French (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"french" |"frenchman" |"frenchmen" |"frenchwoman"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Eh? Doctor's land, Dr. Durgacaran Bannerjee Road, they belonged to very respectable family of that quarter, Bannerjee family. And Surendranath Bannerjee was the first I.C.S. I.C.S. He passed I.C.S. examination, Indian Civil Service, but he did not accept it. Aurobindo Ghosh was made by Surendranath Bannerjee. He was born in London. Aurobindo Ghosh's father, Manmohan Ghosh, he was a medical man in London. He was born... He's English birth. Well, later on, he became English-hater.

Jayapatākā: French-lover.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jayapatākā: Lover of the French.

Prabhupāda: He?

Jayapatākā: Aurobindo?

Prabhupāda: No, who says?

Jayapatākā: He always had some French people with him?

Prabhupāda: No, no. That... One French girl entrapped him. That woman spoiled him. He was actually practicing yoga very nice. After his release from political entanglement, actually he became a yogi, but this Frenchwoman, who became later on "Mother," she spoiled her ca..., his career. He became a bhogī then. (laughter) Instead of yogi... Otherwise, he was becoming yogi. You'll find from his photo. In the beginning, he was very lean and thin, and later on, when he died, he was very fatty. Means bhogī. (break) ...yogi bhogī, rogī. There are three.

Devotee (3): Rogī.

Prabhupāda: Rogī means diseased, and bhogī means flourishing, and yogi means transcendentalist.

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: So if this is the practice in a country which is so opulent, just imagine what is there in India.

Pañcadraviḍa: I had experience, because when I was younger I was stealing, and I was taking to the hock shop one typewriter, and while I was taking to the hock shop this typewriter, the police came and showed me his badge and took this typewriter and one French horn from... He took the money, and he said, "I am going to check to see if this is stolen." So one week later I was worried. I called him. I said, "What is happening?" He said, "That typewriter was reported one year ago stolen from the school." But he said, "Because I think you're a good boy, I'm not going to arrest, you because I don't think you did it. If I thought for a moment you did it, I would immediately come and take you." So I said, "That's all right. What about the French horn? When can I have my money back?" He said, "You just forget about this. You leave it to me."

Prabhupāda: To keep you honest. (laughter) To keep you honest, you just don't hope your money.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Everyone can be devotee.... It is a question to understand that "I am not this body." That is beginning. So a businessman can try to understand, a lawyer can try to understand, or a philosopher can try to under.... Everyone can do that. The real point is, first of all try to understand that you are not this body. So where is the hampering, becoming a businessman or family man or this or that? There is no hampering. We are trained up from the very beginning of our life by our parents. We got the opportunity. And businessman, no businessman, it doesn't matter. Ahaituky apratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo... (SB 1.2.6). Find out this verse. Ahaituky apratihatā. Kṛṣṇa conscious is unhampered by anything material. It does not mean that because you are a businessman you cannot be Kṛṣṇa conscious. No. That is not. You may be whatever you are, but you can become Kṛṣṇa conscious at the same time. (break) (devotees offer obeisances) (background talking) So it is not the superexcellency of English language. It is subject matter. Formerly they used to speak in Sanskrit. Therefore it is recorded in Sanskrit language. It can be transferred to any language. The thoughts are there. That is real point. Just like we are translating the thoughts in English, in Spanish, in Portuguese, in French. The real thing is the thought, not the language. But in Sanskrit language you'll find very, very high thoughts. That is because it is very old language.

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

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Candanācārya: Mars is after the moon?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Candanācārya: Because in French, Tuesday is the word for Mars.

Prabhupāda: And Saturday is last. Saturn is last.

Yadubara: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Each planet is 1,600,000 miles away from one another.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: 1,600,000.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Yadubara: They say they went 250,000 miles twice.

Prabhupāda: They say, let them say, first of all answer "Why Sunday first?"

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about these pictures we have seen on the television showing them jumping on the moon?

Prabhupāda: That you can make in laboratory. That is not very difficult.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Colossal hoax.

Mahendra: ...pictures are like the King Kong movie.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In King Kong movie they made cotton as cloud. (laughs). They can do everything in the laboratory.

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

Prabhupāda: That is Englishmen, Dutchmen, Dutchmen.

Dr. Wolfe: ...who were put down by the British before, and now they are the worst oppressors themselves.

Prabhupāda: These Dutchmen, Englishmen and Frenchmen were the pioneers of colonization. Spaniards also, Spanish. In America mostly the Englishmen came?

Hṛdayānanda: Yes. English and French.

Prabhupāda: French.

Hṛdayānanda: Mostly English.

Prabhupāda: The Germans were not for colonization.

Magazine Interview -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: In India, also.

Guest: They are sold throughout the world.

Rāmeśvara: Yes, and they're published in many different languages. French, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Indian languages. Spanish, very big.

Prabhupāda: Get this light.

Interviewer: Where did you get these paintings?

Prabhupāda: Paintings? Our students did.

Rāmeśvara: Our art studios are here in Los Angeles.

Interviewer: What happens when that inevitable time comes when a successor is needed?

Rāmeśvara: He is asking about the future, who will guide the movement in the future.

Prabhupāda: They will guide. I am training them.

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

Prabhupāda: We don't read anyone's books except Bhagavad-gītā.

Richard: Oh, I thought you said you studied other philosophies.

Prabhupāda: Study, there are so many books we study.

Richard: Right, okay, well anyway, there was a French philosopher in the 1700's named Rene Descartes, and his...

Prabhupāda: I think we have discussed this philosopher.

Richard: You have discussed him? All right, one of the things he said was that.... Oh, I'm sorry, it's Pascal. Anyway, same thing practically. Ah, he said that as far as an afterlife goes, as far as proving it, it's impossible to prove it.

Prabhupāda: Why impossible? He does not know.

Richard: Okay.

Prabhupāda: We can prove immediately.

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

Prabhupāda: Lincoln. Equal right, but actually, there is some tension, black and white. Because they are not on the spiritual platform.

Viśvakarmā: In Canada, Prabhupāda, it's the French and the English.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere, some tension. The Catholic, the Protestant; the black, the white; the Hindu, the Muslim. That must go on because if we accept on the platform of dress, of body, then there must be ignorance. Read that verse and explain to her.

Jayādvaita: "One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments nor desires to have anything; he is equally disposed to every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me."

Prabhupāda: Equally disposed. As soon as he knows that I am not this body, I am spirit soul, then there is no distinction. Just like two American goes to India. So when they understand that "We are Americans," immediately their interest becomes one, although they are in the foreign country. That is psychology. Similarly, as soon as we come to the spiritual platform, there is no such distinction as black, white, Hindu, Muslim, Christian. Everything finished. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu.

Morning Walk -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Oh, (laughs) how are you?

Bhakta Gene: Very fine, very fine. I'm told that you met with Thomas Merton some years ago. Is this correct?

Prabhupāda: The French?

Bhakta Gene: No, the Cistercian monk from Kentucky.

Prabhupāda: I do not know.

Bhakta Gene: You didn't meet with him? He was supposedly the most prominent mystical writer within the Catholic Church in the past one hundred years. His writings gained tremendous prominence in the past..., oh, the past twenty-five years.

Prabhupāda: Prominence amongst whom?

Bhakta Gene: Uh, amongst Christians. And non-Christians as well. He made a trip to the East. He had an accident in the East and was electrocuted. Oh, this is some ten years ago now.

Jayādvaita: He wrote that original introduction for your first Bhagavad-gītā published by Macmillan.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: You can know more about him from Haṁsadūta. As well Bhagavān.

Jagadīśa: Bhagavān recommended him. He had been in Paris before coming to America. But his complaint was that he didn't speak French, so he didn't like to stay in France. Then he came to America, and he was distributing books with Tripurāri Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: Oh, he is very intelligent, there is no doubt, intelligent, and for preaching work he is good. But for becoming the manager in London, there were.... What is that boy in Bombay?

Hari-śauri: Oh, Prabhaviṣṇu?

Prabhupāda: Prabhaviṣṇu. So, who would become the president, there was war. (laughter) Haṁsadūta wanted Prabhaviṣṇu, and Mādhavānanda wanted that he would become president. In this way, there was great faction. So the management was being done nicely. He was attracting Indians, faithful, they were following. But there were several complaints that he spent very lavishly on his personal account.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: But actually, the war was between Germany and England. Others joined, some interest or something. Actually, the war was to be fought between England and Germany.

Jagadīśa: There's one devotee who joined in Toronto, Frenchman, and he was in France at the time of the war. He's an older man. And he told me also.... His father was French, but he was sympathetic to the Nazis, and that it was actually Maxmillian or one of the Frenchmen who sided with the British, but the majority of the French people didn't mind the German occupation. It was due to one of the political factions siding with the British that there was a French underground and...

