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Fry (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Devotees: Taste, pleasure.

Bob: Oh, O.K.

Prabhupāda: Yes, pleasure. Pleasing taste. So Vedas say, raso vai saḥ. The exact Sanskrit translation of mellow is rasa. What is that?

Mālatī: Eggplant fried.

Prabhupāda: Oh! (laughter) All-attractive! All-attractive! You are becoming all-attractive!

Mālatī: No.

Prabhupāda: Yes, No more, no more! No more attraction! (laughing) Where is your all-attractive daughter?

Mālatī: She is in all-attractive māyā.

Prabhupāda: Actually, she's all-attractive. (chuckling) Everyone loves her. (break) ...Kṛṣṇa, the Reservoir of All Pleasure.

Bob: This must be a new book.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walks -- October 1-3, 1972, Los Angeles:

Devotee (1): They're all across the country. Kentucky Fried Chicken. Colonel Sanders.

Prabhupāda: Many thousands of chickens are being killed.

Jayatīrtha: Oh, millions of chickens.

Devotee (1): Millions every day.

Jayatīrtha: Just like this MacDonald's hamburger stands, they have a sign in front of their hamburger stands—they have also several thousand hamburger stands—the sign says, "Over ten billion hamburgers served." Their company has served ten billion hamburgers. (break) (Outside walking:)

Prabhupāda: America?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. He told me he was very pleased to see Śrīla Prabhupāda, and he said he will start chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. He said he will go to Laguna Beach temple and he said he will try out chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Jayatīrtha: He told me that he could see that this knowledge wasn't theoretical, that it was realized knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 26, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Rice, puffed, fused. Not fused, puffed. No, it is not boiled.

Guest (1): We get it...

Prabhupāda: It's a rough quality rice. It is not made from fine quality rice.

Guest (1): Unpolished.

Prabhupāda: Unpolished, rough quality rice. It is washed nicely, then mixed with little salt, then it is fried, then it is... They know the temper, fried, then they get it out. In Bengal they make. My mother used to do it. Then on sand bath, hot sand you put this prepared hot rice and puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, it becomes puffed. And then you take it out. And then mesh it, to get out of the sand. Then you cook it. It is cooked in sand bath, hot sand. All this bujiya, bujiya, grains. In India there is professional maker. You... They have got hot sand always ready. You take some grains, and then you put in the hot sand and put, put, put, put, put, put, then they mesh it, return it (indistinct).

Even in Punjab, I think. I think you have seen also, they take the dough for professional bread maker. The householder they make the dough and took to a shopkeeper, and they make the bread. You haven't got to take the chaval, and make the bread. What is called that? Big, big...?

Devotee: Big bread.

Guest (1): Cāpāṭi?

Prabhupāda: No. Cāpāṭi is different. Punjabis...

Room Conversation with Reporter from Researchers Magazine -- July 24, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Just see. And where the money is going? To the Ahmadabad capitalists. That's all.

Reporter: Hm. Yes.

Prabhupāda: So frying pan. From frying pan to the fire.

Reporter: (laughs) Yes. Very true.

Prabhupāda: Everything is due to lack of God consciousness.

Reporter: Quite true. And therefore, nothing is working.

Prabhupāda: No. (pause)

Reporter: I'm not going by car, as you said. (everyone laughs)

Prabhupāda: Are you not plucking your hairs?

Reporter: I was plucking. Eighteen times, all these hair. Two times in the one year, plucking all hair.

Devotee: The whole head, you pull your...?

Reporter: Whole head, yes. It's an extreme form of a...

Devotee: Austerity.

Morning Walk -- December 31, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: From frying pan to the fire. Cholera has got some remedy, but here there is no remedy. Hm? What is that?

Viṣṇujana: In this country they have the venereal disease. One out of ten men is suffering gonorrhea.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Long ago one professor, medical professor, he said, he was Englishman—that in our country, 75% students are suffering from venereal disease. Colonel Megor (?). Yes. Colonel Megor. There must be venereal disease because sex life is so cheap. There must be venereal disease. And venereal disease, once infected, it brings so many other diseases, one after another, one after another. The cancer is also due to that. Madness. Yes. And the Vedic civilization knew it. Therefore first restriction: sex. Brahmacārī. First beginning, brahmacārī. No sex life. You see? Just to save. This venereal disease is mentioned in the Āyur-veda. It is called phiraṅgāmaya. Phiraṅga means "white Europeans." It is diseased... And medical science also says that it was begun from dog. The girls, they have sex life with dog and there is the beginning of venereal disease.

