Fiji (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"Fiji" |"Fiji's" |"Fijian" |"Fijians"

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Devotee (2): Peanuts and milk?

Prabhupāda: No, puffed rice and peanuts, and milk separate. (laughter)

Devotee (2): These flowers here in the vase on your desk, they only..., the smell, the flavor, only comes out at night.

Prabhupāda: Rajiniganda. They are called Rajiniganda.

Devotee (2): Night Queen?

Prabhupāda: Very nice flower. (indistinct) In English is called (indistinct)? What do you call in English?

Devotee (2): Night Queen. In Fiji they call them Night Queen. I didn't know if this was the same thing.

Prabhupāda: Just see how Kṛṣṇa's creation, wonderful creation. And they defy, "Oh, what nonsense they are." There is no brain in creating such nice flower, flavor? "It is automatic, nature, nature." What is this nature? Rascal. Nature means rascaldom. Nature. What do you mean by nature? Just see how foolish they are. They cannot explain what is this nature. Simply say. I'm simply sorry that the so-called institution education simply making people all fools and rascals. That is my grief only. I am therefore trying to give them some intelligence.

Conversation with the GBC -- May 25, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: Hong Kong, North and South Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, (indistinct), Australia, New Zealand, Fiji Islands, Samoa, and Tahiti.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee: Tahiti.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) Make that one zone. Then next zone?

Devotee: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: First of all divide the whole world. It doesn't matter who goes where but...

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Coversation with Psychiatrist and Indian Boy -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom you are coming?

Indian boy: I was born in New Delhi.

Prabhupāda: Oh. How you came here?

Indian boy: Well, my parents moved to Fiji Islands, and I was with them. And then we all came to Australia.

Prabhupāda: She is also Indian?

Indian boy: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom you are?

Indian girl: My parents were born in India and I was brought up in Fiji.

Prabhupāda: Now they are in Fiji?

Room Coversation with Psychiatrist and Indian Boy -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Now they are in Fiji?

Indian girl: No.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Indian girl: My mother's in Australia and my father's in Fiji.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So where are your parents? Where they are, your parents?

Indian girl: They are separated.

Paramahaṁsa: She says they're separated. One lives in Sydney and one lives in Fiji.

Prabhupāda: In Fiji there are many Indians.

Room Coversation with Psychiatrist and Indian Boy -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: In Fiji there are many Indians.

Indian boy: Yes, there are.

Prabhupāda: The language is in Hindi? Fiji?

Indian boy: Indians speak Hindi, Fijians they speak Fijian.

Prabhupāda: Fijians they are Europeans? No.

Paramahaṁsa: No.

Prabhupāda: They are natives.

Indian boy: Natives.

Prabhupāda: They are civilized? No.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Amogha: Just like that girl who came two days ago, that Indian girl. Her parents were separated. Now she is living thousands of miles away with some boy.

Prabhupāda: They are this part of Indian, the Fiji Indians. They have learned the art of divorce.

Amogha: They are very Western, westernized.

Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, how can the position be reconciled if in Kṛṣṇa consciousness one of the two, the husband or the wife, wants to enjoy sense gratification, but the other does not? Should there be separation then?

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Justin Murphy: Excellent talking to you. Thank you very much and I wish you well in Melbourne and then in Hawaii?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Fiji and Hawaii. You can keep his address. He may talk with you.

Śrutakīrti: Here is a sweet we have made from milk product.

Justin Murphy: Thank you. Good night.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (break)

Morning Walk -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: Didn't one demon construct a big parliament house for Kṛṣṇa? That demon Māyā? For King Yudhiṣṭhira?

Prabhupāda: Umm.

Amogha: Aṣṭa-siddhi dāsa, when he came back from Fiji he told us a story that the local people say that Kāliya snake, after he ran away, he lives in Fiji in a big lake.

Devotee (1): On top of a mountain.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he was driven away from Vṛndāvana. (pause) They are all going to the downtown?