Prabhupāda: France, they are always enemy of Englishmen. There is is old history-Hundred Years' War, Seven Years' War. Napoleon also wanted to cut down the Britishers. France is dead enemy of England, and there is always competition.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because they thought, "This is a third-class nation, a small island, fishermen, and they have wealthy (indistinct)?" That is natural. Whole world. In our childhood, we used to see map, almost whole world red-red means British. (laughter) They said that there was no sunset in the British Empire.

Jagadīśa: This Frenchman also says that he...

Prabhupāda: German people still hate England. They do not like to speak in English; that I have seen. In the bank they know English, but they won't speak it. English everyone knows. The Kaiser was against. They said that Kaiser is the grandson of Queen Victoria, from daughter's side. And King George from the son's side—Edward's seventh son. They were cousin brothers. So this Kaiser, when he was young boy, went to paternal uncle's house, when he was a young boy. So there was some playing, cut with a knife. So royal family, so many doctors came. So the boy was saying, "Why you are trying to cure it? Let the English blood go away." So from the childhood he was so inimical, that "I have got some English blood in my body, my mother is English, father German, so let the English blood go away." I do not know if that is fact, I heard it. (laughs) Maybe. It is joking also and serious. In our childhood in school, a book was there, "England's Work in India." One Mr. M. Ghosh, he wrote this book just to flatter the Englishmen. This, that "white man's burden." And it was the impression in those days: just to become like Englishmen, that is civilization. The Parsees in Bombay, they were the first-class flatterer, imitation, how to become like English lords, barons. This Tata factory was started by such ambition. They wanted to be English baron, lord, industrialist. In Calcutta also. Where our temple is, that is called saheb quarter. In our childhood we used to say saheb quarter. Saheb quarter means European neighborhood. They say our temple is saheb mandira in Māyāpur. And in Vṛndāvana aṇgrejī mandira. The same impression. To become saheb, that was great prestigious.

Room Conversation -- June 29, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Hari-śauri: They're already doing that. In France, you can buy cans of chocolate-coated ants, grasshoppers, frog's legs, bumblebees, fried bumblebees you can get. The French eat the most abominable foodstuff.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The English think that way, anyway.

Hari-śauri: They all do.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The English think the French eat abominable foods.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: This is the modes of nature, Śrīla Prabhupāda, acting.

Prabhupāda: Kadarya bhakṣaṇa.

Hari-śauri: It's difficult to imagine what kind of fate we would have had if you hadn't come and started this movement.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Everything is so scientific. We've seen practically that as people take up this chanting, that gradually they lose their taste for every other kind of eating. It's a fact. I should inform Kīrtanānanda Swami about some of these ideas?

Prabhupāda: Yes, if you can arrange with the butcher.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: In the Nyāya-śāstra, it is there. Taṇḍula-vṛścika-nyāya. Taṇḍula means rice, and vṛścika means scorpion. The scorpion coming out of the heaps of rice, so therefore rice is producing scorpion. This logic is wrong.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, so but people then believed like that. So Pasteur, actually he believed strongly in God, and he wanted to disprove that theory, and, in fact, he got prize for doing this experiment from a French academy and, during that year... This flask contains sugar solution and with some yeast to ferment at the beginning. But now the experiment was to completely kill any germs inside the flask by heating, in the beginning, and then cool it down automatically and to keep for some time, about two or three days...

Prabhupāda: Sterilization.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Let him come. So?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Getting French visa was done, and tomorrow I pick up your passport and apply for Iran visa. Then just one more, Italy, remains.

Prabhupāda: Why do they speak about seeing? What is the value of your seeing? I have seen the Atlantic Ocean, that means I have seen everything? This is ludicrous.

Rūpānuga: They may simply speculate from a distance, that "Here is the surface," like here...

Prabhupāda: That's all. Real business is speculation.

Rūpānuga: Here it says, here, this is some great, here...

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is "I am not stealing."

Rūpānuga: Twelve hundred miles above the surface. Now they want to speculate what is there.

Prabhupāda: Who asked him that who is stealing? But he said "I am not stealing."

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Anesthetic, he becomes unconscious. Then, another process, we can bring him to conscious.

Interviewer: All right, let me ask a rather long question. Let's assume that all human beings have an innate ability to speak, and depending upon the circumstances they find themselves in when they are very small, they will learn Sanskrit, they will learn English, they will learn French, they will learn Chinese. What... Now, if I were Chinese, I would say, "Well Chinese is the best language." I would have a, you know... I could take a different mode on what's the best way to communicate.

Prabhupāda: No, Chinese...

Interviewer: Now, in terms of your movement, you're bringing out consciousness, which I would analogize...

Prabhupāda: No, I say...

Interviewer: To the ability to speak. Now, how is your path or your way different from (or) better than others?

Prabhupāda: No, but there is no question of "better than others." It is the only thing.

Interviewer: It is the only way?

Prabhupāda: Only thing. It is not the question of better or superior. But Kṛṣṇa consciousness means God consciousness. So either you are Chinese or English or American, there is consciousness. When that consciousness is purified, that is God consciousness.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Here he is. Generally you are preaching here, preaching nice?

Pṛthu-putra: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: You know French?

Pṛthu-putra: Yes, I am from France originally.

Prabhupāda: So what is your new publication?

Bhagavān: So I have a big surprise.

Devotees: Whew! Wow! It's fabulous! Wow!

Prabhupāda: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Hari-śauri: This will make Rāmeśvara very envious.

Bhagavān: This is special. This is on all volumes.

Prabhupāda: Oh, how many chapters?

Bhagavān: Up to chapter nine.

Prabhupāda: Oh, First Canto.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Read. What does it say?

Pṛthu-putra: (translating) (sic:) "The classical induries(?) based on sacred scriptures from which the eighteen great Purāṇas has a central place. These vast poems, their character give theologic teaching is giving all the knowledge of the Veda, and in the substance of the Purāṇa there is the face of the Indian populations. While reciting them in the temples and the preacher are giving commentaries in the assembly of devotees, which is called sankīrtana. This teaching read to the chant and dancing on the glories of the Lord Bhagavān. Amongst all these Purāṇas, the most famous is the Bhāgavata-Purāṇa, called Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, because this literary form is achieved the most beautiful, and also because it's the poem which is expressing the best the doctrine of the faith that Sri Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Person, Purusottama, the principle of everything, the absolute unique without second, advaitam-brahman. Like in the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord reveals His majesty in plain. Much more than an avatara of Visnu, He appears in our eyes like the unique God. Towards Him all devotion is due. The French people are honored to have, from the beginning of the nineteenth century, to have the first edition of Bhāgavata-Purāṇa, but from long time already this work of the great Beurnuf"—that's the man who translated Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in nineteenth century in French—"is the reason why we have to thank very much the association, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, to give us that very big text, one of the master book of the humanity. This book is very benefic, and with the translation of the Sanskrit there is a commentary, the majestical commentary, which is given verse after verse by the master, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, founder of the association. As he did it with the Bhagavad-gītā, which was published in French in 1975 with the preface of a Professor Harvi Delacombe, Swami Prabhupāda explains word by word each mantra -stanza or sacred text-before to give a signification. Then the reader can judge every pieces, what is the meaning of the teaching of the master by confrontation with the text itself..."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Pṛthu-putra: "And there is also an index and some notes which are giving the work much more easy for the reader, even the profound. This teaching took its root in the teaching of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, that prophet of Kṛṣṇa's. His preaching in Bengal in Orissa in sixteenth century is again appear deeper for the devotion to Bhagavān. Srila Prabhupāda is descending in the disciplic succession, direct vamsa, from Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His first disciples, the famous Gosvāmīs. It is a considerable advantage for the French public to have these volumes where there is a vitality manifested from one of these past pantha, which are the most followed by the followers of the Hinduism. We hope that there is a large distribution of this tradition and commentary of the Bhāgavata-Purāṇa. Anyone who is interested in the life of India can find the authentic teaching, spiritual teaching authorized, and can also have access to one of the most beautiful religious poem from the Hindu tradition." This is the.... It's wonderful.

Prabhupāda: Yes, very good.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Which book selling now?

Bhagavān: Which book are we selling right now? Gītā, and we'll have a quantity of this in about three weeks, and then we'll begin selling Bhāgavatam, and Īśopaniṣad, Easy Journey, Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: French language is understood practically all over Europe, especially France, Switzerland.

Bhagavān: Switzerland, Montreal, Belgium...

Pṛthu-putra: Luxembourg and Belgium also, they are French-speaking.

Bhagavān: And Africa. Much countries in Africa are French-speaking.

Prabhupāda: Oh. You can sell in Mauritius.

Bhagavān: Yes. I send books to Mauritius.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone speaks French.

Bhagavān: Did you see the color printing inside? It's also very nice. They have done the same.... This was last year in Paris, when you received Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They like pictures?

