion? And when a man dies, the body is useless. So where is the question of religion? It is science, it is science. Either you Christian or Hindu or Muslim, when you die your body's useless. This is science. You cannot say that "We are Christian. Now the body is dead. Now we don't consider it as dead. We believe it is not dead." No, it is dead.
Arrival at Farm -- July 29, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Very nice, so you can keep here. (break)
Hari-śauri: It's coming in a few minutes. Have to order that. Tapioca.
Prabhupāda: Is there any store near here?
Bhagavān: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Not immediately. Just or you have got barley powder?
Bhagavān: They are getting this morning. They are taking it to get ground.
Prabhupāda: Immediately, there is no stock?
Bhagavān: No.
Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Indian man: It is the personal sincere influence which one...
Prabhupāda: America, I simply began this chanting and few minutes speaking.
Indian man: But I've never (indistinct) one of those centers are open, it will do very well.
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Yāre dekha tāre kaha kṛṣṇa-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). You simply repeat, recite, the instruction of Kṛṣṇa. That is preaching. That is preaching. And we are doing the same thing. We are doing. We are not introducing any new interpretation. Whatever Kṛṣṇa has said, bas, finished. And that is becoming effective. We haven't got to manufacture anything.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: I am simply surprised when I compare British days and nowadays. My practical experience—one of my maternal uncles, he's a very big, rich man. He was; he is not existing. So he was doing business, rice exporting. So in Calcutta, Chetra side, he had big, big godown full of rice. Not only he, other merchants also. But now they are empty. Similarly, from Bombay the oil seeds are being exported.
Dr. Patel: Yes. Last year they exported so much of this groundnut. Groundnut oil is costlier than ghee. (talks on for few minutes)
Prabhupāda: So we can go? (end)
Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:
Prabhupāda: Take this. Immediately write. Then it will be our preaching. In the court the books will be read, and we shall put our argument to support it. Let all the scientists, philosopher, come there. Make like that. So we have to go there now? No. Not yet.
Hari-śauri: In a few minutes.
Satsvarūpa: I'll write to New York and tell them the strategy.
Prabhupāda: Yes! Why not? You just consider, yourself. You are three GBCs. And give your opinion. This is my suggestion. The same suggestion as Dr. Rajaveri(?) Ghosh said, "Yes, my lord, I have brought the whole library to teach you law."
Gargamuni: And they can't take any decision against the books, because the scholars have already...
Room Conversation -- March 26, 1977, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: So where he will be best.
Girirāja: Yes. So what I was thinking is that he could stop here for a few minutes and meet you. Actually his term expires on March 31st.
Prabhupāda: When the chief minister or something like that?
Girirāja: Chief minister is coming on Tuesday, on Rāma-navamī.
Prabhupāda: But I am going to Juhu on Monday, is it not?
Girirāja: Well, we were originally thinking you could go on Wednesday, but...
Prabhupāda: Oh. If they have arranged. I do not know what is your arrangement.
Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:
Lokanātha: The requisition finished in next few minutes.
Prabhupāda: How many minutes? They have been detaining few minutes. Just bring immediately. You cannot detain all these important men. They have got other business.
Mr. Rajda: No, there is no other thing. Only thing, the roads are functioning, Bombay, and I have to visit them.
Prabhupāda: Yes. What is that?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "To Ratansingh Rajda, Member of Parliament, Bombay. Dear Sri Rajda, We thank you very much for visiting us at Hare Krishna Land and for sympathetically hearing our divine master Śrīla Prabhupāda. His Divine Grace mentioned several difficulties which are impeding his great work, and you have been kind enough to promise to remove these obstacles. 1) Our men are regularly being asked to leave India.
Second Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 24, 1977, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: You read it.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "To Shree Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami, Hare Krishna Land, Juhu. Dear friend, I am extremely grateful to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda Guru Mahārāja for giving me his precious few minutes yesterday and your good self for arranging the interview. I request that His Divine Grace be graciously pleased to fix a date for His Divine Grace's visit to Pauri to inaugurate International Krishna Society branch of Madhya Pradesh at Pauri and to revitalize and modernize the rural uplift activities of the Adarsh Seva Sanga. With profound regards, yours fraternally, H. S. Dwivedi."
Prabhupāda: So?
Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Just like they have improved... A man is going to die. By oxygen, by other, other, he may live for a few minutes more. They say, "This is improvement."
Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's creating more problems.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When we read from the Fifth Canto the facility of life is so much better on other planets, anyway, so they can't even begin to imitate that other higher material planets, what to speak of the spiritual...
Prabhupāda: They do. Karmīs do that. They want to go there after death. Therefore karma-kāṇḍa. By ritualistic ceremonies they want to be promoted. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ (BG 14.18). By improving the sattva-guṇa, you can go to higher planetary system.
Room Conversation -- October 12, 1977, Vrndavana:
Jayapatākā: Well, the government calculates that each person gets 80 grams of dalya and 7 grams of oil, and when that's cooked that comes to nearly about four, five hundred grams cooked per head. It's about three, four clay cups.
Kīrtanānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, if we could prop you up for a few minutes you could clear all that mucus out. It would come out much easier. Can we do that?
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Come over here, Pisimā.
Upendra: This side.
Prabhupāda: (converses with sister in Bengali) Somebody may be sent to Imlital Math to call her son.
Room Conversation -- October 17, 1977, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Teaspoonful I can take. Teaspoon I can take.
Dr. Ghosh: Teaspoon, yes.
Bhavānanda: Every half an hour.
Dr. Ghosh: Every half an hour? Every few minutes. Or four teaspoons every half an hour. Bring some. Let me see how he...
Bhakti-caru: He is going to take some food now.
Bhavānanda: Prasādam.
Dr. Ghosh: Prasādam. Rice water or rice, a little rice, soft rice. Very good soft rice a few teaspoon.
Bhavānanda: A little luci and legume.
Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Who was baḍa pāṇḍā?
Gaura-govinda: There was one baḍa pāṇḍā. I don't know his name. One who does offerings.(?) He is chief of those pāṇḍās. And then, when this pulling of car... That took place just a few minutes before sunset. It was the custom that as soon as the sun set, there will be no pulling. Only Balarāma's car was pulled a few yards, dashed against a (indistinct), and four of the wheels were broken. So then it stopped. For two days there was no pulling unless it is repaired. Then for two days car stopped there. So on the third day it was pulled. The cars were pulled to the Guṇḍicā. Such things happened this year. And we were the only party who chanted before ratha from ten to four.
Prabhupāda: Only party means?
Room Conversation -- November 5, 1977, Vrndavana:
Bhakti-caru: Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: No, more.
Bhavānanda: You can wait a few minutes, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and then, when you're feeling able to, you can take a little more. There's no rushing.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's not going to... Śrīla Prabhupāda, what is the trouble to take more now? It's a botheration? But that's... At least you should take the same amount you were taking when you were sitting up.
Prabhupāda: I cannot.
Correspondence
1947 to 1965 Correspondence
Letter to Chief-Justice Sri M.C. Chagla -- Bombay 20 February, 1957:
The Bhagavad-gita is the standard book in this matter. Sri Munshi is trying to utilize this philosophy for the good of the people in general. He is spending establishment charges to the extent of Rs. 40,000/- per month for the last twenty years—but actually no tangible benefit is derived out of it up till now. I saw Sri Munshi with a view to cooperate with him for implementing the transcendental ideas of the Bhagavad-gita. But I did not receive any encouragement from him so far. I am, therefore, seeking an interview with your Lordship to discuss for a few minutes about this standard idea of solving the problems.
Letter to Chief-Justice Sri M.C. Chagla -- Bombay 20 February, 1957:
Without this no solution is possible. There are practical ways and means to do this job in accordance with the present time, situation and objective.
I have a programme for this job by the order of my spiritual master and I have come to Bombay to enlist some sympathisers with my object. Will your Lordship be kind enough to hear me for a few minutes and oblige?
1968 Correspondence
Letter to Karunamayi -- Los Angeles 25 February, 1968:
Regarding your questions: Once prasadam (water, or foodstuffs) is offered to the Lord, His Plate should remain on the altar for about 15-20 minutes (while the portion in the pots may be taken by the devotees). Water need only remain there for a few minutes. Once the prasadam is removed from the altar, and touched by us, it should not again be placed on the altar. Whatever we offer should be as fresh and pure as is possible.
1969 Correspondence
Letter to Hamsaduta -- Los Angeles 12 January, 1968:
Regarding the examination, you are already a passed student so don't be afraid of it. When the examination will be held, you will find the questions so easy that within a few minutes you shall be able to answer them all. I wish to introduce this examination system so that in the future our students may not remained unconcerned with these books we are publishing. These books are not material knowledge. To a sincere student, all of the contents of these books become revealed from within, even if he has not thoroughly studied them all.
Letter to Madhudvisa -- England 30 September, 1969:
The 12 midnight is western astronomical calculation, but the Vedic astronomical calculation begins either from the sunrise or the moonrise. Generally it is sunrise. Our calculation is like this: when the sunrise is there, Ekadasi tithi (date) must be there. If Ekadasi tithi is not in the sunrise and the tithi begins, say after a few minutes after the sunrise, then we accept that day as previous to Ekadasi. All our ceremonies are calculated in that way. This means we must see the tithi during sunrise. Therefore, sometimes our dates of ceremonies do not exactly coincide like the western calculations. Just like Christmas Day they have fixed up on the 25th December, but our Janmastami tithi is not fixed up like that. My birthday is on the 1st September, 1896, but this year the tithi of my birthday was fixed for the 4th September. So it is very difficult to calculate, therefore we have to take help from the Indian expert almanac astronomers.
| Page Title: | Few minutes |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 10 of Jun, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=1, SB=5, CC=2, OB=3, Lec=56, Con=55, Let=5 |
| No. of Quotes: | 127 |