Radio Interview -- May 25, 1975, Fiji:

Śrutakīrti: The following is an interview which took place on May 25, 1975, in Lautoka, Fiji, which was later broadcast on a local radio station.

Interviewer: Why did you choose to go to America and propagate the teachings of Lord Kṛṣṇa in a western country?

Prabhupāda: Because Indian people, being subjugated for at least one thousand years, they have lost their original culture. And, being poverty-stricken, they are simply after money, by hook and crook. So in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ tayā apahṛta-cetasām (BG 2.44).

Morning Walk -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: So why do they not accept it?

Cyavana: Gradually they will. They are attracted. They will accept. (break) ...only here I have seen. All the islands on the Pacific and Indian Ocean are all potential. Philippines, very... The Philippine boys, I saw, very nice. They are not guided. Fiji also.

Prabhupāda: Fiji. Fiji also. Fiji, mostly Indian, but the original Fiji Fijians, they are also very nice.

Cyavana: What about Bali? There are also many...

Prabhupāda: Bali, there are practically Hindus. Yes. Everywhere. The soul is pure. They have been made impure by misleading.

Morning Walk -- December 19, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: He always runs like this. All the time. He is so much frightened of his wife in the house that he cannot speak a word. Still he is in the house. That is why he makes good of the things when he comes out. (laughs) He behaves so naughtily like that. (Hindi with one man) Sir, shall we go this way, if you don't mind?

Prabhupāda: That Mr. Punja is staying? From Fiji? He has not come?

Devotee: Oh, no, he hasn't come back yet. He had two days' business, he said. He said he would come after that. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...doing there, these slums?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1976, Auckland, New Zealand:

Devotee (1): Yeah, he's floating around somewhere doing nonsense. Now he's eating meat. (Prabhupāda chuckles) And this one boy in Fiji wrote me a letter. His friend worked at the hotel, Guru Maharaj-ji came and stayed there, and he was a waiter. For dinner, Guru Maharaj-ji had shrimp curry and then beer. Drinking, eating meat, and having illicit sex.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's his līlā.

Devotee (1): Complete nonsense.

Devotee (2): How does he keep followers?

Prabhupāda: So followers are like that?

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: The thing is the spirit, real service of preaching, stopped. Formality is going on, but the real business.... Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement means āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa (CC Madhya 7.128). That is stopped. Do you follow? The formalities is there, but the real life of Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement is preaching. Otherwise why Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa. Tāra means preaching. Yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa-upadeśa' (CC Madhya 7.128). And that is stopped. They are satisfied if they could construct one temple and beg some rice from the neighborhood: "Sir, we have got some temple," that's all. They are satisfied. The spirit of preaching forward-pāpī tāpī jata chilo, hari-nāme uddhārilo—that is stopped. So by hari-nāma, by chanting, by this way, to live little peacefully in the temple and eat and sleep, that much they have got. If that is the success, that success they have got. And this was condemned by my Guru Mahārāja, that "To earn some money by showing Deity in the temple and eat and sleep—better you become a sweeper in the street and earn your honest livelihood and live." This is cheating. This was condemned. To construct a temple.... Just like the Vṛndāvana Gosvāmīs are doing. They thought that "This is our business. Some innocent people will come here and offer some.... Bas, that's our good income." According to the temple's popularity, they think, "This is our success." Therefore they are deteriorating. So that is not success. Success is his who is pushing forward the preaching method. That is his success. And if we think that "By showing a temple Deity we get some money and rice and cloth and just peacefully live here. Don't bother about going to Fiji and all over..."

Morning Walk -- May 3, 1976, Fiji:

Fijian (indistinct): Yes.

Prabhupāda: Very good idea.... (break) ...Kṛṣṇa, and everything will be all right. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has blessed: ihā haite sarva-siddhi haibe tomāra. "Every perfection you'll get by chanting." That is His blessing.

Indian: (Hindi) (break)

Prabhupāda: That's nice. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (indistinct) There are so many people starving, they have no land to produce food. Therefore the Supreme Father has to be accepted.