Bhagavān: Oh, yes.

Jayatīrtha: The French are much different than the Germans.

Bhagavān: This on the back, this explains the end pages here, so people can see the whole picture, and the explanation is given here.

Hari-śauri: Will that be in every canto? Every book....

Bhagavān: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Read what he....

Bhagavān: This is another appreciation here. This is from a doctor in the University of Neuchatel. It's in Switzerland. He's a Swiss doctor.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda:

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ

paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande

śrī-gurum dīna-tāranam

Mūkaṁ karoti vācālam: "A dumb is a great orator." Mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ. Paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim: "The lame man, lame man is jumping over the mountain." Mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim. Yat-kṛpa: "By the mercy of guru it is possible." So let us cooperate and do this business. Higher authority will be pleased, and that is our success. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **. If the higher authorities are pleased, then Kṛṣṇa is pleased. That is our success. What about that French professor who has written an elaborate review?

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes, embossed. I think our other books are not like that.

Harikeśa: Of course, in France this is very much appreciated because the people are like that.

Prabhupāda: Fancy.

Harikeśa: Yes.

Hari-śauri: There's big competition now between our French and Spanish and English, between our publishing, French, Spanish and English. They are always competing. And the Germans also.

Harikeśa: I think the French are on top though.

Hari-śauri: Their French Bhagavad-gītā, the French one, when it came out, it's so much better than any other version we've had. Every time they bring a new book out, it seems to be an advancement on everything else.

Harikeśa: Yogeśvara is very...

Prabhupāda: Oh, he is very expert, very enthusiastic. His wife is...

Harikeśa: Very nice.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: And we have got another palace, what is that village?

Jayatīrtha: South of Paris? That one?

Prabhupāda: No, France.

Jayatīrtha: Yes, south of Paris. It's near a place called Valancey. Very nice place.

Pradyumna: French chateau.

Mukunda: It's on about 250 acres.

George Harrison: Really?

Mukunda: Huge fields, beautiful place. Show you a picture of it.

George Harrison: Yes. So that's one of the goals now, one hundred and eight temples.

Jayatīrtha: Should be able to do it this year, I think.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jayatīrtha: Should have a hundred and eight this year, I think.

Hari-śauri: Centers. One hundred and eight centers.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation -- July 27, 1976, London:

Jayatīrtha: A local policeman said that in England there are more laws protecting the dogs than there are protecting the children. If you beat your children, then no problem. If you beat your dog, immediately they'll come arrest you.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Jayatīrtha: Yes.

Bhagavān: I've seen in India, they are bringing foreign dogs.

Jayatīrtha: Even that one gosvāmī in Vṛndāvana, he has got French dogs.

Prabhupāda: That poodles. He's rascal. And such a fool, "Jagat-guru." So you go.

Jayatīrtha: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)

Arrival Speech -- July 28, 1976, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Kṣetra-jñākhya tathā para. Avidyā karma saṅgaḥ anya tṛtiya śaktir iśyate. Viṣṇu-śakti, Viṣṇu, the supreme controller, all-pervading Godhead, Viṣṇu, He and His potency, viṣṇu-śakti parā proktaḥ, both of them are transcendental. (someone translates into French throughout) So the Viṣṇu-śakti potency is one. Another reflection of the Viṣṇu-śakti is karma-saṅga anya, that is, you have to work. That is called tṛtiya, the third, karma-saṅga, where you have to work. The idea is that original Viṣṇu potency, you haven't got to work. Everything is supplied automatically. And the avidyā karma-saṅga anya, and the other reflection or perverted reflection, is this material world. Just like you have recited this verse, cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam (Bs. 5.29). In the spiritual world the trees are desire tree—means whatever we want, we can get—whereas in this material world, trees are not like that, they are limited potency. The cows there, unlimited potency. Surabhī means you can milk out as many times as you like, and as much as you like. So the idea is the spiritual world means there is no need of endeavoring for getting anything; everything is there automatically.

Arrival at Farm -- July 29, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: I don't think it is working.

Hari-śauri: It's not working.

French devotee: Yesterday we tried everything. It was working, I know.

Prabhupāda: Is there any buzzing? Is there any buzzing? No. (coughing) (devotees fix the bell)

Bhagavān: Where is that lota for Prabhupāda?

Harikeśa: I told them two o'clock their time, which is one o'clock your time from London, because there's a compromise of..., in between the two, and in that way it would adjust. I also told them not to make anything fancy but to make very simple.

Prabhupāda: Who? They will not be able.

Arrival at Farm -- July 29, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. It was the prediction of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu that in every village, in every town on the surface of the globe, there will be preaching of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's name and the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. It is to be translated? (translator translates into French) So by your transcendental endeavor it is being fulfilled, otherwise who expected that in this remote village of France, Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra would be chanted? When Caitanya Mahāprabhu said in every village, in every town, he did not mean that every village and every town in India. He specifically says pṛthivīte, means on the surface of the globe. So the purpose is that without spreading of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, nobody can become happy. That's a fact. The opportunity of human form of life is systematcially being refused by the modern civilization. This material activity only for the bodily comforts of life, that is not human civilization. Human civilization means the human being must know the supreme controller and the aim of life. The real fact is that God is there, the supreme controller, and we, living entities, we are His parts and parcels. As parts and parcels of God, we, being separated, we are suffering.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: No, he's not a good English scholar.

Bhūgarbha: Actually, he speaks perfect French also. And he got his Ph.D. from the University of Paris.

Prabhupāda: Paris or Dutch as well.

Bhūgarbha: He's been every place. He went to, in Paris he got in the Sorbonne and also in Pondicherry they have one French Institute, and there he got his Ph.D. And also in Holland there is one very important... So by his letters we can, many people will take our books.

Prabhupāda: No, he's undoubtedly very great Sanskrit scholar. He had written some book how to make the sacred thread, like that. How many knots should be there, how many... (laughter) Smārta brāhmaṇa.

Bhūgarbha: Now he's written another book to show how his line is changing. His latest book was about the five chapters of the Dasama-skanda, which is the rasa-līlā. That is his book now.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: What is the news, Italy?

Yogeśvara: They've finished the preparation for the printing of the French edition of Kṛṣṇa book and Śrī Upadeśāmṛta and the Italian Bhagavad-gītā, and they should be ready within the next ten days.

Prabhupāda: French language.

Bhagavān: And Italian Bhagavad-gītā is done.

Prabhupāda: What is the political position of the Fascists and Communists?

Yogeśvara: Very mixed up.

Bhagavān: They are called Christian Democrats.

Prabhupāda: They can manufacture so many. Fertile brain in the tract of deserted world. This world is desert, and they have got fertile brain. They call? The fertile land in the deserted land, in the desert, is called oasis. So similarly, these rascals, they have got fertile brain in the world of desert, where there is no happiness. But they have got fertile brain, how to manufacture happiness. And māyā kicks on their face and baffles everything. This is the illusion. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā (BG 7.14). They, the world is desert, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15), but they have got fertile brain, how to become happy. And as soon as they make some arrangement, kicks on his face and he falls down. That's all. What do you think? Is it right? Sometimes you have got fertile brain. (laughter) This fertile brain, he will not accept. He'll be kicked out. Everything will be finished. If you want to be happy, then you have to go back home, back to Kṛṣṇa. That is the only way. Otherwise, your fertile brain will... What do you think, Jyotirmāyī? You are intelligent.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Yes. We accept Lord Buddha as incarnation of God. Show in our books that we have got all respect for Buddha. We do not disrespect Lord Buddha, neither go against him. Anyway, if we get one house to live and a supporter, a big supporter, then our position will be secure. And if our cause is honest, then nobody can check.

Devotee (1): He has said that first I should come and speak to the Prime Minister and then speak at the University, and then see the reaction, and then we can go to see the king and say that this has been the reaction at the universities.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Do it organizedly. They understand French language?

Devotee (1): Yes, English and French. They are very close to Vietnam.

Prabhupāda: Very good. Take this opportunity.

Devotee (1): Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (end)

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Oh, give them this garland. (break) ...he begins with surrender. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). So anyone who voluntarily offers obeisances, immediately he becomes fifty percent advanced. Because.... Who is talking? This material world means nobody wants to surrender. Everyone wants to become master: "I am the monarch of all I survey." Everyone is planning how to become a master. Therefore the struggle for existence. Nobody wants to become a servant. You know very well in European history, Napoleon wanted to become the master of all Europe. Hitler wanted also. Similarly, there were so many leaders, sometimes Roman leaders, sometimes Greek leaders, sometimes French leaders, sometimes German leaders, English leader. The whole European history is full of fighting, war. The basic idea is that everyone wanted to become master. That is the material disease. We are now discussing Bali Mahārāja. He also wanted to become master of the whole universe. So that is the material disease. Actually, master is one, Kṛṣṇa. There cannot be two masters. There is only one master, that is Kṛṣṇa, or God. But in the material world, because we have forgotten the real master, every one of us is trying to become master. This is material disease. Not only in one life, but life after life.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Woman devotee: Between Holland and Belgium, they both speak the same language, so the books are distributed between these two countries.

