For instance (Conv. and Letters)

Expressions researched:
"for instance"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: It is the easiest method conceivable because the method is so easy that we simply ask people to come and chant the name of Kṛṣṇa. And it is actually experienced that in this country, all my disciples, they are neither Indian, nor Hindu, nor they know the Sanskrit words, everything is unknown to them, but still, they are taking so seriously. That is the proof how it is easier, that it can be spread all over the world.

Interviewer: I mean, just is Kṛṣṇa consciousness more readily accepted by the Far Eastern peoples? That is does their way of life make the acceptance of Kṛṣṇa consciousness any more easy than here in America? For instance, Americans are constantly rushing around and Europeans somewhat less. But they find it more difficult to be tranquil and peaceful than the Eastern peoples. For this reason, might it not be harder for Western peoples to accept Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: In India, due to her long subjugation by the foreigners, practically the so-called educated persons, they have lost their original culture. Rather, those who are not so-called educated, following the traditional rules and regulations, they are more Kṛṣṇa conscious. And the educated circle, they are thinking that this religious temperament is the cause of India's economic fall-down. But actually, that is not the fact.

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

Reporter: Yes. I told Dan that was what I was interested in. I have background information on the movement, for instance, and yourself.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So far the movement is concerned, it has nothing to do with the moon planetary journey, it has nothing to do. But in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the authoritative Vedic scripture which we generally follow, in that scripture there is statement that for promoting oneself to the moon planet, one has to accustom himself to the different kind of worshiping process. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated that yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25). Those who are worshiper of the demigods, they are promoted to different planets of the particular demigods. Yānti deva-vratā devān pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ. And those who are worshiper of the pitṛs, or forefathers, they go to that planet. Similarly, one who is engaged in worshiping the Supreme Lord, he also goes to the supreme planet. These informations are there in the Bhagavad-gītā. And so far moon planet is concerned, that is within this material world.

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

Reporter: ...and given the information about the degrees... But obviously, they're going ahead with plans to do so, and you have a transition period, for instance, between the part of the moon that is in sunlight and the part that is darkness.

Prabhupāda: That I've already admitted, that by modern scientific method if you can change the condition of your present body then you can go. It may be possible, but that is very remote.

Reporter: Well do you rule out talking about the beings living on the moon planet? Do you disregard talking about that because you feel it is too remote to chance that anyone would ever land there or do you have any feelings...

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

Reporter: Well, what I'm getting at is that if for instance you say that first this conviction that they would not be able to land, and secondly that whatever earth people would go there would be opposed and would not be able to safely return, if you say this, based on Vedic literature, and other members of the Kṛṣṇa movement heard this, and then if the feat were accomplished, would this not seem a contradiction or something that had been said would be the case and then the opposite was proved true? Would this...

Prabhupāda: What is that contradiction? There is nothing contradiction. We say that if you get a suitable body you can enter there. So if by your scientific process you can equip yourself with suitable body you can enter there. Where is the contradiction?

Reporter: Well, you said that spacesuit was not a suitable...

Prabhupāda: That is a fact. That is a fact. That is not suitable.

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

Reporter: For instance, the jehovah's Witnesses have all but predicted that Armageddon or the end of the world will come in 1975, and obviously, if nothing happens in 1975 or shortly thereafter, their sect will suffer in some relation because they have said this and if it doesn't happen...

Prabhupāda: But they said so many things.

Reporter: Right.

Prabhupāda: But does...? As the Russian said that in 1965 we are going to...

Reporter: So that when Dan Donnelley told me that...

Prabhupāda: So we never believed in such statement. We never believed.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Allen Ginsberg: Now, for instance, in America many of the black people are tending toward Allah and toward Muhammadanism.

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. Somebody is inclined to some thing, somebody is inclined to some thing. That is going on, and it will go on till the end of the creation. (laughing)

Allen Ginsberg: Yuga.

Prabhupāda: But our process is that, you are searching after the center, here is the center. That is our proposal.

Allen Ginsberg: But what do you do when different religious groups claim to be the center? What do you do when different religious groups...

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

Hayagrīva: I don't know. The title doesn't make any difference. The title doesn't matter. It's just that we agree on basic issues which I think that we should agree on, not that an issue comes up, and I have one idea about, and he says, "No. I want it this way," and I can't do anything about it. For instance, say I don't want to cut down the tree there, and he says the tree must be cut down. That doesn't leave me anywhere. See? That leaves me to say, well... He can pull rank on me, which is something... I mean I'd just as soon not be involved.

Prabhupāda: So you disagree in every point?

Hayagrīva: Not every point. We don't often disagree. But I might want this tree to be left here.

Prabhupāda: Or what you decide and he must disagree that? Whatever you decide and Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja must disagree with that point? Is that the situation?

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Yoko Ono: If Hare Kṛṣṇa is such a strong, powerful mantra, is there any reason to chant anything else? For instance, you talked about songs and many different mantras. Is there any point in chanting other songs or mantra?

Prabhupāda: No, no. These mantras are also... But Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is specially recommended for this age. And the Vedic mantras, they are also chanted, I told you, with musical, tampura, and they sit down and chant. Nārada Muni, he's chanting always. So chanting through musical instruments, mantras, it is not new introduction. It is from time immemorial. And Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, especially in this age, that is recommended in many Vedic literature, Brahmanda Purāṇa, Kali-santaraṇa Upaniṣad, Agni Purāṇa, like that. And apart from the statement in the Vedic literature, Lord Caitanya Himself, He preached this mantra. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa... And people, public, followed Him. Yes. (break) So anything... Just like a scientist. When he discovers something, it becomes a public property. People may take advantage of it. Similarly, if mantra has got potency, all people should take advantage of it. Why it should be secret?

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Yoko Ono: But you said about if the milk goes through a serpent's mouth it will produce poison, and, for instance, George just told us about a week ago a very interesting story about a man who had a face of Christ, and in twenty years' time he had a face of Judah. And the Catholic Church and all those churches first probably had good words, and now it's deteriorating. Now, how would you decide, really, that brāhmaṇas are always in a pure state that you speak of, that they would never turn into serpents?

Prabhupāda: That you have to become a serious student.

Yoko Ono: Well, I mean, what do you mean by serious student? Maybe everybody, all of us are serious anyway. I mean, we're born serious or born, you know, unserious.

Prabhupāda: Then you must know what is distinction between Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān, if you are serious student.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Yoko Ono: Then, in that sense, you see, for instance... I see the same pattern in what you have said. For instance, you said that Hare Kṛṣṇa is the most superpowerful word, and if that is true, then why do you bother to utter any other words? I mean, is it necessary? And why do you encourage us, saying that we're songwriters and all,...

Prabhupāda: No...

Yoko Ono: ...to write any song but Hare Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is cleansing process.

Yoko Ono: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So actually one who chants Hare Kṛṣṇa regularly, he hasn't got to do anything. Actually it is the position. He doesn't require to read any book.

Yoko Ono: Yes. Then why do you say that it's all right and all that? I mean is it a compromise or what?

Discussion about New Vrindaban Gurukula -- December 24, 1969, Boston:

Hayagrīva: After twelve. And you think they can be taught typing, for instance? A skill like typing and how to use typewriter?

Prabhupāda: Does it require all? Well, just this knowledge is required.

Kīrtanānanda: Whatever is practical.

Hayagrīva: And the only other... Oh, how old should they be before Deity worship, they do Deity worship?

Prabhupāda: Just after ten years.

Hayagrīva: After ten years? Then they can do Deity worship?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: That's Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deity worship.

Prabhupāda: Any Deity. Or worship Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:

Hayagrīva: Well, can we use, for instance, the glossary to your Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam printed in India, can we use that as a model for...? Is that...?

Prabhupāda: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam?

Hayagrīva: You have a glossary at the end of the first volume. Is that the type of glossary...?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have given glossary. You can follow that principle. Yes. And at the end of each book, glossary, index, will carry weight.

Hayagrīva: Well, that was fairly terse if I remember, though. That was fairly terse. I mean very short, brief. Definitions were very...

Prabhupāda: One thing may appear to be very simple and to other, terse, but you do your own duty. Another thing: where is the Bhagavad-gītā with my full translation and synonyms? Where is that manuscript?

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prof. Kotovsky: It seems to me that in the Moscow and Leningrad libraries we have nearly all major texts of ancient Indian culture, beginning from Vedas, original text in Sanskrit. For instance, we have in Lenin Library nearly six or eight editions of...

Prabhupāda: (Aside:) You have not brought any books? Eh?

Prof. Kotovsky: ...Manu-smṛti.

Prabhupāda: You have not brought any books? Bhāgavata?

Prof. Kotovsky: Editions is there. Especially in Leningrad, you know, in Leningrad we have...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Prof. Kotovsky: ...about, Leningrad branch, Leningrad branch of our institute—because institute was in Petorussia(?), founded in Leningrad—so in Leningrad now we have now a branch of our institute dealing mainly...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prof. Kotovsky: According to so many... You have just told that in any society there are four divisions, but the case is not so easy to distinguish. For instance, one can group, one can group, group together, different social classes and professional groups into four divisions in any society. There's no difficulty. Only difficulty, for instance, in socialist society of our country and a socialist society how can you distinguish productive group and workers?

Prabhupāda: Just like you belong to the intelligent class of men.

Prof. Kotovsky: Intelligent, yes, so...

Prabhupāda: So this is a division.

Prof. Kotovsky: Yes, intelligent class, for instance, brāhmaṇas, if you can put together also with intelligentsia under the brāhmaṇas...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prof. Kotovsky: From top to... From top to collective farm, for instance, is kṣatriyas. But who would be here vaiśya and who śūdra? That is the difficulty because all others will workers, workers, anywhere, factory workers, collective farm workers and so on. So from this point of view...

Prabhupāda: From this point of view...

Prof. Kotovsky: ...there is a great distinction, in my opinion, between socialist society and all societies preceding socialist because in a modern western society you can group all social professions, classes, for instance, practically, very conditionally, you know, at least you can, the brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, kṣatriyas... Excuse me... Then this vaiśya, this productive class, is owners...

Prabhupāda: That is...

Prof. Kotovsky: ...of the means of production...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Prof. Kotovsky: ...these factory owners, for instance.

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

Prof. Kotovsky: But does that mean the students, they abstain for normal West European universities their own, all their... How to explain it? Their... For instance, can a normal student from, for instance, from one of the best universities, who is attending lectures in normal way, etc., also be initiated and admitted to your community?

Prabhupāda: No, both ways. Both ways. If you want to be initiated, you are welcome. If not, you come. Try to understand our philosophy. Read our books. There are so many books, magazines. And question, answer. Try to understand the philosophy. It is not that all of a sudden a student comes and becomes our disciple, no. They first of all come, associate, try to understand. Then... We do not canvass. When he voluntarily says that "I want to be your..."

Prof. Kotovsky: No, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no canvassing.

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

Prof. Kotovsky: No, yes. That's what I thought. But what I am most interested in... For instance, not a student but a young worker or a young son of a farmer, he would abstain from his old life and he would be initiated and join your community into a given center. How he would entertain himself?

Prabhupāda: The thing is... I have alre...

Prof. Kotovsky: In the sorts of day to day life...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Prof. Kotovsky: Material life...

Prabhupāda: Now, material life, it is...

Prof. Kotovsky: Would he be paid to stay in that center?

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

Prof. Kotovsky: You are required to surrender to the society, for instance, to the whole people.

Prabhupāda: Yes, just... Whole people or the state or the king or the government, whatever you say—this surrender must be there. It may be different.

Prof. Kotovsky: I'm sorry. Only there's a difficulty. We can't agree that you have surrender to government or surrender to a king. There's a principle difference of surrender to a king, to a person, or surrender to a society.

Prabhupāda: No, that is... That is a change of color only. But the surrender is there. The principle of surrender is there. Either you surrender to monarchy, either you surrender to democracy or aristocracy or, what is called, dictatorship, you have to surrender. That's a fact. That's a fact. Without surrendering, our life is... There is no life. That is not possible. So we are educating persons to surrender to the Supreme wherefrom you get all protection. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mam ekam śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), aham tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi. So surrender is there. Nobody can say, "Now I am not surrendering to anyone."

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

Prof. Kotovsky: But if you would, will have many, even many followers, how far this adaption of Kṛṣṇa consciousness by many American boys would affect the politics of their attitude, for instance, to such a bearing problem of America as Vietnam War?

Guest: Correct. They'll never be the one who will ever advocate any war because they know this war itself is a wrong thing.

Prabhupāda: No, no. We don't say, "Avoid war." But unnecessary war is avoided. Just like Kṛṣṇa induced Arjuna to fight. It was necessary. It was necessary.

Guest: To get rid of extra evil.

Prabhupāda: It was necessary. So nothing is avoided, but everything is utilized for proper purpose. Nothing is rejected. Nirbandhe kṛṣṇa-sambandhe. This is fact, that Kṛṣṇa never advocated that "Let there be stop of war." No. When there is necessity, absolute necessity, there may be war but for their good purpose, not by the whims of the politicians, no.

Room Conversation -- London, August 10, 1971:

Mr. Arnold: Well, they may well do, but it would only be... One couldn't guarantee that they would be expected to. But the bank manager, where the account of this temple is kept, they may be tempted to loan a half or three quarters of it, if they think that the thing is a good... I mean, this site at Kings Street, Hammersmith, for instance, if we don't buy it, then the suggestion is that within the very foreseeable future the place will be pulled down to build a large hotel, which means to say that the site is very valuable. On this score, the bank may well be tempted to loan you some money, just on the site alone, (indistinct) the premises. They would be interested.

Prabhupāda: Then means that a church turned out a new building. So that is a big stake.

Mr. Arnold: Mr. Dwyer was very anxious that the Dawson Place should have been purchased, or some house of a similar nature, because these can be used.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1971, London:

Haṁsadūta: In our world here, there are material scientists and they understand things in a particular way. They understand, for instance...

Prabhupāda: Their way and our way is completely different.

Haṁsadūta: I know. But I mean, there must be... Suppose, on the heavenly planets, there must also be a class of men who understand things...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Anywhere within this material world, they are all conditioned souls. Their understanding is incomplete. Even Brahmā. Even Brahmā. Brahmā has admitted in his prayers that people..."Other rascal may say that he has understood You, but for my part, I say I never understood You." He has said like that. Have you read this portion? So even Brahmā cannot understand. What we? He says, "The other rascals may say." Where is that Brahma-stotra? In the first part, find out.

Haṁsadūta: No. It's in the Process of Creation isn't it?

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1971, London:

Haṁsadūta: What about, Prabhupāda, in Germany, I have, like for instance, in Munchen, in Munich...

Prabhupāda: At least, must be two, three men; otherwise don't open.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, there are two, three men, but I visit them regularly.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Visit. Keep them alive. "Simply because we have opened a center, the business is finished." No. You must keep them alive. Alive means this morning class must go on, evening class must go on, there must be regular program for prasāda distribution. Busy. That is alive.

Revatīnandana: And they must also study your books.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Otherwise, so many Indian temples or churches, they think, "The church is there; everything is finished." No. Why people are losing interest in church? There is no preaching. Neither do they know what is preaching. They simply think that "This building will attract people." So they are now on sale.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1971, London:

Haṁsadūta: And another thing I wanted to ask you about, Prabhupāda, is that Maṇḍalībhadra, he wants to make your literature perfect, which is natural because we want to make the nicest presentation. But the devotees are saying that the translation... For instance, this Easy Journey to Other Planets, has been in the process so long, it has so many times been reworked, that it's no longer palatable to them. They don't even read it. They'd rather have the English version. So I know that Your Divine Grace has said you have full faith in his ability to do the work...

Prabhupāda: No, no. If you... you find out somebody else. He can also do.

Haṁsadūta: Because my opinion is that he's becoming overworked, it's becoming strained, so much so that we're not even able to bring it to the printer because he insists on making every time more and more corrections.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) It never comes to perfection.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1971, London:

Haṁsadūta: It never comes to perfection. It can, you know. For instance, this little booklet, Easy Journey to Other Planets, one of the things that has been holding it up is because the diacritic marks, to get the diacritic marks in there perfectly... We took it to a professional composer. Of course, they're not experienced, so they didn't, at first they didn't want to do it and then... At any rate, my opinion was first let us print it without the diacritic marks, and then the second edition make it with diacritic marks. Improve it by editions rather than wait until it's completely perfect before we put it on the market because...

Prabhupāda: But if once it is made perfect, then it will be easier to print more and more.

Haṁsadūta: That's true, but see, what has happened is the entire sum has been lost...

Prabhupāda: He could not finish any one?

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1971, London:

Haṁsadūta: Well it reminds me of Janārdana. You know Janārdana was a big scholar and he was very intelligent, but he never produced very much. You remember Janārdana? So Maṇḍalībhadra is working full time. He never comes to the temple. Of course, he lives far away, but he never comes to the temple. And I know when a person doesn't come to the temple, it's very difficult for him to maintain, especially if he maintains a full time job. It has an imperceptible effect on your consciousness. And he also, you know, we sometimes, we don't see very much eye to eye. Like for instance, this coming Back to Godhead he wanted to produce, he wanted to put a picture of some of the... Like there's a picture in one of the old Back to Godheads of Vṛndāvana. So I said, "This picture is not good because Kṛṣṇa is not in this picture. There's no Kṛṣṇa. We must have..."

Prabhupāda: Old Vṛndāvana?

Haṁsadūta: Yes, some buildings. Like Jaya Govinda used to write those articles, you remember? He used to write articles...

Prabhupāda: Comic?

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

Śyāmasundara: But the consciousness in which something is done denotes it. For instance, I could be sweeping the street. Someone would think, "Ah, I'm just a material street sweeper." But if I'm doing it for Kṛṣṇa it's a transcendental activity, it's a spiritual activity, not a material activity.

Dr. Weir: Ah, yes, but I mean, then you have a, if somebody else who's sweeping faster and better, you say that he's greater spiritually even if he's doing it...

Śyāmasundara: No.

Prabhupāda: No, the purpose must be spiritual, the purpose must be for Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: So if we're speaking about Kṛṣṇa then our words become spiritual.

Dr. Weir: Yes, but I think if you're talking about spiritual things you mustn't try and quantify it.

Prabhupāda: Spiritual means it has no material qualification. Nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 1, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: Their argument is that physical necessity creates a chance, and we take advantage of the chance. But here there is no necessity. Nobody wants to die, nobody wants disease. Why these chances are coming to us without any necessity?

Śyāmasundara: If, for instance, in nature they saw a tree growing, they would say that by necessity this tree must die in order to replenish the soil so more trees can grow.

Prabhupāda: Then there is plan. As soon as you say that more trees can grow, that means there is plan. You cannot say chance.

Śyāmasundara: Nature can't be chance. If so many plants...

Prabhupāda: That plan is Kṛṣṇa's. That is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: (BG 9.10) "Under My plan, under My superintendence, the nature is working. The changes of the world is going on for that reason." Hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate: "All these changes are taking place on account of My supervision." So there is no question of chance. It is all planned, planned by the Supreme, daiva netreṇa, by superior arrangement.

Room Conversation with Kenneth Keating, U.S. Ambassador to India -- October 14, 1972, New Delhi:

Ambassador: Any way how to make any progress, or have you any representation, for instance, in Russia?

Prabhupāda: Russia... Last time when I went to Europe I visited Russia. I was invited by one Professor Kotovsky. Perhaps you know him.

Ambassador: No, I don't.

Prabhupāda: Ah. A very nice gentleman. Indology. He is charge of the Indological department. Russia has got very good respect for Indian culture.

Ambassador: Yes. That's right.

Prabhupāda: They have very good respect. So that.... (break)

Ambassador: ...have much, they don't believe in God.

Prabhupāda: They do not know the (indistinct).

Mrs. Keating: Do you have many Indian followers? Many Indian followers as well as foreign?

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Scholar: How many countries for instance?

Prabhupāda: Whole world. Especially in America. America, Europe. From here we are going New Zealand, Australia.

Scholar: Are they in Arabic countries also?

Prabhupāda: Arabic countries also, our men from (indistinct) that is an Arabic country. We send to Pakistan also, but due to this war, the American Embassy, they asked us to (indistinct). We are going again, Bangladesh. We have got Russia and we are negotiating with China also. So because you are here, you have taken the importance of Bhagavad-gītā, why not do it rightly and propagate nicely. That is our proposition.

Scholar: We will think about it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Think about it.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Why accident? Which is actually happening, why it is accident?

Father Tanner: Well, for instance, if you take a man shipwrecked on an island alone, he is not in any sense taking part in impure love, or illicit love. But it doesn't mean to say that he is free from all desire for illicit love.

Prabhupāda: No. Nobody's free. But so long he acts nicely, he's nice.

Father Tanner: So it is the action, rather than the, no, the exterior rather than the interior.

Prabhupāda: No, interior... Well, of course, everyone has got interior tendency, but by practicing actually, exteriorally, that interior also is reformed. It is, by external behavior, the interior behavior also becomes fixed up. By practice. Therefore there is regular class so that he may be purified internally and externally. Sa bāhyābhyantara-śuciḥ. Yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ sa bāhyābhyantara-śuciḥ. If you constantly remember the Supreme Lord, so you become automatically purified, internally and externally. Because the Lord is absolute, so if we chant the Lord's holy name, the name is also Lord. He has no difference between His name and Himself.

Room Conversation with Mister Popworth and E. F. Schumacher -- July 26, 1973, London:

Revatīnandana: So, for instance, if it is used to indicate air pollution...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: ...then how will the chanting will affect that?

Prabhupāda: Yes, it will affect.

Revatīnandana: He's asking how.

Prabhupāda: How? That you do not know. You'll have to realize when you give us the chance. But if you give us the chance, there is no loss on your part. But you'll practically see how it is rectified, how it is...

Vicitravīrya: Pollution is to some extent a result of materialistic activity?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Room Conversation with Mister Popworth and E. F. Schumacher -- July 26, 1973, London:

Schumacher: That's right. But the Eskimos, for instance...

Prabhupāda: That is another thing.

Schumacher: That's what I was saying, you see.

Prabhupāda: When there is no food, so human life is more important than animal life. So the human life should be saved at the sacrifice of animals. That is another question. But where there is complete facilities to get very nice, nutritious food, why these poor animals should be killed?