Hari-śauri: Just like when we were in Fiji, all they grow is sugarcane so they have to sell the sugarcane to get money to buy crops that they could have grown there in the first place.

Prabhupāda: Yes, business. Why so much sugarcane? The islands of Hawaii, they grow more sugarcane. We have seen all the islands. Huge (indistinct). The sugarcane is required for manufacturing wine. (break) ...drink tea. He's much (indistinct) of sugar, and from molasses, they manufacture wine. Unnecessary things. Misadjustment and they're (indistinct).

Morning Walk -- June 6, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Anywhere is nice.(?)

Bharadvāja: Are there any other Deities besides Kāliya-Kṛṣṇa you want us to make for Fiji?

Prabhupāda: Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and Guru-Gaurāṅga.

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī and yourself, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

Bharadvāja: Life-size Deities?

Prabhupāda: You have not seen Vṛndāvana?

Bharadvāja: Just the same size as Vṛndāvana's?

Morning Walk -- June 6, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Four.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Like mermaids.

Bharadvāja: What is the special significance of constructing Kāliya-Kṛṣṇa temple in Fiji?

Prabhupāda: They say that "Kāliya lived here."

Bharadvāja: Is that true?

Prabhupāda: Well, might.... (break) But it is Kṛṣṇa's līlā, so...

Bharadvāja: Kāliya then became a devotee after Kṛṣṇa subdued him.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bharadvāja: They will pay for the casting in Fiji?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Bharadvāja: The Indians in Fiji will pay for the casting if we decide to cast in brass here?

Prabhupāda: Anyone will pay. (laughs) Kṛṣṇa will pay. What will be the cost, let me know. It will be paid by somebody.

Bharadvāja: I will have to investigate.

Kīrtanānanda: You will have it cast or you will cast it?

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda needs a new passport with all the pages filled out. I wanted to get it in Fiji, but the embassy was on the other side of the island. So we'll try again Monday morning. I told him though that we've given our lives to preach the dharma of Bhārata-varṣa, and sometimes we become—I told him in a nice way, not in an angry way—sometimes we become very disenchanted and disenheartened when we see that Indians like yourself, they present unnecessary obstacles to our preaching mission.

Prabhupāda: That is sufficient insult. (laughter) That enraged him. You said Indian-givers. That offended him.

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

Prabhupāda: So you can write him—note down—that "We are managing our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement by GBC. We have got about twenty GBC's for looking after the whole world affair, and above the GBC, I am there, and under the GBC's there are presidents, treasurers, secretaries in each and every center. So the president is responsible to the GBC. GBC is responsible to me. In this way we are managing. But why you are proposing a separate trustee for Fiji? We have no separate trustee till now, but if for security, if it is required, you can adopt it. So this is our management going on. Now, if you have got some new idea, so please explain to me how you want to manage. But I think Fiji temple cannot be managed in a separate idea. But still, I shall entertain if you have got some idea to manage.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Kartikeya Mahadevia: I am thinking of going again on a world tour for my business, because we want to start some export business. So I'll start with Iran, then some other countries in Middle East, then Europe, America, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Mauritius, and Seychelles. I've got friends all over the places, so they will come here, and we have some export business, cloth...

Prabhupāda: Mauritius is not developed. Fiji is good. Mauritius a poor country. Fiji well-to-do, more business, many Gujaratis. Mostly Gujaratis.

Kartikeya Mahadevia: I've got somebody in New Zealand also. They are...

Prabhupāda: Fiji and New Zealand...

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: And also later missionaries went all over the world alone, to Africa, all countries of the world, converting people, although it was very difficult. So they had a very good missionary spirit formerly. When I went to Fiji I saw many Christian churches in Fiji. Right next door to the house where Vasudeva lives there is a Christian tabernacle, and they wake up every morning at 4:30 and they have hymns-same practice as we have, but it's Christian hymns.