Prabhupāda: Holland and?

Woman devotee: Belgium. Parts of Belgium speaks Dutch, and the other half speak French. So in the Belgium, in the half that speaks Dutch, they are taking many Bhagavad-gītās. Appreciating it very much. And one library, the head of all the libraries, he has taken an interest in your books.

Prabhupāda: How's your father?

Woman devotee (2): Um, not as well as you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Woman devotee (2): He's not as well as yourself.

Prabhupāda: He's suffering?

Woman devotee (2): Very much.

Prabhupāda: What is the disease?

Woman devotee (2): He's looking after roses in his garden. Oh, um...

Prabhupāda: But your father is young man. What is his age?

Woman devotee (2): He's sixty years old.

Room Conversation -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: This man has come means after appreciating. Everything surrendered-money, family, everything.

Bhagavān: Of all the different groups in this country, we have the best reputation. They hardly ever write any bad thing about us.

Prabhupāda: French people are, I think, cultured than other states.

Bhagavān: They like to read. When they distribute the hard-cover books door to door, many people always look at the binding, how the book is made, and they like the pictures.

Prabhupāda: We have got our own mung dāl?

Bhagavān: Mung dāl. This is the first year we're growing. We have a large patch.

Prabhupāda: Not yet harvested.

Bhagavān: Not yet harvested. But the plants are all very healthy, strong.

Prabhupāda: So in the morning you can give. We have got other mung dāl? Soak it, soak it, and raw mung dāl also. Ginger and this cucumber.

Room Conversation With French Commander -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Thank you.

Devotee (1): Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Yogeśvara: Mr. Marchand is a commander in the French Navy. Now he and his family are all chanting on beads and following the regulative principles.

Prabhupāda: You retired? Or...

Yogeśvara: He's still active.

Translator: Still has a few years to go.

Prabhupāda: Arjuna was a commander.

Bhagavān: Have they seen our French Bhāgavatam? Our new French Bhāgavatam?

Prabhupāda: So we generally speak that Arjuna was military commander. So before understanding Bhagavad-gītā, he was commander, and after understanding, he remained a commander, but he became Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Room Conversation With French Commander -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, Ninth Chapter. The whole Bhagavad-gītā he has to study, he'll understand. Especially in the Ninth Chapter. Beginning from Seventh to... All the chapters, especially Seventh to Twelfth chapter. He can open that Bhagavad-gītā Seventh Chapter. French.

Translator: This is French, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Read it.

Translator:

śrī bhagavān uvāca

mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha

yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ

asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ māṁ

yathā jñāsyasi tac chṛṇu

(BG 7.1)

(reads French translation)

Prabhupāda: So, if he has got any difficulty to understand? Ask him. And purport is there. If there is any difficulty, he can inquire.

Room Conversation With French Commander -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: You can ask him to open that book. Then read it. (translation read in French) So what is the difficulty in understanding? Ask him. This is military. Kṛṣṇa is asking that "You are in the battlefield. Wherefrom you got this cowardice mentality?" This is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā teaches how to become a brave hero in the battlefield. This is the instruction. Kutas tvā kaśmalam idaṁ viṣame sam. Just read the purport. Is there any purport? (purport read in French) (break) ...difficulty to understand.

Translator: He finds it very admirable that from a small verse you are able to always find something new and wonderful to say about it. And he say you go from verse to verse, and the complexity of what you explain is always new and wonderful to read. So he's very admiring of the book.

Prabhupāda: Thank you.

Bhagavān: How you can go from two lines to three pages.

Prabhupāda: I can go more. (laughter) But I have made shortcut. Kṛṣṇa is unlimited. So He can be described unlimitedly. But we have no unlimited patience.

Meeting with Italian Printer -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Yes, this child has to be forced to do something. For his interest.

Bhagavān: Prabhupāda once gave the analogy sometimes when the horse is sick, the doctor takes the pill in the hand, he puts it down the throat.

Prabhupāda: No, we are prepared. Just like horse is not prepared to take the medicine. But four men force him to take the medicine. Nobody was crying for this edition of Bhāgavata, but we are forcing, "You must read. You must take." We are printing and forcing everyone. French edition, Bhāgavata's edition, they were not dying for this book, but this is our force.

Translator: He says thank you for this first meeting, I hope we will meet again, and when we do I will make these books even look nicer.

Prabhupāda: Very good. Do that. That will be service to Kṛṣṇa. The more you...

Translator: He says he's making the effort in order to know better.

Prabhupāda: That is nice.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Yogeśvara: Professor's upstairs putting on a dhotī. He brought his daughter. Professor Chenique teaches a course in Bhagavad-gītā at the University, and he is also doing translations of Śaṅkarācārya and teaches for the Federation of Yoga. He considers himself a Christian Advaitist. (break) ...some questions regarding the publications in French. For example, on the front of Back to Godhead magazine, in the English edition and other language editions, they have kept the phrase "Godhead is light, darkness is nescience. Where there is Godhead there is no nescience." Now in French it is difficult to translate that. There is no word Godhead. And if you say "God is light," in French it sounds very impersonalist. In French, Dieux est lumiere, "God is light." Many groups say like that. We use the word Godhead, and that distinguishes us from the other groups. Now is the phrase very important, and do you want us to keep it on the front of the magazine? It should be there.

Prabhupāda: There is a little difference between God and Godhead.

Yogeśvara: So when we will have to try to find...

Prabhupāda: Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ. Īśvara, more or less everyone, but īśvaraḥ paramaḥ, that is Godhead. The Māyāvādīs, they do not distinguish between one īśvara to another īśvara. That may be on the ordinary level, but there is parama īśvara.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Arjuna, Arjuna is a householder, he's a military man, but the greatest devotee of Kṛṣṇa.

Bhūgarbha: He wants you to mention something about the translations. He wants to express his opinion about the translations that the French translators are doing of your books.

Prabhupāda: He is doing?

Bhūgarbha: He wants to give his opinion.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Bhūgarbha: He's asking permission to give his opinion.

Prabhupāda: It would be very nice.

Bhūgarbha: He says it is very interesting, very important that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam be translated in the same way as the Gītā. The Bhagavad-gītā has been translated many times into French, but the Bhāgavatam was only translated once, and that also in the last century.

Prabhupāda: This is our translation?

Bhūgarbha: No, it's another one. In 1800 it was translated.

Prabhupāda: And they simply translation, or elaborately like we are doing?

Yogeśvara: Just translation. Sanskrit on the left-hand page, French on the right-hand page, but no commentaries.

Prabhupāda: That is difficult to understand.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: That is difficult to understand.

Yogeśvara: It was the full twelve cantos, but a very limited edition, and only available in library archives. No one has..., very few people have seen it.

Bhūgarbha: He feels that the French public is very demanding in questions of editing and writing, and he feels that the French that's used in our translations should not, he said, smell of English. Sometimes French translations seem like English written in French. He said those should be in perfect French, and that in the French language there's a need to make things more compact and condensed. He's wondering if we can condense them more than in English.

Prabhupāda: So one of us who knows French nicely, he can do that. But there is no difference. They are taking the ideas from English and translating.

Yogeśvara: He says, Professor Chenique wishes to know, would it not be more valuable if our men spoke Sanskrit and could translate directly from the Sanskrit into French?

Prabhupāda: There is no much difference. Sanskrit is there and the Sanskrit translation is there. Where is the difference? We are giving the Sanskrit and then word-to-word translation.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Bhūgarbha: He says that when one translates from Sanskrit into English and from English into French, that it's not exactly the same thing in French that it was in Sanskrit, he feels...

Prabhupāda: No, if from Sanskrit to French can be translated, I have no objection. But we have no such arrangement.

Yogeśvara: We have no Sanskrit scholars in French yet, no.

Prabhupāda: Not only scholar, not only scholar, he must be a realized soul. Simply scholars will not help, simply scholarship will not help. There are many Sanskrit scholars in India. There are many Sanskrit scholars, original Sanskrit scholars in India, they cannot understand Bhāgavata.

Yogeśvara: Professor Chenique's point is that we are seeking to introduce these books on a university level, and there's a certain standard that must be met.

Prabhupāda: What is that standard?

Bhūgarbha: He's just saying that the style of French, he feels that it's too many words.

