Prabhupāda: No. In this country, of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, there was none. It is the first time. I have introduced. But in India it is very, very old, since the advent of Kṛṣṇa, and at least since last five thousand years. So Kṛṣṇa is very popular in India. In every home, Kṛṣṇa is worshiped, and there are many millions of temples of Kṛṣṇa in India and followers also. Followers means almost all Hindus are followers of Kṛṣṇa. They read this Bhagavad-gītā. So I have recently published Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. It is published by Macmillan Company, and this book is very nicely being received. It is being reviewed by several papers. I have got many others books. They are being gradually introduced. Perhaps you have seen in our counter. We have got books, magazines, calendar, and other literatures. So it is a very scientific movement.
First time (Conversations)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Here is a new boy, I see.
Viṣṇujana: He's very intelligent.
Prabhupāda: Hm. You have not taken prasādam? You have taken these fruits? This is the first time you come here?
Boy: Yes. (break)
Woman: If you live with people... If you live around people and they say offensive things, because they are ignorant or they are sinful as you say...
Prabhupāda: Try to excuse them.
Woman: Do I leave...
Prabhupāda: As far as possible.
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. All right. Kṛṣṇa will see. So you just give service to Kṛṣṇa, impressing people that these Kṛṣṇa conscious people are not hippies.
Miss Rose: Oh, yes! I told a lot of people. You know, Swamiji, the first time when I heard about 95 Glenville Avenue, the first time, a woman told me that, she says, "You know," she says, "gypsies, we have neighbors, gypsies on the street." "Gypsies! I haven't seen any gypsies." Well, I put my shoes. I went downstairs. I went to the door and I start reading. I says, "This is spiritual. This is beautiful. This is spiritual." I forgot right away. So she came to the door, Jadurani. She came to the door and she said, "Hare Kṛṣṇa," and she said, "Come in." I came in and she started talking to me and that's... I got started. So when I seen her, I said, "That's not gypsies.
Jayadvaita: No, not fifty pages. The manuscript pages, yesterday we composed about forty manuscript pages.
Prabhupāda: Correct, all? Complete?
Jayadvaita: Yes. The original... It's done twice. So those first pages, the first time, they'd already been done.
Prabhupāda: No, no. These forty pages, they are complete?
Jayadvaita: Yes. They are complete.
Prabhupāda: That's nice. That is encouraging. So even if you complete thirty pages daily, that will be very nice.
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Haṁsadūta: And here, Kṛṣṇa Book, is the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Prabhupāda calls it, "Kṛṣṇa: The Supreme Personality of Godhead." And it's full of illustrations which are done by his American students. Just see how beautiful. There are eighty-four full color illustrations that show the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa. So the people in the western world and for the first time in the history of the world will get an idea of who God is, what He looks like, what He does, where He's residing. This is the Kṛṣṇa Book, in two volumes. This is volume number one and this is volume number two. This is just a blueprint. We haven't got a printed copy yet. Then Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, which you must be familiar with, in the Teachings of Lord Caitanya and there are also illustrations although they're not color. They're black and white.
Guest (1): Śrī Tukārāma is disciple of Caitanya.
Prabhupāda: He also went through in Maharastra by His chanting, (indistinct)
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: 'Even those who are low-born, pāpa-yoni—the striya, vaiśya and śūdra, they are also included—but by accepting Me, accepting my shelter, they are also elevated to the transcendental position.' Now, why the higher class of Hindu society, they neglected this injunction of Bhagavad-gītā? Suppose one is pāpa-yoni. Kṛṣṇa says that 'They can be elevated to the transcendental position if they accept Me.' Why this propaganda was not done by the higher class people so that the so-called pāpa-yoni could be elevated? Why you rejected them? The result was that the Mohammedans... Instead of accepting them, you rejected them, and they have partitioned, and they have gone away, and they have become eternal enemy of India." You see? So this is the first time that we are trying to elevate to the highest position of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even one is in the pāpa-yoni. It doesn't matter because soul is pure. Asaṅgo 'yaṁ puruṣaḥ. The Vedas says, "The soul is untouched by any material contamination." Simply, temporarily, he is covered. This covering should be opened. Then he becomes pure. That is the mission of human life, to uncover ourselves from this material envelopment and come to the spiritual understanding, surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Life is perfect. (break?)
Prabhupāda: At least three months.
Dr. Singh: Three months.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (indistinct)
Dr. Singh: Do you come every year, or is this the first time you have come (indistinct)?
Prabhupāda: No. I came last year (indistinct). (indistinct) so I went back again to Los Angeles in (indistinct), in June.
Śyāmasundara: Moscow, Paris.
Dr. Singh: How did you find Moscow?
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like I went to America. So either in America or in India, I am the same man.
Bob: I have tried somewhat to follow since I met you the first time.
Prabhupāda: But follow... You must strictly follow if you are serious.
Bob: Maybe... O.K., maybe what I say now is the most foolish of all I've said, but let me tell you how I feel.
Prabhupāda: No, no, not foolish. I don't say foolish. But imperfect.
Bob: O.K., imperfect. But let me tell you. I feel that right now I admire and respect your devotees, but I don't feel as if I'm part of them or even a great desire to be part of them. I feel that I just want to do what is right and come closer to God, and if I just go to a better life next time, I'd be satisfied.
Prabhupāda: Very good life.
Author: No. I don't think you take my point. What I am saying is that... Let us imagine that the reader who picks up the book, this book that I am going to write, I hope, is very much like a person who sees the devotees dancing in the street, because he is seeing something for the first time. Now, it's necessary, surely, to describe the external and superficial features.
Prabhupāda: It is not superficial. This dancing is spiritual ecstasy. Otherwise it is not a dog's dance. You see? Any gentleman, if I ask you, "Please dance on this footpath," will you agree? It is not that dancing. You don't compare with that dancing. It is not dog's dance. They chant, they feel, they dance. That is another thing. You try to understand it. If they are coming from respectable families... Now, here is a boy. He is a professor. So if I ask him, "Please go and dance on the footpath," will he agree? A professor will agree? But when a professor dances, there is something. You should understand.
Karandhara: It's nice Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Yes. It is for, I mean to say, spiritual advancement is nice place.
Devotee (1): Today for the first time in many years it is the nicest.
Prabhupāda: Yes. What did he say?
Trivikrama: He said because you are here, Prabhupāda, it is very nice.
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) No. You have reached here last night?
Karandhara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: It is like our New Vrindaban. Eh?
Devotee (1): It is better.
Prabhupāda: It is taken outside, No.
Sumati Morarjee: No, inside, in the house.
Prabhupāda: Within the compound. That's right.
Sumati Morarjee: Here I have seen Ratha-yātrā, the first time in (indistinct). I had no idea. That day I arrived (laughter) . So I said, "What is all this?". There were so many people and all animal and all that, what is coming? So then I saw Ratha, I said, "This is Ratha-yātrā", near this place.
Devotee: Marble Arch?
Sumati Morarjee: No, no, no. I was passing Marble Arch, I (indistinct). I saw all the people. I said what, then I found out, I thought...
Prabhupāda: In San Francisco, we hold, very gorgeous.
Devotee: We're trying to get another place with bigger facilities. Now they're sleeping in the hallways practically.
Prabhupāda: You have got your own apartment?
Ian Polsen: I've just transferred down from Edinburgh on Friday for the first time. So I have not found a place yet. I'm staying in a hotel for the time being.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Devotee (2) (Kulaśekhara?): Śrīla Prabhupāda, he used to be a shepherd in France.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Devotee (2) (Kulaśekhara?): He used to be a shepherd three years ago. He used to be a shepherd for some years. And, ah, he was with a Muslim man who was telling him about sac-cid-ānanda, explaining to him about the philosophy of sac-cid-ānanda, about the soul and the spirit. So in Spain—that's where I first met him—he said, "I may appear to you to be a businessman, but also I've been known as a shepherd."
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The... In the first time when learn about the difference between the living and the nonliving, this is one of the very popular questions when we start biology: What is the difference between living and the nonliving? So they answer there are several points to differentiate between the two. And they say the living can move and the nonliving cannot grow or cannot move.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: And the living can reproduce like themselves.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The nonliving is not.
Prabhupāda: No. No.
Prabhupāda: No, you can attend here. You remain here.
Guest (3): And, you know, it was the first time she saw a sat-saṅga, first time in her life.
Prabhupāda: No, no, the wonderful thing is that this is a method of spiritual realization which attracts even a child. Unless one denies to be attracted, everyone is attracted. Even a child, even a dog. This is the... Therefore it is universal. Unless you deny to accept it, attraction is for everyone. If the child is innocent, he immediately exhibits his attraction.
Guest (3): I was really surprised when she said that, you know.
Prabhupāda: ...ten thousand participated.
Guest (1): ...my wife, she was with you, Swami.
Prabhupāda: Oh! I think, yes.
Guest (1): For the first time in two years, she has walked two miles.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Guest (1): It was only because of Your Grace.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes, it was three miles.
Guest (1): And she has never walked even three hundred yards.
Prabhupāda: I also, since I became sick, I was not walking. But that, I...
Guest (1): No, it was a game for us, you know. Actually, we asked to make arrangements for us to follow you, sit in the van and then follow you.
Prabhupāda: You often then really come here?
Guest (2): No.
Prabhupāda: This is first time you are coming?
Guest (2): First time I've been here, yeah.
Prabhupāda: Oh. What is this, "K.C.C. Ghee"?
Guest (1): Ghee.
Śrutakīrti: Ghee. I don't know where it's from.