Hari-śauri: Along with all, that, though, they're allowed to please their senses in any way that they like. So their teaching doesn't really have much benefit for anyone. They're still doing all kinds of sinful activity. Now their idea is that if you accept Jesus, it means that you can carry on doing as many sinful activities as you like, but Jesus is going to take all the sinful reaction.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. "He died for us, so why should we suffer?" (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Jesus Christ is the contractor. They say that "Our religion is very good. If you simply have faith in Jesus Christ, we can do anything."

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They are very expert.

Hari-śauri: They fed us very nicely when we were there in Fiji.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. They are very expert.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He said. He said, "In my house one day it is rice and dāl. Next day, it is khicuṛi."

Prabhupāda: That is the way. If you supply the same thing, it becomes hackneyed.

Hari-śauri: Yes. Even if it's first class, it still becomes boring.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And I think these woman can cook many varieties.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They are cooking very nice in Fiji.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All of these life members, they have the best cooks in India. They are accustomed to very high class food, Marwaris.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Hari-śauri: That cooking we had when we went to Bhogilal's in Hyderabad...

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Hari-śauri: ...it was very first class.

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Hari-śauri: No, we were out at the farm.

Prabhupāda: No, we were staying, but he supplied his car. But he came to airport.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have to supply some good man for Fiji.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Vāsudeva was speaking that some proper person for teaching them pūjā...

Hari-śauri: This boy...

Prabhupāda: Trained, very trained.

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Trained, very trained.

Hari-śauri: This boy that's coming from Vṛndāvana, Sajjanāśraya, he's worked in Fiji with Vāsudeva a lot before.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: And he's trained to do pūjā now too.

Prabhupāda: These two brothers, they can teach very nice pūjā, first class.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're the best in the society.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. And they are the sa... (end)

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

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Satsvarūpa: Then Gurukṛpā Mahārāja retained responsibility in Hawaii and Japan and Hong Kong; Bali-mardana, responsibility for Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, the South Sea islands, and for book distribution in Southeast Asia.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was the first to go there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He invented Australia.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He invented Australia. (laughter)

Bali-mardana: It was only when your lotus feet touched Australia that it became worthwhile.

Prabhupāda: I was insisting, South Pacific organization.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Upset in Fiji. The Fijian government formed by the National Federation Party, which draws its support mainly from the people of Indian origin, will have to tread warily if it is to avert racial tension in the islands. It was by no means easy, even for the multiracial alliance party which hitherto ruled the South Pacific republic, to maintain harmony between the people of Indian origin who form fifty-one percent of the population, and the indigenous Melanesians. Its leader and the former Prime Minister Ratu Sir Pamish Nara had to strain every nerve to keep the extremist Melanesians in check."

Prabhupāda: The Prime Minister is lightie?

GBC Meets with Srila Prabhupada -- May 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Vāsudeva is Deoji Punja. He's the founder of our... He's building the temple in Fiji.

Prabhupāda: How many GBC's are there already?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Twenty-three.

Prabhupāda: So add him. GBC is not to be changed.

Satsvarūpa: But then, in the event that some present GBC member leaves, either leaves...

Prabhupāda: Another should be elected.

Conversation -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: These things you'll have to take.

Mr. Myer: He's not a (indistinct), so a very good manager...

Prabhupāda: He is the proper man.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This man is the biggest businessman in Lautoka, Fiji, and his brother is the mayor. And he became initiated disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda's, and personally he has organized a society there, collected all the funds and built a beautiful temple with Kṛṣṇa-Kāliya Deity.

Mr. Myer: That is where Yaśodā-nandana Mahārāja is going for the opening.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Mr. Myer: Fiji, yes. Very nice.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Maybe I should show you the pictures first. I've brought your glasses. These are the photographs, Śrīla Prabhupāda, of the Deities to be installed in Fiji. He's sending to you for your approval. First, this is Śrī-Śrī-Guru-Gaurāṅga in day dress.

Prabhupāda: First class. Just like life.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Phew. Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Very, very nice. They're superexcellent. Not only excellent but superexcellent.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Gaurāṅga.

Upendra: What are they made of?

Devotee: Plasticene.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fiji.

Upendra: Plasticene?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here comes the nāgapatnīs.