Prabhupāda: French, he must be French, expert in language, at the same time, a devotee. Then he can explain. Otherwise no. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's secretary, Svarūpa Dāmodara, he asked that brāhmaṇa, bhāgavata paḍā giyā bhāgavata sthāne:(?) "Go and study Bhāgavata from bhāgavata." I have discussed this in the beginning of translation of Bhāgavata. So Bhāgavata, that is the limit of education. Vidyā bhāgavata vadhiḥ.(?) One has to study and take education up to Bhāgavatam. That is, if one understands Bhāgavatam, he's finished his education.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Bhūgarbha: He agrees. He's saying that he wishes-he's not criticizing in any way—but he wants that your books have a better audience, then more people will accept them. And he feels that if the French, the way that the French has been written, is changed, we'll have a better audience, it will reach higher.

Prabhupāda: But that is from scholarship point of view. But our point is this Bhāgavata must be presented by bhāgavata. And there is no much scholarship required. Just like Bhāgavata begins with the words janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). This Sanskrit word means the Absolute Truth is that from where everything emanates. Now that Absolute Truth further explained: anvayād itarataś ca abhijñaḥ svarāṭ. That Absolute Truth is aware of everything, directly and indirectly, of all this creation. In this way, if you step-by-step study, it is not very difficult so far the word meanings are concerned, but it is a question of realization. Unless one is realized, he cannot explain properly. That is the secret. Therefore we have given the life of Caitanya Mahāprabhu in our Bhāgavatam because He's living Bhāgavatam.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Janadradhi: His point, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is that your purports, you are repeating teachings, but this is wanted. His point is that in the French language, the French language cannot accept such repetitions. So he's asking if you could compact more your purports. But we want to translate your purports with the repetitions because we know they are wanted.

Yogeśvara: The English purport that you give very often will repeat one point for a clear understanding to the reader. Stylistically, in French this is difficult. It is not the accepted standard. French is generally more compact, something is said only one time. So Professor Chenique is hoping that he will see in our future translations a better French style in the translation. And Janadradhi, who is the translator, one of our translators, explains that our point is that we wish to keep your intention by repeating the point so that the reader will understand, because it is being said several times.

Prabhupāda: That is the system in Vedic ways. Just like you see Bhagavad-gītā. In different way Kṛṣṇa has explained the immortality of the soul. You take Bhagavad-gītā, that portion. Find out that. What is that verse?

Bhūgarbha: Na jāyate mriyate vā kadācit?

Hari-śauri: Before that. Describes negatively in different ways of understanding the soul.

Prabhupāda: Yes, positively, negatively.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: The same thing is being explained in a different way.

Bhūgarbha: The question seems to be a very technical one of just French language. He's not objecting to the...

Prabhupāda: I've no experience of the French language, I'm talking of the Sanskrit language. (laughter)

Bhūgarbha: If we give him one purport and see how he would change it.

Prabhupāda: There are so many purports you can. (professor reads one purport in French)

Bhūgarbha: That one was all right. (laughter)

Professor Chenique: I was, up to recent time, I was commenting Bhagavad-gītā in the camping. For eleven years every summer I am commenting the Gītā in the camping. I commend very warmly this edition of the Bhagavad-gītā. I think it's the best that you may find in France. But when I'm reading the commentary for my students, I find some sentences which are not good French. I think because it is not a very good style, and I hope it won't be that matter with... (French)

Bhūgarbha: Perhaps Professor Chenique could go over our translations and make any suggestions.

Prabhupāda: I have no objection.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Jaya. Thank you very much.

Bhūgarbha: This is the Dutch translation. Professor Chenique made the comment...

Prabhupāda: The idea is, suppose I am in France. I do not know French language, but there is fire in my room, and I have to call my neighbors. So somehow or other I call and take their help. (laughter)

Yogeśvara: Professor Chenique wishes to know whether we cannot do one very small pocketbook edition that will sell very inexpensively. Something like I think in India they have done.

Hari-śauri: Like the abridged version in America they did?

Yogeśvara: No, something like this, very small.

Prabhupāda: I have no objection. It is nice proposal.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Bhūgarbha: Professor Chenique's suggesting that in the Middle Ages there were many philosophers who also were researching the same questions of the body of God and how His body is different from ours, and they came to exactly the same conclusions as are mentioned in the Bhāgavatam, so he's suggesting some of our devotees should read some of these books so we'll be able to in our preaching show the French people these conceptions that God has a body are not foreign conceptions, and actually even European philosophers in the Middle Ages were saying the same things.

Prabhupāda: No, you can convince by your words. It is not necessary that you have to read so many other words. If you are yourself convinced, then you can convince others by your words. The fact. The same example, when there is fire actually you can express it by any word.

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Sixty thousand dollars daily. Sixty thousand dollars daily. America and Europe. Europe we have got other language publication. Have you got the German?

Jñānagamya: We had French books, Bhagavad-gītā, Prabhupāda, it was sold. We had one German Bhagavad-gītā too.

Prabhupāda: We have published Chinese Bhagavad-gītā. Bring it. It is translated by one Chinese student. Give it to Mr....

Mrs. Patel: I can read Japanese, but not Chinese.

Prabhupāda: You know Japanese?

Mrs. Patel: I was brought up there.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Mrs. Patel: So it was just as good as born there. I was just six months baby when I was taken there.

Prabhupāda: Tokyo?

Mrs. Patel: Kobe.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Kobe. Oh, in Kobe there are many...

Mrs. Patel: Many, eleven years I stayed.

Prabhupāda: I have been there. Many good Indian population. There is a Indian association there. I have been there.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Oh, that he has done. He promised...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Motaji. He told me to give it to him and he'd print it on his press.

Prabhupāda: Give this light. (break)

Indian man: Chinese, German, French, Italian, English...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Swedish is coming.

Prabhupāda: Dutch. Dutch.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Italian is at the printer. Italian Gītā.

Devotee: French Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: French Bhāgavatam. No, Dutch Bhāgavatam? Dutch also. No, they have printed, I have seen it.

Devotee: Spanish also.

Prabhupāda: They may read and translate. And why in India where there is Bhagavad-gītā? Apart from all other Vedic literatures, set aside, the gist of all Vedic knowledge, Bhagavad-gītā, there is. And still, people are kept into darkness. How much lamentable. Still, big, big leaders, at least, they want to preach Bhagavad-gītā—without Kṛṣṇa. They have set aside lakhs of rupees for preaching Bhagavad-gītā, but condition is if you preach without Kṛṣṇa. Just see. Bhagavad-gītā in every page it is written "śrī-bhagavān uvāca." Not even it is said "kṛṣṇaḥ uvāca." Because some rascal may take Kṛṣṇa as ordinary human being, therefore Vyāsadeva has specifically said... People know it, "kṛṣṇaḥ uvāca," but he says "śrī-bhagavān uvāca." The bhagavān word. People may not mistake that Kṛṣṇa is somebody else. And they want to banish Kṛṣṇa from Bhagavad-gītā. Even Gandhi did it. So you explain Bhagavad-gītā as it is there in Ahmedabad?

Conversation with Seven Ministers of Andhra Pradesh -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Indian (1): No, the institution for training this Swamiji? Your proposition?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. I have got so many ideas.

Indian (1): In Hyderabad.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (ministers start speaking in Hindi) (break) ...institute in your Andhra Pradesh. (pause, Hindi conversation) This is Telegu? In every language of the world. In Europe we are printing in English, in French, in Germany, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) (kīrtana)

Hari-śauri: (in car) That temple of Birla's will be a little difficult to reach. (end)

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Caraṇāravindam: One new boy that just came.

Prabhupāda: So I want his service. I want to paint that picture which is published in that French Back to Godhead.

Hari-śauri: Oh. The portrait?

Prabhupāda: Not portrait. That I was beating on my... What is called? That dundubhi we call it. What do you call this. Bango? Bang?

Hari-śauri: Oh, gong?

Prabhupāda: Not gong. It is one side covered with skin.

Caraṇāravindam: Like a tambourine.

Hari-śauri: No, it's... You mean a drum...

Prabhupāda: Drum. Not two-sides. One side.

Hari-śauri: Like a tom-tom drum.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So that picture is very nice. If somebody paints it will be...

Caraṇāravindam: I wish I could make the mālatī grow faster and the ratnavani.(?) I wish I could make it grow faster to give perfume. It is not like painting a picture. You can paint the flower and the creeper and the tree very quickly, but when you are growing it and you have the idea and no plant, it takes so many years for it to come to a finish.

Prabhupāda: And who is growing it? That is Kṛṣṇa's hand. His hand is working invisibly. Kṛṣṇa's hand is there. Kṛṣṇa says, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). "I am giving direction to the nature and she is manufacturing." That's a fact.

Room Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Where is our Viśvambhara? Viśvambhara is helping nicely?

Akṣayānanda: Oh yes. 100%. (break) And French.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That's the new French Bhāgavatam on the back.

Prabhupāda: Oh. I think I have seen it.

