Prabhupāda: Now Caitanya Mahāprabhu preached that simply by the saṅkīrtana movement everything will be fulfilled. You need not do anything. So the priest class brāhmaṇas they became very much dissatisfied that "He is inviting Muhammadans and all others..." Because according to Hindu society, except the brāhmaṇas... Especially in those days, only the brāhmaṇas were considered the highest in the society, and even the kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, they all calculated to, in the group of śūdras. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu was allowing everyone, the Muhammadans, the śūdras, the low class, the high class, the brāhmaṇas... He was amalgamating everyone. So these brāhmaṇas, they took objection. "He is making a disastrous movement! The prestige of the brāhmaṇas will go." So they became very much dissatisfied and they concluded that "We shall go to the magistrate and file our complaint that He is doing against Hindu religion and He's crying always 'Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa' loudly. The Lord is sleeping. He will be disturbed and there will be disaster, Lord being angry." In this way they filed complaint. Ask anything, questions.
Group (Conv. 1967 - 1974)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1967 Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: No.
Interviewer: No, it's some other group in Boston, she doesn't belong to this Swami's group.
Caller: Okay, okay.
Interviewer: Mia Farrow's sister?
Devotee: He's confusing us with Maharishi.
Interviewer: Yeah, okay. We'll be back in a minute. (break) Could we hear the chant maybe with everybody here? Is it possible? Can we get some microphones over there? You didn't bring what?
Dāmodara: Brahmānanda mentioned that I should write to some foundations, groups...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dāmodara: ...and I'll do so. There are a couple I've thought of. Making films on Vedic scriptures-they'll be interested in them.
Prabhupāda: Hm. (pause) Yes.
Devotee: Somebody said you want to film the Bhagavad-gītā, Swamiji?
Prabhupāda: Yes. If you can take up, I can direct you. (exclamations from guests)
Prabhupāda: You know, there is, there were eighteen akṣauhiṇī senā, eighteen groups of akṣauhiṇī. One akṣauhiṇī, so many hundred thousands of soldiers, so many hundred thousands of chariots, so many hundred thousands of elephants, horses. That is one group. Such eighteen groups were present there. At least, to make a successful scene we require at least fifty elephants to make a show. And chariots. Then it will be something scenic. Bhagavad-gītā, I think, has not been attempted by any cinema company for this reason. It is very difficult to make arrangement for the war scene. This is not modern war. There are many modern war films. You can present that. But it is different kind of war. So if you want to present Bhagavad-gītā as it is, then these things will be required.
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Interviewer: ...or is it simply that that is the age group that has been attracted to your teaching?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, yes. That is the fact. I invite everyone, old and young, but generally the youngsters, they are attracted.
Interviewer: Have you any idea what the number of the people are nationally?
Prabhupāda: So far initiated members, they are about, not less than hundred. But there are many others, admirers. In each center there are at least fifty to sixty members.
Interviewer: No, I meant the whole, the over all picture of your group. You speak of initiates, you speak of certain disciplines. This is almost... I'm trying to translate it into Western terms. Like a religious order.
Prabhupāda: No, it is...
Interviewer: Now, you could say philosophical order, a cultural order. But the people...
Prabhupāda: Yes. Religious... If you say religious orders, there are many religious orders; they allow all these things. It is not exactly religious order. It is training of consciousness, because we are trying to put people in original, pure consciousness, which we call, technically, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Hayagrīva: We can use yours and we can use ours. When we chant, it's easier for a large group to follow. It's very simple. First, we sing a couple of melodies. Then we can practice in a little while and see which one is (indistinct).
Allen Ginsberg: Okay.
Hayagrīva: I think once they get into the chanting, your melody might be a little difficult for them to follow. I'm not sure. Because it varies. There's variation there.
Allen Ginsberg: The problem, though, is that I've never been able to swing with it before. That's why I haven't used it. So what I would suggest is... Okay. We'll practice it tomorrow.
Hayagrīva: We can swing, I'm sure we can swing something.
Allen Ginsberg: Yes. But whatever we do, we got to swing.
Hayagrīva: That's for sure. But there've been... See what you think of various melodies. We play various melodies and see how we can come out. Another thing, do you want to have responsive chanting?
Prabhupāda: Responsive chanting must be there.