Prabhupāda: K.C.C?
Śrutakīrti: Nairobi, Kenya. It was made and packed by...
Haṁsadūta: Brahmānanda.
Prabhupāda: That ghee, Nairobi, is very nice ghee.
Prabhupāda: Oh!
Devotee: They like. They had never come to the temple before. Just first time they came out. I said, "It is very difficult to understand."
Prabhupāda: So Bhagavān dāsa has gone?
Devotee: Yes, he went this morning.
Devotee: Two gentlemen were supposed to come, but I think they were afraid.
Prabhupāda: Afraid? Why?
Devotee: Well, guru, they have to surrender to guru. They must surrender. So it's difficult sometimes for them to come.
Prabhupāda: But it is compulsory? (laughter) They can come. It is not the question of surrender. (break)
Prabhupāda: I am Bengali.
Cardinal Danielou: It is...
Prabhupāda: He's a linguist scholar.
Cardinal Danielou: Yes, very scholar. It is first time you visit France?
Prabhupāda: This is the third time.
Bhagavān: Third time, trois.
Cardinal Danielou: Trois fois, trois fois, trois fois.
Yogeśvara: Our spiritual master was very interested when I informed him that you have had several meetings with political leaders of France as well, that you have, that your interests extend into government and politics as well as religion.
Cardinal Danielou: Yes, yes.
Prabhupāda: No. He has already questioned once, that I am making brāhmaṇa—whether it is according to śāstra?
Professor: That's the usual question. That's not the first time this question has been asked to you.
Prabhupāda: No, it is... We do not do anything which is not in śāstra. So this Jābāla Upaniṣad, this Satyakāma Jābāla, he went to Gautama Muni for initiation. So Gautama Muni asked him, "Who is your father?" He replied that he did not know. "So ask your mother." The mother was asked also. She said, "No, I do not know." He came to Gautama Muni and said that, "My father's name is neither known to my mother nor to me."
Professor: You had a yātrā, I guess, in San Francisco, didn't you?
Prabhupāda: Yes, Ratha-yātrā, yes.
Professor: That was for the first time in '68, I guess.
Prabhupāda: This time I was present in the Ratha-yātrā. Yesterday, they were showing me the film. It was very successful. Ten thousand people participated.
Professor: In San Francisco, eh?
Prabhupāda: No, in London.
Professor: In London? When?
Prabhupāda: This July 8th.
Professor: This year?
Prabhupāda: Now why you are asking this question? You know, I've explained, that one has to become brāhmaṇa. There are still there are many brāhmaṇas, those who are with children. Even Caitanya Mahāprabhu, although He had no children, He was family man. Nityānanda Prabhu was family man, and Advaita Prabhu was family man. They're all brāhmaṇas, family men, but they knew what is God. The real thing is to know God. Not to, because everything is allowed. These eight, four varṇas and four āśramas. There is no such thing that one has to become, to come to this form of life or that form of life. So varṇāśramācaravatā. You must execute the varṇāśrama-dharma. Then you'll understand. It doesn't matter whether you are a brāhmaṇa or kṣatriya or vaiśya or śūdra, that is a cooperation. Just like in your body there must be the head, there must be the arms, there must be the belly, and there must be the legs. By comparative study head is more important than the leg. But leg is also required. You cannot do without leg. Similarly, brāhmaṇa is the head, kṣatriya is the arms, vaiśya is the belly and śūdra is the leg. So as much I require my head so much I require the leg also. But the leg must do the leg's duty and the head must do the head's duty. Then it is perfect. And if the head is cracked, then everything is gone, madman. So at the present moment there is no brāhmaṇa, qualified. Therefore the society is in chaos. In chaotic condition, all are searching after something substantial. That is the position of the Western countries. They have heard so many things about India's culture. Still, they respect India's culture, spiritual culture. They are hankering after. But unfortunately the so-called yogis, swamis, come and cheat them. That is the difficulty. This is the first time that systematically we are presenting what is actual Vedic dharma or Bhāgavata-dharma.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prajāpati: Everything looks brand new, looks very different.
Prabhupāda: Ah?
Prajāpati: This is the first time we've gone this direction, everything looks different, looks like a total different place.
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) This is material life. We are rounding sometimes this way, sometimes that way, and we are thinking "new." (devotees laugh) Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona (CC Madhya 19.151). In this way you are wandering all over the universe. Find out something new. But there is nothing new. Everything is old. (break) ...a living entity is offered change of the body. You see? When he becomes fatigued of this life, "It's so troublesome"—old men generally think like that. So he has to change another, another new body, child. Since born he is taken care, he thinks "Now, I have got so comfortable life." And again becomes old, disgusted, so he cannot live disgusting, therefore Kṛṣṇa is so kind: "All right, change body again." Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). Chewing the chewed. The business is the same, but changing body gives some relief. Just like these men, the business is they're wasting time by changing, wasting time at home, come to the golf club. That's all. The business is the same—wasting time, either here or there.
Hanumān: ...and they had some temples there in Rio Janeiro and San Pablo, and they were followers of Gaurasundara and Siddha-svarūpa. And I think they're still there. And when I was there they were making kīrtana, and they were chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. In the middle of their kīrtana, they would stop their kīrtana, and they would chant "Jaya jaya Siddha-svarūpa," and "Jaya jaya Gaurasundara." So I could not do anything. I told them it was all wrong and everything, and uh... But there is many, many innocent people who are following. They go there for the first time and they make them chant "Jaya jaya Siddha-svarūpa" and "Jaya jaya Gaurasundara," like this. So we were telling, we were talking with...
Prabhupāda: There is no harm in giving "jaya" to Vaiṣṇavas provided they follow the Vaiṣṇava principles. Otherwise, to glorify Vaiṣṇava is not bad. (pause) No, no "jaya" to Mahāprabhu, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu? They chanted?
Prabhupāda: That is philosophy. Darśana. Darśana means search out what is the ultimate. Jñānī ca bharatarṣabha (BG 7.16). Catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtino 'rjuna, ārto 'rthārthī jñānī ca bharatarṣabha, arto 'rthārthī jijñāsur jñānī ca bharatarṣabha. These are philosophers. Even the ārtaḥ, even a distressed person, he is praying to the Supreme Authority, "My God, I am very much hungry. Kindly give me my daily bread." He's also philosopher, because he's searching out the Absolute Truth. He's philosopher. Not this Freud rascal, elaborating how to have sex life. So this kind of philosopher, they... What is called? In Bengali: vane haye śṛgāla rājā.(?) "In the jungle a jackal becomes a king." So because western people, they have no... They're all less than śūdras. So a Freud has become a philosopher. Vane haye śṛgāla rājā. "In the jungle, the jackal has become a king." That's all. What is knowledge there? It is that... The whole western world is going on for industry, for making money, eat, drink, be merry, wine and women. That's... They're all less than śūdras and caṇḍālas. This is the first time attempt is being made to make them human beings. Don't mind. I am using very strong words. That is the fact.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest: Not by begging or mercy. Even the Gujarat, the people people which they have done, how they have got this liberty or whatever it is, is all by fighting, by firing back to government. Otherwise the government has the majority of the assembly. Congress Party (indistinct). How they will resolve it? It is the first time there is a majority of the members of assembly could be resolved because people do not want it. It's unconstitutional, but yet, (indistinct) constitutional method has been adopted because they...
Prabhupāda: And they have smashed the speaking.
Guest: Yes.
Yaśomatīnandana: The Hindustan people lied doing that.
Guest: Nothing lied. They will say a lie is nothing for the sake of liberty.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...stress on Kṛṣṇa. And they have written so many commentaries on the Bhagavad-gītā. And this is the first time, we have given.
Indian Man (1): Yes, very good. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...spoken. If somebody writes an ordinary book, one studies his life, his characters and everything, the authors. And these rascal will not study Kṛṣṇa. And they will comment upon Kṛṣṇa. Just see. Nobody is interested about the life of Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...the author, there is short sketch of life. But nobody writes Kṛṣṇa's life. You see? Nobody writes.
Satsvarūpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda writes.
O'Grady: This is my friend, Michael Robert (indistinct) We are colleagues together since we teach literature, English literature. And this is another friend of ours who has just come from Greece. Everybody seems to be traveling within the last twenty-four hours. This is a young painter friend of mine, Bob Jackson, also from Ireland, whose first time in Italy, out of Ireland, and he's staying with me at the moment. He came back with me from Ireland just a few weeks ago.
Prabhupāda: We are also writing books, so many. You have seen our books?
O'Grady: I have seen some, yes, because some of the friends have come up and...
Prabhupāda: Some of the books, you can show him. Here is one book, Bhagavad-gītā.
Yogeśvara: You have seen the Bhagavad-gītā, haven't you, in English?
O'Grady: Oh, yes, but not this particular edition.
Yogeśvara: This we just recently published in German, a German edition. (Yogeśvara discusses books with O'Grady for a minute)
Professor Durckheim: May I put a question, master? On the way there should be progress, inner progress. How to realize that there is a progress? I would say one thing is very important. There are three sufferings in the world of mankind: fear of annihilation, despair if you are taken by something which is absurd, and loneliness, if you are alone. These three sufferings in the world for the natural being. I realize that you make a decisive step on your inner way when you feel life in the very moment when you have to die, when you feel the great meaning in the very moment when you are just having despair, and when you feel the great love of the person God exactly while you are a lonely in the world. And I have realized that we are now in a very decisive moment in the western world because for the first time in the history of mankind, the western people, in Europe and the States, start to take seriously certain experiences, inner experiences, where this truth is revealed. In all times, as far as I see, the great condition of the east, they knew about those experiences where death loses its terrifying character and becomes the threshold to some bigger life. And I always see with also my disciples, as soon as they learn to go through some kind of death, they awake on a new level. So I will say if people are in my place and after a week, they still sleep very well, then I have made a mistake. About that sleep, just to realize something in overcoming their usual needs, their usual fears, their usual habits, in order to touch inwardly another level, and then suddenly they realize there is some quite different principle at work as they see usually in their natural mind.
Prabhupāda: So that different principle, for a devotee is already realized. Because a devotee never thinks of this body, that "I am this body." He thinks "I am...," ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am spirit soul." So without that realization, there is no question of devotional life. So that is first understood. That instruction is being given by Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna, that "You are considering very seriously on this body, but a learned man does not take this body very seriously, either dead or alive." That is the first realization. So everyone in this world, they are concerned with this body, dead or alive.
Prabhupāda: You can advertise in paper. You will get good orders.
Bhagavān: They have said that this Aurobindo copy, this is almost out of print now.
Devotee (1): There is no edition of Bhagavad-gītā like your edition ever in France. This is the first time.
Prabhupāda: Aurobindo is hodgepodge. It is simply vocabulary. No concrete contribution. Simply words. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). In order to learn the science, one must go to the bona fide guru. Otherwise it is not possible. In the Bhagavad-gītā, find this verse.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: They do not know. What can be done. Mūḍho 'yaṁ nābhijānāti (BG 7.25). They do not know that behind everything there is a supreme power. He'll punish. "Never mind, we shall be punished." You'll become dog. "Oh what is the wrong if I become a dog?" They say like that, "What is the wrong?" He thinks that "I'll get good facilities for sex. There will be no need of apartment. I'll save the rent. To become a dog and have sex life on the street, it is good facility." This is going on.
Guest (2): I have some few questions which I have come here to ask. Permit me to ask, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: What is that question? Who can answer.
Guest (2): I came in your temple first time in 1970 in Toronto. And, that time, I was just like other Indians, what I think, but I... (end)
Prabhupāda: It is, it... There is no question of "but." Kṛṣṇa says that man-manā bhava mad bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). If you do not do that, then what is the use of your reading Bhagavad-gītā? Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityaja mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. If you do not follow these instructions of Kṛṣṇa, then where do you, why do you waste your time reading Bhagavad-gītā, and mislead others? That is our protest. All these misleaders... Perhaps, throughout the whole world, it is the first time—we are preaching Bhagavad-gītā as it is. We are the only institution in the world that we are preaching Bhagavad-gītā as it is, and people are liking it. Before that, for the last two hundred years, so many swamis, yogis and..., they tried to preach Hindu philosophy, Vaiṣṇavism. Not a single person was a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, not a single person.
Carol: To surrender?
Prabhupāda: If I ask you that you surrender. I am meeting you for the first time. Would you like to surrender?
Carol: Yes.
Prabhupāda: I don't think. (laughter)
Carol: To want to and to do it is different.
Prabhupāda: No, unless you are fully aware of my abilities, qualities, why should you surrender? (indistinct) So, before surrendering, one has to study the person where he is going to surrender. Then he surrenders. That is real surrender. And blindly surrender, that will not stay. So, our first business is to surrender to God; therefore we must know what is God. Then you must surrender. And, the emotion is good. That means you are advanced. If you understand that God is giving us everything. So, that emotion is very good. If one from the very beginning becomes emotional, "Oh, God is so kind. God is so great, that He is giving us everything, our necessities. I must serve Him."
Prabhupāda: No, what changing? They are preparing for war again. Where is changing? A slight provocation, there may be war.
Guest 1: Yes, but people are changing now. You're getting the young people who for the first time in years are becoming aware and are getting interested in things outside their own town, their own individual state or whatever it is they have. You have people, the young people now are getting interested in things like poverty, they're interested in Bangladesh and so on. This is good. But you nonetheless have a very large proportion of the people who have got that idea of, "I'm all right, and I'll look after mine without taking the overall picture into account." And I think that so long as you have different concepts, different beliefs, it's going to be very hard to get into what you're talking about.
Prabhupāda: Balance is that you should be reciprocal exchange. What you haven't got, you give me; what I haven't got, I give you. This should be the process of exchange. Then the world will be united. When there is exchange of gifts. But our India followed the principle for begging. "Give me men. Give me money. Give me wheat. Give me rice. Give me war materials." Simply begging. So we must give something. This is the first time we are giving something. Otherwise, India was a beggar simply to the western countries. For their technical education they are going to the western countries, and when there is war, they are asking America, "Please give us war materials." And when they give war materials to Pakistan we become envious. But you are also taking rice, ḍāl for this(?). So why should you remain beggar?
Bali-mardana: In your books.
Prabhupāda: Oh, you have got my books?
Guest (2): That's amazing. For the first time I can see you really.
Gurukṛpa: You have got our books?
Guest (2): Yes, I have got some at home, and I read some of them too.
Guest (1): What do you say about the weather or the sun or what... You just were talking before she interrupted.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Weather is changing. Weather is changing. Śītoṣṇa, it is called śītoṣṇa. Sometimes it is cold; sometimes it is hot.
Guest (2): Can I ask you where you come from?
Brahmānanda: He has in Florida, Key Biscayne. He had two homes, one in Florida, one in California. But now he's staying in Florida. Recently he went to New York and testified before a committee. It's the first time that he has spoken publicly since his...
Prabhupāda: What is that committee?
Brahmānanda: They were investigating the Watergate.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, he had to present himself.
Brahmānanda: Yes. It's the first time any ex-chief executive has ever testified.
Prabhupāda: So he is not out of danger.
Brahmānanda: Well, they're still investigating the whole thing.
Prabhupāda: So far Kṛṣṇa consciousness is concerned, you can take it: since five thousand years, when Kṛṣṇa was present, He gave this instruction. But it existed before Kṛṣṇa's instruction. About forty millions of years ago He gave this instruction to the sun-god. That is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā:
- imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ
- proktavān aham avyayam
- vivasvān manave prāha
- manur ikṣvākave 'bravīt
- (BG 4.1)
So if we take up the statement of Bhagavad-gītā, then five thousand years ago this was spoken for the second time, and first time it was spoken forty millions of years ago. Therefore it is permanent, not that something new. It is existing eternally. Sometimes we are missing, and sometimes we are accepting, but it is existing eternally. You cannot trace out the history.
Jayatīrtha: Besides that, when they come, usually someone calls them a rascal. (laughs) So they don't like to come.
Prabhupāda: No, no, don't say. (break) This is the first time I come here.
Brahmānanda: Golden Gate Park?
Prabhupāda: Yes, Golden Gate. What happened about that house?
Citsukhānanda: We are still trying to negotiate, Prabhupāda. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...university. It is almost like, not so big. You were in, anyone? Paris?
Brahmānanda: Yes, Sorbonne. I've been there, yes.
Prabhupāda: Not so big.
Prabhupāda: He is sleeping? He does not see?
Akṣayānanda: Yes. I am considering to become the temple commander myself, because it's not the first time this has happened. So many things have gone wrong. Too many. So I think I will do it myself.
Prabhupāda: Then? You will be everything.
Akṣayānanda: Because I cannot find anyone more suitable, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: And he is the suitable man. (break) (Hindi)
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Tell him that we had heard he had come and you are free now so he can... Tell him what time.
Prabhupāda: Hm? He went there?
Prabhupāda: And he is considered to be a great scholar in Bhagavad-gītā, and when cow protection was requested, he said that "How can I do it? It is their religious principle." And he is a great big scholar in Bhagavad-gītā. All nonsense, going on. Whole world is full of nonsense, mūḍhas, beginning from Gandhi to any rascal, all of them, rascals. Perhaps it is the first time we are detecting, "Here are all rascals." It is first time. Then we are enemy of everyone. We call everyone rascal-Gandhi rascal, Vivekananda rascal, Aurobindo rascal. So actually they are, but people are thinking, "These people say all big, big men rascals? Therefore they are rascals."
Cyavana: The average man doesn't have the intelligence to discriminate between an intelligent man and a fool. He will listen to anyone.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...the other day, before Mr. Nanda, that how brāhmaṇa can be from any family. He did not know. No rascal informed him before me. Therefore he was a little surprised. He was also mixed with Anandamaya, this māyā, that... And nobody informed him. He was kept in darkness. That was the first time that he could understand that cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13)—brāhmaṇa can be prepared from anywhere. The whole India is under the impression that brāhmaṇa can be prepared..., brāhmaṇa is manufactured in India and the son of a brāhmaṇa is a brāhmaṇa.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This is propagated by the brāhmaṇas themselves, isn't it?
Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, this is the current idea. (break) ...culture is meant for everyone... (end)
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Brahmānanda: ...and so the water is getting less. It is controlled.
Prabhupāda: And who is controlling? It is not under my control. First time I wanted to go, I could not. But this time I can. So under whose control? It is my control or somebody else?
Brahmānanda: Well, they will say "automatic control."
Prabhupāda: What is that "automatic"? That is their stupidity. Everything is being done under control. What is the automatic? (Break) ...automatic means you have to wait for that automatic control. You cannot do.
Yaśomatīnandana: Yes. That they will not do because they know they can make money by quoting Bhagavad-gītā. People will not accept anybody if they openly say that they don't believe in Bhagavad-gītā.
Prabhupāda: That was going on. It is the first time. We are pressing: "You must take it seriously." It is the first time. Otherwise this was going on, at least for the last two hundred years.
Yaśomatīnandana: And then when we say that a devotee goes to Vaikuṇṭha, this and that, "Oh, Vaikuṇṭha and all those things are just myth, just baloney."
Prabhupāda: You are authority, you rascal. You are authority. Everything is myth, you are simply truth. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya.
Harikeśa: Reality and...
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Ācchā.
Bhavānanda: And he is the one who asked me, "Who is behind this case?" He asked me when we brought him from Krishnanagar. Because he is considered the best lawyer in Nadia, so we brought him in, and as we were leaving, after the first time I appeared, he said, "There is someone... This man is a farmer, laborer. Who has put him up to this? There is someone behind this." So he asked me, "Was it Śrīdhara? Someone of the Gauḍīya Maṭha is behind this." But he came last night with them, this lawyer, old man, he came with them. So they were definitely the ones behind it.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Yes. Yes. I gave him five thousand and I ordered him fifty-two thousand. And I told him, "The money will come." And he said that "Five thousand he is giving advance. Money will come." So they immediately published Kṛṣṇa book, forty thousand dollar worth.
Sudāmā: And they told me, Śrīla Prabhupāda, later, that that was the first time in the history of their company that they would ever make any such concession.
Prabhupāda: They told?
Sudāmā: Yes. Mr. Ogata and Mr. Kugimoto said, "Somehow by his... He is such a great man, His Divine Grace, somehow we accepted." They were surprised. Remember when he went?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They were mystified by you, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I was scheming, "Whether I shall go this way, through Tokyo, Japan, or that way? Which way is cheaper?" That was my plan. And I was targeting to New York always. Sometimes I was dreaming that I have come to New York. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Bengali ) (aside:) We cannot accept food from the demons. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...supplied at least nice food. (break) You are the first time here?
Indian man (1): Yes.
Prabhupāda: How do you like?
Indian man (1): Very nice.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...purify the whole atmosphere. (break) ...world we are all condemned. Still, Kṛṣṇa has given so many facilities. There is a Bengali proverb. Bondhīr astekur bhaga.(?) Ast kur(?) means the place of garbage. If a aristocrat asks that "You have to live in my garbage place," "Oh, that is also better." Similarly, Kṛṣṇa.... This is garbage. This material world is garbage. Still, we live so comfortably. Now just imagine what is His dhāma. It is the garbage tank. Still so nice. And just think what is His real place, Goloka Vṛndāvana. (break)
Prabhupāda: All of them are South African?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, actually, he's from South Africa and he's from South Africa. These two devotees are going down for the first time, and Jagat-guru was preaching there once before.
Prabhupāda: So they will get visa?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They don't require visa except for Jagat-guru. He's British, he's Canadian. He's South African boy. He's South African.
Prabhupāda: Oh, they don't require visa.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Only Jagat-guru dāsa, American.
Prabhupāda: Oh. So he'll get visa?
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā. So because he accepted discipleship, so He immediately chastised him that "You rascal, you are talking like a very learned man, but you are on the platform of bodily conception of life, the platform of the animals." Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). Anyone who accepts this body as self, he's animal. He's not even a human being. So the whole world is on this bodily concept of life. That is going on. "American," "European," "Hindu," "Muslim," "black," "white," this, that. They do not know what is education. That is the first education, that "You rascal, you are not this body. You are within the body." So who understands this? And they're declaring that "We are student of Bhagavad-gītā. We have studied Bhagavad-gītā." Hmm? Even Gandhi, he takes photograph with Bhagavad-gītā, but his fighting is for nationalism. The others are doing that. So what is the use of taking Bhagavad-gītā? The Pakistanis are also doing that. But you have taken Bhagavad-gītā, you are doing the same work. So what is your credit? This is going on. So nobody is learning Bhagavad-gītā. It is first time that we are teaching Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Otherwise, everyone is misled. The subject matter is that the soul is different from this body.
Prabhupāda: I am also thinking of their fresh vegetables and fresh milk. (devotees laugh) Which is not avail...
Hayagrīva: Remember the first time you came out, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Hayagrīva: Remember the first time you came? You walked up the road. Our car, we tried to take you in the car, but it didn't work, it broke. Power wagon.
Kīrtanānanda: It got stuck.
Prabhupāda: All fresh vegetable, fresh milk, this is celestial. Who has got the opportunity in the city? Automatically. (noise like drums in background)
Devotee: Some kind of parade.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughs)
Ambarīṣa: Yes, it is not far. We're having Ratha-yātrā in Boston for the first time this year, and we're going to take the Ratha carts down to Commonwealth Pier in honor of your arrival.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughs) There is one A.P. store?
Ambarīṣa: A P?
Prabhupāda: A-P, A-P store.
Ambarīṣa: Market? Yes, it's still there.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that I saw first. (laughter) I remember.
Ambarīṣa: So there are many nice projects going on in Boston. We are hoping that maybe sometime you can come. That would be very nice.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. From New York it is not...
Prabhupāda: Yes. They are now asking... In Melbourne the priest asked me, "Swamiji, why Christian religion is dwindling? What we have done?" I told them, "What you have not done?" (laughs) They were little insulted.
Hari-śauri: That first time you visited that monastery, the man that was in charge, the head monk there, after you had visited, a short while later he left and he went to India looking for enlightenment.
Prabhupāda: Perhaps it was some shock when I said that "What you have not done?" They received me very well. (break)
Kīrtanānanda: Altogether about an hour and half. About forty-five minutes more.
Prabhupāda: What is being done with Hayagrīva's house?
Kīrtanānanda: This is our farm up in here. Lord Jagannātha is staying there now while He is ill. Our big Lord Jagannātha is going to Cleveland tomorrow for Ratha-yātrā festival.
Prabhupāda: Oh. It is the first time?
Kīrtanānanda: Yes. They have a big cart, and they will go down the main street.
Prabhupāda: How far it is?
Kīrtanānanda: How far to Cleveland? About 130 miles. (break) Our land is on the left side.
Prabhupāda: Oh. So this land, how you are utilizing it?
Kīrtanānanda: We are growing a kind of grass, sudan grass. Then we cut that and put it in the tall silos for the cows to eat in the winter.
Kīrtanānanda: Seeing your palace here is almost like seeing the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple for the first time.
Prabhupāda: Yes. In Raman Reti there was no temple. Similarly, in this quarter there was no such building. Many people will come to see it.
Kīrtanānanda: They already do, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes, I can understand.
Kīrtanānanda: Many people come by every week to see what progress has been made. And everybody who drives by, they stop.
Prabhupāda: Yes, it is something wonderful in this quarter.
Kīrtanānanda: You can drive fifty miles away around here and they'll stop and ask you about how's the palace coming.
Devotee: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Changing New Vrindaban. It is already organized, New Vrindaban? (in car:) Little further.
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is not for India. He is for everyone because He is God. He claims that "I am the seed-giving father for all living entities." Not only the human society, but also other living entities like the aquatics, the insects, the plants, and the animals, all living entities. He says, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). Everything is there, but this cult of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or Bhagavad-gītā as it is, was not preached properly. Everyone interpreted Bhagavad-gītā in his own way to satisfy his own whims. We are just trying for the first time to present Bhagavad-gītā as it is, and it is being effective. So it is not a different role. It is the actual role. Nobody tried for it. Therefore Kṛṣṇa was unknown, but we are trying for this for the few years. But because it is reality, it is being accepted. It is being accepted. No attempt was made that. So it is not a new role. The role is already there: to preach. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's vision.
Prabhupāda: I want to stay, but...
Rūpānuga: ...cannot. (to Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:) On the other side, it works. This Washington temple actually is one of your oldest centers, but this is the first time you have been able to come when facilities were proper.
Prabhupāda: Indians are coming?
Rūpānuga: Yes.
Prabhupāda: They come on the Love Feast?
Rūpānuga: They come to the Sunday feast.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Has there ever been debates on the authenticity of modern science, or is this the first time modern science has been challenged in the world?
Prabhupāda: India, Vedic civilization never cared for anything which is searched out by imperfect human beings. They never cared for it. Because he knows the man who is searching after, he's imperfect. Whatever he'll do, that is imperfect. Therefore neglect it. That is Vedic civilization. Śruti-pramāṇa: whether it is evident from the śrutis, from the Vedas. Otherwise, they reject it.
Vipina: Prabhupāda, if spiritual life and Kṛṣṇa are stronger than māyā, then how is it that religion was ever overcome to the extent it is now? In Kali-yuga it's so much neglected, whereas in past ages we learn that it wasn't neglected. How is it that māyā got such a stronghold?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: There's one strange point here about calculating this that dawn of Brahmā about two billion years old. Now strangely these geological calculations, they also claim that at that time the first free oxygen in the air appeared, first time. The beginning there was no free oxygen. We can accept that? (laughter) Now from here, anyway, this is the basic point, that once this oxygen appeared, free oxygen, then the living entities began to appear slowly. That is the whole theory of this chemical evolution. The results for the chronology is just put it that dawn of Brahmā is two billion years old?
Prabhupāda: You can carefully read the Second Canto, Bhāgavatam, Third Canto. You'll get all the knowledge, how things develop. It is a question of development. So maybe there was something missing, but after development it is manifested there. That is possible.
Prabhupāda: My talk with Professor Kotovsky?
Dr. Sukla: Yes.
Indian devotee: Actually, other Indians also commented they appreciate it very much. That was the first time I started association, then I came to realize, ah, my direction, I was fooling around with Vivekananda.
Prabhupāda: Now other professors you have to assure that higher appreciation. Any scholar will appreciate. Apart from religious point of view, from scholarly point of view, they like it.
Dr. Sukla: I think you should maybe some day in the future also put out a grammar, Sanskrit grammar, whether yourself you write or somebody.
Prabhupāda: Grammar?
Mr. Boyd: That's not what I find in the backyard. That was the first time I'd seen one. They indicated that the day before, they'd walked by there and was startled, there was an elephant standing under it. First time they'd seen one. Of course, you know, it's out of environment, if all of a sudden you see one, you don't realize it. I didn't realize it either, but in India elephants are commonplace. But it's not common for me to be in India. (laughter) I was very impressed with the cleanliness of the country, though, in that area.
Prabhupāda: Hm, very nice pictures.
Mr. Boyd: The two that were taken in Philadelphia, they are not what I call quality work, but are the best I could do and run. You didn't sit still too long.
Prabhupāda: This child is your daughter's son?
Mr. Boyd: No, that little fellow came from Germany.
Prabhupāda: She has got children? No.
Prabhupāda: ...to keep their service in order. This is going on, all cheating. To keep people in darkness and exploit them. The so-called swamis exploiting, yogis exploiting, politician exploiting, scientists exploiting, philosophers exploiting. What is the position of the world? And this is the opportunity, human life, to know everything, to solve all the problems. They are not given the opportunity, they are kept in darkness. The demons. "There is no God, science is everything, life is produced from chemicals, and there is no living entities on other planets." They are simply show. This planet is full of..., it is all scientists, and they are vacant. And we have to believe that. Perhaps for the first time I am raising protest against all this nonsense.
Prabhupāda: Hmm. Still more?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. "After the sermon, more chanting. Now it really becomes frantic, and even compelling. Many curious first-time visitors begin to take up the mahāmantra chant. The hard-core group at the shrine seems to be completely carried away. The terrazo floor literally vibrates. Gradually the crowd begins to thin. Other things are happening in the center. On the third floor there is a traditional Vedic play in costume, acted with enthusiasm." (sound of kīrtana)
Hari-śauri: It's going downstairs somewhere, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Ādi-keśava: They're getting everybody together to go out on saṅkīrtana party.
Prabhupāda: No, it was in the dictionary.
Bali-mardana: But many people had never heard it before you brought it.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And also the dictionary definition is not perfect.
Bali-mardana: The first time I heard Kṛṣṇa was from Allen Ginsberg.
Prabhupāda: He went to India?
Bali-mardana: And he learned it from you.
Hari-śauri: Generally in the dictionary they say Kṛṣṇa is one of the Hindu trilogy, gods. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...moha janmani.(?) This world is anitya; you cannot stay here. That is sure, and still we are attached. We make so many arrangements...
Prabhupāda: They are on the same plane, but different consciousness.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't think she was the senior editor that was supposed... (break) ...someone like her that...
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The first time they've ever heard such things in any case. Even if they are religious by Western standards, they've never heard such things before, "I'm not this body." She'd never heard it.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No one has any knowledge at all about religion.
Prabhupāda: Mūḍha. That is the general statement, mūḍha.
Cyavana: They see our movement as being material.
Prabhupāda: Because they have no other conception than material.
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa said to Arjuna, "My dear Arjuna, this Bhagavad-gītā philosophy or yoga system, first of all I spoke to the sun-god. And then he spoke to his son, Manu. Then Manu spoke to his son Ikṣvāku." In this way the knowledge comes down from the spiritual master to the disciple or from the father to the son. So unless one comes in this disciplic succession, he cannot become guru. Therefore I do not know all of them. All the swamis and yogis who came here, they do not belong to this paramparā system, so therefore they are not bona fide guru. They are presenting themselves as guru, but they are not guru. Therefore people are misled. People are misled, and this is the first time that we presented India's traditional philosophy and life as it is understood by the paramparā system. Therefore it is being so well received. Vivekananda came here, as you said, 1893, before my birth. I was born in 1896. But they have worked for, say, eighty-five years. What they have done? But I have worked here for seven or eight years. And it is now worldwide movement. Why? Because we presented the things as they are. Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam (BG 4.2). Therefore it is effective. So if the things are presented as they are, the customers will automatically come.
Prabhupāda: Gandhiji has preached or Dr. Radhakrishna has written, but who has preached that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is to be worshiped? Just like we are preaching. Here in America, you have seen our temple? How they are worshiping Kṛṣṇa. So Bhagavad-gītā, main purpose is that. Kṛṣṇa says sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). So who has preached this? So, although they came, so many swamis, yogis, and politicians, they came, but they talked, what can I say? All irrelevant. Nobody spoke that "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. You worship Him." Nobody has said. This is the first time, I am saying. Do you agree or not?
Interviewer: Yes. Do you think that this is because of the Western influence under which they have gone and you are...?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Bali-mardana: Our building can go on.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You know, Prabhupāda, we have never... I mean, you started this movement here in New York, but this is the first time that we have a proper facility.
Prabhupāda: Yes, in the last ten years there was no facility.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, Prabhupāda. That's why if you concentrated here, just by your presence, even if you only spoke to a few important gentlemen... We have so many senior men here. We could do wonderful things. Within two or three months we could expand our movement so broadly here in New York, I think the whole country would take note. I really feel that there is a great potential.
Prabhupāda: That is right.
Jayatīrtha: You sure you're comfortable this way? We can bring a chair.
Cline Cross: Yes, I can... No, a chair would give the wrong atmosphere.
Prabhupāda: So you are observing our movement?
Cline Cross: Yes, really for the first time at close quarters.
Prabhupāda: First time? We are here for the last seven years.
Cline Cross: Yes, I know a little about you, but it's only in the last hour that I've really begun to learn.
Jayatīrtha: We showed him the movie,
Prabhupāda: Your paper is Observer. Why did you not observe for the last seven years? (laughter)
Hari-śauri: The varṇāśrama system. It's very good.
Prabhupāda: This instruction of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was never given before in the Western countries. This is the first time.
George Harrison: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Therefore they're appreciating. We are selling our books daily sixty thousand dollars. All over the world.
Mukunda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you're going to outdo Shakespeare soon. You'll have written more English words than William Shakespeare. (Prabhupāda laughs) Maybe you already have.
Hari-śauri: I don't think Shakespeare's brought out fifty-six books.
Mukunda: The Encyclopedia Brittanica wrote to us asking for...
Prabhupāda: They have said...
Prabhupāda: Who?
Hari-śauri: It doesn't give who is speaking, just the quotes. "The editor's vast and deep study of the subject and critical insight are reflected in these notes. We have no doubt that with the publication of these volumes of the rightful interpretations of the Bhāgavatam, which has been the gift of Śrī Caitanya and His Gosvāmī followers, has now been available to the English-knowing world for the first time. The elaborate method is very helpful to the ardent student of Bhāgavatam who lack in Sanskrit language. It is admitted in all hands that Bhāgavatam is the most difficult text amongst the Purāṇas. The author richly deserves the gratitude of the devotees for his pious learned labor of love." And another one.
Prabhupāda: They do not know. They do not know what is God, what is Godhead. They think all these are fictitious. Throughout the whole world they do not know what is God. Simply they know the word, that's all. What it means they do not know. That we are giving. Here is God. Godhead. Nobody knows, nobody cares to know. That is nescience. They think it is an idea, that's all. Actually there is God, there is kingdom of God, one can go and speak with Him, dance with Him. They cannot believe there are... It is beyond their poor fund of knowledge. Therefore they do not accept Kṛṣṇa as God. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11). God is the Supreme Person, Supreme Being. Actually there is place where God lives. They do not know. This is first time, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we are giving these ideas; otherwise, who knows it? Nobody knows it.
Prabhupāda: Oh, sucrose, yes. Saccharin and sucrose. Saccharin is sugar product.
Harikeśa: We tried that too the first time, with those...
Prabhupāda: No, that is no good.
Harikeśa: That was not good.
Prabhupāda: Salt is available very easily.
Harikeśa: And they use hard soap powder in these powdered ones. We tried that first with the hard soap powder? They use that also.
Prabhupāda: No, it is it (indistinct), we shouldn't do it. Only simple three things, that's all. That is good. That has come out.
Indian man: First time they are hearing.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the cause we are selling six lakhs of rupees' worth books daily. They understand it is not so-called religious sentiment, it is science. Our so-called swamis and yogis, they never tried. They did not know. Also big, big swamis, they went there. Instead of teaching them, he was taught how to eat meat. Sannyāsī eating meat. He was convinced, "Yes, why not?" At least, in India still, the sannyāsīs they do not eat meat. Except that rascal missionary. No one. There may be difference of opinion, Māyāvādīs. But their behavior is the same.
Indian man: Sadācāra.
Prabhupāda: Why people are accepting our books? You'll be surprised we are selling book to the extent of six lakhs of rupees per day. Daily. Daily we are selling six lakhs of rupees' worth all over the world. So people think philosophy, religion is dry subject matter. If it was dry subject matter, how they could purchase so many books? It is ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. They are getting for the first time. Here is real ānanda. Therefore they are appreciating. Everyone, learned circle, they are appreciation. In (indistinct) foreign circles. So, there was no such literature. It is the first time. Śrīmad-bhāgavatam amalaṁ purāṇaṁ vaiṣṇavānām... So unless, they're really relishing some rasa, how they are purchasing? This is the first distribution of ānanda-cinmaya-rasa throughout the whole world, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So I am very happy that you are also joining. Let us join together.
Mahāṁsa: They will not part with even one thousand rupees. They're exactly what you described. And also these were the people who are with Śaṅkarācārya who came the first time when you had come here. They were with Śaṅkarācārya. And Hariprasad and some Marwaris were with our movement and these people were on the other side. So there was some conflict at that time. And Śaṅkarācārya came and you...
Prabhupāda: Śaṅkarācārya, he says that you are bhagavān.
Mahāṁsa: Yes. Also nirākāra. All these things they have been influenced. But practically now they are slowly coming to accept us. There is one Mr. Badanman who was the host of Śaṅkarācārya and for two and a half years he never came here, he never entertained the devotees.
Krishna Modi: No. Yesterday. Because yesterday I was to come here. But I was called by Mr. Brahmānanda and he told me that you have come here (indistinct) so that I want to know something (indistinct). One question was put up in Rājya-sabhā and he's (indistinct) there. I told him that he's full of (indistinct). There are some gentlemen of er..., labor minister and from (indistinct) Andhra Pradesh. They were also there. (indistinct) Mr. D. D. Desai is also there. (indistinct) And we have discussed at length. And we have told them and there is no restriction (indistinct) the size and to everybody. And you see then it is in Indian history, it is first time that something has been done. All people are saying that they have done in America, they have done in so many centers all over the world and then we are, something like that, it is shameful.
Prabhupāda: It is Indian culture.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. That is also good. Ārto arthārthī. Ārtaḥ. That is good. But still they do not know what is God. They have simply heard the name of God, there is God. That is good also. Than the rascals who deny the existence of God. So in comparison to them, they are very good. At least they accept there is something as God. God is good, God is kind, God is... But what is God they have no idea. That's a fact. That they do not know. Either the nonbelievers or believers. Both of them. They have no idea of God. This is the first time perhaps, in the world we are introducing, "Here is God, Kṛṣṇa."
Lokanātha: You have said many times you could give complete address of Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Yes we give address.
Lokanātha: And also we know the telephone number.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Lokanātha: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: This is the first time. Otherwise, they do not know what is God. Now you are coming from Christian community. Did you have any idea of God?
Dhanañjaya: Just God is great.
Prabhupāda: That's all... But what is that great? What is God you do not know. We know. Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). There is no more greater principle than Me. That is great. How you are great? Aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2). "I am the origin of all the demigods." Next how you are great? Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). This is their ignorance. They have simply heard God is great, but how He is great, that they do not know. Here is the... God is personally speaking, "Yes, I am great in this way." Ahaṁ sarvasya. Vedānta says janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). That is greatness. The original source of everything. So we are presenting God, "Here is God." Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam. Ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ (SB 1.3.28).
Prabhupāda: He has said, actually our whole movement is going on on this. Everyone is carrying the charismatic, (laughs) all.
Hari-śauri: Yeah, they know there's something different about our movement, I mean from any other. Everybody who sees the devotees for the first time, they immediately know these people are completely different from anyone else.
Prabhupāda: Yasya deve parā bhaktir, yathā deve tathā gurau (ŚU 6.23), this is the Vedic principle of our movement. Yasya deve parā bhaktir, yathā deve tathā gurau.
Haṁsadūta: Have faith.
Prabhupāda: To respect and love the spiritual master as God. Therefore it is brainwash.
Prabhupāda: That, tomorrow morning we shall see and make a...
Mahāṁśa: A design.
Haṁsadūta: One more question. When... The first time you were here two years ago, you suggested that we should have Gaura-Nitāi Deity immediately.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Nṛsiṁha-deva, Gaura-Nitāi and Jagannātha.
Haṁsadūta: Right here?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Haṁsadūta: Shall we begin right here? We have this little place...
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.
Prabhupāda: Nation is also doing that.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: In President Carter's new cabinet he included a woman as a secretary now. As a minister, for the first time I think.
Hari-śauri: In England also they have a woman Prime Minister for the first time.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: She's a leader of the opposition.
Hari-śauri: No, she was the Prime Minister as well. She's the opposition now.
Prabhupāda: Woman is acting as police in England.
Prabhupāda: And commentary, interpretation required when you cannot understand. It is very easy and still these rogues will exploit and mislead people. This is... And perhaps, this is the first time I am pointing out. Before that nobody did.
Dr. Patel: And you wrote I have read your commentary twice and it has become very harsh on those people.
Prabhupāda: I must be. They are doing wrong thing. They are doing great harm to the... They are misleading the... If I become little more powerful, I shall do it more harshly. I did not show because I was non-entity. But I knew it. Now people are taking me little seriously, I am talking. (break) In the beginning I thought, Who will hear me? Better wait for the time. Therefore I wrote Mahatma Gandhi, that "Now you have got your svarāja. Please come, let us preach Bhagavad-gītā. You have..." If he would have given the chance at that time, then long ago this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement would have been started.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Trivikrama: Because we are thinking of shifting to Hong Kong because our program mainly is in offices, you know. We go in office, and we dress with a suit and tie. So they're thinking that we're businessmen coming to buy something from them. So they treat us very nicely, "Oh, sit down. How do you do, Mr. Brown?" offer some tea or something. Then we immediately open up briefcase and present one of your Bhagavad-gītās. Then we preach a little bit. We tell them that "We've come here. This is the first time in Chinese language, a very wonderful book. So many men have recommended." And then they appreciate a little bit. Then we say, "If you could help some little donation," and they give us. But these are mostly high-class men in offices, you know. So now we're kind of depleted, because ordinary men don't speak English. So we're going to Hong Kong, but there's no temple there. We'll have to live in hotels.
Prabhupāda: And where is that boy gone that was in Hong Kong?
Trivikrama: He went to New York.
Prabhupāda: Billiard-playing or some exhibition of singing, and hundreds of men will gather. And they were feasting, first-class food. In this way spending, spending, spending... And then prostitute, aristocracy. In this way one property and one property lost, everything. At last I saw him going by rickshaw. One day it was raining, and I saw that he was sitting in a rickshaw, and no friend asked him that, "Haren Babu, why you are...? You come to my car," so many. And he was friendly to so many zamindars, kings, and very intimate with... But they lost of everything, and nobody cares. His sons, they are of our age. I do not know whether living or not. But most probably they are not living. They became professional singers, coming of such aristocratic father. His father, that Mr. R. N. Singh, was a very good singer. That also was another aristocratic that aristocrat family—art, some art: painter, singer, poets. Just like Rabindranath Tagore. They became famous as artist. Avanindranatha Thakur, he became famous as artist, and Rabindranath Tagore became... They also followed the aristocratic family, Calcutta. Similarly, this R. N. Singh became a singer. Because they are rich men, they have nothing to do, so... And nobody instructed them how to become saintly person. Simply debauchery and... (break) On the whole the whole human civilization is..., and all the directors, they are not giving chance to know the value of life and how to conduct life. It is the first time, that we are giving the real idea of life.
Prabhupāda: Where?
Gargamuni: In Bombay. I saw while we were driving in a taxi downtown. It's a new hotel, and they had that red stone. It's the first time I saw it in Bombay.
Prabhupāda: Hm. The red stone is very durable.
Gargamuni: But the building... Whatever building we build would require much maintenance due to the fact that it's near the ocean. Like I've noticed fans. They rust when they're near the ocean. So they probably would have to painted once a year. We'd have to paint at least once a year, paint everything.
Prabhupāda: Anything made of iron will corrode.
Gargamuni: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: So this is a study published in Los Angeles Times on January 2nd. It says, "The year 1976 could mark the beginning of a new religious revival in America, judging from recent Gallop surveys of public opinion. The surveys found: 1) For the first time in nearly twenty years there was an increase in church attendance"—first time in twenty years—"with 42% of all adults in America attending church or synogogue in any typical week." Once a week 42% of the adult population, almost half. "2) The proportion of Americans who believe that religion is increasing its influence on American life has tripled since 1970." In other words the public thinks that religion is now influencing American life. The number of people who think like that has gone up.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is due to this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.
Prabhupāda: Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam (BG 4.2).
Rāmeśvara: It's clear that for the first time these scholars are understanding the difference between the Bhagavad-gītā and the Māyāvādī conception. It's clear that now you have saved them. Previous to this, all they knew about is this impersonal concept.
Prabhupāda: That is the business of ācārya, sampradāya-rakṣana, to save the sampradāya from falling down. Sampradāya. Sampradāya rakṣana.
Rāmeśvara: After centuries of rascaldom you are giving them the first clear choice.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That was the desire of my Guru Mahārāja. I am just trying.
Satsvarūpa: Another professor that was met is going to with ten students... I have his name, a Professor Kalewart from the University of Loeben in Belgium. He's supposed to go to Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Mandir on February lst with ten people.
Prabhupāda: He has gone?
Satsvarūpa: The first time?
Prabhupāda: Yes. They'll promise... You have got five thousand dollars. They'll promise 100,000 dollars' property you'll get, and how it will be done, this scheme, that scheme... "We'll do this scheme, that..." Then they will take five thousand dollars from you, and they will say, "Now it is finished. Now bring more money." Then further made... That lawyer who was trying to give me a permanent visa?
Satsvarūpa: Yeah, some Greek name.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Fishlington or something like that.
Satsvarūpa: Mitralanti(?) or something.
Prabhupāda: So there is no doubt about it that I am the representative of God.
Pṛthu-putra: Yes. But when I was...
Prabhupāda: Either you dream or not dream, I claim.
Pṛthu-putra: Yes. But this thing was just confirming. When I saw you the first time in Amsterdam, you were the same person that I saw in my dream one or two years previously.
Prabhupāda: That... You have read Caitanya-caritāmṛta? Guru-tattva. Guru-tattva. So there it is clearly said that guru is the manifestation of God. So it is confirmed in the śāstra. And all the ācāryas accept it. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **.
Satsvarūpa: But is it possible to also learn spiritual truths from this..., from representatives on the subtle plane?
Prabhupāda: To present your case. Comparative study means impartially make comparison. There is no knowledge of God in there. They're all bogus. You cannot say that. But actually they... What do they know about God? They have simply a vague idea. So what is the use of comparison. Then you have to give your judgment—"It is all bogus." That they will not like to hear. But actually that is the position. What complain? What do they know about God? Simply they have got some idea, the Christianity, Muhammadanism, Hind..., everyone. Even Hinduism, they do not know. Therefore they worship so many demigods and ultimately they make nirākāra. Nobody knows God. This is the, perhaps, first time in the history of the world that we are presenting, "Here is God." Here is God. Nobody presented, neither they know it.
Prabhupāda: Very strict. Still, they purchase my books.
Brahmānanda: The whites.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Brahmānanda: They were... I think the first time you went there they even were bowing down...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Brahmānanda: ...in the airport. And this caused big sensation, because never, even when big Indian gurus have come to South Africa, never have any whites bowed down. It was the first time whites bowed down to...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Generally in the court cases that we've had against our society, they only question our method of preaching. But this is the first case where they are questioning what we are preaching. It's the first time I have seen it. Usually they're simply arguing over "You should distribute books like this or not like this." But now they are questioning what is in the books.
Prabhupāda: Explain. If you can explain Bhagavad-gītā nicely, then his father will understand. Where is that impediment? Ask them that "You are very proud of manufacturing very subtle machine, but can you prepare a machine like this? It is..." What will be the possible answer? If you challenge, then what will be the possible answer?
Prabhupāda: Everyone. And there were so many Gītā scholars.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I read the Bhagavad-gītā, but I still thought like that.
Prabhupāda: And leaders like Gandhi. They would never say all these things. Nonviolence. He has manufactured his own idea, taking, cheating people with Gītā. This is first time, we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Then?
Gargamuni: The jumbo jet arrived. There was at least one hundred dignitaries of Air India, TV, radio, watching the plane land on the airport.
Prabhupāda: When it is arriving?
Gargamuni: It arrived around 4:30 this morning. First time jumbo jet landing. They said, "Very good landing."
Prabhupāda: Has to be. Sky was clear also. I was very much doubtful about the sky, but Kṛṣṇa's mercy... Today there is no fog.
Brahmānanda: Yesterday it was all overcast.
Gargamuni: Now they're all on their way here by bus. We passed them. There was about ten busloads.
Prabhupāda: So many people came?
Prabhupāda: And Indians are appreciating that "Foreigners, they have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, not Indians."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: For the first time they can see that the foreigners are appreciating India's culture, not trying to squash it.
Prabhupāda: And practically applying their life, not that simply...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Official.
Prabhupāda: ...official.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's no doubt. And it is all due to your credit. Single-handedly, Śrīla Prabhupāda... Even now everything is being done strictly by your instruction and guidance.
Prabhupāda: So we are trying to imitate the Western way of life, but it is not possible for us to do that. Our constitution is different, spiritual, and their is material. Now they should be combined. Our government, our people, they want Western way of life, say motorcar. So they can purchase motorcar from foreign countries. What is the wrong there? Why we should waste our energy for manufacturing? Similarly, India should produce agricultural products. They want... Just like England. There is no food, food grain. They have... Everything they have to import. Even vegetables, daily vegetables, they have to import. So United Nation on the basis of spiritual understanding... Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Actually everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa, or God, and we are His sons. Kṛṣṇa never claimed that "Indians are My sons." Kṛṣṇa said, sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya: (BG 14.4) "In every form of life the living entity, their mother is this material nature, and I am the seed-giving father." So on that basis the civilization should be established, and the instruction of Kṛṣṇa should be followed by everyone, and they will be happy. That is the only way. Otherwise they'll suffer continually. They are suffering, and they will continue. (aside:) They have come to disturb. So that philosophy, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we are trying to distribute all over the world, and they are accepting. This is the first time in the history of the world that foreigners, they are becoming devotees of Kṛṣṇa. Now, in the history of the world there was no temple outside India, neither devotee also.
Prabhupāda: ...this Rādhā-Dāmodara temple.
Akṣayānanda: That would be nice.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Maybe tomorrow, if this Jayaśacīnandana goes the first time, I can go with him. I know Gauracānda a little bit, so I can, you know, just, as your secretary, send your greetings to him. He'll appreciate that.
Akṣayānanda: He'll appreciate.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think what I'll do is I'll go at the time when I know they're supposed to be making that offering. That way, I'll see if it's being done. Little... Five or... What time is that offering made? Noontime?
Devotee: Yeah, noon.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Hari-śauri: When Ādi-keśava went to court the first time...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hari-śauri: ...he had suit and hair, and they wondered why he was dressed like that.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Then cheater.
Hari-śauri: Yeah, they accused...
Prabhupāda: That means, of course, indirectly hinted that "Now you are cheating. You are known as shaven-headed. Now you have kept hair. What is the purpose except cheating?"
Hari-śauri: On saṅkīrtana all the distributors wear wigs and like that to..., because it's much easier to distribute, to distribute books.
Prabhupāda: I do not know all this. Formerly, shaven-headed, they used to distribute. Now it is not possible.
Prabhupāda: You have asked him already?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, I said, "We are coming in September," so he's... We'll be giving lectures there. And the Atishah(?) personally told me that he never thought these ideas before. He said this is the first time that he's seeing such things, that science can be utilized in understanding the nature of the self or life from Bhagavad-gītā. Then I also went to Bose Institute. I wanted to talk with the dir...
Prabhupāda: Oh, Bose Institute.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The director wasn't there, but there was very leading professor. His name was Amrtabal Singh. He's the..., just next to the...
Prabhupāda: Woman? Woman?
Prabhupāda: Janmanā brāhmaṇo guruḥ. As soon as you take birth, brāhmaṇa is your guru. So where is brāhmaṇa? Tad-vijñānarthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Where is that guru? Therefore the society, chaotic condition.... As soon as you take birth, you have to accept brāhmaṇa guru. So there must be brāhmaṇas. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, cātur-varṇyaṁ māyā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13). There must be brāhmaṇas. Otherwise where is human society? It is animal society. In the animal society they are clever, enjoy. "How! How! How! How!" Jackals and tigers and big, this animal, that animal, they are everything. Where is the brāhmaṇa? This is the first time attempt is being made—"There must be brāhmaṇas"—this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. They do not know the aim of life, how it should be organized, what kind of members there should be. No knowledge. Therefore I have challenged that "Your brain is filled up with stool. You do not know how human society is happy." Here is janmanā brāhmaṇo guruḥ. So where is brāhmaṇa? Janmanā brāhmaṇo guruḥ.
Surendra Kumar: That I have been not following Prabhupāda when so many people have. We must do our duty to do. Because of our slavery, this righteousness and earnestness has gone out of our life. We are not earnest.
Prabhupāda: Anyway... (Hindi) So this is the first time an attempt to distribute. (Hindi) It is special prerogative for the Indians, to distribute this knowledge. That will glorify India's position.
Surendra Kumar: This is what he was... Vajpayee was hinting at this very thing, that we want to use this organization for spreading our spiritual heritage all over the world. And he said that "I want to utilize your organization for this purpose."
Prabhupāda: So if the opportunity...
Surendra Kumar: For the first time you have a government which has thinking of this. Otherwise what do you mean by secularism? Secular does not mean...
Prabhupāda: (Hindi conversation)
Surendra Kumar: Your Divine Grace, it is our good fortune that we have such a administration...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Surendra Kumar: ...in which some of the people are... Advani, for example, and Vajpayeeji. These two people are...
Prabhupāda: What is the Advani? He is other...
Surendra Kumar: They write the...
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Jan Sakirna.(?)
Prabhupāda: And that is my mission.
Surendra Kumar: Yes, sir. That's what I'm saying, for the first time. Otherwise nobody would have appreciated in the last government. Who was the person to talk...
Prabhupāda: In the Berkeley University I was speaking. One Indian student got up, and he said, "Swamiji, what this Hare Kṛṣṇa will do? Now we require technology," like that. And "Yes, you have come here to beg technology. You remain beggar. I have come to give something."
Surendra Kumar: Correct, sir.
Prabhupāda: "I am not a beggar. I have come here to give something." I replied.
Surendra Kumar: Your Divine Grace was right. He wants the best of people.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is....
Prabhupāda: Of course, we have made such attempt.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: People write that now they have got your books they are feeling actually alive for the first time. People write like that. They get so many letters at the BBT, thanking them for giving these books. In all languages people are writing you like that. They feel grateful.
Prabhupāda: Yes, I received directly such congratulations in the airport many times. Many times.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: People would come up to you.
Prabhupāda: I think in Japan I have got. One European boy came. He came: "How you have got so much knowledge, sir?" His inquiry was that. In Dum Dum Airport some gentleman came, Indian. The thing is, knowledge was there. It was not presented. (pause) (aside:) He'll take one; you take. (break) Hm? Kṛṣṇa asked the gopīs that "You can take your cloth, one after another. You have done a great fault. Naked, you are taking your bath. So just offer to the deity namaskāra." (laughs) Chastised: "You are very naughty.
Prabhupāda: Now rectify the fault.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: The whole...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yeah. See, they told me this is the first time... (aside:) What happened?
Śatadhanya: He's taking care.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was there. This is the first time that you were here during the rainy season. So normally, I guess... This year, it couldn't handle it any more, the wall. In five minutes, ten minutes' time, one bucket of water comes in. So much comes in through the wall. So one man has to stay there.
Prabhupāda: One man has... So how to stop it?
Prabhupāda: Fiery body.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: With the help of this planetarium, people will actually be able to go to the moon for the first time, at least by their minds. There was such a hoax that I heard they were even selling tickets to go to the moon.
Prabhupāda: Hm. (pause)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If you're feeling tired, maybe you'd like to take a little rest, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's still early now.
Prabhupāda: Hm. I have been taking rest in... (break)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are all rascals and they're all crazy.
Prabhupāda: Who?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughs) Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. "Śrīla Prabhupāda has taken on the monumental task of translating the essence of all Vedic..." I want to get to the... Here it comes. "All in all, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust library Encyclopedia of Vedic Knowledge includes at least one hundred published volumes. Scholars from all over the world have described Śrīla Prabhupāda as a literary genius after reading his treasure chest of Vedic knowledge. And now for the first time this treasure chest of transcendental knowledge is unlocked for everyone to dive deep into the ocean of transcendental bliss upon reading these classics." These words are nectar.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It said in the article that in Ceylon, this man Kovoor has been challenging and being victorious for decades, challenging everyone, "There is no God. There is no soul." But now it said for the first time someone has turned the tables on him and challenged him for the first time. He never expected such a thing.
Prabhupāda: And public applauded.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about the doll project? That nice museum?
Satsvarūpa: Yes. Some big photographers, they are very much attracted, so they made a new, a second set of the changing bodies for the (faulty recording) ...on a mountain, some mountain, or a large hill in California, and all day this national publicity photographer took pictures of it for the press. He said he wants to make this the best-known picture of the year. I don't know where it's going to be released, but he wants to have it put in a big magazine. There's two of them. They both wanted the rights to take pictures of it. So they let the more famous one of the two... (indistinct)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's pleasing for you and for the masseur also. (break) ...simply have to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa for you and read Bhāgavata, take nice care as much as we are able to, and leave the rest to Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. At least we're sure that that is the right medicine. That shawl that mother Satyabhāmā made is very nice. It's the first thing that any..., first time that any ISKCON devotee has spun the wool from the sheep. And her letter was also very nice.
Prabhupāda: It is fur purchased from the market? Fur? Wool. Wool.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The wool?
Hari-śauri: Where did it come from?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have sheep on our land, Śrīla Prabhupāda, at Gītā-nagarī. So Paramānanda, he takes care of the sheep, and we take the wool from the sheep. And then from the wool she spins on a spindle and makes the thread, and then she made the shawl by knitting the wool threads. In other words, it's completely begun from scratch. We didn't purchase the wool at a shop or anything. It came from the sheep that we're keeping on our land.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...the only medicine remains, that yogendra-rasa.(?)
Brahmānanda: This is the first conference you've had?
Mādhava: Yes.
Brahmānanda: It's the first in the world.
Rūpānuga: First time.
Dr. Kapoor: First in the world. (laughs)
Brahmānanda: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break) Ātreya Ṛṣi and Parivrājakācārya Swami are here.
Hari-śauri: They brought you a big plate of fruits and things, from Tehran.
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: This is sweet lemon.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Śatadhanya: I think this is the first time that Your Divine Grace has sat up for such a long time.
Bhavānanda: And also this morning you were making effort to move your legs, which you've never done since I've been here. I was thinking... Of course... Just from my observation, I was thinking that you were feeling a little bit stronger today. And Śatadhanya Mahārāja also thought that you were appearing to be stronger. Usually you're not able to sit up for such a long period of time, and you're sitting up by yourself. Usually you lean on my hand for support. But this morning you're...
Śatadhanya: In fact, we all said the same thing.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You mean generally to keep everything in order. Yes, I have a very good hold on it. Some things... You know, because formerly they never kept these things down. Now I'm finding out things. But whenever I get extra information, I note it. Pretty much I have all of the things in order. Just like now I just found out for the first time that he's getting a monthly interest from one of the fixed deposits in the name of BBT. That was never noted. So when I find out the amount, I'll just note it. Then I can deduct it each month from the account that I'm keeping. Like that, sometimes I get new information.
Prabhupāda: So you have to search out.
Bhavānanda: We're all feeling encouraged for the first time.
Bhakti-caru: Actually the kavirāja has left it up to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. He said that the way you have cured your cough and cold in just a day, in just a few hours' time, the same way you can cure all your disease if you want, just yourself, without any medicine. At the same time, you dreamt this Rāmānuja kavirāja giving you the medicine, and ever since you started taking the medicines there has been some good effect, like you started passing more urine, you started getting a little appetite, little taste, your swelling has gone down, to some extent.
Prabhupāda: Swelling has not... (long silence)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? About two days ago you said that either the kavirāja should stay here or we should go with him. So why should we change that idea?
Prabhupāda: Because in this morning I was fainting. So there was no strength. How long I (sic:) circumbulate?
Prabhupāda: English?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Another edition.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is the first time this is published. You haven't seen this yet.
Brahmānanda: This is 10.2.
Prabhupāda: Oh, Tenth Canto.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, 10.2 There's nothing quite as relishable as seeing your books in the English. It's beautiful. These colors...
Prabhupāda: Read it.
Prabhupāda: ...Ratha-yātrā ceremony.
Gaura-govinda: At Ratha-yātrā Jagannātha came very late for Pāṇḍu-vijaya. It was first time announced that it would take place at nine, but actually it took place at four p.m.
Prabhupāda: Why?
Gaura-govinda: We heard that this year that new body... Jagannātha has a new body, so it was heard that that was not proper time. These pāṇḍās and some people were interested with this business purpose. They did so, and also these pāṇḍās were doing some nonsense inside the temple, so Jagannātha was very much displeased, so it took so much time.
Prabhupāda: The pāṇḍās untimely changed the body?
Prabhupāda: Hm. That will continue.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So if the treatment is continuing, if the treatment is working, why not continue it under the guidance of this kavirāja for some time? His point is this. This is what I've seen, Śrīla Prabhupāda, being your secretary all these months, that whenever you took milk you would get cough. For the first time I see there's no cough coming. Another problem, you couldn't pass urine. Now there's double the amount of urine. Another thing, you couldn't pass stool. Now it comes normally. At least it comes without any artificial means. So the one thing that has not yet come is strength, and kavirāja is suggesting what you yourself had always said, "If I can drink milk, I will get stronger." So if the kavirāja's treatment... To my feeling it has worked. At least symptoms... The symptoms have been better under his treatment than any doctor so far.
Prabhupāda: That will work.
Pañca-draviḍa: And the bulls might have to rest.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You have to rest the bulls, don't you?
Pañca-draviḍa: There's one route we went on in Vṛndāvana, on a parade. Shorter route. First time, as an experiment, we could go a shorter distance.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's quite a big experiment to make, going to Govardhana the first day, Śrīla Prabhupāda. You feel confident that you can travel nine hours in a row on a bullock cart?
Prabhupāda: I am sleeping here.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Lokanātha: He says he's sleeping here.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But this is not a bullock cart.
Prabhupāda: They are taking urine?
Bhakti-caru: (Bengali)
Upendra: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you didn't pass any urine the first time. Do you want to try again? We can cleanse you now?
Prabhupāda: (Bengali) (Bengali conversation with Bon Mahārāja)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is a certificate arrived from the Soviet Union.
Bon Mahārāja: It's in Russian language or in English?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, some of it, I think, is in Russian. I have the translation. It says, the top wording here, this says that "Books in the service of peace and progress. A diploma for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, Bombay, given by the First Moscow International Book Fair Exhibitions and Fairs, General Directorate of International Book Exhibitions and Fairs, USSR." (Bengali conversation)
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: All Russian universities ordered Prabhupāda's books. (Bengali)
Bon Mahārāja: (Bengali) (Bengali conversation with Prabhupāda) That's Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto. That is up to which chapter?
Prabhupāda: This is a song composed by Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura. He is praying to Lord Caitanya that "My dear Lord, please be merciful upon me, because who can be more merciful than Your Lordship within these three worlds?" Actually, this is the fact. Not only Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, but also Rūpa Gosvāmī, he also prayed to Lord Caitanya when both of them met at the first time in their first meeting at Prayāga, Allahabad. At that time, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī also said, "My dear Lord, You are the most munificent of all incarnations. Because You are distributing love of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa consciousness." In other words, when Kṛṣṇa was personally present, He simply asked us to surrender, but He did not distribute Himself so easily. He made a condition that "First of all you surrender." But here, in this incarnation, Lord Caitanya, although He's Kṛṣṇa Himself, makes no condition. He simply distributes, "Take love of Kṛṣṇa." Therefore Lord Caitanya is approved as the most munificent incarnation, and Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says that "Please be merciful upon me. You are so magnanimous because You have seen the fallen souls of this age, and You are very much compassionate upon them. But You should know also that I am the most fallen. Nobody is more fallen than me." Patita-pāvana-hetu tava avatāra. "Your incarnation is just to reclaim the conditioned fallen souls. But I assure You that You will not find a greater fallen soul than me. Therefore my claim is first."
| Page Title: | First time (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 23 of Aug, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=118, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 118 |