Hari-śauri: Yes, that's the one we got in Paris, Bhagavān...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It looks very nice.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Bank is going nice?

Akṣayānanda: The bank is all right.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) So the Gurukula building, how far? (Hindi)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: When devotees come for Gaura-Pūrṇimā... (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: So let them come first of all here from Delhi.

Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: East Village? That paper? Long ago.

Harikeśa: Village Voice. The Village Voice.

Prabhupāda: Aha, yes. They told first, that "We thought God is dead." And actually they were dancing in the name of God. Acyutānanda and Brahmānanda. You have seen the picture showing?

Hari-śauri: In this French Back To Godhead.

Harikeśa: Oh, that's Acyutānanda too! Oh!

Prabhupāda: They were the first candidates to dance with my kīrtana.

Harikeśa: I didn't know that was Acyutānanda. I recognize Hayagrīva but...

Hari-śauri: That's not Hayagrīva, it's Brahmānanda.

Harikeśa: That's not Hayagrīva?

Prabhupāda: No. Hayagrīva...

Hari-śauri: It's a picture of Brahmānanda and Acyutānanda dancing, and Prabhupāda's playing on tabla, and Kīrtanānanda sat down on the corner.

Harikeśa: Boy, was he skinny in those days! This is Brahmānanda? And this is Kīrtanānanda Swami sitting down?

Prabhupāda: Just Brahmānanda, Kīrtanānanda standing together.

Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: If you know French language you can read it.

Harikeśa: He knows French.

Prabhupāda: Ah, you know. What is written there?

Hari-śauri: The article is by Hayagrīva, and the heading, it says, "Are you from India?" That was when he met you on the street.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he first of all met me on the street and asked me this question. And I brought him, "Yes, I have taken one apartment here. You come here with me." Then I came back to show him the apartment. And from the next day they began to come, Kīrtanānanda and Hayagrīva.

Hari-śauri: Second Avenue apartment?

Prabhupāda: Yes. And this Umāpati. Then Satsvarūpa. They began to come regularly.

Harikeśa: Mukunda, you were already...

Prabhupāda: Yes, Mukunda was before that.

Garden Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Not ultimately. Automatically. Just like in a small time, our, that Kṛṣṇa dāsa? He knows English, he knows French, he knows... What does it mean? He has heard it. Now he'll want to speak. That is the natural sequence. If anyone has listened from the authority about Kṛṣṇa, he wants to speak again. That is preaching. Not that "I have listened about Kṛṣṇa, that's all right." No. When he wants to speak to others, that is advancement. That is wanted. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. That is the test that he has advanced. Nāma, rūpa, guṇa, līlā (indistinct).

Devotee: Does he have to speak immediately, or he can speak after some time.

Prabhupāda: No, no, not immediately. Immediately how you can speak. Unless he knows, what he'll speak? It is better not to speak than speaking all nonsense. He must learn first of all what is the philosophy, what is the science. Then he can speak.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Jagadīśa: These are new books in French, Kṛṣṇa Book and Upadeśāmṛta. This devotee has just brought them from Bhagavān dāsa.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Thank you. When you have come?

Devotee: Two days ago.

Prabhupāda: Oh. You know French language?

Dr. Kneupper: Yes. Yes, I saw a copy earlier today at the... The man who did the translation, I forget his name. He worked on the translation. It's very beautiful.

Prabhupāda: Oh, you have seen it.

Dr. Kneupper: Yes. I forget his name. It's very nice.

Prabhupāda: This is French book, Kṛṣṇa.

Jagadīśa: Umāpati.

Dr. Kneupper: Yes, Umāpati.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Umāpati. He is here.

Dr. Kneupper: Yes, I met him this afternoon. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...give the idea of God.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kneupper: Do you think if a person is to be a real believer in God he has to also worship Kṛṣṇa or speak of Him?

Prabhupāda: No, God means Kṛṣṇa. He has to understand it. Therefore so many books. God has many names, millions, of which Kṛṣṇa name is the most important. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. Then you have to understand the science of God. How Kṛṣṇa is God, that you have to understand. But for that reason we are publishing so many books. We have already published eighty-four books, simply in English language. And they are being translated in German, French, Portuguese, then Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Bengali, like that.

Dr. Kneupper: It's a very great effort.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And we are getting response. Our books are selling like hotcakes. (laughter) Yes.

Indian man (2): This is about Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, the person.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kneupper: I wanted to know if Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, you'd have to read Sanskrit, wouldn't you?

Prabhupāda: No, we have this English translation. This is in French translation, in German translation.

Dr. Kneupper: How does one decide... There are so many translations. How does one decide...

Prabhupāda: That depends on your philosophy. You are reading so many books. How do you select, "This is nice." That depends on your philosophy. But if you accept it that it is spoken by God, then there is no argument. But why should you accept it, spoken by God? You read it, whether how much logical, how much full of knowledge. Then you can say. The same thing. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ: (BG 2.13) "Within this body there is the soul, and because the soul is there, therefore body is changing." So anyone can... Any layman can understand. Things are there like that. So there is no difficulty. If we take, "Oh, this description, the transmigration of the soul-Hindu idea." Why Hindu idea? It is science. As soon as we consider it "Hindu," then it becomes sectarian. Then you will say, "I have got my Christian idea. Why shall I take your Hindu idea?"

Room Conversation -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, international. French, Italian...

Guest (2): In India? Indian languages.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Oriya, Bengali, Gujarati. Every major Indian language.

Guest (1): Can you tell us the different subjects covered by the...?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's Vedic subjects, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: We are stressing especially on Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Guest (3) (Indian man): Do you have special on each chapter of Gītā?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Each word. You can show Bhagavad-gītā.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That may be. He was a scholar. They were big scholars. He was professor in Baroda University.

Dr. Patel: Professor of French and Philosophy.

Prabhupāda: There is one hall, Aurobindo Hall, in Baroda.

Dr. Patel: All followers of Aurobindo are Bengalis and Gujaratis.

Prabhupāda: Hm. No, there are others in foreign countries. He was scholar.

Dr. Patel: In the āśramas Bengalis, and Gujaratis will go fifty-fifty. There are some South Indians also there. You are from India? He had a very big following of Gujaratis.

Prabhupāda: Because he was first in Gujarat.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, French. (break)

Prabhupāda: They take it trifle. Husband and wife who are fighting, dam-pate kalahe caiva bambharambhe laghu kriya.(?) If there is fight between husband and..., it will be... The show will be very big, and the result will be nil. Bambharambhe laghu-kriya. "Never come to me! I shall not see your face! If you come, I shall kill you!" So on, so on. Then next moment they are talking. Bambharambhe laghu-kriya. These are taken very lightly, no seriously. Now they are going... Nowadays, in the court case, fifty percent of cases are divorce in India.

Arrival of BBT Manager -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is not very important. "All over the world" means it is understood in all other languages. Otherwise how they are reading?

Rāmeśvara: In Europe when men go to the libraries, sometimes they don't speak English. So they're already taking standing orders for the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in French and other languages.

Prabhupāda: So make this immediately.

Rāmeśvara: This is the notice of the money we just sent to Bombay from Los Angeles, seventy thousand dollars.

Prabhupāda: So now do the needful about this. And the invoice? You have sent the books?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So these books are there?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Now I have everything in stock. We have everything.

Prabhupāda: And which we have not got stock you print here. Keep for sufficient stock, in this way. So I was asking last night that at least in Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, simply whatever collection is there, fifty percent print books and fifty percent spend for temple or for pushing on the books. No money available.

Room Conversation on 1976 Book Scores -- January 16, 1977, Calcutta:

Rāmeśvara: This is just English.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) ...French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese. (Bengali) We want. (Bengali) Person to person... (Bengali) Huge organization. (Bengali) ...Bhaktivedanta Book Trust... (Bengali)... stock, distribution, salesmen control. (Bengali) ...Delhi paper... (Bengali) We have got substance. (Bengali) So it is very encouraging, this report. What else?

Rāmeśvara: Now the next two reports. First of all, for the month of December there's the ratings for the whole Society. So in the top ten, number one was New York, Rādhā-Dāmodara, with $170,000. (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Give him some book to read.

Gargamuni: Where's the Bhagavad-gītā?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: That means rascal. What he says, that is contradictory. That means rascal.

Pṛthu-putra: But he commit suicide at the end of his life, Camus, yes. He's a philosopher, a French philosopher. He commit suicide at the end of his life. Can you believe that?

Passerby: Jaya!

Prabhupāda: Jaya. (break)

Satsvarūpa: You were asking yesterday what are some of the charges that the opposing party makes against us. That's another one, that we follow absolute authority, your authority and also in the temples, that the temple president or leaders, they have authority, and this is not healthy psychology, that we should...

Prabhupāda: Why you come to pose your authority? If authority is not good, then why do you come to instruct your authority? Hm? The same thing, eh, change from one authority to another authority.