Viṣṇujana: Yes, from animal. Ass, dog, cow.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 6, 1974, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: And in Burma, my Guru Mahārāja opened a branch. So when they were frying puri, the, nice ghee, all the tenants, "Oh! What you are...!?" (laughter) They cannot tolerate. But in Burma, there is a preparation which is called nafi. The nafi means that a, a big jar will be kept on the door, and whatever animals, insect, cockroaches will die, they'll put in that. And during rainy season, it will be filled with water. And it will be kept for years. Then... And the bad smell was so terrible that if somebody would open the lid, it will immediately create very bad smell. So after some years, they will strain the water and keep in bottle. And when there is festival, they'll supply it in small... That is called nafi. And they'll take it very pleasantly. And when they were frying ghee, "Oh! What you are doing, this?!" Therefore Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says that

nānā yoni sadā phire, kadarya bhakṣaṇa kare,
tāra janma adhah-pate yāya,
karma-kāṇḍa jñāna-kāṇḍa, kevala viṣera bhāṇḍa,
amṛta baliyā yebā khāya

Karma-kāṇḍa. There are three kāṇḍas: karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa and upāsanā-kāṇḍa. So upāsanā-kāṇḍa is bhakti. So instead of accepting this upāsanā-kāṇḍa, worshiping the Supreme, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66), if one takes to the other processes, karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa, they are viṣera bhāṇḍa, they're all poison pots. The result is, if they take to that path, then their, this transmigration of the soul, will continue, and they'll have to eat all nasty things.

Morning Walk -- March 7, 1974, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, no. The thing is, unless the people are Kṛṣṇa conscious, either this board or that board, that will not help. First of all, people should know what is the aim of life, what is culture, how the human activity should be directed. The people should know first of all this. Otherwise, changing from frying pan to the fire, it is useless. That is going on. That change, revolution, is going on. Just like the Russian people, they changed the Czarist government into communist government, revolution, but still, they're unhappy. They're trying to change by another revolution. This is going on. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). This is described in the śāstra as "chewing the chewed." Or the same simple philosophy: "This side of stool is better than that side." So he keeps the whole thing, stool. "This side, the dry side, is better and the moist side, wet side, is bad." This is no philosophy. It, it must not be stool. It must be gold. Then it is all right, this side or that side. That philosophy, that the dry side of stool is better than the wet side, this will not help. So first, first of all, human society must know what is the aim of life. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). We are part and parcel of God, Kṛṣṇa, Viṣṇu. We are suffering on account of our relationship with God. This is the cause of our suffering. Then we have to make plan how to revive our lost relationship with God. Then the... Everything is there in the Vedic literature. All directions are there. So we have to... Just like when we are in danger, we consult some learned man or physician or a lawyer, similarly we have to consult the Vedic culture, how perfect it is. This way?

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

Prabhupāda: Let him take. Yes.

Guest (2): Oh, thank you.

Madhudviṣa: Give a napkin. It's a sweet preparation called gulab jamin. It is all prepared just from milk which has been made into curd, and then the curd has been fried in ghee, cooking ghee, and then after it has been fried, it has been soaked in sweet water and it is very palatable. It's called a gulab jamin. It is a very famous delicacy of Indian cooking. It requires great skill and art to prepare these. And as our spiritual master said, there is actually hundreds and hundreds of food which can be prepared from this, like the cheese you have there. Even cooking cheese and spicing it with asafoetida and ginger, meat taste can be simulated very, very nicely.

Prabhupāda: This cheese as it is you take, it is as beneficial as meat.

Madhudviṣa: Protein.

Guest (2): Yes, yes. Similar protein.

Prabhupāda: So why the animal should be killed? Take milk.

Guest (2): What is sweet water? You mean just sugar...