Prabhupāda: Fishlike.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Not dressed?

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "I have received your merciful letter, dated April 8th, in which you have instructed me to fashion Pañca-tattva vigraha for the Hawaii yātrā. You also revealed your desire to see photographs of the completed set of mūrtis for the Kṛṣṇa-Kāliya Mandir in Fiji. In regards to the Hawaii Deities, we have just now been able to begin the work, and it will be completed some time in the end of August. We have already received remuneration for fifty percent of the cost from Śrutakīrti dāsa. As far as the Kṛṣṇa-Kāliya temple vigrahas. I beg to inform you that they have been shipped two weeks ago along with two sets of dresses, one for the day and one for the night, for all of them. Enclosed please find a complete set of photographs of the Fiji mūrtis."

Prabhupāda: They're all superexcellent.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: These ones I'm showing now, they will be in a temple which has just been built in Fiji. It's going to be opened in August, and this will be one altar. These dolls are made by our own devotees. These are Deities, mūrtis, for installation.

Dr. Kapoor: Good doll. Very lifelike, huh? I first thought this was your photo.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just see how they've made these mūrtis.

Prabhupāda: Oh, they have made a statue—I am writing books like this, moving.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then there'll be... Central altar is Kṛṣṇa-Kāliya.

Dr. Kapoor: (laughing) Oh.

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

Prabhupāda: Bhagavad-gītā is...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They've all gone. Plus, we shipped a big order to Africa, to Fiji...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Africa said they never got theirs.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They got it, and I have a bill of lading. That was a completely bogus letter. I have all the evidence with me. Yes, I've got a bill of lading to show you. Fiji, Mauritius, they've all gone. Plus, I also wrote up a small catalog. This is a very cheap catalog, not like the American. A lot of people write to BBT for brochure or catalog. So this is costing us only about twenty-five paisa but advertises all your books.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So if I feel little strength, I shall go to Hawaii.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Via Fiji? No. Hong Kong, like that. Hong Kong, Tokyo, Hawaii. We have... In Hong Kong and Tokyo we have both places a house if you should desire to go and stop overnight. Both places we have a house in the countryside. It might be easier to stay overnight in a hotel, because it's more centrally located. Because we don't want to take a flight for very long. Hong Kong flight is not bad, I think maybe six, seven hours. Stay overnight. Then again to Tokyo is a short trip. And then Hawaii, another six hours. We can do like that. And Gurukṛpā knows the way very well there. Śrutakīrti will be coming here.

Room Conversation -- October 9, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That will be our excellent achievement. This is our mission, the... Whatever we have got, teach others. In this spread. The whole world is chanting. Did you recite the verses in Fiji?

Yaśodā-nandana: Yes. In Fiji we recited all those verses, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: They appreciated?

Yaśodā-nandana: Yes. People liked it very much. They had never heard before.

Prabhupāda: Very good. The Gurukula is meant for this purpose. Teach them and let them go around the world to teach. Taroho e bhava-sindhu. Durlabha mānava-janama sat-saṅge, taroho e bhava-sindhu re. This is our mission. Īśopaniṣad?

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: This painting shows Kṛṣṇa about to bifurcate the Bakāsura demon. This is Kṛṣṇa's first birthday, Janmāṣṭamī, and Mother Yaśodā and Rohiṇī are bathing Kṛṣṇa, abhiṣeka. This painting is Kṛṣṇa eating butter. (laughter) These are fourteen new paintings for one book. These are the first pictures from the Fiji temple opening. Yaśodā-nandana is performing the abhiṣeka for the small Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. They have so many metal bowls with different...

Hari-śauri: This abhiṣeka took us seven hours.

Prabhupāda: Fiji Island. (Bengali)

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Guest (1): Fiji Island.

Rāmeśvara: This is abhiṣeka of Kṛṣṇa-Kāliya.

Hari-śauri: This is Gaura-Nitāi here, and Kṛṣṇa-Kāliya is here at the front. This man here is that Bhaskaranya Swami, the local man. He came and chanted during the abhiṣeka. He stayed up until two in the morning with us, and he began chanting japa after that.

Rāmeśvara: This was the procession on the opening day. We marched the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities all over the neighborhood, through the center of the town, and hundreds of people followed. There was a shenai band.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There is Vāsudeva. Rāmeśvara.

Rāmeśvara: This the was agni-hotra ceremony on the day the temple opened.

Hari-śauri: Just after this, there was a huge rainstorm. Very successful.

Rāmeśvara: And this is the altar, with Kṛṣṇa-Kāliya and the Nāga-patnīs.

Hari-śauri: Should Kṛṣṇa be dressed very, very opulently like this, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: Yes. They had a question in Fiji. They wanted to know whether He should be dressed simply or opulently.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa-Kāliya temple (Bengali).

Rāmeśvara: This is Kṛṣṇa's birthday cake for Janmāṣṭamī in Los Angeles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Describe it.

Rāmeśvara: This cake weighs 2,000 pounds.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The cake, Śrīla Prabhupāda, weighs 2,000..., one ton. How high is it, Rāmeśvara?

Rāmeśvara: It is very tall.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How many feet? About fifteen feet high.

Room Conversation -- October 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That was my prediction. As they're importing ghee, milk, similarly, brāhmaṇa also. Go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya. That's nice proposal.

Hari-śauri: Jaya. Yaśodānandana can do it very nicely. He did it very expertly in Fiji.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: And the Indians there were very, very appreciative that the Western, white brāhmaṇas had done the installation. They were telling Vāsudeva that "Now we must take instructions from these men. They know the pūjā."

Prabhupāda: That is good proposal.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So do it carefully.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We just printed twenty thousand copies of a new Hindi Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Send to Fiji immediately.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I got a very nice letter from Vāsudeva. Every ship that goes to Fiji, we automatically send them books. Even if there is no order, we automatically send them. So they have a stock of Hindi books.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hari-śauri has finished distributing all the Gītās that you sent. They already ran out.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Another ship just left. Well, I sent as much as he had ordered.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They exhausted their stock.

Room Conversation -- October 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, I think if we take the help of this head priest it will be reliable. They can do it right in his presence. Smara-hari is also very good. He does all of the purchasing for Yaśodā-nandana Mahārāja, of whatever they purchase for Deities, whatever they purchase for ceremonies, for Fiji. This Smara-hari does all purchasing, and he also purchases medicines. He's been in India six years now, and he's known to that head priest. So if he can purchase, then he can bring it.

Prabhupāda: Prepare, an experienced...

Room Conversation -- October 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Kṛṣṇa-aṣṭamī. Lord Kṛṣṇa's celebration." Full center page. "A voyage of discovery." "A Christian tribute to Kṛṣṇa consciousness." There's a picture of Your Divine Grace here. It's an article reprinted from Back to Godhead. It says, "All material in this special feature taken from Back to Godhead, the official magazine of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness." This is all... It seems like what they have done... The same thing they did in Fiji, they have done there in South Africa. Because many of the articles... This is a whole..., also all about our society. All of these pages. "Hare Kṛṣṇa puzzle is unraveled." "Jagannātha car festival is one of the oldest in history." Then it tells about the program, how to get to the farm. Then he sent photographs. It's a very beautiful temple, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I don't know if you can see it. This is the temple. You see the white structure here? You can see it has arched domes? Not domes but arches.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) No sentiment—"Come on"—scientific challenge. (Bengali) No theory. (Bengali-Prabhupāda telling about Dr. Kapoor and scientific conference, Fiji, etc.) (Bengali) Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here is Kṛṣṇa-kāliya, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Ah. Jaya. (more Bengali conversation) What is that?

Śatadhanya: Well, this is the Bhāgavata-darśana in Bengali.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali conversation, with devotees showing Godbrothers various news-clippings, books, etc.) (break) Just get the curtain and try for urine. You read.

Śatadhanya: Yes, Prabhupāda. It's set, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)