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is agitation in Canada.

Satsvarūpa: Yes, Quebec.

Prabhupāda: Just like here it happened, Hindi and English. That enviousness is always there. I have seen in Montreal. All the officers, they are speaking in French. They won't talk in English. Airport. Purposefully. And there was fight, regular fight between these French speaking and English speaking, riot. People are so foolish. So it is bilingual. In everything, English and French. If you put one notice, it must be in English and French, as here (chuckling) they in the provincial language, Oriya, and Hindi, state language, and English for outsiders-three languages. You'll see in the railway station the local language and the Hindi language and English. Actually people take advantage of the English language and little more from the Hindi. Local language nobody knows. Just like we do not know what is Oriya.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So the crocodile, they do not eat the rats?

Pradyumna: There are all kinds of many living entities there in the sewers of New York. In all sewers in big Western cities. There's once... There's a very famous French novel, and it describes how a prisoner was escaping from troops, so he went in the sewer. And in the sewer there was all kinds of so many things. Once an article about New York sewers...

Prabhupāda: They can live in that nasty water?

Hari-śauri: It's warm. The reason why they're down there is because the sewers are always very warm. So it's very conducive for the alligators. So they grow very big.

Prabhupāda: And what they eat?

Hari-śauri: Rodents. Rats and different things.

Pradyumna: London sewers also.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The idea behind this is that the jaws of this crocodile is so big and so powerful that they can crush, they say, the femur of a buffalo, the thigh, a big all at once, they can crush it immediately. But in the case of the egg, he has this loving tendency, tender care, so that the little one is not hurt, the feeling, their conscious feeling.

Prabhupāda: Affectionate.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: I know that they made some books already. Why they are being rejected? Then again you make, and again rejecting. That is unnecessary.

Satsvarūpa: I see.

Prabhupāda: They can better translate in French so many books, the husband, wife. And the children's books there are already. (break) ...excess book had to be cancelled. They have already made.

Satsvarūpa: They have quite a number of books.

Prabhupāda: Then?

Satsvarūpa: No, I don't know what's wrong with them. They seem to be all right. But the thing is they want to make a book that will be so nice that any teacher, elementary school teacher, would say "This is very good."

Prabhupāda: No, everything is good, and again sometimes, again improvement, again...

Hari-śauri: I think their idea is that if they have a good quality, then they could even be distributed to the schools.

Prabhupāda: That is to be decided by the GBC. How can I know what is good quality, bad quality? But I know there are some books made. Again you translate; again you make another.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Hm. (yes.)

Satsvarūpa: Make this one of the topics for the whole GBC to discuss.

Prabhupāda: I simply know there are some books. Why they are being rejected?

Satsvarūpa: Actually, you think a better engagement for him would be that along with his wife to go back to French translation rather than so much attention on the children's books.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: That last letter that he wrote, he mentioned to you that now there are other devotees who are qualified to do the jobs that he was doing, and he wanted to get more into organizing the Gurukula, because they need someone to organize.

Prabhupāda: That is another... That is all right, Gurukula organize. But the former books, why they should be rejected? (end)

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So. GBC... What I can do?

Hari-śauri: The second language is French, isn't it?

Yogeśvara: Not too much French. English there is. Is there a GBC for Thailand?

Prabhupāda: Every GBC is for everywhere. Let it be considered in the next meeting.

Yogeśvara: At Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: You can continue rent for one or two months more and see if there is possibility. Our mission is for every city, every town, every village, and if we can maintain for some utility, that is very good. If you have no men, we cannot linger on there. Otherwise we want to open branches everywhere. That is our mission. (aside:) We have... What is...?

Yogeśvara: We'll be leaving tonight.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Yogeśvara: To France via Bangkok.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Revolution means they are dissatisfied.

Satsvarūpa: French Revolution, Russian Revolution.

Prabhupāda: These things were not going nicely. Therefore gradually it broke. But if things are going nicely, people will be happy. They will not revolt. You have to keep the citizens satisfied in all respects. You must know the necessity how people are satisfied. You have to arrange the government in that way. Then there will be no revolution. Mass of people, if they are satisfied, they will not revolt. But they do not know the process. The "demoncracy," the common man is allowed to vote. He has no knowledge and he's voting. This is most condemned process. Camara-bhangi, a sweeper, he is voted to become Minister of Defense. His business is to cleanse the street, and now he's voted to become because he has got number of votes. So many bhangis, they vote, "Yes, he is our leader. He should be Defense Minister." You have to do that. This is democracy. His business is to sweep, and he's voted a defense minister.

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

Prabhupāda: Where is such publisher?

Rādhā-vallabha: That's one for every five people in America. And second is Spanish: 2,947,000. Third is German: 2,125,500. Then Japanese, I had to make a guess. I'm not sure, but this is pretty close: 2,125,000. Fifth is French: 1,670,000.

Prabhupāda: There should be... A big board should be hang.

Rāmeśvara: We have a big display of this for the Māyāpur exhibit. We made this up as a...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rādhā-vallabha: In the exhibit there is a framed picture, each language and the books, each title, and then there is one big frame, one showing international.

Prabhupāda: This is the blessing of my Guru Mahārāja. He wanted it. And because we are trying to do this, he is giving us all blessings. He told me personally, "I wanted to sell this marble and publish some books." Calcutta, that Gauḍīya Maṭha is also marble floor. Now, he said that "Since this temple has been given by Mr. Datta, our men are fighting, 'Which room I shall occupy?' So I know there will be blazing fire here. So before that, I wanted to get out this marble and sell it and turn into some books." He told me, like that. So I noted down that, that he wants books. So I tried to do that. That's all.

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

Prabhupāda: What about the French printing and translation? That is stopped now?

Hṛdayānanda: No, it is not... It is not altogether stopped, but some members have left.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Some members have left, but...

Prabhupāda: Why?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja was just there in France. He just paid a visit, so he'd be... What is your report, Hṛdayānanda, about the French BBT?

Hṛdayānanda: Well, some of the important members have left.

Prabhupāda: Why they have left?

Hṛdayānanda: Well, they were dissatisfied with Bhagavān.

Prabhupāda: That should be rectified. They are important members. They are translating.

Rāmeśvara: How will that be rectified?

Prabhupāda: What...? Why they should be dissatisfied? If the workers are dissatisfied, then who will work books?

Brahmānanda: Bhagavān claims that the BBT printing is still going on, that next month a Back to Godhead is coming out and also a Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: No, book...

Rāmeśvara: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam within three months, in three months.

Prabhupāda: So if you are satisfied that things are going on, that is different thing, but so far... What is his name? Yogeś...?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yogeśvara.

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

Prabhupāda: So what you have decided? Yogeśvara was doing nice in translation, his wife was doing nice. So why should we lose these important hands?

Rāmeśvara: He hasn't been working at the French BBT for many months. He gave that up some time ago and was working with his wife at the gurukula.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He told me that he was frustrated. That's why he gave it up. When he was in New York he told me that had become discouraged.

Prabhupāda: So if Bhagavān and he does not agree, then he should be given better place that both husband and wife, they can go on with the translation work. It is not that he has to remain under the control of Bhagavān. That is not necessary. Let him translate independently, and wherever he likes, he can remain. What do you think?

Hṛdayānanda: He is not so much a translator.

Rāmeśvara: His wife.

Prabhupāda: You see, nobody is translator. We have to accept whatever is offered. Kānā māmā (blind uncle). Without māmā, better a blind māmā. That's all. That is our policy. So to remain without māmā is not very good choice. Must have a māmā. Never mind he is blind. That is our policy. So now we are without māmā. Who is translating now?

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

Prabhupāda: So anyway, printing and translation must continue. That is our main business. It cannot be stopped. Must go on. Just like persisting, now we have got so many Hindi literature. (laughs) I was simply persisting, "Where is Hindi? Where is Hindi?" So it has come to some tangible form. And I was simply poking him: "Where is Hindi? Where is Hindi?" So he has brought into fact. Similarly for French language also, very important, we must translate and bring books, as many as possible. "Bring books" means we have got already book. Simply translate it in the particular language and publish it. That's all. Idea is already there. You haven't got to manufacture idea. So France is very important country. So printing and translation must go on. That is my request. Then?

Satsvarūpa: Brahmānanda Mahārāja will retain GBC zonal responsibility of Africa and South Africa. However, he will get cooperation of Jayatīrtha, who will...

Prabhupāda: Occasionally.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh. This is American?

Bhagavān: It's French money.

Hari-śauri: Francs.

Jagadīśa: If we take the first purport in the Bhagavad-gītā...

Prabhupāda: Purport is not for the children. They should simply understand the word meaning. That's all. Purport is not for the children.

Jagadīśa: They need something to read.