Madhudviṣa: Syrup.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Bernard Manischewitz -- March 5, 1975, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is experience. You will find many healthy persons in India subsisting only on these foodstuffs, and they have good brain also. India is still, I think, eighty percent people are strictly vegetarian. Not to speak of the higher class, but the lower class also. The higher class, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and vaiśya. Vaiśya is via media, between higher and lower. And the śūdras and less that the śūdras, caṇḍālas, they are lower class. So meat-eating is current among these lower class of men, śūdras and caṇḍālas. The caṇḍālas, they have no discrimination, they eat everything, and śūdras, they eat meat, but under restriction. Some of them do not; some of them do, but under restriction, and that is restricted with the goat animal. Less than the śūdras-caṇḍālas, pañcama, fifth grade—they eat everything. Especially they eat—because cow protection in India is very strict—so these caṇḍālas, fifth grade men, they eat generally pigs. Pigs they eat. Outside the village, they have their residential quarters, and they fry live pigs. And they make... Not daily; sometimes. But they eat pigs, and amongst them, there is a class—they are cobblers—they eat this cows' flesh when the animal is dead, not living and we'll kill.

Morning Walk -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: No. You can... Cashew and ginger. And you make, what is called, channa. In the lunch make cheese. Cheese, cheese. Fry it, and make preparation.

Śrutakīrti: Tomato and cheese?

Prabhupāda: Tomato, cheese, potato. Yes. And fried peanuts? And salad, fruit. By force... Communism is going on, by force. It is the result of sinful life.

Paramahaṁsa: They're put into that circumstance.

Prabhupāda: Yes, people are sinful, they will not do nicely, and now, by nature... Just like this child killing. They did it in his previous life. Now he is suffering. He will be killed. The nature's reaction. We are taking sympathy with the child who is being killed, but we do not know that he did the same business. Now he is being killed. That is nature's law.

Paramahaṁsa: The person who doesn't know, he thinks that the child is innocent...

Prabhupāda: Innocent child. He's not innocent. He is sinful. He is being, what is called, chastised. Svakarma-phala-rūpa-jīva. That is the word, svakarma. One suffers... (aside:) You can sit down here, just like... Everyone suffers the reaction of his own work. Svakarma-phala-rūpa-jīva. Because he is a child, he takes sympathy, "Oh, such a small child is being killed." We take it like that. It is that he is the potent criminal. Now he is being punished.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: This is the sample of religious man. And what is irreligious? If the religious men kill so many chickens daily, then what is the irreligious man do?

Siddha-svarūpa: They're vegetarians. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: He kills the chicken and fry it in oil. And that is sold.

Siddha-svarūpa: Yes. Big money. They...

Ambarīṣa: He's also very involved in politics.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā? He's a politician also?

Ambarīṣa: Yeah. At the Democratic convention he supplies all the politicians with unlimited fried chicken.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā? (laughter) (break)

Siddha-svarūpa: He also sells, I think. But this other chain of restaurants, McDonald's, they are very proud. They announce how many hamburgers they have sold. They have branches everywhere in the world.

Prabhupāda: Hamburger means?

Siddha-svarūpa: Uh, that's beef. They kill the cows in a unbelievable, at an unbelievable rate, the number of cows they're killing for their meat.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...up? No?

Morning Walk -- August 28, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...know how to make kichri?

Harikeśa: Yes. I made for you in Hawaii.

Prabhupāda: Ah. So do it today. Kichri and eggplant, fried, and some vegetables. That's all. I'll take between one, half past one. So begin about...

Harikeśa: Twelve-thirty?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I shall go this way or that way? Whose, this garden? Where is our temple?

Dhanañjaya: Our temple is behind the trees. (break) Two trees in one. One tree is growing out of the other tree.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Why they have become two? Not from sentiment, but scientific?

Dhanañjaya: The seed must have been deposited in the bark and then taken root.

Prabhupāda: Because they are different seed, different tree.

Brahmānanda: Individual.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Individual. And the specific individuality is there in the seed. Even if you grow together they will come differently.

Morning Walk -- September 29, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore Kṛṣṇa has imposed death, that "You may make your plan as free man, but you'll not be allowed to stay. I'll kick you out." These poor men, they did not think of it, that "I am making so nice plan, but at any moment I'll be kicked out. So where is my freedom?" Dull brain does not think of it. A prisoner, if he thinks that he is free to act, is it not foolishness? A prisoner, in prison, and if he thinks that he is free to act, is it not foolishness? So that they do not think. Therefore Kṛṣṇa has grouped them: mūḍha, these rascals, mūḍha. They conduct freedom movement. Just like in our country also, before this British Empire or this Mohammedan Empire there was no knowledge about this freedom. Indian people never thought of freedom. They know that "We are not free. Where is the question of freedom?" These things have come from the foreign countries, freedom movement. What is freedom? Where are you free? You are completely under the laws of nature. Where is your freedom? So they were thinking of greater freedom, to get out of the clutches of the laws of nature. That is real freedom. What is this freedom? From frying pan to the fire? (chuckles) Now we have freedom means from frying pan to the fire. Formerly there was one viceroy. Now in each state three dozen viceroys, and you have to maintain that. So many legislators, so many secretaries, so many ministers. All, they are sucking our poor blood. That's all. Hare Kṛṣṇa. And as soon as you approach them for some grievances, "All right, give me application," and, after six months, "No." So we are maintaining for this purpose? Yes. "I say no." That's all. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (break) ...ing of freedom, but we have no freedom even to stay in this body.

Morning Walk -- October 6, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: That was nice.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You like with peas?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Peanuts?

Prabhupāda: Not peas, that green... Yes, green peas.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Fried.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like yesterday. That's nice. Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). (break) ...things without Kṛṣṇa consciousness is dead body. Aprāṇasya hi dehasya maṇḍanaṁ loka-rañjanam. It may be captivating to the foolish men, but it has no value. Because the person who is engaged in these things, he does not know what is the value of life, what is the goal of life. He is wasting time. The house will remain as it is; he will go to hell. That he does not know.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: No. We can.... From milk, we can make so many nice foods. You take ghee, and from ghee, from grains, from fruits, you make so many varieties. Just like dahl, pulses, soak it in the water and then fry in the ghee and put masalā, and it is so nice salty preparation, dahl mutta. Then make samosā. You introduce these things, dahl mut(?), samosā, jalebīs, they will like. They have never tasted all these. Sandeśa, rasagullā, pantoa,(?) so many varieties from milk, only milk.

Mādhavānanda: In the restaurant in New York, many, many respectable people come, and they come once and they come back again and again and again.

Prabhupāda: Panwanna(?), puṣpānna, kijeranna(?), so many things. What is that? If you kill the cow you get the meat only one time. But if you allow the cow to live and take milk, and from milk you can make hundreds and thousands of preparations. That is enjoyment, real enjoyment. In Delhi, there are shops, very respectable shops. One side salt, and one side sweet. But the salt side or sweet side, they're all based on ghee. This preparation, dahibarā, so nice. Combination of grain and yogurt. So introduce this. They do not know. It is a new type of civilization we are trying to introduce for the benefit of the human society. They do not know it. Crude civilization. Primitive. Kill an animal and eat. And when you are civilized, you are supposed to know so many things; why should you kill the animal? You utilize the animal. This milk is taking the blood without killing. That is humanity. You are eating beef because of the blood.

Conversation in Airport and Car -- June 21, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Yes. How from milk in different stages you get this foodstuff, kacuris, śṛṅgāra,(?) sandeśa, rābṛi. And this chānā, if fried, if you prepare nicely with little hing and ginger, then it will exactly taste like meat. They'll forget. If you give them without telling them, they will think that they're eating meat.

Kīrtanānanda: Hing and what? Prepare with hing and?

Prabhupāda: Ginger.

Kīrtanānanda: Ginger.

Prabhupāda: They prepare the semiliquid meat like that. You give them little piece and they will not understand that it is not meat.

Hari-śauri: When we were in Los Angeles, Pālikā made some baṛā and it tasted... Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja wouldn't eat it. He said it tasted too much like fish.

Prabhupāda: With urad ḍāl, you can prepare fishy taste.

Hari-śauri: Someone told me that your Guru Mahārāja said that.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. Anyone who is not taking urad ḍāl, he must be taking fish silently, secretly.

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

Prabhupāda: And when you fry luci, all the other tenants will come "What you are cooking?" This is practical because we opened..., my Guru Mahārāja opened a branch in Burma in an apartment. So that Gaurāṅga who was my servant in family life, he was there. He said like this, that "When I fry puri, the ghee smell is there, so many people will come from other apartments, (whispers) "Oh, what you are cooking? What you are cooking?" And the naphi, they relish it in feast. So it is a question of taste.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That's the ultimate.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: I remember as a child in Hong Kong, in the village they would keep big glass jars of snakes, they would put the snakes in jars. And after they were many times soaking in liquid, then they would eat it.

Hari-śauri: Pickled snakes.

Prabhupāda: Snakes.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Yes, keep it in a jar in liquid.

Prabhupāda: They put in the jar alive?

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.

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

Prabhupāda: The potatoes and karelā should be fried.

Harikeśa: Yes, it was fried. I fried it with the cover on.

Prabhupāda: No, not in the beginning. Fry it, and if it is still hard, then...

Harikeśa: Then put the cover on. Oh, all right.

Prabhupāda: Yes, not from beginning.

Harikeśa: Oh, I made a mistake.

Prabhupāda: If you cover from the beginning, the water which is already there will be coming out. And the idea is the water should be taken away. Then it will be tasteful. Still, it was good.

Harikeśa: Should I cook if I still have this fever tomorrow?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Harikeśa: Right now I have a fever.

Prabhupāda: No, don't cook.

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

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) Give Mandākinī these peas. Tomorrow she can utilize it for kacuri. I've asked her to make kacuri. Let them use this.

Hari-śauri: They must have only just come ripe just this last week.

Prabhupāda: So many things are growing. Puffed rice, you simply make it hot, dry, take it away, and then take some of the peas, put very little ghee and masalā and some peas, fry it nicely. Then put little water and cover it. When it is soft, you can add with it little the green chilis.

Hari-śauri: These big ones?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not very much, but little.

Hari-śauri: These are not very hot, the big ones. The small ones are the hot ones, but we don't have any of those left.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Hari-śauri: Then mix them or keep them separate?

Prabhupāda: No, keep separate. They should be very soft. And the puffed rice hot. Then mix with little ghee and masalā. Then, I'll take little.

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

Prabhupāda: ...any expert in your country who can fry foodgrains in hot sand.

Bhagavān: Like they make puffed rice, I think, like that. I don't think so. They do it by machine.

Prabhupāda: Puffed rice? How? What is that machine?

Bhagavān: When they make a thatcher, they use some kind of machine.

Prabhupāda: But we can do it very easily. Sand should be very hot. You can make hot sand, it is not difficult. Any fire. And then take the grains in some, another pot, and put the hot sands under it and then agitate. And it will puff-puff-puff-puff-puff-puff, they'll be finished.

Bhagavān: Put the hot sand where?

Prabhupāda: Sand is being heated in fire, so you put the grains in another pot and put the hot sand there.

Hari-śauri: Underneath the pot?

Prabhupāda: Why underneath? I said another pot. You are so dull brain. Here is hot sand. I bring in another pot, the grains, and the hot sand I pour on it.

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

Prabhupāda: Popcorn, they fry it in ghee, hot ghee.

Hari-śauri: Not much though, just a little.

Prabhupāda: No, I've seen it. They do it. But that is not very digestive. If you make this sand, hot sand...

Bhagavān: It's light.

Prabhupāda: Very light. In the morning you can give them this puffed grains, then fruits and milk, very good breakfast. I mean to say all self-dependent. Yes. We should save time, as much for this purpose, for chanting, discussing grantha. Not for any personal so-called comforts. We can sit down anywhere on the grass here, and whatever available we make our food. This is the idea. Life will be sublime. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī mām. That is real business.

Bhagavān: They are spending so much money for entertainment in material life, but no one is becoming enlivened. But this kind of discussion is so fresh. For a show they pay five dollars, to go to one movie for one hour, two hours.

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

Prabhupāda: Chickpeas fried?

Bhagavān: Boiled, chick peas. And apple, orange and banana. And in the afternoon they have rice, dāl, cāpāṭi, and salad, and in the evening they have a glass of milk and a little bread.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. What is that machine?

Hari-śauri: One of the vans.

Prabhupāda: Vans. (child crying outside) "Prabhupāda?" (laughs)

Bhagavān: We brought the Jagannātha Deity here from Paris for Ratha-yātrā, and He stayed here for eight days and then went back. And when He went back all the Gurukula children, they were all crying and running after the truck.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā (laughs). So... It is natural affection.

Bhagavān: The little boys also, they were crying, little girls.

Prabhupāda: So Ratha-yātrā was functioned here?

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Fresh.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Would you like it fried a little?

Prabhupāda: Little make it hot.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Hot, We can little heat it.

Prabhupāda: That's all. After heating, put little ghee, very little, and mix it with black pepper and salt.

Atreya Ṛṣi: We mix it or you mix it.

Prabhupāda: I can mix.

Atreya Ṛṣi: We'll bring it separately.

Prabhupāda: But this is good.

Atreya Ṛṣi: And also we can bring some fruit?

Prabhupāda: No. More salt, pepper. So this is nice.

Hari-śauri: Shall I put some on this lid?

Prabhupāda: Some Indian gentleman has given?

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

Prabhupāda: Puffed rice.

Devotee: And some fried, and there's hot milk.

Prabhupāda: You can give me little puffed rice. (long pause) During wartime some, during noncooperation movement, so one firm, they were supplying printing machine, and, very famous firm, forgot the name. So they had 113 branches all over the world. So somebody questioned that "If you British boycott, if by boycott movement, if your firm is closed..." So the manager replied, "So what is wrong there? If one branch is closed, we'll still have 112 branches all over the world." So if the Communist party in India they want like that, so we have our own branches all over. (slapping sound—for mosquito?) Don't kill.

Indian man (3): This book sales all over the world, six lakhs of rupees?

Prabhupāda: Sixty thousand...

Indian man (3): Dollars. About five lakhs.

Prabhupāda: Books. We are printing books five lakhs, three lakhs, one lakh, fifty thousand. Lowest twenty thousand.

Room Conversation -- November 11, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Ask her to make that bitter melon separately in little quantity.

Hari-śauri: Just fried or...

Prabhupāda: No, boil and then fried. Make it soft. So any letter? All right. (break) Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's... (break)

Antardhyāna: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Everyone is going to die. Who is going to live? Who is here? Can you show me anyone who is going to live? Can you show me?

Antardhyāna: No, everybody's going to die.

Prabhupāda: So today or tomorrow, everyone will die. So where is the anxiety? Die or not die, tomorrow or today, but one should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, that's all. Why one should be depressed? And everyone is going to die. I am going to die tomorrow, he is going to die day after tomorrow, he... Everyone will have to die. Who will live here? So what is the anxiety? Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all.

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, she'll die here. (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Nobody will live. Don't be anxiety. That's all. Anyone who has come to this material world will die. One is going to die today; another is going to die tomorrow. It is a question of first and second, but everyone will die. So before death one should be complete in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is success of life. The tree is standing for thousands of years. So what is the use of living like that? A tree cannot chant Hare Kṛṣṇa but lives for thousands of years.

Room Conversation with Indian Man -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: Dāl can be replaced with boiled potato.

Life Member: Boiled potatoes, yes, they are made. That is puri or paraṭā? Paraṭā is better. Ālu paraṭā.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Make Punjabi paraṭā.

Life Member: You will like that.

Prabhupāda: All right. And another thing, and sabji, dry potato with hing. What vegetables other? There is cauliflower. There is no eggplant? Beguna? I require little.

Hari-śauri: What about paṭolas?

Prabhupāda: Paṭola is nice.

Indian man: We should make something of eggplant.

Prabhupāda: Eggplant vegetable, yes. Fried.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 4, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That means another condition. From frying pan to the fire. (laughter) Dharmena hīna paśubhiḥ samaḥ. As soon as you give up religious principles, you are no better than animal. That means he will manufacture. The same disease. "I'll not follow the traditional." This is their death block. That they always think that "I am independent. I can manufacture my way. I can become happy in that way." They're always thinking like that. And in a meeting with hundreds of men claps, that he is his liberated. "Now it is approved." Who is approving? That is criticized by Bhāgavata. Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ (SB 2.3.19). This. They are animals and they are applauding another animal. That's all. Big animal. Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ. These ordinary persons, they are paśu and they are applauding. The man who is applauded, he's another big paśu. That's all.

Dr. Patel: Camels, asses...

Prabhupāda: Hmm? Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ.

Dr. Patel: Just like camel and ass. Ahorūpa mahad-guṇaiḥ. (?)One man...

Prabhupāda: They... It is very difficult. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇāḥ. speak all these big, big words they have no qualification. Only disqualification is that they do not accept God as Supreme and His instruction is...

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Or if you make two or three baras with nim, that is easy to take, and palatable. With chick pea flour, fresh nim leaf paste and equal quantity of chick pea flour. Just fry it.

Hari-śauri: Oh. Like those spinach pakoras.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Arundhati was doing that in Vṛndāvana.

Hari-śauri: With nim leaf?

Prabhupāda: Yes. She was doing nice.

Hari-śauri: You would like those for breakfast?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is good for the... So if Arundhati makes, she can come and tomorrow make one or two baras in the morning.

Hari-śauri: For your breakfast.

Prabhupāda: So you are keeping your health all right?

Girirāja: Yes.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: You can learn how to make puffed rice. It's not difficult.

Hari-śauri: All our farms should learn.

Prabhupāda: The paddy has to be cooked, once boiled and fried, er, mean dried, again cooked, again dried. Then you take out the skin and mix with little salt and half baked, and then put into the hot sand. Oh, it will do... Little laboring.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We cannot grow rice in America.

Prabhupāda: Oh. There is no paddy?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Only place I know is down in Mississippi farm. They are trying to.

Prabhupāda: They can grow. There is no difficulty.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But other places, they cannot. You see, the weather.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: New Vrindaban they cannot do.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Rice cannot be grown.

Morning Conversation -- April 23, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...difficult to digest.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I had the ones that were not fried properly.

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So simply they were soaked with ghee. I got the rejected ones.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So they were simply soaking.

Prabhupāda: Oh, they could not give.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Some of them were all right.

Prabhupāda: It has to be done in high flame.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. The ones they served you were correct, but still they were heavy. But the ones I got were probably the first attempt or something. So they had sunk to the bottom.

Prabhupāda: They never become expert. He'll remain student for life. (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughs) It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

Discussions -- June 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Why India? Everywhere. Everywhere.

Rāmeśvara: See, in America sometimes we will borrow against the temple to "fry the fish in its own oil." So we wanted to make this language just for India, that they can never even mortgage it or risk it in any way.

Prabhupāda: All right. But outside they can do?

Rāmeśvara: Outside they have...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatākā Mahārāja just said that the temple buildings should never be mortgaged. Other buildings might be, but what about the temple buildings? Just like in Los Angeles you have many buildings. The temple building should never be mortgaged, but others may be.

Prabhupāda: There is a word, devāyatana,(?) Indian. Devāyatana property can never be mortgaged, sold or risked. (background whispering)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In America... Just like in New York there's a twelve-thirteen-story building. The temple only occupies the ground floor. They can't mortgage... Sometimes if they want to get other properties, they may want to use the asset of that building. If they have this clause, they won't be able to.

Rāmeśvara: Also sometimes we have got one property in America, and you have allowed us to sell it. Just like in Miami we had to sell the property in Coconut Grove and we bought that big farm.

Prabhupāda: No, with the consent of the GBC...

Conversation: 'How to Secure Brahmacaris' -- June 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This idea, that "My son should be B.A., M.A., Ph.D.," it is wrong idea. Why? What is there, Ph.D.'s? First of all one must earn. Self-preservation is the first law of... But not... The Marwaris used to do that in Calcutta. Many pakorā. No business—he was frying pakorā and selling. Why unemployment? This is disastrous, unemployment. As soon as there is unemployment, there are so many devils. They'll plan. And the first plan will come-wine and woman. So we want to save the society from this downfall. At least keep one ideal. And that is our mission. Otherwise there was no nece... But at the present moment they cannot take so much trouble. We are trying to give them as much as possible comfortable life, but become an ideal vidvān and bhaktimān. That is required. Otherwise it is animal society. Prime Minister's son is a debauch, rogue, thief. They are not ashamed even. And people are adoring him: "O Sanjay, you are Indira Gandhi's son. I take your blessing." Doing practically. He was very much anxious to see Sanjay Gandhi. So what did I say?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: You said not to waste time with these...

Prabhupāda: "Don't waste time by seeing these rascals," I told him. Still thinking of so many poli... I said, "No, don't see. There is no use." If a man is not of character, what... And especially if he's not a devotee... Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇāḥ. There cannot be any good qualities. Immediately he is rejected. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). As soon as one is not devotee, we tell him, narādhama. Bas. That's all, finished.

Room Conversation during lunchtime -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The villagers, these grain soaked in water, they... Not cooked.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes I have seen they sell on the streets some spicy ḍāl? Hard? I think that's fried.

Prabhupāda: Last year in Washington I was there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: July Fourth. Oh, yes, you were there. They had a fireworks demonstration, and you saw a parade, I think.

Upendra: Bicentennial?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, that was a big one, two-hundredth anniversary of the independence. The karmīs are very happy about these holidays like this July Fourth, but they are not as happy as devotees. We are even happier, because we know that all the karmīs will buy even more books on these days.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everything he's preparing is very nectarine. I think this year, Christmastime, if we again put on our Santa Claus suits, eventually people will only give to our Santa Clauses. At first there was a reaction, last year. And this year there may be again a reaction, but after a few years no one will want to give to the other Santa Clauses. We will completely take over the Santa Claus costume. I don't think we should give it up.

Prabhupāda: Why? It is our choice.

Room Conversation Varnasrama -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Today I passed stool again before going to the temple. (pause) So many... Actually we enjoyed life in our childhood. Although we were not very nicely dressed and not very comfortable, the so-called comfortable. We could sleep anywhere. We did not require any nice dress or nice food. My mother used to prepare very nice food. We were glad in that way. Nice paraṭā, nice vegetable, ācāra, so many things she used to prepare. Always preparing some food. Puffed rice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She was cooking with ghee?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Our family with ghee. Some fried. That is used, oil.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fried portal.

Prabhupāda: Ghee and oil, both were used. Where is that happiness gone?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No one's happy nowadays.

Prabhupāda: Therefore there is struggle. Communist, this, that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually you still see a little bit of that happiness in smaller towns.

Prabhupāda: No, in the village. They have got enough milk, grains. Is it not? Grāmete dudha dhana cala ekhana nai, gatas paya.(?) Eh? Fruit. They import. They make them poverty-stricken. If the villagers do not sell, ample fruit. But these townsmen, they go there, pay them, and out of greediness they sell their own food only for money. And then they spend for drinking and cinema and... Horrible civilization. Those packets, bring here. (Bengali conversation)

Room Conversation -- July 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It seems in that respect that Bengal is very opulent in varieties of vegetables.

Prabhupāda: And fish. They prepare varieties of preparation of fish. Māche jol, māche tal, māche dal, māchera dorma.(?) They kill this jhasere koi (?) and paste with mustard and fry it in oil. (Bengali)

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: They know more of fish preparation and also vegetable. (Bengali)

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Kṛṣṇa baḍo doyāmoy, koribāre jihwā jay. Kṛṣṇa-prasāda... (Bengali conversation) The real fact is that this jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. One life is food for another life. That is nature's way. But one has to pass through so many varieties of life, evolution. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi. How many millions of years we'll take to evolve to become a human being. Then he gets chance of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Payeche mānava janma, mano rañjanam alpa.(?) Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). Emona janma, this janma, manuṣya-janma. And if we miss and don't get Kṛṣṇa, again glide down. Mām aprāpya mṛtyu-saṁsāra. Again you fall down. I'll eat you; you eat me. And the aquatic, 900,000 species, varieties of life. The same struggle, one fish eating another fish. Struggle within the water. A small fish can understand three miles away a big fish is coming. It is all stated in the Bhāgavata. This struggle is going on. Then in the jungle animals. The man-eater trees are there in Africa. Trees, man, eat man.

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: Sometimes they make one sabji with eggplant, tomatoes and fried cheese, very nice wet sabji. Actually that's one of the sabjis every day in the restaurant.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Dr. Kapoor is waiting?

Śrīdhara Swami: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Has the other doctor come yet?

Śrīdhara Swami: No. He hasn't come. Dr. Kapoor suggested he should go now because he has some work, and that doctor will be coming. He went to Rādhā-Ramaṇa temple.

Prabhupāda: Give him some prasādam, Dr. Kapoor.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bhakti-caru? Can you give Dr. Kapoor some prasādam before he goes?

Bhakti-caru: Yes, sure. (whispering in background)

Prabhupāda: Hm? What is that?

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Bhakti-caru: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Maybe some fried portal too.

Bhakti-caru: Yes, fried portal also. Would you like to have some cāpāṭi with that, Śrīla Prabhupāda? Cāpāṭi? Or some rice?

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) I'll not be able to take. Better not bother. This fruit juice or milk.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, better to take...

Bhakti-caru: Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Maybe there's some way, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that the portal can be made into a texture that you can easily accept. Once you have to chew it, it's difficult for you.

Bhakti-caru: I can do one thing—cut the portal in small pieces and let it boil for say hour or two, so all the juice will come out. It will be some kind of a soup.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Portal soup.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Page Title:Fry (Conversations)
Compiler:Mayapur, RupaManjari
Created:02 of Oct, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=38, Let=0
No. of Quotes:38