Revatīnandana: But in the last week we've had a Jesuit priest, a Black Friar's monk, several other theologically inclined Christian gentlemen have been here, and not one of them has assented to that statement. They do not agree. They think that...

Prabhupāda: They do not agree that animal killing is sinful. They do not agree.

Schumacher: It's a very long question, isn't it. I mean...

Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Reporter: But, thank you. But, uh, so, in this way, you have to, in all of the science, you mean, economic, politic, etc., you have to take position, sometimes perhaps. For instance, for going to the knowing of Kṛṣṇa in politics perhaps you will choose one system or the other. And in science, in philosophy, etc. Do you... But this, those choose have never been explained to the people, you know.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it should be.

Reporter: It should be. Have you...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, we, we, we have explained it in our book, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, wherever possibility. Find out that verse: kāmam, kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ (SB 1.10.4). Find out this verse.

Śrutakīrti: It's in First Canto?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ (SB 1.10.4). You can...

Śrutakīrti: Kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ?

Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Dr. Inger: Well, that's a very, very important question. I think that the real trouble is that all of them are bureaucrats, sitting in offices, creating more jobs for other officers. I was one of the earliest members. I came when Dr. Radhakrishnan was the, was our president. And... At the very early stage. In those days, there was that feeling, that some importance should be given, but because it became a governmental organization, because every religion thinks that they should have a part to play in it, what they did was, they brought out, in ten volumes, a scientific and cultural history of mankind. But it has, it's only incidentally philosophy, only incidentally religion. The only religious books that have come out are those that have been translated. Old books like the second book to the East, for instance. Max Muller's books. And they have been reprinted. And occasionally a few translations have been done from Tulasidāsa or some other philosophers, rewritten, like Śaṅkara later on. But, but all of those have been done because somebody else has commissioned them. But otherwise, there isn't... Except they have had some meetings in various placed. But at none of these meetings do they really discuss the problem that of the, well occasional people, occasional philosophers, they never really discuss that. I think because the word, religion, I think probably is the stumbling block...

Prabhupāda: No, apart from religion. Religion may be sentiment or some emotion. That is another thing.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Professor: Yes, because other... So, for instance, you have the Ramakrishna Mission...

Prabhupāda: What the Ramakrishna mission has done?

Professor: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Ramakrishna mission has done this, that they have learned to drink wine and eat meat, that's all, from the Western countries. That's all.

Professor: Yes. This is so.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is their contribution. And they have spoiled the Hindu culture.

Professor: Oh. Yes?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Because Vivekananda said, "Oh, what is the harm there, in eating? You can eat whatever you like. It doesn't matter in religion." It was the first. And he himself was eating anything. So all the Ramakrishna mission sannyāsīs still, they are eating meat, egg and everything, especially in America. Yes. Fish is no consideration. That is daily affair.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Why Not? There are so many...

Professor: You, for instance, do you do that?

Prabhupāda: He's a householder. Yes.

Professor: You are still working?

Yogeśvara: I design books and magazines.

Professor: Where? I mean, in connection with this society?

Yogeśvara: I do work for the society.

Professor: But is it possible to work outside?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. We have many professors. They're being outside. But one thing is that after being interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they cannot remain outside.

Professor: That's it, the point, yes.

Prabhupāda: Because they don't find any suitable place.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: That is the difficulty.

Professor: Yes. But this gentleman told me that he is married, for instance.

Prabhupāda: He is married. So we have got so many married couples.

Professor: Your wife is here?

Yogeśvara: Yes.

Professor: In the same society?

Yogeśvara: Yes.

Professor: And in the same...

Prabhupāda: She also translates.

Yogeśvara: My wife translates, and I design the book.

Professor: So do you think it is possible, for instance, to have the husband being involved in this movement and not his wife?

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

Guest (1): Well now, see, what does honestly bother me is, I believe that because there is a spirituality about his message that I have not seen all these years. Is the immortality that he has offered, for instance, me... I must talk in the first person. Is it a universal thing that's happened all through time or is it something that belongs to just when he died?

Prabhupāda: No, universal things are also eternal. Everything, the nature. Nature is also eternal.

Guest (1): I see. Right, I'm beginning to understand that. Another thing I would like to know very much is that I feel, but have no proof, that I have experienced in my, in the things I do, which lead me to believe that my experiences based on a memory I don't understand which, which belongs to previous lifetimes. Now is that, a fa...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, previous life there was. Just like previously, you were a child. Previously, you were a boy. Previously you were a young man. So similarly, we had previous life. Previous life means not exactly in this body but another body. But I am eternal. I live either in this body or in another body. Just like I'm a person, I live in this apartment or any other apartment. The apartment may change, but the person who lives in the apartment, he does not change.

Interviews with Macmillan and various English Reporters -- September 12, 1973, London:

Prof. Gombrich: No, I haven't, I'm afraid. No. And do you think that the message of Kṛṣṇa consciousness or Kṛṣṇa Caitanya is very different from the message of realizing God which is promulgated in other religions, for instance the Śaiva religion or...?

Prabhupāda: No I don't think so. Any religion, you follow nicely. Just Christian religion, there is God consciousness. So actually it is not this religion or that religion. People have given up religion. All over the world they have no more interest in religion. And especially I see that in your London that so many churches are vacant. Nobody's going there. So thing is that there is no more regular teaching of religious system. It has become a profession like. Neither the teachers are serious, nor the students are serious. So our principle is that not this religion or that religion. Whichever religion you may like, you can follow, but we want to see whether you are God conscious. If you are not God conscious, then we take it simply useless waste of time, these so-called religions. Śrama eva hi kevalam. You understand Sanskrit.

Interviews with Macmillan and various English Reporters -- September 12, 1973, London:

Prof. Gombrich: But do you think for instance, in this country, if somebody is a Protestant, or I mean a Christian and goes to church, this is also, you don't try to convert them away from that?

Prabhupāda: No, no. We have no such process (indistinct).

Prof. Gombrich: Because your movement is extremely distinctive.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We don't try to convert. Just like one gentlemen was asking, "Why these ladies, girls, they are putting Indian sari?" I never said that "You do that." But they're doing out of their own accord. So I never canvassed to become a Hindu, or like that, no. Our propaganda is, "Just become God conscious." (end)

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 17, 1974, Bombay:

Guest (1): No, no, just see. And then you see the population of these, for instance, chickens, pigs, and those, they have increased. So the population of human being that is increasing, is it due to these wild animals and other they have done good deeds, so they are coming up as a human being?

Prabhupāda: First thing is, I am asking you, why you are bothering about the increase of population? First, that is my question. The animals, they do not bother. You are so advanced in knowledge. Why you are bothering? First of all answer this question.

Guest (1): No, no, but that is...

Prabhupāda: The animals, they have got less intelligence. They never bother themselves, "The population is increasing." And you are advanced animal. Why you are so much bothered?

Guest (1): But that is...

Room Conversation -- March 16, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Transformed to what?

Guest: Well, for instance lust is supposed to be transformed into compassion, and the other uh, the other passion desires are transformed to something else.

Prabhupāda: Then it is not nirvāṇa. It is real condition. Then that is our principle. That is not nirvāṇa. Just like...

Guest: Well, this is what I mean by nirvāṇa.

Prabhupāda: You mean, but you the word nirvāṇa. Suppose I take out your eyes. This is one thing. And I...

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Huh? What is that?

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1974, Hyderabad:

Pañcadraviḍa: For instance, Rāmānuja sampradāya or also Madhva-sampradāya, they sometimes don't accept Pañca-tattva as being supreme. So is their actions also considered offensive even if they are acting within sampradāya?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes.

Mahāṁsa: (break) ...Rāmānuja sampradāya, do they have a chain of disciplic succession, bona fide chain, to this present day?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mahāṁsa: And the other sampradāyas also?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Chain must be there. Now, whether strictly following the..., that is another thing.

Pañcadraviḍa: (break) ...invited us to their program at Udupi, Madhva-sampradāya. When they are changing the ācāryas every two years, they extended one invitation to come for their program, main temple program.

Prabhupāda: So why did you not accept?

Room Conversation with Richard Webster, chairman, Societa Filosofica Italiana -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Richard Webster: Well, may I ask a question? I find in medieval European philosophy two different attitudes and..., which I find difficult to reconcile perfectly. That is to say the earlier Christians, up to the thirteenth Century, I suppose, were practically only thinking about God, nothing else but God so that nature or the human being, or any... everything else, tended to disappear altogether as also in some Indian philosophy, I think. And then, later on, with more modern science and so on you've got a different attitude in the Christians themselves, that is to say an attitude of acceptance towards subordinate things so that they became independent and finally, of course, broke away altogether so that nowadays we have science without God at all. But there was a sort of period in the late middle ages when St. Thomas Aquinas, who stopped thinking about God, only about God, and gave his attention to science, so they say. Well, there was a sort of conflict there. I don't quite know what to say about it whether I'm on one side or the other. That is to say if I were to (indistinct) the earlier Christian or (indistinct) There was Aquinas, for instance, who was a saint, but he would pray into the world, if you like. I wondered whether you would disapprove of that or...

Prabhupāda: Yes, these different types of philosophers are always there, not only in the medieval age, in the previously also. It is said, na cāsāv ṛṣir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. "A philosopher is not a philosopher if he does not present a different view." (laughter) This is stated in the Bhāgavata.

Room Conversation with Richard Webster, chairman, Societa Filosofica Italiana -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Richard Webster: Yes, but the difficulty is for me, for instance, that I have the pope here who is telling me perhaps the same thing in spirit but with different rules, different laws practically. I mean the spirit seems to me to be the same, but...

Prabhupāda: Law cannot be different, but it can be modified according to the time and circumstances. But the law cannot be different.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Maybe you could ask specific examples of differences.

Richard Webster: Well, for Roman Catholics it is right to drink wine, for instance.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Drinking, intoxication.

Richard Webster: Not intoxication, to drink wine.

Atreya Ṛṣi: What is wine? He's saying that a Roman Catholic can take wine. The law allows them to take wine.

Richard Webster: Or tobacco or meat.

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

Cardinal Pignedoli: Well, I think that because you are friends of God, we are friends of God, we are all friends and this is good. But I think that, if I understand it well, that your aim is to reach people who are unbelievers or people who are atheistic, as you said before. And then I would like to know... You are not obliged, you are completely free to do what you want. But I would like to know if you got into these places or amongst these people... There are many places and many peoples in the world who are in these conditions, without faith and without the spiritual values. Because it is for us, we hope so. We are good friends of God, and we are always in our prayers and meditation united to God, and to... But we thank you for your visit and for your, for this reason we are good friends altogether. But I would like to know historically your work, I mean if you go into these areas or into these places where is possible. For instance, take the example of Russia, eh? Now you are in good relations. India and Russia probably for Indians it is easier than for Europeans or for some of our countries or for Americans. Are you... Have you this problem? Do you go into these areas, into these places?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I went to Moscow. I was invited.

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

Cardinal Pignedoli: Because they need badly. They need this spirit of friendship with God and with His supreme values. God... Well, I wouldn't say to the Moslem world because they are good believers. And God is probably, they are more faithful to. And for instance, these areas of the modern world like, also in the States sometimes, because these big cities like New York or Tokyo or Toronto, and some, these are cities, where they are areas where spiritual values have no meaning for these people. It's a pity and we have to be very open and very friendly to them. I gather this. And your method is meditation and prayer, if I understand it well.

Prabhupāda: There are two things. We recommend two things. For the mass of people, this prayer, kīrtana, a prayer. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma. So this is prayer. Hare means appealing to the energy of God, and Kṛṣṇa is God. "O the energy of God, O God, please engage me in your service." This is the sum and substance of the Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare: "O the energy of God, 'Kṛṣṇa,' O the Lord, please engage me in Your service." Because we are now engaged in the service of Satan, māyā. I think... Māyā. So therefore we are suffering. Service we have to render.

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

Cardinal Pignedoli: This is more important because you have not so many. If you go to South Africa, and although... I mean because also we. We have not so many. It's a question of possibility, of chances. Why don't you choose...? This is my question. These areas where Japan for instance is an area very atheistic and where yesterday I had this sect with me of the not perfectly... It's called... No. It's a different one. Mr. Kalyana is the president. He came yesterday. He came yesterday. Mr. Kalyana. Well, they don't believe, as you say. This is philosophy. Welfare, is happiness, but not in your meaning, in my meaning. Well, this is only to ask, then you go to Japan?

Dhanañjaya: Yes, we have a center in Tokyo.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We have got center in Japan, in Hong Kong.

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

Dr. Sallaz: I'm still working because I have to entertain with money. In our world you cannot do anything without money. But what may interest you is that we have several manpower who are looking for truth, for the really truth, and trying to attain it and to follow it. And for this reason, it is said to go only according the scientific organization officials, so on, we went in quite revolutionary ways. For instance, we took all biology coming from the energetic point of view which is quite different. Not with the microscope, not with chemical analysis, but with the thinking that everything is only immaterial reaction (?). And with this we achieved extraordinary result. So we have looked at the official world as completely fool.

Yogeśvara: Are you able to understand when he speaks? I can repeat if you like.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you come here.

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

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

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom the energy comes?

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

Prabhupāda: What is that book?

Room Conversation with Prof. Regamay, Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Lausanne -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Prof. Regamay: But first I would like to express my thanks that you gave me this honor to receive me. So I have different questions because I'm in such a difficult situation that I have many Indian doctrines, and there was some difficulty because I know them only through the books, without (indistinct). And, for instance, one of the first questions I want to put: Viṣṇu Purāṇa, it's very similar and very coincidental to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, Viṣṇu Purāṇa.

Prof. Regamay: Is that... Practically, can it be considered that it's the same kind of...

Prabhupāda: Yes, Viṣṇu Purāṇa is Vaiṣṇava literature. There are eighteen Purāṇas. Out of eighteen, six are sāttvika, and six are rājasika, and six are tāmasika. The sāttvika Purāṇas, they are Vaiṣṇava literature. Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Padma Purāṇa.

Prof. Regamay: The same... Because I understood through... It is that the problem, that Kṛṣṇa is the original person of divine, but in, by Rāmānuja or Viṣṇu Purāṇa it reverse Viṣṇu is the highest.

Room Conversation with Prof. Regamay, Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Lausanne -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Prof. Regamay: Yes, I know what it is in the Bhagavad-gītā but, for instance, in the words of Rāmānuja, it is not Kṛṣṇa, but it is Viṣṇu which is the highest form. So this one question, what I had to put that... And also... May I sit down on...? I would be much more...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Give him another pad.

Prof. Regamay: Among the avatāras which are described in the second and third book of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there are two questions I have to put. There is Kṛṣṇa Himself, who appears as His own avatāra, and the Kṛṣṇa, the yādava Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa, when He appears within this material world... That is also in the Bhāgavatam, that He appears as Viṣṇu incarnation. But actually, Kṛṣṇa is the... In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated, yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ, viṣṇur mahān sa iha yasya kalā-viśeṣaḥ (Bs. 5.48). You understand?

Prof. Regamay: Yes, I understand.

Room Conversation with Prof. Regamay, Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Lausanne -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Prof. Regamay: So they are... I think it's... I must say that when comparing different religions, I see that for instance, what I find here...

Prabhupāda: There is no different religion. As soon as one tries to understand different religion, it is to be concluded that he does not know what is religion. That religion cannot be different. Religion is one. God is one. And the order given by God, that is religion. But "different" means according to time and circumstances... Just like Lord Buddha, he is giving the same religion. He is God, incarnation of God. He is asking, "Just obey Me." The same philosophy is being taught by Kṛṣṇa, "Surrender unto Me." That is religion. Buddha also says "Surrender unto Me. Obey Me." So that is religion. Yes. So the religion is... One who knows God and surrenders to Him, that is religion, and anything, that is all cheating. Anything else, that is all cheating. That is not religion. This is religion. God is one, and surrender to God, that is religion. That's all. You take any religion, it doesn't matter. If one has learned what is God and how to surrender to Him, that is religion.

Prof. Regamay: But I noted that for instance our Christian approach to God...

Prabhupāda: In Christianity they also recommend surrender to God.

Room Conversation with Prof. Regamay, Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Lausanne -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Prof. Regamay: But I noted that for instance our Christian approach to God...

Prabhupāda: In Christianity they also recommend surrender to God.

Prof. Regamay: It's nearer to your approach than, for instance, I don't know, as the kevalādvaita I mean, where nirguṇa-brahman is the higher form of, than...

Prabhupāda: Nirguṇa-brahman... Just like... Here we have got this example. This is, what is called, New Zealand lake, and a few step after...,

Guru-gaurāṅga: Geneva Lake.

Prabhupāda: Geneva Lake. And few step after French lake.

Yogeśvara: Because French is a border of Geneva lake also. Therefore sometimes it's considered French.

Prabhupāda: So the sky is one. Sky is one. So in the sky, in the atmosphere, where God is forgotten, that is called material sky. And the sky where God is not forgotten, that is spiritual sky. Just like the sky is one, and the sun is one. But when your eyes are covered by cloud, you say the cloudy sky. The sky is not cloudy. The sky is one, it is always clear. But some portion of the sky there is cloud, and you say, "This is cloudy." (break) Similarly, materialism means when you forget Kṛṣṇa, that is material. And when you know Kṛṣṇa and act for Kṛṣṇa, that is spiritual.

Room Conversation with Prof. Regamay, Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Lausanne -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Prof. Regamay: But I am struck that, for instance, for us in the West the idea of personal God is strongly rooted in our consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Lord Jesus Christ, he was Vaiṣṇava. He directly gave you the idea of personal God. The personal God is the origin. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). The... Just like, the same example: the sun god, the sun planet and sunshine, they are one. They are not different. But still, this is impersonal, that is localized, and within the sun globe, there is the sun god. So sun god is the origin of this light. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is the origin of everything. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvam (BG 10.8). That's the fact. But people with poor fund of knowledge they cannot understand it. Therefore stop... (break) ...light, that's all.

Room Conversation with Prof. Regamay, Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Lausanne -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Prof. Regamay: Still, there are two questions I have which remain. One is quite a small question. I have read in your commentary to the chastisement of Droṇa, killing of Droṇa, and where it was that violence for a right cause is better than the so-called nonviolence. Now I wanted to ask, for instance, to find that nonviolence or like Gandhi, it was wrong...

Prabhupāda: Gandhi was not a man of spiritual under... He was a politician, that's all.

Prof. Regamay: Yes, but in his personal...

Prabhupāda: Gandhi, actually he did not know anything.

Prof. Regamay: Yes, he read Bhagavad-gītā in English.

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21). Harer nāma means God's name.

Priest: You see, for instance, in Christianity for a long time there was a bhakti, and this bhakti was devoted to the name of Jesus. So for a very long time you had that Jesus bhakti. And in your country, in America today, like you have got the Hare Kṛṣṇa, you have got also the Jesus devotees. Now, this is also present in many places. And the name does not matter. There is no name who has got the... Because then you find again what...

Prabhupāda: No. If Jesus is the name of God, then you can chant. If Jesus is the name of God. But Jesus, Lord Jesus Christ, says that he is son of God. Of course, there is no difference between son and the father. That is another thing. But still, if I want the father, how by calling the name of son I can get the father? That is also another thing.

Priest: Yeah, but I mean, this is another point.

Prabhupāda: But if you have got the father's name, why should you call Him by the son's name?

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

M. Lallier: But why? We, in France, for instance, or in occidental world, we are accustomed to think, to think that the phenomena of consciousness is only a characteristic... (break) What is the signification of...?

Yogeśvara: Of that degradation of the human species?

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

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

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

Room Conversation with German Women Philosophers -- June 17, 1974, Germany:

Pṛthu: So her point is that man was former primitive, but he has developed by his intelligence, this advanced civilization, this, all this kinds of stuff, but the, but the bird or the animal, for instance, he was former primitive, and he is now primitive. So she says that is the evidence that man has some mind or intelligence.

Prabhupāda: Because he can build nice building, therefore he has got some intelligence.

Pṛthu: Yes.

Prabhupāda: But the effect of building, that he builds according to his instinct, and you construct according to your intelligence, but the sleeping comfort is the same. (German) (break) ...such a nice building, and his enemy throws bomb on it. But the dogs, they do not do that. So who is advanced, the dog or the man? (German)

Pṛthu: Yes she admits that the man by his intelligence, he makes something up which destroys ultimately. But the dog doesn't do, she says.

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

Professor Durckheim: You are certainly right. We see the... It is a big... In our work, as I see it, to realize that what from one point of view seems too bad, bad, for instance, illness or dying, what the natural ego does not like, if you goes through, it's also the threshold to quite a different reality.

Prabhupāda: Yes, different it is. The same example, as I gave you: In diseased condition the reality is something, and healthy condition, the reality is something else. But if we compare the reality of healthy life with the realities of diseased life, that will be a misconception.

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

Prabhupāda: Eternity means, we say, no beginning no end. That is eternity.

Professor Durckheim: Isn't there also this other one, when, for instance, Christ says, "I am before Abraham was," this "I am." There is one kind of eternity which has nothing to do with past and future at all, which is beyond past and future.

Prabhupāda: Past and future is concerned with this body.

Professor Durckheim: Is concerned with this body. It is concerned, exactly, with this body and with this ego, with regard to which there is a before and an after, up and down. And if you take away this ego, what's there, what's left?

Prabhupāda: That is pure ego. Now I am born Indian, say, seventy-five years ago, or seventy-eight years ago, and I have got this Indian body, I have got this false ego that "I am Indian; I am this body." This is misconception.

Professor Durckheim: That is one way to look at time.

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

Professor Durckheim: And yet isn't there difficulty. You can already have understood very well that you are not the body, but as long, for instance, as you have still fear of death, you didn't understand that experience. As soon as you understood by experience, you have no fear of death because you know that you can't die.

Prabhupāda: So experience is received by higher knowledge. Experience means higher knowledge. Just like a child...

Professor Durckheim: Experience means...

Prabhupāda: Higher knowledge. Higher knowledge.

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

Professor Durckheim: We cut it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, cutting is not allowed unless it is absolutely necessary.

Professor Durckheim: For eating vegetables, for instance, you need it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, that is the law of nature, that every living being is eating another living being. That is stated in the Vedic śāstra.

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

Prabhupāda: Many life or this life. In this life you understand that "My sufferings are due to this body. Then how to get out of this body?" If you acquire this knowledge, you know the tricks, then you get immediately.

Professor Durckheim: May I say that way, that you say, if you, for instance, or I want to go out of this body, it doesn't mean that I will have to kill my body, but to realize that my spirit is independent from my body.

Prabhupāda: No, no. There is no question of killing. You be killed or not killed, you have to go out of this body and accept another body. That is nature's law. That you cannot avoid. It is not necessarily that first of all you have to be killed. No.

Professor Durckheim: No. Certainly not. But I have tried to become independent from my body.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can become. (German)

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

Professor Durckheim: But one question, you see. These virtues have been always asked for by Christian churches also, exactly the same. But then today we realize that the virtues are on one level with the vices. But there's something different. If you pass through the (indistinct) step you get somewhere, you see where we can understand, for instance, if Christ says "Let the dead bury their dead." A phrase like this appeals to a different level. So I think as long as you...

Prabhupāda: No. It is not different level. The advice is given according to the time, person. So if people follow Lord Christ and, I mean to say, instruction that is also perfect. But they do not follow.

Professor Durckheim: They do not...

Prabhupāda: They do not follow.

Morning Walk -- June 21, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: The Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa center in Geneva, for instance, has there any connection with you, the Swami Nityabowa-badananda? (?)

Haṁsadūta: No.

Professor Durckheim: No, no connection.

Prabhupāda: They are all impersonalists. The whole world is impersonalist. Perhaps we are only the personalists.

Professor Durckheim: You know that the Christian theologian, they think the main difference between them and Eastern religions altogether is that the Christian are personalists and Eastern tradition is not personalist. This is the whole...

Prabhupāda: Misconception, yes. The majority of Indian population, they are personalists. Yes, majority. Either they worship God or demigod, but they are personalists. Recently the Māyāvādī philosophers, they have poisoned, the impersonalism, calamity. God is person. It is... In the Veda it is said, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13).

Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:

Dr. Muncing: I think that the situation which would apply to the Asian area, whilst I don't know it in complete detail, it's my impression that we have used very nearly all of the Australian area that is suitable for tilling the soil and growing food grains. There are vast areas of Australia that have very little rain, or if they have rain it comes intermittently. And it's my impression that the Australian area... The area that's used for growing grains in Australia couldn't be vastly increased. It couldn't be doubled, for instance. On the other hand I accept that it might well be possible to double the amount that comes off the present area. And of course, that's something that C.S.R.O. is working towards.

Dr. Harrap: I think you could add to that, Roy, that an attempt to grow grain in large areas of Australia would significantly damage the ecology, and from reading your writings, I suspect that this would be completely unacceptable to your way of thinking, that one doesn't disturb the natural life cycles of innumerable creatures in order to grow more grain because the terrain is just not suited to the grain growing.

Prabhupāda: The land is not suitable?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Professor: According to existential philosophy or Indian philosophy, like for instance the Ramakrishna and Vivekananda and all that...

Prabhupāda: They are not philosopher. They have no philosophy.

Professor: Eh?

Prabhupāda: They have no philosophy.

Professor: I think you are also supporting the possibility to acquire knowledge through contact.

Prabhupāda: Our position is—I have already explained—that we are all imperfect. Therefore we have to take knowledge from the perfect. So God is perfect, or Kṛṣṇa is perfect, so we have to receive knowledge from Him. Then our knowledge is perfect. And so long we shall speculate, that is not perfect because you are speculating with imperfect instruments, what is the use? If I want to cut this table, I must have proper instrument. If I want to cut this table with this book, "Let me cut this," how it will be possible? You must know that for cutting this table it requires this instrument.

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Professor: Very difficult to have proofs of that, where the eternality of your own ātman for instance, things of that...

Prabhupāda: That is called realization. Yes. First of all you receive the sound, then apply your instruments, and when you find it, it is correct—that is the realization. So our process is to receive knowledge from the perfect. That's all. We are not perfect. But the knowledge we are getting, that is perfect. So according to that perfect direction, if we mold our life, then we are successful. Otherwise you go on experimenting, speculating. Ciraṁ vicinvan. Ciram, you understand, "perpetually," vicinvan, "thinking." Ciraṁ vicinvan.

Interview -- March 5, 1975, New York:

Reporter: Swamiji, perhaps the deficiency is in my question. Let me rephrase the question, if you'll permit. And I realize there isn't much air to breathe. Hare Kṛṣṇa. But I will make the question brief. My question has to do with karma-yoga in the outer world, for instance, in New York City. From what I understand, your disciples do not pursue the professions. Is that correct?

Prabhupāda: No, we are also, we are also karma-yogī. We are also eating, we are also sleeping.

Reporter: Oh, no, I understand that. I'm speaking in terms of outer service to people who are not in your mission. Other than preaching the truth of Kṛṣṇa, is there any other outer service to humanity?

Morning Walk -- April 8, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Ācārya is explained, bhakti-saṁsanaḥ: "One who's preaching the cult of devotional service, he's ācārya." Then why should you find any discrepancy?

Jayādvaita: Because we see... For instance, sometimes the ācārya may seem to forget something or not to know something, so from our point of view, if someone has forgotten, that is...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Then...

Jayādvaita: ...an imperfection.

Prabhupāda: That is not the... Then you do not understand. Ācārya is not God, omniscient. He is servant of God. His business is to preach bhakti cult. That is ācārya.

Morning Walk -- May 11, 1975, Perth:

Devotee (1): For instance, a man who is in the mode of passion like a kṣatriya, he only finds satisfaction when he's engaged in warfare or administrative work. Similarly so with a vaiśya or a śūdra...

Prabhupāda: Yes. I think it is... Maybe it is described in Seventeenth Chapter. According to our free will, we are associating with certain type of the modes of material nature, and then we become subjected to that material modes. The same example: you infect some disease, contamination, and you gain the result of it. So our endeavor should be how to raise ourself to the first, to the sattva-guṇa. That we can do. And then transcend sattva-guṇa and reach the spiritual platform. Everyone is trying to improve his position, but they do not know what is meant by improvement. Improvement means mostly they are in tamo-guṇa, ignorance. So rise from tamo-guṇa to rajo-guṇa, rajo-guṇa to sattva-guṇa, and then sattva-guṇa to transcendence. That is improvement. So generally, people are suffering on account of association with tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa, whole material world, mostly tamo-guṇa and few of them in rajo-guṇa.

Morning Walks -- June 18-19, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: ...dogs in the beach, you cannot walk without seeing dog. More footprints of the dogs than human being. (break)

Siddha-svarūpa: ...actually give dogs more rights also, in a sense. For instance, if you... (break) ...and a human being, every time you walked, if there was a human being yelling at everyone who walked by and was going, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! You get away! Get away! Get away!" then soon the man would be arrested for being a nuisance or a threat to people. But a dog is allowed to do that. He can stay there and yell and yell at everybody... (break)

Prabhupāda: (in car:) ...and Russian, they are different country. Chinese, Oriental; Russian, Occidental.

Morning Walks -- June 18-19, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: I have seen in the Hawaii University, all hippies.

Siddha-svarūpa: Yes. In Hawaii it's very loose. For instance, even the high schools, they're mostly very loose. But when, after it gets too loose, then the students go so much into sense gratification that then there becomes... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...solution, they will not take it.

Siddha-svarūpa: Yes, because it would mean they would have... (break)

Prabhupāda: He is very intelligent.

Siddha-svarūpa: He speaks straight from his heart so you can... (break) ...that Yogi Bhajan's philosophy though. He wants everybody to come to the... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...is responsible for the mistake of the followers.

Siddha-svarūpa: Yes. So now he must have many leaflets printed up with this information about the prime minister's guru. But now it's out of date. It will be out of date. He will have to print new thing.

Prabhupāda: He was distributing leaflet like that?

Morning Walks -- June 18-19, 1975, Honolulu:

Siddha-svarūpa: From observation and experience, I think that there's a higher rate of sickness in the temples than outside the temples, than the normal population for some reason, and I was wondering what could be done to bring this down. Like I know every time I'm living in close quarters, for instance, here in the temple I get some type of flu. And I can think of what it might be, but I think that in many of the temples, from what I've experienced, there seems to be more sickness. I don't know whether it's...

Prabhupāda: For you or for all others?

Siddha-svarūpa: Well, I know myself for sure. But I see a lot of other people always... There seems to be epidemics always going around or something. Manasvī, what do you think in the Honolulu temple?

Prabhupāda: Manasvī is not sick.

Manasvī: No, there is not anything like flu or anything. Some of the devotees have like chronic diseases.

Siddha-svarūpa: But in general.

Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Dāmodara: Well, I didn't find them disturbing to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I felt that when I was doing it... For instance, the lady asked me to draw a picture of a person, so I drew a picture of Kṛṣṇa. So I felt that well, this was nice because she was seeing Kṛṣṇa. And then she said draw a picture of a house. So I tried to draw a picture of the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Mandir. I didn't do very well, but anyway, she was thinking about Kṛṣṇa. So I thought it was a preaching opportunity. I think most of the devotees approach it in that way.

Bahulāśva: Prabhupāda asked what you found out when you tested Dāmodara.

Dr. Gerson: Well, I haven't studied the tests yet. We're trying to test all of the devotees here in the L.A. temple and that in itself is taking all of my time. I haven't looked at his tests.

Dharmādhyakṣa: But can you give some impressions...

Prabhupāda: But that is not the process.

Room Conversation -- June 26, 1975, Los Angeles:

Devotee (1): But at the same time, when we were maintaining that, we had the same problems, is that, when we presented sociological applications of the philosophy, for instance, to arrange marriages in a reasonable way, that the women not be sent out on saṅkīrtana to prostitute themselves to sell books, but be trained up to be wives, or that the brahmacārīs in the temple, someone would sit and talk with them and see how many of them want to be married and try and arrange some type of training for them, knowing that most of them are going to become married, rather than just have no training and one day find oneself married, out on the street with no occupation or training.

Prabhupāda: First of all, you are not trained up. You are sometimes becoming astrologer, sometimes this, sometimes that.

Devotee (1): It's true, because of my birth in this...

Room Conversation -- June 26, 1975, Los Angeles:

Devotee (2): All right. But we have some, also, questions that don't require that. These are philosophical questions. For instance, in Kṛṣṇa Book there is a statement that King Ugrasena had four billion personal servants. Now you have asked that we go and spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness to the scientific community.

Prabhupāda: So everyone is servant. What is the question of four billion? Kṛṣṇa's servant...

Devotee (2): No, Ugrasena, King Ugrasena, that when he was on the planet, he had four billion personal servants.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. He is always the master. He... The Kṛṣṇa is the only master.

Devotee (2): Not Kṛṣṇa. No. King Ugrasena, Prabhupāda. Not Kṛṣṇa. King Ugrasena. The statement is that King Ugrasena had four billion personal servants. Now, we have gone and tried to spread to the scientific community. And if we say to them, "There was a king whose name was Ugrasena. He had four billion personal servants," they laugh and say, "What did they do for toilets? What did they do for food? Where did they live?"

Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Woman: Along the same idea, I wonder also about the many beautiful material things that the devotees bring to you, and, for instance, when you left the airport, you left in a beautiful, big, fancy car, and I wonder about this because...

Prabhupāda: That is teaching them how to respect. If you respect government man as government, then you must treat him like that.

Woman: But...

Prabhupāda: If you respect spiritual master as God, then you must offer him the facilities of God. Otherwise how you treat him as God? Simply in mind? In action also.

Woman: I'm sorry. What was the last you said?

Prabhupāda: If the spiritual master is treated as God, so he must show, practically show, that he is treating as God. So God travels by golden car. So if the spiritual master is offered ordinary motor car, so still it is not sufficient, because he has to be treated like God. What is this motor car for God? (laughter) They are still deficient. If God comes to your home, will you bring Him in ordinary motor car or you would arrange for a golden car? If you treat him as God?

Press Conference -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Guest (2): That's not what I mean. What I mean is have Americans started to be less violent, for instance, or have they started to be less egotistical or...

Brahmānanda: Well, not unless they follow our movement. But those who have followed our movement... Recently there was one study that was published by a very eminent sociologist in America from the University of California, the (sic:) Union Theological Center, and he stated in that book that the members of this movement, formerly they were drug-addicted hippies, and now they have become servants of Kṛṣṇa and humanity, loving servants. So he has given proof through intensive interviews that one who follows and joins this movement, dramatically his life becomes changed.

Prabhupāda: Perfect. He is a big professor, and his books are being sold in higher circles. Professor Judah. And he has studied this movement for five years. And... You have got that book?

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- November 10, 1975, Bombay:

Devotee (3): But if his desire is not steady. For instance, if he...

Prabhupāda: If he hears about Kṛṣṇa, everything will be done nicely. śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathā kṛṣṇaḥ. Kṛṣṇa will help. And that is natural position, to hear about Kṛṣṇa, to act for Kṛṣṇa, to think of Kṛṣṇa. Then everything is all right. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious. Therefore chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa is the easiest process and genuine, without any failure. Ceto-darpana-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpanam (CC Antya 20.12).

Devotee (3): When you say "genuine," that means that it works...

Prabhupāda: That is real spiritual activity. (aside:) Take it.

Devotee (3): So while one is chanting, he is automatically Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Chanting means hearing Kṛṣṇa, and that is Kṛṣṇa conscious. And then acting. The more he chants, his dirty things in the heart becomes cleansed, and he acts for Kṛṣṇa's service.

Morning Walk -- November 10, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). That is the injunction, sadā. Sadā means always.

Devotee (3): Well, if one is not able to do that in the beginning... For instance, if during twenty-four hours...

Prabhupāda: Therefore we are constructing temples. At least you will think, "We are constructing Kṛṣṇa's temple." Because you are habituated to work, work for Kṛṣṇa. Go to sell books. Print books. Type for Kṛṣṇa. This is also the same thing. Because you are accustomed to all these things, so nirbandhe kṛṣṇa-sambandha. When it is connected with Kṛṣṇa it is as good as chanting. Therefore we are so much eager. Otherwise there is no need of temple; we can chant anywhere. But that stage is not so easy, like Haridāsa Ṭhākura we can sit down and chant anywhere. That is not possible. Then you'll sleep. Therefore these things are required. Everyone, we are working for this temple. Every one of us, we know that "This temple not for my sense gratification: This is for Kṛṣṇa." So that is important. The police commissioner is thinking, "It is nuisance." Huh? Police commissioner is thinking it is nuisance. But we are not thinking it is nuisance. We are not so fool. The politicians, the police commissioner, they'll think of, "He is my enemy; he is my friend." That is their occupation. They'll never think of Kṛṣṇa.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Haṁsadūta: Yeah, for instance, in Sweden, they have a certain part of the year when it is always dark. So they say this is because the earth's axis has shifted so that.... Yeah.

Prabhupāda: So your work is going to begin today? No?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatākā Mahārāja?

Jayapatākā: Pardon?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The work? When will it begin? Begin?

Jayapatākā: Maheśvara told me the work is going on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's going on?

Devotee (1): He said some men are coming today.

Jayapatākā: Yes. More are coming today.

Prabhupāda: So they are having no difficulty?

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Carol Jarvis (Woman Interviewer): Oh, no, I mean, how many do you sell a day? For instance, how many of each book would you sell a day? Would it be thousands a day?

Guru-kṛpā: Yeah, maybe.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, sometimes tens of thousands.

Prabhupāda: Twenty thousand dollar daily.

Guru-kṛpā: Minimum.

Prabhupāda: Minimum. Sometimes we go to fifty thousand dollars.

Carol Jarvis: A day?

Prabhupāda: Day. All over the world.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Devotees are working very hard to spread this consciousness, knowledge. (background talking)

Prabhupāda: Religious book, selling daily so much, huge amount, that is unique in the history.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're going away from this kind of understanding. They had a heritage of philosophical understanding, correct philosophical.... They were very.... For instance, their whole system during the time of Confucius.... Up until two or three hundred years ago their system was they had a monarchy, a king, an emperor, and the emperor was believed to be the representative of God.

Prabhupāda: That is good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And it was Vedic. They had a brāhmaṇa community. They called them scholars who were advising. And they had administrators, and they had workers. Now the current Communists, they are against that system. They say this system was the worst system of all because it made some big and some small. Because naturally it became...

Prabhupāda: But you are doing the same thing. Otherwise why you are reforming? Who is reforming unless the one class is very intelligent? The same situation. You.... Your, what is that rascal's name?

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They are also fallible, they can also make mistakes. "Experts Misled: For instance, investigators in universities in the West were known to be misled by tricksters who claimed para-psychological powers." Like ESP.

Prabhupāda: They invent some big, big words (laughter). Aparkalasvena-vargolas-double-wakundali-gondolais (gibberish). (laughter)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "One of them was Uri Geller, an ordinary street magician who succeeded in hoodwinking two scientists of the Stanford Research Institute. He claimed that he was able to perform miracles with psychic powers obtained from a computerized brain thirteen million light years away in space." Very far away in space there's a computerized brain that he's using.

Hari-śauri: This guy, Uri Geller, he had a stage show. He would get one iron bar and stare at it, and the iron bar would bend, like this. And he could bend, he could put a spoon in the open palm of his hand, and it would bend. Things like this he was doing, and he became very famous overnight.

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Kathy Kerr: Do you feel that it's any help.... For instance, one of your followers here mentioned that the university here in Toronto is teaching your books and so forth. Do you feel that any contact with your ideas...

Prabhupāda: It is not my idea, it is fact. It is not my idea.

Kathy Kerr: Well not necessarily.... With these truths, with these basic truths, do you think that is helping people realize themselves, or do they have to go into a more...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that you can ask my students. We have not bribed them. I am Indian, poor Indian. So why they are sticking to me? Ask them. They'll describe.

Kathy Kerr: Could you tell us? When was your first contact with the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.

Jayādvaita: About nine years ago.

Kathy Kerr: And how did you become a Kṛṣṇa.

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Kathy Kerr: If a sufficient number of people could take care of their spirits, could achieve an understanding of the spiritual body and so forth, do you think that that would solve, say for instance...

Prabhupāda: It is not possible that, because, at the present moment the number of educated persons, there are many. Many Ph.D.'s, D.H.C.'s but nobody understands it. You cannot expect a fair number of persons understanding it. It requires little higher brain. But even some percent of the population understands this philosophy, then there will be peace and prosperity. Not that everyone. Just like in my body, not that every part of my body is brain. But if the brain is in order, then other parts of the body will act nicely. The leg is not brain, but if the brain is in order, the leg will move nicely. The difficulty is there is no brain. So without brain, without head, when the body moves it is ghost. So it is ghostly civilization. All ghosts. There is a kind of ghost, perhaps you know, that without head. If a man is chopped of his head, and if he has got attraction, then he becomes a ghost without head. So at the present moment, all these so-called educated civilized men are ghosts without head. You now this, there is some ghosts without head?

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: The state is in the management of official trustee. And this trustee in charge of the trust board men, they give us so much trouble and exploit the position for his personal profit. I have seen. Horrible. For instance, I can give you, if in some property there is some repair, it will cost you, say, one hundred rupees. And they'll give it to a contractor, and the contractor will present a bill, twelve hundred rupees. And he'll pass. And the contractor will be given, say, two hundred rupees, and balance he'll take. I have seen.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Stealing from the trust.

Prabhupāda: In this way he's.... The money's in his hand. If you want money for expenditure, so if I press you, you have need of money, so you do everything, give some back, get the money. You are in urgent need. Everywhere. All, whole world they have become dishonest. Even the high-court judges, magistrate, they are getting bribe.

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, what if, ah, for instance, I'm too fallen to closely follow the regulative principles and I find myself in that way...

Prabhupāda: Just explain.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Too fallen to follow the regulative principles is like saying a diseased man is too diseased to take medicine. So it's actually in our own self interest. We have to become enlightened, to understand what our real interest is. Yajña vai viṣṇu. Now we are thinking that our real interest is to gratify the senses. This is perishable. When we come to the understanding of ātmā, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, then we understand that our real self interest is to follow these regulative principles. As Prabhupāda said, in the beginning it may be painful, undoubtedly, because we are, for so many lifetimes addicted to sense gratification, but gradually more and more ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), when the heart becomes cleansed from the dirty misidentification with this gross and subtle material body, gradually more and more it becomes favorable (indistinct). Kṛṣṇa says, "Be happy by this sacrifice." Therefore the sacrifice must be joy-producing, ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam.

Evening Darsana -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Indian man (3): I said that, as an Indian, suppose I try to speak about Gītā or philosophy of Hinduism to people in the neighborhood, either in the office or elsewhere, especially with the Europeans, it becomes a point for discussion where it becomes difficult to convince as to why a person should take action without knowing the consequences or even with knowing that the consequences are going to be bad. For instance, Arjuna had to kill his relatives. If he knows that if he's going to do it, or if somebody, for instance, in a war, he knows that his friends are on the other side, he may find it hard to shoot at them...

Prabhupāda: So why Arjuna did later on?

Indian man (3): Because I think he took God's...

Prabhupāda: Because he was fool in the beginning, and after understanding Bhagavad-gītā he became intelligent. Why don't you take in that way? In the beginning, he was rascal. Therefore he needed instruction of Bhagavad-gītā. And when he understood Bhagavad-gītā, what did he say? Naṣṭo mohaḥ smṛtir labdhā. Find out this verse. Naṣṭo mohaḥ, "Now my illusion is over." Smṛtir labdhā tvat prasādān madhusūdana.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Mike Robinson: I'm beginning to understand. What I'm finding difficult is, for instance, we see on Oxford Street a lot of people who are handing out Hare Kṛṣṇa literature. Now...

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is the literature, how to convince them about the spiritual life.

Mike Robinson: And you're really not concerned whether or not they join the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement?

Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter. One must be.... Our mission is to educate. People are in ignorance. They are living in fool's paradise, that he is his body. Bas. When the body's finished, everything is finished. That is foolishness.

Mike Robinson: And you're basically just concerned to tell them that there's a spiritual dimension to life. And if they then were to find that spiritual dimension in something like the Anglican Church, that would not worry you.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Mike Robinson: But are you asking people, if they accept your teachings, to retreat from the world, like for instance, the people who are surrounding us now?

Prabhupāda: No, they are not retreated. What do you mean by retreat? I am using this microphone. Where is retreatment?

Mike Robinson: Sorry, maybe retreat was the wrong word. But are you asking them, for instance, if I was to become a member of the movement...

Prabhupāda: No, we are asking that use this microphone for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness, not for sense gratification.

Mike Robinson: Not for?

Prabhupāda: Sense gratification.

Devotees: Sense gratification, pleasing the senses.

Mike Robinson: Oh, thank you.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Mike Robinson: If we could just put one more tape on it. No, if I can explain to you, the question I am trying to ask, which I'm finding difficulty to explain. Obviously, the members of the movement who are here have made a definite sort of decision that you've decided, they've decided, for instance, to dress differently, and they're dressing now in what would appear to be an Indian style. Is it necessary to do that, or could I carry on being a member of a radio station and still be a member of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Harikeśa: That would be very nice.

Mike Robinson: Perhaps if I phrase it a bit differently. I gather that the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement also has some concern for areas of the world where there is suffering, physical suffering.

Prabhupāda: We have got the only concern. Others, they are simply avoiding. They have no responsibility. They are talking all nonsense. We have got real responsibility. These people are being misguided, they are kept in darkness. Let us try to give them some enlightenment.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Scientific because the animal eats, you eat. The animal sleeps, you sleep. The animals have sex, you have sex. The animal defends, you also defend. Then where is the difference between you and the animal? Why do you say there is no soul?

Mike Robinson: I can see that completely, but what I'm maybe querying is, for instance, the Christian scriptures would say that someone...

Prabhupāda: Don't bring Christian scripture now. Simply you just try to understand, that animal eats, you eat, and the animal sleeps, you sleep. The animals have sex, you have got sex. He also defends when he's attacked, you also defend. Then if the behavior of a living being is the same, how do you say that the animal has no soul? Why do you say like that? Irresponsibly?

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Ali: In choosing a master you mentioned that the choice is yours, but you have to know what you are after. For instance, if you are after...

Prabhupāda: Our offer is you surrender to God. Now it is you choice, whether you want to surrender not. That is you business. We are offering everyone that you surrender to Kṛṣṇa, or God. Kṛṣṇa also says the same thing, "You surrender to Me," and we are asking, "You surrender to Kṛṣṇa." The business is the same, there is no change, as it is. Kṛṣṇa says, "You surrender to Me," we say, "You surrender to Kṛṣṇa." There is no difference. As it is.

Ali: My question was how could one choose when he himself is ignorant?

Prabhupāda: By knowledge. Here is knowledge. You have not surrendered to God, you take the knowledge from God that "You surrender to Me." That is knowledge. Why don't you take it? Where is the question of ignorance? You may be in ignorance, but when the knowledge comes directly, that "You surrender to Me," then you can do it. Just like a man is fallen in a dark well.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Yaśomatīnandana: "Your question is glorious because it is very beneficial to all kinds of people. To hear the answer to this question is the prime subject matter of hearing, and it is approved by all transcendentalists." Purport: "Even the very question is so nice that it is the best subject matter for hearing. Simply by such questioning and hearing one can achieve the highest perfectional stage of life. Because Lord Kṛṣṇa is the original Supreme Person, any question about Him is original and perfect. Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that the highest perfection of life is to achieve the transcendental loving service of Kṛṣṇa. Because questions and answers about Kṛṣṇa elevate one to that transcendental position, the questions of Mahārāja Parīkṣit about Kṛṣṇa philosophy are greatly glorified. Mahārāja Parīkṣit wanted to absorb his mind completely in Kṛṣṇa, and such absorption can be effected simply by hearing about the uncommon activities of Kṛṣṇa. For instance, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated that simply by understanding the transcendental nature of Lord Kṛṣṇa's appearance, disappearance, and activities, one can immediately return back to home, back to Godhead."

Prabhupāda: They do not know what is back to home, back to Godhead. Home is here in India, and again back to Godhead? And somebody say, "Here is America. It is my home." And when you say that he'll be kicked out after some years, then home finished. They are satisfied, that home finished, that's all. In such ignorance they are living. And for this home they are busy.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: Well, for instance, Gopāla Kṛṣṇa has the habit of deporting my men to different centers, even against their will.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't have that habit.

Haṁsadūta: Then the men... I explained the other night...

Prabhupāda: Let him explain, don't...

Haṁsadūta: When we come to a center, naturally there are certain men who want to go traveling. Not all men want to go traveling, but there are definitely some who want to go traveling. And if they come to me, what should I do? Tell them, "No, I'm sorry"?

Prabhupāda: No, no, traveling, if somebody wants to travel, what he is, first of all you must know. A brahmacārī, a sannyāsī, they are meant for preaching. Not gṛhasthas.

Haṁsadūta: No, not gṛhasthas. I'm not taking any gṛhasthas.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: But what is happening is that for instance, someone will join me, then Gopāla will catch up with him and send the man to Delhi or to Hyderabad. The man will run away and come back again, and again he will be forced to go away. This is what I object to.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, this is wrong. I'll tell you what the facts are. In every temple there are certain key positions for some devotee. In no temple we are trying to keep more than necessary. Sometimes they come and he preaches to them and he gives them money. If he is the temple president... Like in Bombay Haṁsadūta came, he had a fight with Girirāja. Girirāja was ready to write such a strong letter to you. He gave money to few devotees...

Prabhupāda: The temple establishment, that has to be maintained.

Haṁsadūta: That I understand. Prabhupāda, I understand that.

Prabhupāda: So why, why the...? Besides that, if you want to take someone or if anyone is willing to go with you, the president of the local temple, he should be requested. Or the man who wants to go, that "I want to go with him."

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: For instance, in this temple, there are so many men which are on our party who are...

Prabhupāda: So many men. We don't want so many men. Now we are going to minimize. We don't want so many men. That if, now we have to estimate how many men absolutely required. So many men we shall keep. Others, they must go for the preaching. They must go to the preaching.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They can all go on the buses, the extra men.

Prabhupāda: No, they should be distributed. They may go to other centers.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Hyderabad needs men.

Prabhupāda: Here, unnecessarily increasing men and increasing expenditure, twenty thousand, twenty-five thousand, thirty thousand. Why? Unnecessary. Only minimum men should be kept who are actually useful. There is no need of keeping extra men. What is that?

Room Conversation -- September 16, 1976, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: And on the basis of this transporting of food, other industries grow. Like for instance packing. Sometimes the package costs more than the item which is being packaged.

Prabhupāda: Especially in your country. Packing is more important than the... They sent me some presentation in a huge package.

Haṁsadūta: Consequently those persons who are farmers, they become discouraged.

Prabhupāda: Now it has become a problem how to throw these packings.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, this is another problem.

Hari-śauri: Yes. Plastic they can't dispose of, glass.

Prabhupāda: Simply creating problems. Lavana haila ithe gatila jagya.(?) This modern civilization, they could not make any profit. They have created some problems, that's all. Very dangerous civilization.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: All these Bombay industries, they belong to the outsiders.

Mr. Malhotra: Outsiders. Now in Punjab for instance, they have created sufficient wheat to cater the entire country. That is 4/5 of the total need of the country of wheat is supplied by Punjab.

Prabhupāda: But it is always.

Mr. Malhotra: Punjab and Haryana, now they are two, but both together.

Prabhupāda: Punjab is the best province in India.

Mr. Malhotra: You know we came and settled in Poona after partition of the country. Previously we were in Rawalpindi. (Hindi) (break)

Prabhupāda: On my way to Kashmir.

Mr. Malhotra: Yes, because at Rawalpindi you could get taxi, then buses. After Rawalpindi you have to go by train. Then from there you could get car, taxi, and in those days there were yakas (?) also. You know. Tongas. Tongas, buses. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...young age when I was 25 years. (break) ...via Jammu.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Devotee (1): They maintain that from the oceans came one-celled animals. Then from these one-celled animals, they developed into fish and then reptiles. And then these reptiles became very big dinosaurs, and they have put together many big museums. For instance, in Washington the Smithsonian Museum has many, many big bones put together and they date these millions of years ago.

Prabhupāda: So we have got also the same theory. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. (break) ...within water. So where is the difference? We also admit the forms of life begins from the ocean. Then plants. As soon as the water is dried, there are plants, trees. Sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. Sthāvara means "the life which cannot move." So the trees, plants, grass, they cannot move. Then insects, then reptiles, then birds, then beast, then human being. In this way the living entity is changing body. So what is the difficulty?

Devotee (1): But they say that the human body developed right from these other bodies. In other words...

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Sannyasis -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: He wants that you... He said, "The translator frequently adds comments containing information from other Vedic scriptures, for instance, ancient astronomical calculations referred to by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. It would be highly interesting to have a compilation of such astronomical texts translated into English. One can only hope that the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust endeavors to do this to the great benefit of the historians of science."

Prabhupāda: We shall do it. I am searching after some astronomer.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They have their doctors and psychiatrists now. Just as we are getting armed with so many statements, they are also gathering together their groups of doctors and psychiatrists to all attest to the fact. But they have nothing to say. They're trying to get behind them some men, but the men are not of as much consequence as our people are. But then you see another thing they do is they cause trouble through other processes. For instance, they will audit the accounts, look into the Society's money, and they'll try to...

Prabhupāda: They'll try to give us trouble in so many ways.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So many ways. So we have to be very careful.

Brahmānanda: Did you hear in Argentina?

Hari-śauri: Yes, a little bit. Just that we've been banned.

Prabhupāda: What happened?

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: Most of their charges are like that. They are based on misconceptions about our movement. They say that, for instance, that we do not eat enough or sleep enough, yet we have studies from their own scientists that say that our diet is good.

Prabhupāda: How we are living if our diet is not good? Ten years we are not eating sufficiently? Then how we are living? You do not know what is good food. But the result you have to know. If we are not eating sufficiently, how we are living? A cow eats so much grass, and a human being eats a small plate. So if the cow says, "You are not eating sufficient like me," is that logic?

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: We have gotten in some states injunctions from the court so that people cannot be taken. For instance in California they have an injunction. In Massachusetts...

Prabhupāda: If this injunction is there, why don't you take steps and...?

Ādi-keśava: They took them from other states. So we're trying to extend it now to the other states. But in some places there are new laws, so we have to find a new way to go against it. We have just defeated the law in the state of Vermont. They proposed one law...

Prabhupāda: That law, but is what can I say?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, no, I mean he wasn't asking for any statement. I was just giving it as information.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: ...about the handling of this case in New York. We've been talking a lot about the general issues, but there's some specific points. Some are very practical, have come up. For instance......

Prabhupāda: If you feel alone, you take some other with you whom you like.

Ādi-keśava: Excuse me?

Prabhupāda: If you are feeling alone, you must take somebody else, one or two, with you.

Ādi-keśava: I always have Tripurāri Swami with me.

Prabhupāda: Gosvāmī is... That's all right.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: We're together a lot. But one thing is, when we are fighting this case, there's a lot of legal expense, because although we are fighting the atheists in the courtroom, the lawyers who are working for us, they are also atheists, but they are the best materially. Our one lawyer, for instance, in New York, he is considered one of the best lawyers in the country. But he is charging us so much money, and although we do as much work as we can ourselves...

Prabhupāda: Why we appoint lawyer?

Ādi-keśava: Well, in the court there are certain things that only the lawyer may argue. We're not allowed to argue ourselves. Now, one thing is that Hari-śauri has just told me that Guru-kṛpā Mahārāja has one man on his party who was a lawyer, a member of the bar in Australia. So I'm thinking to ask Guru-kṛpā Mahārāja if he can come with us to New York and get admitted to the bar in New York and become our attorney.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. It will be very nice.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: It shows that they have a big organization. See, they have all these committees. And there's a lot of money involved. There are a lot of people with big money. Starting at the top, they've made a national organization. I know all these men. I've spoken to all these people. They're big demons, but they have a lot of money, so they're fighting us in all the different courts. But so far they have not taken it beyond the lower courts. When we take it to the higher courts we always win. For instance, just before I left, we took two cases to the Federal Court. Immediately we won. In one day they gave us the case. My case is in a very low court. If it goes to a high-court we will win. So we are wanting to do this, but that means again that if we were to do it, only certain lawyers can enter into the Federal Court. Not just any lawyer can argue there, because you have to have some...

Prabhupāda: So you have to pay. What can be done?

Ādi-keśava: So if you're willing to do that, I will do it.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: Sometimes... This is a book that is documenting all of their activity. One other thing is that sometimes when they are attacking us there is a good opportunity for us to differentiate ourselves, distinguish ourselves from other religions. For instance, this World Fellowship of Religions held a press conference at the United Nations. Now when they backed us, they would not back the Unification Church or the, you know, these Christians groups, because they don't like them. In general, the scholars, they favor our group. They don't favor the other groups. They don't like them. They think they are cheaters, and there has been some proof in the press. One problem is, for instance, this Mr. Moon, his...The tax commission in New York investigated him, and they took away his tax exempt status. And the Attorney General removed all of his privileges in the state of New York. So he has been made to look very bad. So rather than... There are some devotees who are saying we should stand together in an alliance with them. But every time I am asked in the press or anything, I say the same thing again, "No. We have nothing to do with them. We have nothing..." Because I am afraid that we will be dragged down with them.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Ādi-keśava: They are rascals, and eventually they are going to be exposed.

Prabhupāda: No.

Hari-śauri: They'll be finished for certain.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: We want they should be finished. (laughs)

Ādi-keśava: Right. Sometimes Mukunda, for instance, was saying that we should make an alliance, and then we can have more strength. But I said, "No. When we do that... We are pure, we are genuine, and they are artificial."

Prabhupāda: Yes. We should keep our purity.

Ādi-keśava: So we are always to emphasize that...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Ādi-keśava: ...that we are separate.

Hari-śauri: Kṛṣṇa's our strength. They have no strength.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa will save us. But the asylum in India with the government help, that will be very nice.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: Right. Another thing is sometimes the intellectuals, they are backing us, and the very low class people, they also like us very much because they feel... The black people feel, for instance, that we are being persecuted like they have been persecuted. But the middle class people, they are the ones who are against us, and they are by far the greatest number.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Ādi-keśava: So I'm wondering what is the best way to influence them in our trial.

Prabhupāda: They will not. Because our all men are coming from middle class, so they are already against us because their sons have joined. How they can be in our favor?

Ādi-keśava: I don't see any way. (Prabhupāda chuckles) We go to the court and the judges always say...

Prabhupāda: But there are many fathers and mothers, they have... Mothers, they have appreciated our... So as far as possible, take... But because they are concerned, they have lost their children—they are against us. So you want that one... Tripurāri is sufficient?

Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 23, 1977, Bombay:

Mr. Dwivedi: And even the present brāhmaṇas also equally misunderstand. For instance, Gītā is compulsory in every institution right from the very beginning. So at one time, because it was compulsory for Muslims, even it was compulsory for the harijanas. I stood excommunicated for some time. Now sometimes complaint goes to the government, "What is solution?" And therefore they say, "Why government should hear you? You are complaining everybody." "This is not everybody. This is..." Gītā is no particular religion's book. It is a cosmopolitan...

Prabhupāda: No, no. They have no eyes to see. Why these people are accepting Gītā? They are not Hindus. They are coming from Christian family, Jewish family, Muhammadan family. They could not present. They had no power to present Bhagavad-gītā as it is. They are simply puffed up. So we have to develop that institution that it is meant for. In South Africa I was in a college for lecturing. There was a Arya-samaj. He says that "You are presenting Gītā. It is for the Hindus." "No, this is for everything, everyone. When Kṛṣṇa says that dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13), does it mean for the Hindus?

Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 23, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So why not make arrangement like that so that we can immediately take up? The buildings are there. We can begin work immediately.

Mr. Dwivedi: Yes, yes, yes. Buildings, big hall. For instance, in our college building, the, our... Just as you have got this open enclosure, it's bigger, I think, much bigger than this, to accommodate easily about a thousand people.

Prabhupāda: I think we should arrange like that. Let us arrange. So where you are staying now?

Mr. Dwivedi: I am staying at Narancha(?). We have our own flat on this paper route(?), Abhesivasana's flat here in Bombay.

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Young man (6): I have... In my life I've seen some people... I haven't seen them all. I have read books, and I've met people that, that, you know, people that don't know. Some know more than others, and what I've seen is that there is always a point in everybody's mind and everybody's being where they draw the line between madness and sanity, between right and wrong, and the question in my mind is: Who makes the rules, and where do the rules come from? Because, I know, any society... For instance, in India there are the Indian scriptures, the Bhagavad-gītā and so on, and this is the basis of all Indian society. In the West there is the Christian scriptures, the Jewish scriptures. And they all have rules. They all have rules right down to the daily conduct of people, what they're supposed to eat, and they don't agree on what people are supposed to eat. Now, does that make one person who does not follow one set of rules wrong by another set of rules?

Prabhupāda: No, first principle is that you have to follow the rules.

Young man (6): What rules?

Prabhupāda: That is everywhere.

Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But certain things are going to have to come out. For instance, two men seriously injured are refused outside medical treatment. That can be proven.

Prabhupāda: No, so many other things.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who gives them the right to cut the telephone wire? That's criminal. That is against the law of the government. You're cutting government property. That's not our property. Telephone wires, all those things, electric wire.

Prabhupāda: That is purposefully planned.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? I mean, just judging the symptoms, which is all that we can do, certain symptoms have certainly picked up. For instance, you're passing more urine, stool is coming naturally, and you're able to drink milk without getting any cough. These things were never there before.

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.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Janardana -- Los Angeles 21 January, 1968:

Subject which is beyond their understanding by experimental knowledge, and if they try to understand it by the same experimental knowledge, that means confusion. This has to be understood by descending process of disciplic succession, or by deductive process, meaning for instance, my mother says this man is my father, I accept, there is no experience. God's name is therefore Adhoksaja which means beyond experimental knowledge. You can inform them that here is statement in Vedic literature (Padma Purāṇa) that the measurement of soul is 1/10,000 of the upper portion of the hair. You are meant for doing this and I shall assist you as far as possible. I thank you for your promise to send me one letter a week.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Rupanuga -- Honolulu 9 May, 1972:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 5, 1972, and I have noted the contents carefully. There seem to be vast discrepancies between your figures and those of Karandhara. For instance, he reports that since first of January, 1972, New York has remitted only $1243 to BTG Fund and $1538.20 to Book Fund, leaving balances due to BTG and Book Funds of $4571.05 and $5235.90 respectively. But you say your BTG debt is only $1,620 and BKF debt is only $3,897. If you are selling daily average of 2,000 literatures, why so little money is being paid by you on these debts? 60,000 pieces of literature per month means you should send the entire amount collected until this debt is completely eliminated. It is not good if such big temples who are setting the example for the whole Society do not pay their bills.

Letter to Tamala Krsna, Bhavananda, Jayapataka -- London 9 August, 1972:

So I do not know why your expenditure is so high, I am not expert in these matters, but it appears everything is being spent very exorbitantly. For instance, from the statements I note that you have spent so much for steel, but these things you can get donated or you can get reduction. Tamala Krishna was in Tatanagar, why he did not take promises for so much steel instead of so many useless letters? You should canvass the big manufacturers in Calcutta for giving supplies of steel and other things, now we have got some solid framework to show them. It is not that we are so rich in America we can go on forever supplying you so much money and you spend exorbitantly and become cheated. I do not think that building is worth $100,000.

Letter to Dr. Karan-Singh -- Los Angeles 18 September, 1972:

Now we are prepared to bring thousands of visitors to your country, but we need also your help and cooperation to do this in proper manner. Now we have created interest all over the world in Krsna and Vrndavana, for instance the Air India is using the Krsna theme in their advertising campaign, so we have created this atmosphere of interest in Krsna in the Western countries, and I think that cooperatively we may work together to increase the foreign tourism in our country of India. What will be the arrangement for foreigners to see the temples, will they be allowed or what is the situation for government sanction for foreigners to see the temples?

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Dr. Santosh Kumar -- Mexico City 16 February, 1975:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated Jan. 18, 1975 and have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your question, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is recognized through the sastras not otherwise. For instance, in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, first canto, third chapter, all the major incarnations of Godhead are listed. Many times the scheduled time of appearance and family, etc. are also mentioned. The incarnation of Godhead must be indicated in the scriptures, otherwise we cannot accept him as being incarnation. Today, there are so many bogus incarnations, but we do not accept them. The Supreme Lord can appear in this world at any time, but he does so according to the regular scheduled appearances mentioned in the sastras.

1976 Correspondence

Letter to Giriraja -- Los Angeles 6 June, 1976:

One thing, if they are serious, we are prepared to preach, so together your men, and our men, let us preach. If the Gita is seen as important preaching work, then the Government should help, they should give all facilities. The government can help in the following ways for instance: 1). Our members want to stay and preach but the immigration department is giving us trouble. They are driving us away. So few Indians are coming, but the Americans and the European are coming. Indian educated boys, they are after some service to get income, they are not joining. This must be tackled tactfully. Our mission is to preach Gita. The best thing is that if we can conjointly preach, we can benefit the whole of India, and the whole of the world. Vinobaji is very respected and they can do a great deal to help our preaching mission.

1977 Correspondence

Letter to VARIOUS -- Unknown Place Unknown Date:

They must follow explicitly the directions of the local presidents, e.g. they cannot be independent and live separately from the temple. So I suggested to Dhananjaya that each day he designates an area of London for them to distribute in which we have never touched before, especially for instance South London, Greenwich, Woolwich, Brixton, Herne Hill, like that—so they do not interfere with our Oxford Street. So in this way you must control them, and if (they) object or disobey in any (way), they must be sent away; 3) Ultimately the decision rests with the President whether their presence in London (or anywhere else) is favorable for the local situation, or if it is unfavorable. That is Dhananjaya's discretion. If he feels they are doing more harm than good, then they must go immediately.

Letter to Artists -- Unknown Place Unknown Date:

The doer must be expert, the instruments must be fit and the help from the Supersoul may be adequate. These are the five causes for success and opposite are the five factors for nonsuccess. So I can give you hints only, but you must put life into the painting. For instance, from the business point of view, one man is doing some business. If he goes to the marketplace, it will be done very nice, since there are so many customers. Similarly one looking for spiritual life goes to where devotees are and associates with them. So one must go to a particular type of place for a particular type of activity. And the person acting must be well versed, or expert. Just as an expert salesman, his method of business is bona fide.