Rāmeśvara: Stories.

Jagadīśa: Need to practice reading.

Prabhupāda: So that is not Bhagavad-gītā.

Jagadīśa: No. So then we have Kṛṣṇa book. Bhagavad-gītā is not used for the younger children. Bhagavad-gītā is used after they are nine or ten.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa book also difficult, but there is some philosophy sometimes.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is there some verse in the Bhāgavatam which states that the Bhāgavatam reciter must be a very qualified person?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Svarūpa Dāmodara said, "You read Bhāgavata from a person who's life is Bhāgavata." Bhāgavata paḍa giyā bhāgavata sthāne.(?) In Rādhā-Dāmodara temple one brāhmaṇa was reading Bhāgavatam daily as a meeting.(?) For half an hour. And half a dozen woman would sit down. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "...we will anxiously wait a report on..."

Prabhupāda: No, what is the trustees?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The BBT trustees means of the different publishing arms of the BBT. French trustee is Bhagavān...

Prabhupāda: Oh, BBT.

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One million copies per month.

Mr. Rajda: One million copies.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's in English only. Then it also is published in Spanish and Portuguese, German, French, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, Bengali...

Prabhupāda: Gujarati.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Gujarati, Telegu. Recently we came out with Hungarian publication. (pause)

Indian (1): Swamiji, your idea is to have some international institution.

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is international.

Indian (1): No, we must made to speak your needs of the mankind...

Prabhupāda: Yes, they are following. They are following. I want to make it more speedy, but I have no help. Now, for the time being... Now these boys are helping me, and government is driving them away: "Get out! Get out!" Can you not help me in this?

Mr. Rajda: Correct. Actually ...

Prabhupāda: No Indians are coming. I am bringing men and money from there, and government is driving them: "Get out!" This is my position. And if one boy goes back and again comes—ten thousand rupees. In this way I am losing five to six lakhs of rupees per year—for nothing. This is the co-operation of the government.

Morning Talk -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are very much glorified.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And the government gives them all facilities because they are dear patriots, laying down their life. During war everything is controlled, but they are supplied with immense. One store is destroyed; another one store is ready. Those who have gone to the warfield, they are... Because they have got that store of food and everything, sufficient, whatever they like, want. Now, in one point they have to go away. So how they can take the store? So from one point to another point there is another store. This store is blown, that enemy may not take advantage of it. This is going on, hundreds and thousands of worth of goods-blown, cut. Because they are going to another point and the enemies will take advantage of the store, therefore they blown it. Therefore in war there is store scarcity. And that Sadānanda, you know that, my German Godbrother? So he was lean and thin, tall. So I was asking him that "I have heard that the Germans are very stout and strong, so why you are so lean and thin?" So he gave me, gave me condition that in the first war he was a child. So there was so much control, only weekly he could get a little butter. He showed a, this spot, like that. "Because we were children, we were supplied little butter, weekly this much. There was no nourishment. And we had to eat anything nonsense." Germans, they were given much tribulation, all sides. Still, they fought the French. All sides, enemies. But still, the Germans are well-to-do. I have seen. In other countries they are well-to-do.

Morning Conversation -- April 23, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Goa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Goa. Pondicherry is in Goa?

Prabhupāda: No, near Goa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The whole thing was conceived by this Aurobindo.

Prabhupāda: He wanted to leave British possessions. No, Pondicherry was French.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, French. So that Pondicherry was Aurobindo's idea? What was the motive?

Prabhupāda: He wanted to become a famous yogi to bring the world atmosphere in order.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Complete failure.

Prabhupāda: Complete failure. Kṛṣṇa says, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam: (BG 8.15) "It is a place for suffering." This rascal wanted to make it for enjoyment. Everyone is trying. Everyone is trying to make the commode a very nice room.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughs) That's a pithy saying. Actually you remember that... In your Devasādana, in your Detroit palace, that toilet, the commode there, is better than any man's house in India practically.

Prabhupāda: Very difficult to deal with the people of this world. They are so nasty. They can do anything.

Letter from Yugoslavia--'Books!' -- June 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He writes, "Many days... After working for more than one day at several universities, my presence became too obvious, and this becomes politically and legally dangerous, although in some little cities I became practically the talk of the town because people had not seen one with a dark body as mine, speaking only English and a little French." He's very dark. (break) He says, "Most important at this school was that after four days of trying to meet the Indologist, we were successful. I met the man and his assistant. They kept stressing that we were..." (break)

Prabhupāda: If required, you can show this line to Mr. Koku(?). In foreign countries they are no more interested in philosophical speculation. Actually they are not, neither in America nor India.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right, Śrīla Prabhupāda. "Lord Caitanya did not let them escape, so He..."

Prabhupāda: Our books are sold not for philosophical speculation but practical solution of the problems. The philosophical classes are now being closed everywhere.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: There is not one bookshelf big enough. And here these are different Bhagavad-gītās: English, Japanese, Portuguese, German, Spanish, French, Swedish, and Italian.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Chinese. Where's Chinese?

Hari-śauri: There's more than that.

Rāmeśvara: There are more.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He wants you to show the pictures. Where are they? Show him. Śrīla Prabhupāda? Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Prabhu brought some new offerings for you.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a Hindi Scientific Basis of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Hm! Please come.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think we'll give you another report later on. It's successful. That's a fact. Only these are suggestions how it can be improved. We'll speak with Svarūpa Dāmodara about it. (break) ...from the devotees in France, Bhagavān's zone. In fact, it's a four-page telegram. Should I read it? It says, "Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, please accept our most humble obeisances at your lotus feet. Knowing how dear your book distribution is to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the devotees in France would like to humbly offer you the results of our week-long marathon saṅkīrtana, hoping in some way to please you." Śrīla Prabhupāda? The devotees there, they went out on book distribution for twelve hours every day. All the devotees. They went out every day for seven days in a row, for twelve hours each day. And here is the results of their distribution. This is only for this one temple in France. It says, "We have distributed 25,061 hard-cover Bhagavad-gītās in one week." Twenty-five thousand, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We usually print of a Bhāgavatam 20,000 for the whole society. They distributed 25,000 Gītās in one week in French, Bhagavad-gītās in French. He says, "...to the conditioned souls of this country in seven days. We hope that these results are the biggest in the history of your movement and that they will give you some solace. Our top distributor were Bhakta Richard..." (laughter) Somebody who isn't initiated yet. "...who distributed 1,504 big books in one week." Every day he distributed over two hundred hard-cover books. That's pretty good. (laughter) That means he did about say 240 in twelve hours. He distributed about one book every three minutes for twelve hours in a row, Śrīla Prabhupāda, every day. "Jagad-vaśī dāsa, who distributed 1,125 big books; Ariṣṭa-nāśana dāsa, 864 books; Veśa-kīrti dāsa, 851 big books; Akhileśvara dāsa 835 big books; Kṛpā-siddha dāsa, 760 big books." Then they say, "Thank you for allowing us to assist you in preaching this message of Lord Caitanya in the Western countries. All glories to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Your humble servants, the devotees in France." Pretty big distribution. Bhagavān estimates that they collected over sixty thousand dollars in one week. It's amazing. Seems like Kṛṣṇa is giving unlimited facilities to spread His glories, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We do not want liberation. We want to serve the purpose of the Gosvāmīs, in association with pure devotees. To stop birth and death is not our purpose. Tāṅdera caraṇa-sebi-bhakta-sane bās, janame janame hoy ei abhilāṣ.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. We do not want liberation. We want to serve the purpose of the Gosvāmīs, in association with pure devotees. To stop birth and death is not our purpose. Tāṅdera caraṇa-sebi-bhakta-sane bās, janame janame hoy ei abhilāṣ. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, if you get stronger, then on our way to America this next time you can go via France and stay in the Chateau. The French devotees this last time were not able to get your darśana, because they were busy distributing your books. So they all feel very confident that you will certainly bestow your mercy on them and stop in France next time. Bhagavān said that the cows are giving very sweet milk there. I think there there is also Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kapoor: Which other languages have you translated Prabhupāda's books in? French?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, there's I think twenty-seven languages. French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish...

Dr. Kapoor: Oh. All the books are translated?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Gradually, one by one. This is Dvārakeśa. He's in charge of the translating department for East Europe. Which languages do you translate?

Dvārakeśa: Russian and Hungarian. And others translate into Yugoslavian and Polish, Czechoslovakian.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He has preached in some of those countries already.

Pañca-draviḍa: Now Bhagavad-gītā in Arabic also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Arabic, Chinese, Japanese. Twenty-seven languages altogether. One by one, they're being translated. Some are doing... Of course, the German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, these are the main languages. And Hindi. These books are going quicker in translation. Shall I finish reading this report, Śrīla Prabhupāda? (break)

Dr. Kapoor: It's a miracle what is happening, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes.