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Figure (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: It is not difficult.

Śivānanda: No. But I mean you have to consider all the different means and figure out how you're going to serve Kṛṣṇa the best way.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa can be served by his own occupation, as I described just now. Or whatever you may be. You may be a potter, you may be a florist, you may be... Whatever you may be, but you can satisfy Kṛṣṇa by his work, by your work. You do not require to qualify yourself with some specific qualification. Whatever qualification you have got, you have to dovetail it under the direction of expert spiritual master, how you can serve. That's all.

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

Prabhupāda: No, I have not received any answer. Is it in this paper? No, not in this paper. Where is the latest? Who is there? Ask to bring one latest. Bring one latest, yes. So we just that letter, but unfortunately, I have received no reply. How is that?

Journalist: I guess he doesn't figure that you're of sufficient importance for him to deign a reply, I guess. That's about the way I figure it. They don't...are inclined not to give credence to too much that isn't of his own doing or making or something.

Prabhupāda: Do you think that is very nice? Just... Will you read or, read this. Read it. (pause)

Journalist: What is the "renounced order"?

Prabhupāda: This is renounced. I have no family connection.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: And agree with you. Our surrender means we agree with Kṛṣṇa in everything, although we are individual. If Kṛṣṇa says you have to die, we die; out of love. But we are individual, I can deny "Why shall I die?" That reality I have got. Just like Arjuna was asked, "Now I have taught you Bhagavad-gītā, now whatever you like you do," yathecchasi tathā kuru (BG 18.63), "as you like." He doesn't touch the individuality. But Arjuna voluntarily surrendered: "Yes," kariṣye vacanaṁ tava (BG 18.73), "yes, I shall do whatever You ask." He changed his decision. He decided not to fight, but he agreed, "Yes," kariṣye vacanaṁ tava. This agreement, this is oneness. Not oneness does not mean mix up homogeneously. No, He keeps his individuality. Kṛṣṇa keeps his individuality, yathecchasi tathā kuru: "Now whatever you like you do." He says, "Yes," kariṣye vacanaṁ tava (BG 18.73), "I shall do what you say." So this is oneness. Not to lose individuality. Because we cannot lose our individuality. We are individually made originally. Kṛṣṇa is individual, we are individual, everyone is individual. Merging means merging in that total agreement. That is liberation. Total agreement without any disagreement. And that is the perfection: to keep individuality and agree with God in total agreement. That is perfection. And imperfection so long we are in rebelled condition that is material because one who has a slightest desire of disagreement with Kṛṣṇa, he cannot live there. There the only predominant figure is Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: Yes, the more the merrier. So how long will we go? Did you figure?

Hayagrīva: Well, when, we have the auditorium till...

Allen Ginsberg: How long?

Hayagrīva: At least two and a half hours.

Allen Ginsberg: Okay, let's go through the whole two and a half.

Hayagrīva: Good, good.

Prabhupāda: So, how do you feeling about chanting?

Allen Ginsberg: I have been chanting steadily all along now although I enjoy it more and more.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: So you saw once or several times?

Allen Ginsberg: One time. I was afraid to go in and out many times. I figured I got away with it once, and I didn't want to...

Prabhupāda: But that Aquarian Gospel said that Lord Jesus Christ lived in the temple.

Guest (1): (Bengali) Jesus Christ was there.

Prabhupāda: He was thick and thin with the priest. One priest was very friendly.

Guest (1): Vidyāpati.

Prabhupāda: And he was discussing philosophical talks with them.

Allen Ginsberg: According to the Aquarian Gospel, Christ was in Jagannātha Purī?

Prabhupāda: Yes. And he saw Ratha-yātrā, and there is, name of Kṛṣṇa is there.

Meeting with Devotees -- June 9, 1969, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Yes, why not? Prasādam is finished at two? Then up to four they are free. Or up to...? No.

Kīrtanānanda: The way it works out, the afternoon, they never seem to get much done anyway. There's a lot of frustration. Because sometimes I have a feeling like it's a lot of time being wasted, but still it seems very difficult because you figure... Well, suppose prasādam were offered at two and you didn't finish up until about three. And then they rest until four. By the time they bathe and everything it's time to start getting ready for kīrtana.

Hayagrīva: We finished ārati and kīrtana by six o'clock this morning. That means that the early morning prasādam must be ready at six o'clock so we finish by seven and then work from seven to eight to nine to ten to eleven to twelve to one to two. That's eight hours' hard work in the morning. And then the rest of the afternoon off.

Kīrtanānanda: That's all right.

Meeting with Devotees -- June 9, 1969, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Yes. He is living, and he is doing service. He is almost disciple. Yes. He came to Buffalo and Boston. But I don't think he can follow the four principles. He is meat-eater because his family eats meat.

Kīrtanānanda: I've never been able to figure that out, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Kīrtanānanda: The Hindus, they think it is such a tremendous thing to give up meat-eating, and here we have been raised with meat-eating, and we have no problem whatever. To us it is nothing to give up...

Prabhupāda: No. There is no problem for Vaiṣṇava here in America. They are not trained. They are simply... Just like there are so many Christians. Practically they are not following. Similarly, these Hindus at the present moment, they are in name. Either Hindus, Muslim, or..., they are in name only.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Revatīnandana: Convinced? No. Some of them are less hostile, some of them more hostile, naturally. We can chant on one side of Oxford St., but we cannot chant on the other side of the street because there's two different police departments. It's like that. There is no hard and fast way to figure it out. You just have to try it and see.

Devotee: One night at Picadilly Circus we were eight and four were arrested, and four other people, no, they let them go. So I said, "No, I was arrested." (laughter) When they went to the court, Prabhupāda, they got one pound five each... They were altogether eight, and four were arrested. They also doing the same offense. It is same offense. So he said, "All right, let them go."

Guest (2): Can I ask about your rate... about growth? How, can ask how the movement is growing? Can you give me any figures at all? I was speaking to one of your colleagues earlier who mentioned 150, but seventy-five approximately which were in London. Are the figures growing week by week?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I started this movement alone, and now there are eight thousand.

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Haṁsadūta: Oh, 99% stay.

Guest (2): And what is the figure likely to be? Five a week, ten a week?

Prabhupāda: We don't keep any statistics, but actually the fact is that I started alone; now we are eight thousand.

Guest (2): I'm sorry, I didn't quite get that...

Haṁsadūta: Five years ago, Prabhupāda, he came to New York with these kartāls, and he began alone by sitting in a park underneath a tree chanting this very same Hare Kṛṣṇa, which you see the boys on Oxford St. chanting. And now there are eight thousand students all over the world, and approximately a hundred centers. At that time, Śrīla Prabhupāda didn't even have a place for himself. But now he has a place in every major city.

Guest (2): You used the word "student" here. You're referring to this as...

Haṁsadūta: Yes, because it's an education. This is a spiritual education.

Guest (2): This doesn't tie up with the figure that I've been given, though, 150. There must be more than that.

Haṁsadūta: No, we're talking about around the world.

Guest (2): But you would accept there's 150?

Haṁsadūta: Yes, in England.

Guest (2): No, five years ago.

Prabhupāda: In 1966.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Dr. Weir: Some people, oddly enough, don't need it. Some very simple people can have a very truly spiritual life without ever needing to verbalize it usually because they had, this is where I think it's perfectly correct, they have followed some father figure or mother figure and you know, absorbed...

Śyāmasundara: Just like my child.

Dr. Weir: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: She's to that point without having any rational knowledge.

Mensa Member: There's some (indistinct) simple people also (indistinct) people like Blake, for example, or Buddha (indistinct) simple person. It's not this sort of faith, only child-like faith (indistinct) simple people.

Dr. Weir: It's is easier for them though. It's easier for the simple person because he doesn't have all these mental, complicated doubts and, you know, arguments with himself.

Mensa Member: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: It's said that as one progresses more in spiritual life he becomes simpler and more innocent, but in the beginning he may have had to comprehend it on some verbal level in order to (indistinct)

Dr. Weir: I often used say to my students that I've got to remember that if anything in life to realize the difference between simple and complicated, which is objective, and easy and difficult, which is subjective. In other words sometimes a simple thing may be terribly difficult for a person to get hold of. Whereas complicated things he may find quite easy.

Prabhupāda: So your student has to follow your instruction. That means accepts authority.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Then the wings fly there, and the jaws catch the food, and after all he puts into the mouth. Similarly, as in this body, this particular example, the stomach is the enjoyer, similarly, the central figure of whole cosmic manifestation, material or spiritual, the central figure is Kṛṣṇa, God. He's the enjoyer. We can understand. As in my this particular body, the body is also a creation. The body has got the same mechanism as you will find out in the whole universe. The same mechanical, anywhere you go, you find even in animals or human body or in the cosmic manifestation. Almost the same mechanism. So as you understand very easily that in this body, my body, your body, the stomach is the enjoyer. Or there is a central enjoyer. And the stomach is friend also of everyone. Because if we cannot digest food, you see, then all other limbs of the body they become weak. Therefore stomach is the friend. It is digesting and distribute the energy to all the limbs of the body. Is it not?

Room Conversation -- August 1, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: Although He never went to mother.

Revatīnandana: It's hard for the family, because my mother's brother is Viṣṇujana Mahārāja's father, right? So they also figure they have lost one son. They don't hear from him at all, and now she doesn't hear from me at all. So the whole family is very miserable. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Hm. But they have lost for the better.

Revatīnandana: Yes, but they don't understand that. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Lost not in vain. They will be benefited. They will be benefited. You are giving the best service to the family. What about your mother, Himavatī?

Himavatī: I never hear from her anymore.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Just like symbolic: CH, square root, like that.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Like in chemistry, for example, the molecule of Benzine. So you present it just like six lines, but a hexagon figure with a circle inside, they condense a lot of information.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is a code, sūtra. But the chemical symbolic representation, that is understand by the specialist. But this sūtra can be understood by anyone. Just like athāto brahma jijñāsā. The meaning is: "Now, this is the time for inquiring about the Absolute Truth." So this is a question for everyone. Any intelligent man. Here we are understanding everything relatively. Relatively. Just like when I say: "Father," there must be one son... (break) ...truth, there must be one truth. In this way, this is, this world is relative truth.

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

Umāpati: It has been going on from time immemorial. I guess they figure they can just keep going on for time immemorial.

Prabhupāda: No time immemorial. You are being cheated for two hundred, three hundred years, that's all. Not before that. All these scientists rascals, have come out within two hundred years. That's all. So you are being cheated for the last two hundred years, not for thousands of years. So it will be finished. Within another fifty years, everything will be finished.

Karandhara: Yes, they say now there is an anti-intellectual movement. People are rebelling to science and modern progress.

Prabhupāda: What is that science? That is not science. That is ignorance. Ignorance. Simply ignorance. Ignorance is going as science. Irreligion is going as religion. So how long it will go? People are becoming intelligent.

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Enjoying mood. That is the basis of this. And mood of renunciation. That is a vapor state. That is nothing only. And the real life is the life of self-dedication and service. And the service not of any part. Or service not for any part which is like me, but for the whole, for the Divinity. As Kṛṣṇa says in Gītā,

athavā bahunaitena
kiṁ jñātena tavārjuna
viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ kṛtsnam
ekāṁśena sthito jagat
(BG 10.42)

Who lies, whose bed is infinite. Śeṣāśrita, Ananta. Infinite gathered together. And though He seems to, to have a figure, but figure that, that sort of figure which can contain many, many number of infinite of our conception. Kṛṣṇa is a figure talking with Arjuna, a limited figure, but Viśvarūpa emerged from Him. How? A big Viśvarūpa emerged from a limited figure? So such limited figure, that is God. Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana has been described as only sixty..., say...

Prabhupāda: Eighty-four miles.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Thirty two miles. Thirty-two miles.

Prabhupāda: Somebody says eighty-four.

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Prabhupāda: Drive the flies.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: How it is possible. Eka vigraha tāṅra ananta svarūpa. In one figure, He accommodates numberless of figures. Eka vigraha tāṅra ananta svarūpa. But all these appear to be real and it will be shown to them who has got real śraddhā. Śraddhāmayo 'yaṁ lokaḥ. The world of faith. And that is substantial, not imaginary. What we say to be concrete, that will be reduced to ashes and imaginary. It will evaporate, both the scientists, material scientists, as well as the ṛṣis. But this will evaporate one day with sun, moon, everything. This will evaporate, but that subtle thing stands forever. Śraddhāmayo 'yaṁ lokaḥ. The experience of the region of faith stands forever, undisturbed. The world of experience is evaporating every second. And for the being who is dying every moment, every second dying, the what is to be told to us to be reality, that is, means dying every second.

Room Conversation -- July 9, 1973, London:

Revatīnandana: The scientists, they have a term. Psychologists, they call it the idiot savant. The idiot savant means he's an idiot but he has one particular talent and because of that talent he can get along. Just like sometimes you find an idiot, he can look at a column of figures and he can compute the sum in his head very easily but he can't even understand how to tie his shoes. And I think these scholars are like that, they're actually idiots but they have one talent for Sanskrit or for history and because of that they can get along. They can support their body but otherwise they have no qualifications.

Prabhupāda: Śūdra. Unless he gets that post, he'll starve. He has got some talent in some particular subject but he must get some service. By serving others, he'll be able to utilize his talent and get some money, then he'll eat. This is śūdra's business. Dog's business. Just like a dog unless he has got a nice master, his position is very precarious. A street dog. Nobody will care neither it is (indistinct).

Room Conversation with David Wynne, Sculptor -- July 9, 1973, London:

David Wynne: I'm making also the new coins for this country, and they were thinking of leaving off the words "Fin def," which means in Latin "Defender of the faith." And I refused to do it if they left that off the coin. Because it's the most important. It means she's, it acknowledges that she is the, although it's only a tradition, but she's the defender of the faith of the people. And they were going... They said, "Oh, this is just now archaism." But I got them to keep it in. (pause) What I was going to ask was to praise, I feel, and I may be wrong... I was going to ask you. When I make a piece of sculpture of... The other day, I made two dancing figures. They were just a boy and a girl dancing. But I felt that this was praising God because these were as God, I tried to make them, as God had made them, and in joy and simple, but happy. And is this, is this presumptuous, or is this right, to try to praise the creation by making sculpture?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes.

David Wynne: That's all right.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with David Wynne, Sculptor -- July 9, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Creation means the Creator. Just like when I see the picture of so many sculptor. So who has done it? I come to David. To appreciate the creation means you have to come to the point, appreciating the Creator. Otherwise, it is not finished. Or your knowledge is imperfect still. So these scientists, they are simply trying to study the creation. They have no knowledge about the Creator. That is the defect. Neither do they try, neither they can understand. They are so foolish and poor fund of knowledge. They should try to understand the Creator also. Then the knowledge is perfect. Just like the scientists, they are theorizing that life began from matter, chemicals. But wherefrom the chemicals came? That is insufficient knowledge. They say, "Chemicals existed." Now, we have no such experience... Just like we ate some purīs. Purīs had to be created. Not that existed. It is existing, but when I require, I have to create it. The crude example. The chemicals, wherefrom the chemicals came? That is answered in the Bhagavad-gītā. In this way you have to study. Simply to study the creation, that is imperfect knowledge. When you come to the Creator, then it is perfect. Just like if you see simply his sculptures, so many things, that is not perfect knowledge. Why this book is "David Wynne"? Now, you go to the creator. And ...the all appreciation is there, credit is given there. That is perfect. Otherwise, you see, so many stones are there, figures are there. But when you study that "This is the creation of such and such artist, sculptor, and he's such and such," then that is perfect. Study him.

Morning Walk -- August 30, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

David Lawrence: That's what they say now, one in three. It's the latest figures.

Prabhupāda: The same thing is there, but they are dragging this lusty affairs to Kṛṣṇa. Generally, the rascals, they paint Kṛṣṇa's picture with gopīs so that their lusty activities may be supported—Kṛṣṇa also had like that. This is misunderstanding. They do not take into calculation: Here, so-called love is lust and it breaks. But in the gopīs' love with Kṛṣṇa there is no breaking but increasing of love. So how they can compare Kṛṣṇa's love with gopīs with these lusty affairs?

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

Prabhupāda: Why not same thing?

Karandhara: George Washington is still a mundane figure, imperfect.

Prabhupāda: Well, mundane figure, because you have got picture of George Washington, that's... We have got picture of Kṛṣṇa. That's all. You think George Washington fact because you see the picture of, that's all. So we see daily the picture, the photo, the statue.

Karandhara: Well, they may accept Kṛṣṇa as a person, but not as God.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa is person. Kṛṣṇa is person. God is person. That we accept. God is person. God is not person.

Bali Mardana: The demons at Kṛṣṇa's time could not even accept Him as God, what to speak of the demons now.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 3, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, with very much detail it will be cumbrous. You... Symbolic representation.

Prajāpati: Those three figures in the center?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Prajāpati: One is a devotee, one is a...

Prabhupāda: No, everyone is devotee.

Prajāpati: Yes, they are all three devotees.

Prabhupāda: But they're engaged in three departments.

Karandhara: We were thinking for the administrator there could be a judge.

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Karandhara: Could be a judge, a high-court judge.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That means administrator.

Morning Walk -- January 3, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: The three figures and one is in a suit, one... They all have tilaka, neck beads and bead bag...

Prabhupāda: Religious man may be in saffron color, a sannyāsī, a tridaṇḍī sannyāsī. Our Gurukṛpā Mahārāja? Where is he?

Karandhara: Gurukṛpā Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Here are religious men.

Nara-nārāyaṇa: Oh! (laughter) Jaya!

Prajāpati: How will we distinguish between the other two men? They'll both be in suits.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Morning Walk -- January 5, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...who has got (indistinct).

Devotee: The Rose Bowl.

Satsvarūpa: Rāmeśvara said he had the figures, but I have to get them from him. (break)

Prabhupāda: That is human life. Your choice, make your choice, which way. Again death or deathlessness. Stop death from you. This is human life. The karmīs, jñānīs, yogis, they're trying for death. There will be death. But for the bhaktas, devotees, there is deathlessness. Punar janma jayāya. For conquering over next birth. Rascal civilized man does not know what is next life, how death can be stopped. Nothing else. Big, big scholars of Bhagavad-gītā, they do not understand. The so-called scholars, they do not understand. These things are there in the Bhagavad-gītā. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). Yad gatvā na nivartante (BG 15.6). They do not understand. They say, "What is this?" They do not understand. (break)

Room Conversation -- February 6, 1974, Vrndavana:

Guest (1): A lot of that fifteen thousand is exempted in some cases, but even then you have to figure out some (indistinct) and remain in the, I mean present yourself in the court in the mood to argue and talk and all that things. So naturally if you don't have even that much, you have to forego (indistinct). What you're saying is hundred percent true. Yes. It's like that.

Prabhupāda: And nowadays bribe also.

Guest: Yeah. This is a must.

Prabhupāda: Fourth-class, śūdra (indistinct), bribe.

Guest (1): (indistinct) one of the partners. (indistinct) another partner.

Guest (2): (indistinct) The demand it as a bribe also.

Guest (1): (indistinct) your partner like that?

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Hayagrīva: The philosophers, you know, they were just men trying to figure, figure it out with their minds.

Prabhupāda: They are all, so far we have studied all these philosophers, they (indistinct). They are lacking in knowledge. The main difference is that they consider the body as the self, and on that wrong basis they theorize (indistinct). If your basic standing is wrong, then how you can deliver the right? Therefore in Bhāgavata, Śrīmad Bhāgavata, it is said that yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ: (SB 10.84.13) "Anyone who considers this body as his self is no better than the ass and the cow." What is your philosophy? You consider this body as the self?

Guest (1): I... Oh, no.

Prabhupāda: You?

Guest (2): No.

Prabhupāda: Very good. So we begin by (indistinct)?

Morning Walk -- February 23, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Mechanical.

Dr. Patel: So the vartas (?) also get it, these śakti-vartas. They get this by tantric yoga. I can't still understand how tantras, by following, I mean, drawing particular figures and writing down those figures, you can get powers. This is very common in Bengal side, this tantra. No? I read a book on tantra by Sir Arthur Avalon, and he described so wonderful powers come by this and that. I don't know whether it is a fact or not.

Prabhupāda: No, no. That is materialism. Anyone who is after powers, that is materialism.

Dr. Patel: I could not believe in it. How could it come?

Prabhupāda: It can come.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, other Guests and Disciples -- February 12, 1975, Mexico:

Guest (4) (Indian man): Recently I was reading article in a science magazine and a space scientist, he has calculated that after 67,000 million years the universe contracts. And then I started calculating in terms of the yugas and the division which is mentioned. With the help of an astronomer I reached the conclusion that both figures coincide. So do you mean to say that when it was mentioned that after four yugas they will collide. Then it was a kind of vision, or might have been calculated by this...

Prabhupāda: Means calculation. It is going on, regulated way. Just like everyone knows that this month is February. In the month of June the summer will begin. Everyone knows. It is not conclusion; it is experience. There is no need of calculating. So one who has got better experience, he can say like that. Calculation and experience. Just like if somebody says, "Two plus two plus two plus two," somebody says immediately, "Six." And another calculates, "Two plus two plus..., six." So experience and calculation. Lacks experience, he calculates. One who has better experience, he doesn't calculate. One who knows past, present, and future, he doesn't require to make calculation. He knows everything. So God knows past, present, and future, and others who are favored by God, he also knows by the grace of God. Because he hears from God. God knows past, present, and future.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, other Guests and Disciples -- February 12, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Who says nothing to eat? That is also their manufacture.

Guest (4): I mean the figures which are published that half of humanity will starve.

Prabhupāda: It's... Especially, we are Indian. It is advertised that we are poverty-stricken. All over the world this is advertised. Wherever I go, they say, "Oh, you are coming from India?" (laughter) Because they are simply begging, the government. But who is dying? There is... Dying is going on, but that death is going on in other countries also. They are dying, committing suicide. And maybe some persons are dying out of starvation. You cannot stop death. Suppose you have got enough food. That means that everything is solved? In America there is enough food. Why they are coming hippies? There is no shortage of food. Nothing... Everything is abundant, but why they are becoming hippies? They are lying down on the street, on the park and I have seen in London, the St. James Park. They are sleeping, and the police is kicking: "Hey! Get up! Get up!" So why? The English nation is not poor nation. The American nation is not poor nation.

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Atreya Ṛṣi: The disciple of God.

Yoga student: And he was the perfect expression of the divine manifestation in human terms. He was not a divine figure as Christ or Kṛṣṇa. He was simply a man, and who was the mouthpiece of the divine word.

Prabhupāda: What is the meaning of Allah akbar?

Yoga student: It means God, the greatest.

Prabhupāda: Greatest.

Yoga student: Yes. Akbar is being the superlative of kabirsh(?).

Prabhupāda: And Muhammad is the greatest? No. He is subordinate.

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Yoga student: The Sufis find love in these figures... For example, the Sufi Ib'n Araby(?), through of the face of a beautiful woman...

Prabhupāda: Through the face of beautiful woman?

Yoga student: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So there the materialists also find.

Yoga student: That is the material aspect, absolutely.

Prabhupāda: Therefore in Islam religion the form is rejected because it will come to that. As soon as they think of form, they think of this material form, beautiful face of woman. That is degradation. Therefore we are strict not to conceive material form. That is Vedic conception. Apāni-pādaḥ javano grahītā: "He has no legs and no hands." This is... means denying the form. And next he says, the Vedas say, javano grahītā: "He can accept whatever you offer to Him." That means God has no material form, but He has form; otherwise how He can accept? How He can understand my love?

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1975, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest: And ah, he was the perfect expression of the divine manifestation in human terms. He was not a divine figure as Christ or Kṛṣṇa. He was a, ah, simply a man, and ah, he was the mouthpiece of the ah, divine word.

Prabhupāda: What is the meaning of Allah?

Guest: It means God, the greatest.

Prabhupāda: Greatest.

Guest: Yes, God as being the superlative of (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Eh? Mohammed is the greatest? No, he's subordinate?

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1975, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Unless one is person, how can I serve him? I cannot serve the air or the sky. I must serve a person. Love does not exist in the sky or in the air. There must be a person, man or woman, it doesn't matter. Otherwise, where there is love? Whom to love?

Guest: The Sufis find love in these figures. For example, the Sufis in (indistinct) through the face of a beautiful woman.

Prabhupāda: Face of beautiful woman, then the materialists also find.

Guest: It's a material aspect, actually.

Prabhupāda: Therefore, Islam religion, (indistinct) reject it (indistinct). As soon as they think of form, they think of this material form, beautiful face of woman. That is degradation. Therefore, we are strict not to conceive material form. That is Vedic conception. Apāni-pādo javano grahitā. "He has no legs, no hands." This is denying the form. Next he says, Vedas says, javana grahitā. "He can accept whatever you offer to Him."

Morning Walk -- (World War III) -- April 4, 1975, Mayapur:

Tripurāri: They say that "God has put us here, but He's given us intelligence, so we're to figure it out ourselves."

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Tripurāri: That "God has put us here, and He's given us intelligence, so we're to figure it out ourselves."

Prabhupāda: So therefore, you take intelligence from God, you rascal. Why do you keep yourself in darkness?

Tripurāri: Well, they say that "God has given us the intelligence to figure it out on our own."

Prabhupāda: That is intelligence—you surrender. You are surrendering to māyā, to your wife, to your dog, to your family, to your house, to your nation. Why not God? You rascal. You are surrendering to so many other things. Why not to God?

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Gurukula. Śrīla Prabhupāda? One thing in your lecture you sometimes say that we spend ten lakhs a month just for maintaining. But I figured out we spend... You can say even fifty lakhs because ten lakhs is very conservative.

Prabhupāda: No, so far I have heard.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I... From what I have seen we spend...

Rāmeśvara: Ten lakhs is just three or four temples.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Rāmeśvara: Los Angeles, New York, maybe Toronto, San Francisco, Dallas, that's all. Ten lakhs right there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Every month.

Prabhupāda: So what is the actual expenditure?

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So why did you not correct me in the meeting? (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, I didn't... (laughter) Even ten lakhs is a very impressive figure.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Ten lakhs expenditure but twenty lakhs collection.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But I think now we should say fifty lakhs expenditure and...

Prabhupāda: One crore.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One crore collection. That will be a nice target. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...getting more price for their land on account of the temple.

Guest (1): Yes, Prabhupāda Mahārāja, they are just started asking double.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. But who is going to purchase it?

Morning Walk -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: How, one after another, how one is born out of the... That is... How the brāhmaṇas were there, kṣatriyas were there—everything in Vedic... These Vedic mantra means the history of human society. And the origin is God, Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa. There are other mantras wherein it is stated, eko nārāyaṇa āsīt. "Only Nārāyaṇa was there." Neither Lord Śiva nor Brahmā. Later on, they came. When he first cites the mantra, vande mahā-puruṣa te caraṇāravindam, śiva-viriñci-nutam (SB 11.5.33). Śiva means Lord Śiva, and viriñci means Brahmā. All of them offer respect to Nārāyaṇa. Indian astrology was taken by the Arabians first. The one, two, three, four, five, six, these figures were taken from India, up to nine, then zero. Then you make all mathematical, arithmetical calculation.

Morning Walk -- June 16, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: ...they are afraid of death?

Bali-mardana: Well, the Chinese figure they have so many people that even if there is a war...

Prabhupāda: They are gainer.

Bali-mardana: There will still be so many of them left. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...they will be left. (break) Harer nāma harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21). (break) ...Hare Kṛṣṇa. Don't bother. (break) (in car) Statistics of hitchhike. What is called, hitchhike?

Siddha-svarūpa: Hitchhikers.

Prabhupāda: So mostly rape cases.

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Dharmādhyakṣa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, there was a survey of these psychologists, young psychologists, and they asked them whether or not they would like to do research. And the vast majority of the psychologists said no, they don't want to do any research. They don't like to do research because it's all a joke. They don't prove anything. They figure it's a waste of time. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam:" You cannot become a philosopher unless you disagree with other philosopher." Nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. (break) ...something drown?

Sudāmā: Yes, they destroyed an amusement park there, and that got stuck in the water.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Why destroy?

Morning Walk -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That kicking out will convince them. Otherwise, they will not be convinced. So long they are in the post, they will never be convinced. But when they are kicked out, when they are street dog, then they will be... (break) Otherwise, you can pass resolution, the senators. When the senators come for vote, you tell them, "First of all dismiss all these things. Then we shall give you vote. Otherwise no more vote." Then they will be also. And vote has become cheap. Saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ. That example I was giving, that small animals and big animal. The lion is a big animal, and he is afraid of by the small animals, jackals, cats and dogs. So out of fear, they are giving vote. But giving vote to whom? To an animal. So how they can be happy? A small animal is giving vote to the big animal. But suppose a big animal, a lion, he is very powerful. Does it mean he is human being? He is animal. So the small animals may be afraid of that big animal, but the human being knows that he is animal. That's all. He doesn't care for this animal. The animal may be very strong, but that does not mean he will be given any credit of human being. No. That is not possible. So in this animal civilization there are many strong, big animals. So they are voted by the small animals, but we are not going to vote that he is very important figure. No.

Morning Walk -- June 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...may be, must be. (laughter)

Nitāi: The only difficulty we face in editing is that sometimes there are problems that come up which we can't figure out ourselves.

Prabhupāda: So I shall remain here.

Nitāi: If you remain here, then we can finish very easily.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. (break) There was some defect in the roof. They are repairing?

Nitāi: The roof there? Yes, the roof has been fixed.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...ārati time about hundred devotee, outsiders come?

Morning Walk -- June 25, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is another speculation.

Dr. Judah: Yes.

Bahulāśva: Why do they have to go to Venus, though, to figure that out? They have a planet here they can't get any information out of.

Prabhupāda: Why they are anxious to know how the world was created? It is already created. What is your credit? (break) ...and simply bluffing people, that's all. (break) It is already there. The nice creation is already there.

Dr. Judah: Accept it as it is.

Dharmādhyakṣa: And be joyful. But they want to try to imitate the creation.

Prabhupāda: That is their foolishness. "Where angels dare not, foolish rush in. Where angels dare not, fools rush in." So big, big, giant, saintly persons, they simply admired, and they are going to understand it. What is that? And they can create, like that? They cannot create even an ant, a small ant, and they are going to create, imitate the creation of God. Just see. And we have to believe such fools. (laughter) This is our misfortune.

Room Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Wax, Writer and Editing Manager of Playboy Magazine -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: This is the difficulty.

Mrs. Wax: I've noticed that there are different dates given to when the Vedas began, the beginnings of the Vedas. Some historians and authorities say one thing and I've seen many different figures. What is the accurate time they were spoken.

Prabhupāda: If you can find out what is the accurate time of this cosmic creation, then you will find the date of Vedas. Can you find out when it was created? Have you got any statistics?

Mrs. Wax: No, none. I was hoping you did. (laughs)

Mr. Wax: How old is the Hare Kṛṣṇa chant.

Prabhupāda: As old as this creation.

Morning Walk -- July 10, 1975, Chicago:

Jayatīrtha: No, "and tolerant." " 'Such MEN,' " capital M-E-N again, "he said, 'are first-class citizens and should be advisors to the world. Second and third-class MEN have not found God and should be administrators and workers.' " Not exactly right. "He spoke thirty minutes and never mentioned women. I asked how women fit into his system. 'Women,' he said, 'is not equal in intelligence to man. Man's brain weighs sixty-four ounces; women's weighs thirty-six ounces. It is just a fact.' He continued, 'Women are meant to assist men. That is all.' He said women do not figure in his class system except as daughters or wives. 'An unmarried woman presumably is classless. Is that,' asked a male reporter..."

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) That is fact. She is prostitute, that's all. If you classify, then she is prostitute. (laughter) That's all. There is no other way.

Press Conference -- July 16, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: That they can say.

Jayatīrtha: Well, our published figure is that worldwide membership is ten thousand. How much of that is in the United States isn't exactly broken down.

Reporter (2): I did a story on this movement five years ago and the figure at that time was two thousand in the United States also.

Prabhupāda: It is increasing.

Reporter (2): It is increasing?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Definitely.

Jayatīrtha: I said that the worldwide figure is ten thousand.

Reporter (2): Yes, I understood. Could you tell me how old you are?

Jayatīrtha: He wants to know your age, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: So therefore you must know how to eat. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But why don't they... I'm sure the scientists could figure out an easier way than having to swallow it.

Prabhupāda: But in Kaviraji, they make some medicine which is gold added by this process, makaradhvaja. Makaradhvaja, the medicine which is combination of tin and mercury, and it looks like gold.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we could become rich if we do this, our movement.

Prabhupāda: Yes, everyone will do, and there will be no rich men.

Paramahaṁsa: Is it tin and copper?

Brahmānanda: Tin, copper and mercury.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So you can try. You are...

Room Conversation With Yogi Bhajan and Jain Muni -- July 21, 1975, San Francisco:

Yogi Bhajan: No, no, he is expert. They have figured it out. Because we are very conspicuous in this some way. You get away with things, you know, you are all right. But with us it is not "That's the man. Get him." (?)

Devotee: We have legal battles wherever we go.

Yogi Bhajan: We have a battle on every step. We wear a kapon (Sikh knife), we have a battle on every step. They say, "It is a knife. You can't carry it." We fight every few steps. Social dangers, we have more social aggressive dangers than you. But if you just channel it on a patterned style, you know, pattern thirteen. Now what we fight is this fight is pattern thirteen, fight it. We go, we go through. (Hindi) (Conversation continues)

Devotee: Is Nanda Kumāra ready?

Devotee: Nanda Kumāra is... Do you want to take here or...?

Prabhupāda: No.

Guest (2): In that room. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: World Fellowship...

Morning Walk -- July 25, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's all right. It is simply proportion, five upon ten and five millions upon ten million. The proportion is the same. Because the figure is five million over ten million, that does not mean that the proportion is not the same. Put five upon ten or five million for ten mill..., the result is the same. (break)

Rādhā-vallabha: ...also create food grains like this with their chemicals. They could do it too.

Prabhupāda: So why don't you produce more and give to India?

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, it belongs to us.

Prabhupāda: Why other parts, they will suffer for gain. That's nice. You have made scientific improvement. You produce more and distribute to the poor country. (break) we become advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and become advance in science and cooperate. That is our proposition. Andha-kañja-nyāya. One is blind; one is lame. So let the lame man be taken by the blind man. He can walk and they... Both their work will be nicely done.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Nityānanda: Inside the barn they are milking two at a time. And upstairs we keep all the hay.

Brahmānanda: You keep figures on how much each milk per cow every day?

Nityānanda: You hear it?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then how the milk will be utilized?

Nityānanda: We make sweet rice and burfi, we take the cream to make butter and ghee, and all extra milk is made into curd. So it is all used. Thirty gallons a day.

Prabhupāda: One gallon means 6 pounds?

Morning Walk -- September 26, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Prabhupāda: Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when He entered Jagannātha temple, He immediately fainted: "Oh, here is my Lord." So it is the question of seeing.

Indian man (6): But what is our inner things? How we know it? In our classical music, actually Lord Kṛṣṇa is the main figure in all... In even Muslim classical music, they also pray Lord Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). We have to create our eyes to see. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Indian man (7): (break) ...unless there is a good center. Mr. Marya said that you are going to have one here.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Morning Walk -- October 3, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakraḥ. The orbit fixed up to the sun by the order of Govinda, that is being followed by him.

Devotee (2): Does the heat of the sun increase or decrease through the ages?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everything is in the hand of Kṛṣṇa.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But they are thinking He is just a historical figure.

Prabhupāda: Therefore they're rascals. Why do you say like that?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11).

Brahmānanda: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)

Morning Walk -- October 20, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Harikeśa: Because he just stood there and said, "Nothing is happening to me," everybody has figured that he is already there.

Prabhupāda: "There" means where?

Harikeśa: At the ultimate.

Prabhupāda: Hell. (laughter)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. (break) Anyone who is thinking that they're happy is simply a rascal. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...saying the black man is not allowed to marry a white woman?

Morning Walk -- December 11, 1975, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda Swami: Of course we accept, ah, when you tell us to chant sixteen rounds, we accept that figure as being, in perfect faith, that you're the ācārya, but ah, what if others we wanted to convince, is there any, any ah, śāstr... Is there any Vedic verse we can refer to to corroborate that at least they must chant sixteen rounds. Or that many number of names?

Prabhupāda: No. In the śāstra it is not said like that...

Akṣayānanda Swami: I see.

Prabhupāda: It is said, śaṅkhy-pūrvakaḥ...

Akṣayānanda Swami: Śaṅkhy-pūrvakaḥ.

Prabhupāda: You must fix up.

Akṣayānanda Swami: Counting.

Prabhupāda: You must fix up in numerical strength.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 10, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What is this meaning?

Hari-śauri: They say that's just a figure of speech.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Hari-śauri: A figure of speech. Not meant to be literal.

Prabhupāda: Everything is theory. No practical. (break) ...ten direction. Eight direction, corner, and northeast, east-west, and up and down. So everywhere He is present. So Kṛṣṇa has got ten hands. So my father used to say, "When Kṛṣṇa takes your money or possession in ten hands, how you can protect it with two hands? And when He give you in ten hands, how much you can take in two hands?" (laughs) So in my case it has become practical. Everything He has taken in ten hands, and now He is giving in ten hands. (laughter) I am practically experiencing. My Guru Mahārāja ordered me, "You do this." I was trying to save my business, my family, with two hands, and Kṛṣṇa took it in ten hands. And now, after making me beggar, He is giving me, ten hands: "You take as much as you like." Now I am thinking of my father's instruction.

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: The father is varṇa-saṅkara, the son is also.

Hari-śauri: The more vulgar you are, the more glorified you become, especially like all these film stars and public figures. The more of a drunkard they are, then the more they're publicized in the news.

Prabhupāda: Just like John Lennon. He is a public man.

Dayānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Just see. What he is? He's standing naked and taking photograph. His wife and he, standing naked. I have seen. And that picture is there in his sitting room, fireplace. That is the picture. (laughs) I went to see him. I was his guest. So one day I was... I saw there that big picture on the fireplace. And here is a public... Newspapermen go to him to take his opinion. "What is your opinion?" Just see. What is his value? Nobody... He is public leader because he has got some money. Money is the criterion. Therefore people are accumulating money some way or other. He knows that "If I got money, then I'll have all influence over the society."

Morning Walk -- March 12, 1976, Mayapur:

Madhudviṣa: (break) ...New York now named Jaya Nimāi Nitai. When you were first in New York, he was a musician. He used to write music, and he used to get inspired by looking down from his apartment down to the street. And every day he said he used to see this little Indian man walking by, and it was you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. And he couldn't figure out what was going on, this man walking by on the street every day.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I was having morning walk regularly, alone.

Madhudviṣa: He said you used to walk very fast. (break) (Indian band playing)

Madhudviṣa: Entrance? (break)

Rādhāvallabha: ...ISKCON temples, ISKCON activities, ISKCON temples, ISKCON Deities... (break)

Morning Walk -- May 30, 1976, Honolulu:

Devotee (3): That is why they're having so many revolutions, because they do not like to be under the control of the government, they figure that "Now we can have can have so many revolutions."

Prabhupāda: :What is that revolution? The ball is kicked here, and again goes and he kicks there. That's all. Revolution means Czar was kicking, and then Lenin began to kick. But his business is to be kicked. That's all. What is the advancement? One man was kicking, another man was kicking. That's all. That is revolution. Gojan mumukta(?) (indistinct). If you have got strength, then the government is yours. That's all. But those who are resident, they are suffering. Just like this Korea, Vietnam, sometimes Communist government, sometimes capitalist government. The sufferer is the ordinary man. Revolution means one part takes the power, another man is killed. But the general people, they're suffering, this way that way. They do not think who will rule. Just like in India, they are the British rule, now it is Congress rule. But the result is in British rule the ghee was selling at one rupee per kilo, now it is twenty-five rupees. The dhotī was selling one rupee six anna, now it is twenty-five rupees. So what the public has gained? Nothing.

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. They make a lot of information available on the.... In other words, it'll help our saṅkīrtana movement because they make inquiries into the freedom of an individual, for example, to.... As we want to distribute literature in various countries, they have so much facts and figures on where that would be possible.

Prabhupāda: And the newsreel will say that this saṅkīrtana movement is nuisance, it is disturbance. Then what they'll do?

Rāmeśvara: There's also some respectability if we become connected with...

Prabhupāda: That is all right.

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Missing, why missing?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well they couldn't figure it out until they found these bones.

Prabhupāda: That means they couldn't. Still, he says. Just see, he has brought as if he was dog, the rascal. The dog is prohibited. Man is.... (break) (walk continues on beach) ...They have got?

Rāmeśvara: Other theories

Rādhāvallabha: Theories?

Rāmeśvara: The scientists.

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Which movie?

Yadubara: King Kong.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Rāmeśvara: They have got some gigantic King Kong figure. It moves like a gigantic doll. Actually, to make a movie now they spend maybe ten, fifteen million dollars for one movie. (break)

Prabhupāda: They cannot cleanse nowadays?

Hari-śauri: They made a movie called "2001," and in that they had shots of men on different planets. It looked just like the moon shots. It was very..., just the same.

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, all over the world, they accept Sunday first.

Mahendra: All of their successes are accidental. Just like they discovered the planet called Pluto. The way it was discovered was one man recognized that there was a fluctuation in the orbit of the planet Neptune, and so he made some calculations and figured that the fluctuations were caused by another planet that must be further away than Neptune that no one has discovered yet. So he made many calculations and figured out where the planet should be, how big it should be, how much it should weigh, how far away it was. So then he told other scientists about it, and they looked in their telescopes, and sure enough, there it was. But it wasn't as big as he said, nor was it as heavy as he said, nor was it as far away as he said, and when they rechecked the data they found that the orbit of the original planet wasn't really wrong either. So all of his calculations were wrong, but still the planet was there.

Morning Walk -- June 7, 1976, Los Angeles:

Candanācārya: The entire Golden Gate park was cultivated by men.

Rādhāvallabha: Instead of planting grass by the roads, they are now putting green rocks. They figure it looks the same, and it saves money.

Kīrtirāja: They are also planting plastic grass in the middle of the road.

Hṛdayānanda: No opulence.

Rādhāvallabha: In Russia now they have declared one..., that it is a big crisis. Because their grains did not grow properly, they are not able to produce as much meat, so now one day a week everyone is forced to eat fish. So they are lamenting. They were describing how..., about the good old days were when you could go and buy an entire carcass.

Candanācārya: (break) ...country, build cities and then spend billions of dollars to make the city look like the country.

Prabhupāda: Carvita-carvaṇānām. Chewing the chewed, again and again. This is their position. (japa) (break)

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: What is that false theory?

Morning Walk -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Ambarīṣa: They said they went fifteen million?

Hari-śauri: No, according to our calculation.... We agree with the figure 93,000,000, as approximate to the sun, but then our figure is 1,600,000 beyond it to the moon.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) Ambarīṣa does not agree. (laughs)

Ambarīṣa: No, I agree. I wonder where they went? I think they went somewhere. Maybe not.

Hari-śauri: Prabhupāda said in Los Angeles it's very easy to simulate these moon landing pictures in a movie so that they're.... Just like there are so many films now where they show this.

Room Conversation -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Your party, selling books?

Kīrtanānanda: I don't know what the figures are.

Prabhupāda: No, your line is this farming.

Kīrtanānanda: Per capita, we distribute more books.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Kīrtanānanda: Per man, we distribute more books than they do. I think per man we distribute more than anybody in ISKCON.

Prabhupāda: And still they are maintaining this farm.

Room Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Hari-śauri: I was reading a very good example like that. These men, they have this what's called divining, that they find water by means of a stick. They lay a stick on their hands like this, and they turn around in different directions, and the stick suddenly dips and points to the ground wherever there's water underground. And it's proven that it works. It's a very effective way of finding water. But no one knows how it works. So they put a suggestion during the Vietnam War to the Marines that they should use this method for finding out the underground tunnels of the Vietcong so that they could find them very easily. So they showed them by experiment that it's practical and it works, so they gave the rods to the physicists, and they checked them all out, and they couldn't figure out how they worked, so they said that because the physicists could not understand how it worked, therefore it was rejected. So they rejected the whole thing. So then the Marines in Vietnam, they heard about it, so they started to use the rods themselves, and in that way they were able to destroy many enemy hideouts. But officially the Marines had to reject it, because the scientists couldn't understand how it worked, so therefore they said that it was not good, it wasn't viable.

Prabhupāda: The scientists' first proposal is, what they cannot understand, don't bring. That is not scientific. Whatever you say, that is not scientific. Whatever they say, that is scientific.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That is also imperfect. If we study Brahmā's day, it will be all... Brahmā's day is, one day equal to forty-three hundred thousands of years multiplied by thousand, that is Brahmā's one day. So thirty days, one month, and twelve months equal to year, such hundred years. Your mathematics will fail to figure out. Is it not? (laughter)

Rūpānuga: There is a slide of this, but we did not show you. The idea is that this is the beginning of Brahmā's day up to present, Vaivasvata Manu. This is the beginning of time according to them. They can't explain anything up to here. They say here, in the middle of the day of Raivata Manu, they begin their Cambrian Age.

Prabhupāda: No, why Raivata Manu? They are imperfect.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're trying to figure it all out scientifically.

Ādi-keśava: They're trying to use all kinds of machines and wires to measure consciousness. They have one group that has tin cans attached to wires, and they hold them in their hand, and then they measure it on the machine as they meditate. And when they meditate right, the needle on the machine goes right in the middle, and they think they have achieved perfection.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here is an article called "Travels Beyond the Body: what is it that travels, and what is it that's seen?" They're talking about traveling beyond your body. Here's an advertisement, "Because I have taken the mystery out of transcendental meditation, I will teach you to master transcendental meditation in a single evening." "About the author." Then it says, "Free private mantra based on your own name, selected by the great Norbell, translated by his special Sanskrit system, so that no one else in America has the same mantra twice. No other system of transcendental meditation..."

Prabhupāda: What is this? Maharishi?

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Now, how many?

Bali-mardana: There is no exact figure; they are always making higher. Now I think a hundred and thirty.

Rāmeśvara: No, it's more than that.

Bali-mardana: A hundred thirty, a hundred forty.

Prabhupāda: And when they'll fall?

Bali-mardana: When the earthquake comes, boom, everything finished.

Hari-śauri: That structure you saw in Toronto, that big tower? That's supposed to be the highest free-standing structure in the world. Over fifteen hundred feet.

Bali-mardana: In Boston there is one big skyscraper, John Hancock Building, and they cannot utilize it because... What is the reason?

Ādi-keśava: Every time the wind blows it begins to bend back and forth in the breeze.

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

Prabhupāda: Which altar? This Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Lord Nityānanda, we are worshiping Him.

Rāmeśvara: The two figures on the throne of the altar represent an incarnation of God named Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda, and They both appeared in India approximately five hundred years ago. They are incarnations of God, God Himself, who descends into this world. So those forms represent the Supreme Lord. Therefore we are worshiping Them. And below, on the step, are the pictures of the spiritual masters coming in the disciplic succession from Lord Caitanya when He appeared in this world five hundred years ago.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Lord Caitanya started this movement, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa congregationally. It was predicted five thousand years ago in the Vedic scriptures that in this age, the present age, the Lord would appear and would teach the real religious process for this age which is chanting of the holy names.

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

Rāmeśvara: This is very traditional in India, temple worship and the figures are on the altar. It's very very traditional. It goes back many thousands of years.

Interviewer: Let me ask you one more question. Why are you returning to India? Had you ever considered staying here in the United States?

Prabhupāda: I have got branches everywhere. Just like I am coming here after traveling so many branches, similarly I am going to India.

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda has no fixed home.

Prabhupāda: I want to see that every center, things are going on nicely.

Interviewer: Oh, I see. I thought you were not returning to the United States.

Cyavana: He has traveled the world sixteen times around?

Prabhupāda: Yes, sixteen times.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Hari-śauri: He was a little bit confused because first of all you quoted śāstra, said everything was from śāstra. Then again you said "Forget the śāstra; this is logic." (laughter) He couldn't figure out how they both came into play. And then at the end you said that religion is logic.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is religion. If you have to accept the supreme authority, then as soon as you violate you are punishable. Very common sense.

Hari-śauri: It's because they're so conditioned by this man-made religion. They think that the scriptures they read is something that's made up.

Prabhupāda: Therefore they change.

Hari-śauri: Yes, it's a belief that's...

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Ali: All right. I was thinking about the material platform that you mentioned last night, and I could not figure out how vast this platform is, what does it consist of, how do we define this platform. Is nature materialism? I mean, there are many things which are obvious, such as money, greed, etc. But how about nature, love?

Prabhupāda: We have got three platforms, generally. Material platform divided into two-gross and subtle, and there is spiritual platform. The body is material platform, divided into two, gross and subtle. And then if you are fortunate enough to come to the spiritual platform, then your life is successful. So the karmīs generally... Just like we see in the city, they are all busy, working very hard. They are on the gross material platform. And then next class, just like scientist, poet, philosopher, they are in the subtle platform. And above them, there are persons who are simply interested in spiritual understanding. They are on the spiritual platform. So according to the platform, there are thoughts and activities also.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...enter the Jagannātha temple, He immediately fainted. "So, here is My Lord, Kṛṣṇa." When the artist will see, "What He has seen? Old figure, not very beautiful, and this man has fainted." Actually there is nothing so extraordinary that one should faint but we see practically that Caitanya Mahāprabhu fainted, "Here is My Lord." It is the question of vision. Premāñjana-cchurita bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). (At this point a tik-tik lizard makes his sound) It is also confirmed. One, that is called (indistinct), one who is trained up to see God, he can see. (indistinct) Premāñjana-cchurita bhakti-vilocanena. Just like sometimes we cannot see properly if there is, what is called...

Evening Darsana (on night of arrival) -- August 16, 1976, Hyderabad:

Mahāṁśa: He has seen our temples in Europe and Africa and he was very, very impressed. So when I told him that Prabhupāda is coming for the inauguration, he said, "You must give me the privilege again to have a program." So tomorrow evening there will be a program there, and on the 18th morning at ten o'clock, between ten and ten-thirty is the prāṇa-pratiṣṭhā. The chief minister is coming there as the chief guest, and it will stay till about twelve o'clock. I wanted to have a feast for all the people as we did in Vṛndāvana, but it's not possible here because there's no space. The area around the temple is very little. So we have made these kinds of packages with different items, just like a little prasāda feast, small. We'll be giving everyone who comes, about ten thousand packages we are preparing. We'll be distributing prasāda like that. And then in the evening there's a program again, Janmāṣṭamī program, this is for public. The morning program we have restricted only to invitees, because it will be so crowded otherwise. This is one problem which I am trying to figure out, how to face of managing the crowd. The space around the temple is very small, so we cannot have very big, huge assembly. We have to figure out something about that. I'm still trying to think what to do.

Prabhupāda: There is no question of management. Anyone comes, if you have made packages for distribution, give a package.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: By law the doctor has to perform so many operations in his day of practice, medical practice. One doctor came here, he was our main member. He said, "I have to go back to practice now. I have so many cases, sterilizations to perform in this day. Otherwise I won't get paid. I will not be able to live now. Because I must perform so many..." Large figure. I've forgotten how many. Maybe one dozen in one day. One dozen, fifteen in one day. He must perform by law.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Akṣayānanda: Terrible. I often think it's like the balada. The balada they have, with the balada gadi(?) and they cut. And the balada has no brain. He does anything you want.

Devotee: What's a balada?

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Best thing is this type temple.

Devotee: Like here. With three domes. Well see, it all depends on the cost. I have some cost estimates here that... We figured out it's somewhere between thirty and forty dollars per square foot to build.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Devotee: Now if we build a temple that's 6,500 square feet, quite a large size, that would come out to $260,000 and on down to 3,600 square feet which would be about $144,000. I've collected about $100,000 on my own and I have another person who promised somewhere between fifteen and twenty-five and by the time that three or four months have... Actually we couldn't build until about six or seven months anyways so by this time...

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, you can make a booklet, the Sixth Chapter explained, and posture, how to sit. That sitting down, that will attract.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Because they want to see these things.

Prabhupāda: That sitting posture will attract them. Give them figure, "This is the posture of sitting," and they will hear.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: What we can do, have a small booklet on yoga...

Prabhupāda: Concentrate on viṣṇu-mūrti here, in the heart, and hear... This will immediately give some effect.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What is that book?

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

Prabhupāda: Agra is very good.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Oh. He's there in Delhi?

Devotee (1): Yes. He just came back yesterday. He'll be coming here soon.

Gurudāsa: Now, previously the budget... I figured it out with the ones who are cooking. You wanted puris and halavā and subji, something like that. But we didn't have enough before. So I was going to make puṣpanna. Is that all right? Or would you rather... Now, with the ten thousand rupees...

Prabhupāda: Puṣpanna for visitors also? No, they will have objection to take anna. They'll take puri, śāk, halavā.

Gurudāsa: What do you want?

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Put in the posta. But you must (mash?) take out the skin.

Pālikā: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: These were taken just before I left Los Angeles. This is a figure of Kṛṣṇa from the rasa-līlā being dressed in cloth.

Prabhupāda: His face is like Acyutānanda. (Rāmeśvara chuckles) Acyutānanda's face is beautiful.

Rāmeśvara: This figure is going to be Lord Gadādhara in the exhibit of the Pañca-tattva dancing at kīrtana. She is just beginning to make the form.

Prabhupāda: So you have got any business?

Girirāja: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: "To estimate the average church attendance in 1976, surveys..." Oh, this just tells you how they took the survey. "So analysis of these figures shows that church attendance is up among all major population groups. The Catholics are better attendees than the Protestants. Women go more often than men." Women go more often than men in America. "Southerners and the Mid-Western"—from the South and the Mid-West—"they attend more frequently than they do in the East, and far more than those living in the West." So this says that people in the West, like California, they're the least religious. People in the East, like New York and Pennsylvania, they're a little more religious, and people in the Mid-West and the South, they're the most religious according to this survey. "Those who are under thirty years of age are less likely to go to church than those who are thirty and over." Younger people... Same trend, giving up...

Prabhupāda: They come to us.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: Well, the thing is these people have not reached the point of death because actually they came back to life. So it's not in their karma that they were going to die at that time. So we couldn't figure out who this luminous being is.

Prabhupāda: When the judgment will be given... There was time still to live in their particular body. So after finishing that karma, then the next body.

Hari-śauri: So we couldn't understand who this luminous being was.

Rāmeśvara: Then he closes the article by giving references to many books which describe this.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Which book?

Room Conversation -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Guest (1): Yes, I will write. Actually if I get a small literature about Prabhupāda I will write an article in newspapers. People of Orissa could not know that an international figure came to Orissa, and they could not avail of the opportunity.

Hari-śauri: That would be very nice. International.

Gurukṛpa: Interplanetary.

Hari-śauri: These are appreciations from all over the world, France...

Guest (1): Pradyumna Mahārāja put some pertinent questions on Bhāgavata when he came to know that I am Sanskrit scholar. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...Leyland.

Gargamuni: Yes, Leyland(?) Bank.

Room Conversation with Two Indian Guests -- January 27, 1977, Jagannatha Puri:

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is actually happened. The so-called idol, He went to be witness. He came from Vṛndāvana to Cuttack. So "idol worship" is they say. But devotee... Just like people are coming by thousands to see Jagannātha. Do they come to see idol? Wooden Jagannātha? They come to see real Jagannātha, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise why they will spend so much money and take so much trouble and come here? The atheists may say, "How foolish they are. They are coming here to see a wooden figure and spending so much money." That is the statement of the atheist. But a devotee comes to see—"Kṛṣṇa is here." Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu saw—immediately fainted. So there are two visions. Therefore it is forbidden. Arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-matir vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ. So the atheist class, they see, "Here is a wooden... Oh, what is the Jagannātha made of? Wood or stone?" They're seeing wood and stone.

Room Conversation -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Sometimes it may be fact. There is no wonder. But we have to proceed with the figure. If I dream that I am getting one lakh of rupees, so it is better if I get five rupees in figure. Is that all right?

Pṛthu-putra: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Simply dreaming I am getting one lakh of rupees, that is good, or actually, if you get five rupees, that is good? Which is good?

Pṛthu-putra: To get the actual five rupees.

Prabhupāda: So don't depend on the subtle thing. See practically what you are getting.

Room Conversation -- February 2, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Yugadharma: Because they are very interested in these little figures.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So if you can do that, it will be very nice.

Yugadharma: How about Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa also?

Prabhupāda: Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa not now.

Yugadharma: Not now.

Prabhupāda: No. When they have actually advanced and initiated and following strictly the Vaiṣṇava principles, then Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. And Gaura-Nitāi, they can worship in any condition.

Yugadharma: I would like also to comprise with Gaura-Nitāi mūrtis the very pākā Indian artifacts.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Then again operated.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, another operation. Then another thing they were describing that there was a patient who was dying. There was no chance of his recovery, but still, in order to get... The man was a big man. So the television was covering because he was an important political figure. So the doctor performed a big brain operation, even though there was no purpose whatsoever, so that he could get advertised on the television as a very important doctor. And at one point he said, "Now bring in the television," and he cut the man's head and did a whole operation for no purpose at all. The person died anyway. But he was given advertisement that he was the most important surgeon. And they talk amongst themselves. She knew all this.

Prabhupāda: They were arranging my brain operation.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: "They can make."

Satsvarūpa: There are such machines that have better memory and can figure...

Prabhupāda: What is that better memory?

Satsvarūpa: Even a calculator can immediately multiply some...

Prabhupāda: But calculator machine, another man is working, so where is brain, calculating? The machine is made by another man, and it is being worked by another man, so where is the brain in the calculator? That is... So you are misled immediately. Bluff.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Word jugglery. Simply a word jugglery.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So. Anyway, he's lodged a complaint with the Tea Board because he's a big tea importer, so he has connections. So he's lodged a complaint with the Tea Board. They're so dishonest. Even this is the five-star hotel. It's a big hotel in Calcutta, one of the two or three best, and they're so dishonest that as soon as a foreigner comes, they can figure out where the valuables are and they steal it. And most people will let them get away with it. He may not, because he's got so many connections. But it's so dishonest. Even they make an attempt to cultivate tourism and be professional but-spoiled.

Prabhupāda: Hotels are always unreliable. They have got duplicate key.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even during Sanātana Gosvāmī's time, that hotel-keeper.

Prabhupāda: Hotel you should not go simply by locking. Somebody must be there. Otherwise they have got duplicate key.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: Otherwise no one would want to come.

Prabhupāda: So? What other news?

Rādhā-vallabha: We have the figures for the production of your books in every single language since the beginning, twenty-three languages.

Rāmeśvara: This took several weeks of very careful work to prepare. We were calling up printers... We threatened Dai Nippon, they must give us the figures. We called up every BBT office around the world, so this is very accurate. And also I estimate that at least ninety to ninety-five percent of all these literatures that have been published have already been distributed. These are the figures for publishing, but most of them have been sold already.

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

Rāmeśvara: At the Śiva-rātri festival in Los Angeles, at the end of a lecture I was reading these figures. We had about a thousand Indians who came to that festival in Los Angeles. When I read these figures they were so struck, they were cheering, "Jaya," and clapping. They were just amazed. And afterwards, outside they were coming up to me and folded hands: "We had no idea you were doing this work. Is there anything we can do to help your society?" as soon as they heard these figures. The leaders of the Indian American Association and all the Indian associations in LA were coming there, and when they heard these figures they were just offering their service.

Prabhupāda: And you did not send to the reporters and the...? No.

Hari-śauri: Did you give these figures to the reporters at the airport?

Rāmeśvara: Well, we want to have a press conference tomorrow.

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

Gargamuni: We're going to have... At the Calcutta Book Fair we finished decorating our pandal. It promises to be very successful. We're just opposite the Americans, who have spent fifty thousand rupees, the American Embassy. And next door to us is the German Embassy, and on the other side is the British Embassy. So we're in a very good spot, and we'll have all our books. We'll have the displays as well as the movie, the BBT movie, and we have our men there, who will take orders and sell books. It starts tomorrow afternoon. And we'll have a press conference also and release these figures.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Rādhā-vallabha: Want to hear more?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Rāmeśvara: "Two and one-quarter million copies in print." They can understand that millions of people are studying this. And at the bottom of the back cover there is a review by a scholar, a professor of Humanities, Religious Studies and South Asian Studies at the University of Minnesota, which is one of the largest schools in America, Dr. Robert Tap. He says, "Kṛṣṇa has been too transforming a figure for too many people to remain confined to India or to be known only through the Bhagavad-gītā. Here we have the rounding out of His story that has proven so fruitful for Indian art, song, dance, and devotion." "...the rounding out of His story."

Rādhā-vallabha: Perfection of Yoga also has the printing quantity on the cover, "Over 2,300,000 copies in print."

Rāmeśvara: Gorgeous! Look at those pictures of Prabhupāda!

Rādhā-vallabha: We also calculated how many hardbound Bhāgavatams are in print. That's one million. And there's almost three million Gītās in print too.

Prabhupāda: So this should be displayed here.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Backside.

Muralīdhara: Right behind the...

Hari-śauri: Both of these two figures are the same person. It's just to show that he's actually Lord Śiva, but he's appearing as a beggar.

Muralīdhara: His whole body will show...

Hari-śauri: So he's like a semi-transparent Lord Śiva.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Rāmeśvara: Now, at the time he was taking this prasāda, would he be sitting in his palace room on his throne or...? We were thinking that in his dining room.

Prabhupāda: No, dining room.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Now, I'll give description of the word, so you can utilize it for...

Rāmeśvara: (aside:) Do you understand?

Rādhā-vallabha: Like there may be description of someone that's fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, has no material desires. You have to figure out a way to illustrate it.

Rāmeśvara: Just like last month you showed me that calendar of how they have illustrated every verse of the Bhagavad-gītā. So they have a way of finding... Artists...

Prabhupāda: They're selling?

Rāmeśvara: That calendar that you showed me? When you were in Bhuvaneśvara you gave me one calendar, and it had illustrations of Bhagavad-gītā.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- February 28, 1977, Mayapura:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, I went to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences. It's a big medical school in India. So I spoke in the... They have a department called Biophysics. So I presented our philosophy, science in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The head of the department was... His name was R. K. Mishra. So he's actually quite well known international figure. Fame.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He had a lot of grants from the United States. From Europe also.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Conversations -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It appears just below this article. "ISKCON Branch in City from October, by a staff reporter. A branch of the Bhaktivedanta Institute, the center for advanced learning and research of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, ISKCON, based in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to be opened in October at Hare Krishna Land in Juhu. This was stated by Dr. Thoudam Dāmodara Singh in Bombay on Tuesday. Dr. Singh, who is in charge of the arrangements for the opening, told a press conference that the Institute presents in a modern format the higher sciences of the ancient Vedantic literatures. In Bombay, Dr. Singh said, the Institute will publish scientific articles, monographs, and the journal 'Sa-vijñānam, Scientific Knowledge,' regularly." That's the whole article. Again Your Divine Grace's name is not mentioned. Of course, it says, "Bhaktivedanta Institute," but still, it's not... Yeah, it was a very good opportunity that we could present our program, but somehow it... Where did they get these figures of "three years"and "ten years"? I mean, how could they have just concocted "three years" and "ten years" unless you told them?

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: I...

Conversations -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But how did they get these figures? How does someone manufacture that we will spend seventy crores in three years? (pause) It seems like they have tricked you. You must have made a statement, and they...

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: They fabricated. That's the whole thing.

Prabhupāda: How they can fabricate in their own way? From... (pause) Rather, they have criticized that "This fantastic thing, it is going to be like Aurobindo's city, list of fifty thousand, 404 acres." They are not taking it very seriously. Otherwise why he has remarked? Indirectly he has said, "This man is speaking like lunatic." They are not taking very seriously. That very remark shows that "It is going to be meet the same fate." So many fantastic ideas.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Did you see that article yesterday, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He has to run out of the universities because finally, after a while, the officials get notified. They figure out who he is, and then they start chasing him. Then he had to run out.

Prabhupāda: Dangerous affair.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But after all, it is literary. They know we're not... It's not like a political spy.

Prabhupāda: All open secret.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: "Here is the book."

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Some of the mistakes in the numbers, the figures.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yeah, they're all...

Prabhupāda: So how they can be reliable, so-called, this way...? (background whispering) Hm?

Yaśodā-nandana: In the Gurukula we were teaching Īśopaniṣad class to the children. So we took... (break) ...Prabhupāda and the words which the recent edition of the Press is wrong. Many changes were brought. They were trying to make better English, but sometimes, to make better English, I think they were making philosophical mistakes also. There is no so much need of making so much better English. Your English is sufficient. It is very clear, very simple. We have caught over 125 changes. They're changing so many things. We are wondering if this is necessary. I will show you today. I have kept the book.

Prabhupāda: I know that these rascals are doing. What can be done? How they can be relied on?

Conversation with Surendra Kumar and O.B.L. Kapoor -- June 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The sales report, what is?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is sales report we just received. It's as of March 6, 1977. It reports the book sales in each language up to date. (reads book distribution figures)

Surendra Kumar: Can I have a copy of this?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Surendra Kumar: Your Divine Grace, when I will write the personal letter to...

Prabhupāda: Give him whatever he wants.

Surendra Kumar: He has stayed with me for one night and one day. I want to have a personal talk with him. (tells about important people who have stayed at his home)

Conversation with Bhakti-caitanya Swami-New GBC -- June 30, 1977, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: What is the special feature of restaurant?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I haven't figured that out. I know what it is though. The special feature is this, Śrīla Prabhupāda. There's a number of things. One thing, there's no other place in Vṛndāvana where you can sit in such a good atmosphere. That room is very large. The tables are first class, marble. There are very nice decorations, and the service is very good. And they serve ice water. And the prasādam is also better than at the Jaipuria guesthouse or most of the other guesthouses. And it's very inexpensive, four rupees for as much as you want to eat, palatable. And it's right in our own guesthouse. The people live here, and then they don't have to go anywhere. They just walk down to the dining room, and they get very good prasādam, good service, inexpensive, good atmosphere. It's become a very popular place. But it's too hot for me. I have difficulty eating the sabji because it's very spicy, but I think it's liked by the Indian people.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now we have to figure out how to preserve these, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Puṣkara Prabhu was concerned how to preserve these pictures, and we were thinking that maybe they should be mounted on canvas and stretched.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And that way, they can be preserved.

Prabhupāda: Like map.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, oh, like a map. Once they are put on canvas, can they be rolled, Puṣkara?

Puṣkara: Yeah. The best thing is to put them on a board and just permanently put these onto the best possible...

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Look at the earth. Now, this is a real question that we still have to answer. They picture the earth round, and we say, no. Bhū-maṇḍala is like a lotus, like this, and the earth is only one part of one island in Bhū-maṇḍala, and it's not, you know, it's not round(?). It doesn't look like that. And all the pictures they take of the earth when they go up in their satellites show round. And we're going to tell them that it's not. This is a very tricky question. In other words, if this is the picture of the world, like this, and we say that... If we take an airplane from here, from Los Angeles. Now, supposing we go to India, which is here. So there's two ways to go. One way, you can go like this, and the other way, you can go like that. But if the earth is not a round globe, then how is it sometimes people go from Los Angeles via Hawaii to Japan and then India? So we can't figure this out. We have experience, those of us who have flown, that actually the plane went from Los Angeles to Hawaii to Tokyo to Hong Kong and then to India. So it doesn't work out in our maps so far, right? We can't figure it out. This thing has to be very complete in its answers. Otherwise everyone will laugh at us. We can't leave any loopholes.

Prabhupāda: So are you thinking on this?

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "Actually in America, when you criticize someone who is highly regarded, people are very interested to read it. That is the American spirit. So I think by purposely singling out historical figures who are considered good welfare workers and showing that actually their welfare platform failed, it will make interesting reading and will help to establish the real platform of welfare in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I also want very much to write this book on men..." And then it says here, he says, "I... We decided on a number of historical figures. Because they lacked Kṛṣṇa in their philosophy and activities, their program for welfare failed. I want to deal with the figure of Mahatma Gandhi and also with the daridra-nārāyaṇa philosophy which was taught before his time by Ramakrishna and Vivekananda." He says, "When viewed in the light of Bhāgavata philosophy, these personalities will have to be criticized for their failure to put Kṛṣṇa in their teachings. My question is whether there is any objection on your part to a book which will criticize Ramakrishna and Vivekananda."

Prabhupāda: I think that is not good. You should go positively instead of attacking some particular person. They will never admit that they have been failure.

Room Conversation about Grhasthas -- July 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. It's selling of full sets of Bhāgavatam or Caitanya-caritāmṛta, but cash at once. Or cash fifty percent down, fifty percent in one month. Or, you know, different schemes, payment schemes. It's called contract sales. So far, I have the figures if you'd like to hear how many they sold, the books. It looks like it may become a huge thing for book distribution. Would you like me to get the...?

Prabhupāda: Let me go this side and come back.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All right. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...gentlemen who are... It is good suggestion. It is a Communist government plan to cut down. Communists think of God as a farce. And we are stressing on God consciousness.

Room Conversation Gaurasundara, Dr. Kapoor -- July 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...children?

Gaurasundara: Yes. It's very nice. There are very many people taking part.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Quite a few cities. We figured that ten different Ratha-yātrā festivals were held this year all around the world.

Prabhupāda: So it was taken from our temple to seaside?

Gaurasundara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: A long distance.

Gaurasundara: Yes. All through Waikiki. Very many people are in Waikiki, the tourists and regulars.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Very good.

Room Conversation Gaurasundara, Dr. Kapoor -- July 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The last report... This is simply from the American and Western European countries, it was reported in one week, June 27th to July 3rd, they sold 51,000 hardcover books, then 30,000 medium size books, 20,000 small books, and 140,000 magazines in one week.

Dr. Kapoor: Staggering figures.

Prabhupāda: Fifty-one thousand, five dollars each. What is the?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's about a quarter of a million dollars. Two hundred fifty thousand dollars.

Prabhupāda: Two hundred fifty thousand dollars, and if you exchange in rupees?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In rupees? About twenty lakhs, more than twenty lakhs.

Prabhupāda: In one week. So unimaginable.

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Demigod worship means followers of Vedas.

Haṁsadūta: The Buddhists, they have very nice temples there. In all their temples they have diorama exhibits about the life of Buddha and other figures from their line, but done very nicely, much nicer than the Hindu temples, very clean. But all Buddhists, they don't follow Buddhist even. They all eat meat, and, they say, they even drink and have women. Everything deteriorated. (to Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:) Is it all right to speak?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Haṁsadūta: I once heard that when some devotees wanted to buy a church in America you suggested that they should keep the altar and next put Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and give simultaneous lecture from Bible and from Bhagavad-gītā. I was thinking that in Shree Lanka, if it would be all right to have a deity of Lord Buddha and speak simultaneously on the Dharmapatha(?) and also Bhagavad-gītā, showing how Bhagavad-gītā is beyond the stage of nirvāṇa. Is that a good idea, Prabhupāda, or not?

Prabhupāda: Good idea, provided you can present properly.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: We want that they should be interested.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, yes. They are very interested. All the universities, wherever I went, everybody thought that this was a very genuine idea, and they wanted to know more about it. Also the chief guest who is coming this evening... I discussed briefly yesterday. He was... Actually he's a very well known figure in the United Nations. He represented several times in the United Nations program, and he spoke also many times in the U.N., and he was... We were discussing briefly about the limitations of science and the scientists are sometimes trying to speak so many big words without any scientific background, especially in the case of life. So actually he's going to speak in favor of our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He suggested that this Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a movement like United Nations.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Jayapatākā: He said, "I give an open order to print books. Always have big stock."

Hṛdayānanda: Huge stock, he said, more than necessary.

Kīrtanānanda: It's up to us to figure out where to print books.

Gargamuni(?): I have to put this question, Prabhupāda.

Jayapatākā: He already answered that question. Gaura-Govinda, he's already translated sixteen chapters of Bhagavad-gītā in Oriya, and he's translated three small books in Oriya.

Prabhupāda: Let him bring. There is fifty thousand rupees in Orissa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (devotees chant japa) (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I received some results of book distribution from September, worldwide, very extraordinary figures. Actually they are astounding figures.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) That is right. He misses news.(?) (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This resting is very good. Kavirāja said that two things, resting and passing urine, are signs of recovery for you. Sleeplessness is bad. But constant resting means that the body is getting a chance to renew itself and take strength. He said that we should look for that resting as a sign of gradual recovery, called "rest and recuperation." (background talking)

Prabhupāda: So?

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: All right feeling.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is that all right? Says, "Book distribution, worldwide." Says here... These are the world totals for the month of September, Śrīla Prabhupāda. In the month of September all over the world they distributed the following number of big books: 215,914. 216,000 big books in one month, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Medium books: 226,000 in one month. Small books: 237,000. And Back to Godheads: 433,000. Now I calculated, Śrīla Prabhupāda, also the total amount of money realized by the BBT. In the month of September the BBT sold, the temples sold 675,000 dollars' worth of books. In rupees, I figured out it's fifty-nine lakhs the BBT sold. Now, the temples, when they..., if they sell a book, they get double the amount of money. You know what I mean? If the BBT sells the book to the temple for say $2.50, the temple gets $5.00 when it sells the book. So I calculated that the temples collected $1,350,000 from selling your books in the month of September, which comes out to one crore, seventeen lakhs collections from book sales. Then I was calculating what this would mean... (end)

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, no, karmī.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I understand. I said there's no shortage of money.

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kṛṣṇa's giving us... I figured out, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that if we... Just like we did in September, I multiplied times twelve to see how much money in a year your books are selling. And the BBT, in one year, can expect to make, around the world, about $8,100,000. In rupees that comes out to seven crores, seventy thousand rupees. Seven crores, seventy thousand rupees.

Prabhupāda: What karmī can earn so much!

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What karmī can earn so much. For the temples, that means that by selling your books, the temples will collect about sixteen million dollars in one year. Or in other words, fourteen crores, nine lakhs, forty thousand rupees.

Prabhupāda: They'll believe?

Page Title:Figure (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:26 of Sep, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=115, Let=0
No. of Quotes:115