Allen Ginsberg: Well, the orthodox Jews have a very heavy, complicated, moment by moment ritual daily existence in that, for that same purpose. It was to keep them conscious of their religious nature. And that has maintained a small group of Jews over the centuries as an integral unit, but has tended to disappear in the later generations now simply because modern life does not allow that much Kṛṣṇa consciousness or Jewish consciousness or religious consciousness and attention, act by act throughout the day. So my question is how far can total Kṛṣṇa devotion, act by act all day, spread? How many people can that encompass in a place like America? Or are you intending only to get a few devotees, like several hundred or a thousand who will be solid and permanent.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. That is my program. Because Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not possible for everyone. Because in the Bhagavad-gītā we learn, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). After many, many births one can come to this.
Prabhupāda: Curries you may boil only. That doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that you have to take our taste. No. That is not the program, that to become Kṛṣṇa conscious you have to change your taste. No. We say from the Bhagavad-gītā... Kṛṣṇa says, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). "Anyone who is offering Me with devotion these vegetables, fruits, flowers, milk, I accept that." But we are going to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. Therefore we are selecting foodstuff from this group. That you are all already accepting. Don't you take vegetables? Don't you take fruits? Don't you take grains? So where is the new item? Now, so far cooking, you can cook in your own taste. But the group must be this. Not meat. Because Kṛṣṇa does not say. That is our program. So you are already taking grains, you are eating fruits, you are drinking milk. So where is the difference? I don't find any difference.
Prabhupāda: In India everywhere. Kestha. So Kestha, Kristha or Kṛṣṇa, they're on the same group, aiming the same group. It is not difficult.
Allen Ginsberg: Of course, Catholicism in the West operated in Latin.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Allen Ginsberg: Catholicism in the West operated in Latin for centuries.
Prabhupāda: Latin is from Sanskrit. Yes. Latin is from Sanskrit. Professor Rowe and Webb of Presidency College in Calcutta, they have got a grammar. They have said the Sanskrit language is mother of all languages. They were big English scholar, professor, Mr. Rowe and Webb. We had to read their grammar in our childhood. They have said that Sanskrit language is the mother of all languages. And in the dictionary you'll find Indo-European language practically all from Sanskrit. The original word mātṛ-śabda—the "mater," no?
Prabhupāda: Everyone is trying to come to Me." Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). "But he's realizing Me in My different phases. But everyone is trying." So so far unifying religion is concerned there are three groups: impersonalists, personalists, and localized. Some are trying to understand the Absolute Truth in impersonal way. Some are... The yogis, the mental speculators, they are trying to understand the Absolute in impersonal, without any personal form. And the yogis, they are trying to find out Kṛṣṇa within their heart, meditation. And some are trying to find out the Absolute Truth in person by reciprocating love. So all these things are in Kṛṣṇa. And Bhāgavata says after explanation of that verse that it is the only business of human being to find out the Absolute Truth.
Allen Ginsberg: But what do you do when different religious groups claim to be the center? What do you do when different religious groups...
Prabhupāda: No, we welcome every religion. We don't decry any religion. Our point is the love of Godhead. Or Kṛṣṇa is love, all-attractive. So we want to be attracted by Kṛṣṇa. Just like a magnetic force and iron. Unless iron is rusty, it is automatically attracted by the magnetic force. Similarly, we are contaminated by material coverings. So we are trying to make it rustless so that immediately we shall be attracted. This is the program. Kṛṣṇa is all-attractive. That is a fact. And we are attracted. But being covered with this rust, we are, instead of being attracted by Kṛṣṇa, we are being attracted by māyā. This is our whole program.
Prabhupāda: There were not many. The Rathayātrā is very nice. He was chanting with a group of devotees, and while the car festival is going on. And sometimes car used to stop. It still stops. That is the fashion of Jagannātha. And nobody could, even an elephant could not draw it. Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu will say, "All right, come on." So He would push it with His head and it will go on.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What did the people say when they saw that?
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Haṁsadūta: (unintelligible) So many newspapers have come out within the last three or four years. Of course, most of them are hippie groups, but they have become... People are very anxious to read something from different angle of vision.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Haṁsadūta: They are tired of old newspapers. So if we present a newspaper with our angle of vision, Kṛṣṇa consciousness...
Prabhupāda: So immediately you write to the GBC members.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prof. Kotovsky: According to so many... You have just told that in any society there are four divisions, but the case is not so easy to distinguish. For instance, one can group, one can group, group together, different social classes and professional groups into four divisions in any society. There's no difficulty. Only difficulty, for instance, in socialist society of our country and a socialist society how can you distinguish productive group and workers?
Prabhupāda: Just like you belong to the intelligent class of men.
Prof. Kotovsky: Intelligent, yes, so...
Prabhupāda: So this is a division.
Prof. Kotovsky: ...there is a great distinction, in my opinion, between socialist society and all societies preceding socialist because in a modern western society you can group all social professions, classes, for instance, practically, very conditionally, you know, at least you can, the brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, kṣatriyas... Excuse me... Then this vaiśya, this productive class, is owners...
Prabhupāda: That is...
Prof. Kotovsky: ...of the means of production...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prof. Kotovsky: ...conditionally(?) to group them in four classes because...
Prabhupāda: The, the confusion, confusion has come into existence because in India in later days the son of a brāhmaṇa, without having the brahminical qualification, claimed to be brāhmaṇa, and others, out of superstition or traditional way, they were accepted as brāhmaṇa. Therefore the Indian social order has disrupted. But our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we are picking up from everywhere brāhmaṇas, everywhere, because the world needs the brain of a brāhmaṇa. Just like here, Mahārāja Parīkṣit, although he was a monarch, he had a body of learned sages and brāhmaṇas to consult, advisory body. It is not that the monarchs were independent. In the history it is found that some of the monarchs were not in order.
Śyāmasundara: See, the Swamiji is only going to be here two more days, so if there's any possibility, people can take advantage to have him speak in public or in groups. Do you think it's possible?
Prof. Kotovsky: It's... It's... I can't help because I am leaving tomorrow very early for the South, and I shall be here only on the 1st of July. Yes. So from this point it will be difficult, yes. Probably... My advice would be through an ambassador you can come in contact with this, our religious organization. That would be very interesting to have some lecture in group, lecture in group, and some discussion of all this. That would be... That would be very possible, a little. So he can come back if... I would say tomorrow, but I can't manage it myself, but..., as I am leaving at six, leaving, plane is leaving at 8:15 tomorrow morning.
Prabhupāda: You mean to say that some ambassador's men should see you.
Prabhupāda: Because it is genuine movement, it will make progress, provided it is presented in pure form. It was not presented before me in pure form, at least in the Western countries. Therefore people could not take it, nor they could understand it. Now it is being placed in pure form in the right way of paramparā system as the ācāryas introduced, and actually it is happening. It is..., they are taking. Wherever they are going, people are very much anxious to take this philosophy, as if they are waking. Anywhere we go, even we have sent men to Jerusalem (?). (aside:) What town? (indistinct) So this method is very effective, and people are accepting, any part of the world, without any discrimination. Here mostly you see our students are from the Christian group, the Jewish group, there are many students from Muhammadan group, from Parsi group.
Prabhupāda: Our everyone's future is Kṛṣṇa. You believe in Kṛṣṇa and nobody of our group has got any need, because we believe in Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that "Those who are engaged in my service, I personally attend to their needs," yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (BG 9.22). Perhaps you know this. Those who are engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, Kṛṣṇa is supplying the necessities of everyone, because Kṛṣṇa is God. So God is supplying the necessities of everyone. That is one thing. But He takes special interest for those who are devotees, pure devotees. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā:
Dr. Singh: '96, So I was seeing here. He was born on about the same date.. How do we organize this? Are you going to do it or what's going to happen? Do you sit where you are, or do you group together? What do you want, a piece of paper?
Śyāmasundara: She wants to write the words of the mantra on a piece of paper.
Prabhupāda: What is that? Hare Kṛṣṇa?
(break)
Dr. Singh: Harrison. So our devotees, they (indistinct) that singer of the Beatles.
Prabhupāda: He gave me nineteen thousand dollars.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest: The camera should have operated on your beautiful sārī. It's very good. Who is the chief of your group? You or he?
Prabhupāda: (laughter) As you like.
Guest: He holds a big stick, so I'm asking.
Madhudviṣa: Prabhupāda is the chief. He has given me the stick.
Guest: Where is my negro friend? He has not come?
Prabhupāda: Oh, he is not come. There was no place in the car. There were many negroes.
Prabhupāda: No, apart from scripture, from your personal understanding you can place questions. People, generally, they have no idea of God. We are placing the factual God. That is very difficult to understand. Generally they think it is an idea, fiction. But we don't think like that. We have got clear conception of God. That is the difference between our Society and all any other religious groups. They have no clear idea of God. They simply say that there is God, God is great, but no clearer.
Yadubara: I think a lot of other societies make compromises.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Yadubara: Many other societies make compromises. Many other religious groups make compromises in their doctrine.
Prabhupāda: Yes, because they have no clear idea. They cannot push forward their concept. Just like the other day (indistinct) lady, she asked if Kṛṣṇa was a naughty boy. Yes, because He is God He must be naughty boy. Otherwise, wherefrom this idea of naughty boy comes if that quality is not in God? God is the origin of everything, creator of everything. So if He hasn't got this naughtiness in His person, then how this thing comes to be? That is the Vedānta version, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). The Supreme Absolute Truth is that from which or from whom everything emanates. So wherefrom this naughtiness comes if it is not in the person of God? Wherefrom this stealing propensity comes if it is not in God? But because He is absolute, His stealing is also as good as his blessing. Mākhan-cora. Kṛṣṇa is stealing butter, that is worshiped, mākhana, by the very name.
Prabhupāda: Explain... Any group of men, they have got a particular type of dress, the military dress, the police dress. So people can understand that "Here is a police." Similarly, by this dress they will chant, "Hare Kṛṣṇa!" immediately. That is our experience. As soon as they will see these people, "Hare Kṛṣṇa," and if they will criticize our, anything, we want that people see us and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That we want. Simply by seeing us they will remember Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is great advancement. Indirectly that is our propaganda, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: So Kṛṣṇa is also individual, you are also individual, but He is the head. Just like in our group we are all individual, but I am the head, similarly, there are innumerable individual souls, all over the universe, and the head individual soul is Kṛṣṇa.
Impersonalist: Can Kṛṣṇa be called by any other name?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa means... Kṛṣṇa's name is given according to His office. Just like a person at home, he is "father," and in the court he is "my lord," the same man. Same man, high-court judge, his wife is calling him by name, "John." His son is calling the same man, "father." His brother is calling the same man, "brother."
Kīrtanānanda: That's, I think, Śrīla Prabhupāda, there's a group in Cleveland, Ohio.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Kīrtanānanda: There is a colored lady who is leading a group, and they're dressing in dhotīs and saris, and uh, they're doing some...
Prabhupāda: So you just train them.
Kīrtanānanda: They're doing some disturbance to the temple there. And they are here. They've come to New York.
Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda? We've got a traveling saṅkīrtana group coming here (indistinct) from Dallas. The boys are stopping to see you. In two days Dvārakādhīśa distributed about one hundred of your Back to Godheads, and so many Kṛṣṇa books. And all the boys took part in saṅkīrtana. It would be very nice...
Prabhupāda: They want to see me? They want to see me?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: No, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Then? What he says?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: He says that when they were on their way to New York City, the students distributed hundred Back to Godhead and went on saṅkīrtana.
Devotee (2): In two days Dvārakādhīśa distributed over a hundred.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: And Dvārakādhīśa did over a hundred in two days.
Prabhupāda: Very good. That's a great service. What is that?
Devotee (10): It says "Vai..., Vaikuṇṭha Playhouse, statement of purpose." There's a theatrical group called the Vaikuṇṭha Players.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: (break) ...Śrīla Prabhupāda, fourth of July.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: It's the fourth of July.
Prabhupāda: Today?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Hm. Keep it all in (indistinct).
Revatīnandana: But actually he may improve it even more. They are already a good group. They are doing all right.
Prabhupāda: Very expert. Not only good, very expert.
Dhanañjaya: They're averaging sixty-seventy pounds a day.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Dhanañjaya: Sixty-seventy pounds a day they're collecting.
Prabhupāda: You are not collecting so much?
Dhanañjaya: What's that?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest (2): Can we get one picture of the group?
Prabhupāda: Yes, sit down. No.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: (Hindi)
Guest (2): Why don't you all move and please stand... (Hindi) Can some of them stand over that side?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest (2): Why don't you... You could come on this side and ladies over there. You people have to sit on your knees. I am sorry. I think I'll take one group, some people, and then do some other. (Some time passes.)
Prabhupāda: So it is a happy meeting?
Guest (6): Yes, Mahārāja is converting (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: Ācchā. Please come tomorrow. (Hindi) What time you have given them, any time?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So seeing that mistake also, now the scientists, they are proposing that they should make a governing body, not the politicians, so when they discover something the result can be completely controlled by this group of...
Prabhupāda: That is another foolishness. That is another foolishness. They will be bribed and they will vote. They will get money, that's all.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Another thing that is coming up is genetic engineering, which they are afraid about, just like they say remember like atomic bomb incident. The politicians will utilize the...
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: They have become the Fool No. 1 and all that so-called education, academics, knowledge has been taken away by māyā. This is... So we test only whether he's a devotee of God. If he's not a devotee of God then we take either of these: he must be the rascal, or lowest of the mankind, or simply using the merit for sinful activities, or his knowledge has been taken away by māyā. Immediately, we have no difficulty to understand what class of man he is. The test is whether he has got any sense of understanding God. If not then he comes to this group. It is not very difficult to study man, what he is. We have got the formula in the Bhagavad-gītā. (Hindi)
Devotee: Your explanation you've just given was so clear, Prabhupāda. We can easily see. It's so clear.
Acyutānanda: ...because so many people have come and gone. We had a cleaning group and it left for other parties.
Śyāmasundara: No, but I am just saying, there are many men there who could have cleaned, but they refused to do it because they are following your examples.
Acyutānanda: I'm cleaning my room, I'm cleaning outside also. Don't, you haven't seen it.
Śyāmasundara: I'm not criticizing, I'm just...
Prabhupāda: Anyway, whatever is done is done, you should be followed like that, that āpani ācari prabhu jīvere śikhāya. This should be the principle. One should teach others by behaving himself correctly. Then it will be... Everyone should remain cleansed, everyone should rise early in the morning, begin to work, comes to, everyone routine work. So then you can ask them, "Why you are not trying? Why you are not..." Then he will accept. (indistinct) This principle should be followed, āpani ācari prabhu jīvere śikhāya. Is it not?
Karandhara: A group of, a group of people wanted that in school they should also teach that God created the earth and the people...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Karandhara: Not just say that it was created by chance, random biology. But scientists objected, said: "We cannot say that God created the earth because then everyone will take us as fools." And they defeated the measure. The scientists said "Everyone knows. The earth is just created by biological chemistry. If we say that God created the earth, everyone will think us as fools."
Svarūpa Dāmodara: A group of scientists are now working on the idea that before we start anything, one should think...
Prabhupāda: No, there is the latest theory. What is this, theory of ignorance? Or what is that? Theory of impossibility, or something like that?
Karandhara: Oh, theory of uncertainty?
Prabhupāda: Uncertainty, yes. Theory of uncertainty. Everything is uncertain. And that is little intelligence. That, how to find out the certainty.
Prabhupāda: No, no. Therefore I say, all... Immediately, how you are all rascals. We have got a test. Test tube. As soon as one is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he is rascal, he is miscreant, he is lowest of the mankind, he has no knowledge. These, these are groups, they belong to. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ. He maintains that he is very big man, Nixon, but we know that he is a rascal number one. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You can understand immediately what is what.
Prabhupāda: ...accepted in that group.
Guest (1): Suppose if somebody is absolutely ignorant about...
Prabhupāda: So therefore there should be education. Why the śāstras are there? Why guru is there? Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). You must accept guru and learn. Why should you remain ignorant?
Guest (1): How one should start when he's completely ignorant of all these things?
Prabhupāda: He should go... Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet.
Buddhist Monk (1): Yes. Gautama the Buddha, whom I follow, who is my teacher, a poor man came, and he found him panting, asked him, "Well, what's the trouble?" "Oh, I've got news that you're here. I want to see you." And the Buddha found that not only had he run... He asked him, "When did you last have a meal?" He said, "That's quite a few days ago." He said, "We cannot preach on empty stomachs. Ānanda, give this man a good meal before he could come to me." And this fine virtue of hospitality, much as we have treasured in the past, when people leave their shores, they are inclined to forget this. I've been addressing various groups. I do not confine myself to Buddhist groups only. Whatever group was interested, to foster some understanding, good will and peace, I addressed. I said three things that many people forget when they leave their countries are first, their serene smile; secondly, hospitality; thirdly, they become ashamed of their own cultures because many are strangers of their own cultures.
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Prabhupāda: You question.
David Lawrence: We're working predominantly with the older age group, of course. And, uh... Fourteen, fifteens.
Prabhupāda: But first thing is, our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is based directly on the instruction of Kṛṣṇa. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is nothing but to accept Kṛṣṇa's instruction as it is. That is the...
David Lawrence: Yes.
David Lawrence: Yes. This is surely it, that so much, so many other movements, as such, and sectarian groups have compromised so much, haven't they? They, they... If one goes past the average English church which is these boys' experience of religion, they pass the biggest cars in the neighborhood on a Sunday morning. This is, this is what they see. And, of course, when they came to the temple, they found people living out a lifestyle, which, even though was so totally alien from their own, they could feel that it was worthwhile.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: So we are trying in our small endeavor. But if leading personalities like you of the society, they try to understand this philosophy scientifically, critically, and take it seriously, they can, there will be great benefit for the human society. The program we have got, but we are not leading personalities. You are all leading personalities. At least in England. Lord... This group, House of Lords is there. It was always there. In previous days also. They were called amātyas. All leading men of the society, they used to give advice to the king. And brāhmaṇas also. I think the knighthood means that. What is the meaning of this knighthood? Eh? Personal advisors to the king?
Lord Brockway: Not necessarily to the king. It's a recognition of some service to society, but it doesn't mean any close association with the monarch.
Prabhupāda: Oh, I see. But knight means the associates of the monarch, is it not the meaning?
Lord Brockway: And you, you may easily have a person who is very God conscious, beautiful in their own lives, beautiful to all the group around them, who have no understanding of the problems of the world at all.
Prabhupāda: That is not perfect God conscious. That is partial. Perfect consciousness means full understanding also. That is perfect God consciousness. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.3). This is the Vedic injunction. If you understand only God, then you understand everything. But if he does not understand everything rightly, that means he's not fully understanding God.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So that is our mission. Now, if you find it difficulty, you can come and join with us. That's all. Practically, in Europe and America, they are all coming from Christian group, Jewish group. So... Yes. This is a recent photograph of our Los Angeles center. They are regularly living in the temple, as they are living in the temple.
Mother: Hm.
Prabhupāda: And you'll also be surprised to know that this, this was a church, that building. It was a big church. So we have purchased it.
Jesuit Priest: Very nice.
Prabhupāda: So our point of view is that we don't allow killing any animal. Our Kṛṣṇa says: patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). Kṛṣṇa says vegetable, fruits, milk, grains, all these things should be offered to Me with devotion. And you should take the remnants of the foodstuff. So we take prasādam. And Kṛṣṇa says: "Give Me foodstuff prepared from this group." That we do. Accepting that the fruits, they have got life. But fruits are by nature... There are many fruits. It is offered by the tree for eating. The tree's not killed. So we accept this philosophy also that a, one animal, one living entity is meant for being food for another living entity. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam.
Prabhupāda: ...there are many groups like that in America.
Devotee: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Like imitating Beatle groups.
Devotee: Allen Ginsberg.
Prabhupāda: Allen Ginsberg. Allen Ginsberg has no more popularity.
Devotee: No, not much.
Prabhupāda: He's roaming like vagabond. He came, London, to see me. That... He came, also. What is that? Bob...?
Dr. Inger: When I asked a group of priests at a meeting which was to celebrate the anniversary of a leading Catholic thinker, I.R. Shadder(?), I just asked him about the Sermon on the Mount, referring to similarities between the teachings of Sermon on the Mount and Hindu thought. He says, "You see, but the point is this, that the Sermon on the Mount is not meant for everybody. It is only meant for a very few. And therefore most of us, including the present company," he said, "cannot use it in everyday life." I said, "Do you mean it is only meant for monks?" He hesitated but said, "If you like, yes." But I said, "I imagined that this was meant for everyone and that anyone could follow it." And he said, "Well, it is too dangerous a teaching to give to everyone."
Prabhupāda: Just see. And therefore I say, "Cheater and cheated." Yes. Similarly, scientists also. Recently in Los Angeles, California University, one professor, a big scientist came. He's a Nobel Prize owner. He described, gave lecture. He has written one book, on which he has got Nobel Prize, Evolution of Chemicals.
Prabhupāda: He's a rascal. He's simply bogus. He's trying to... There are so many parties like that. They're four or five, they make a group and imitate these Beatles. As if... Beatles have made money. They'll also make money. That is the... And speak all nonsense. That's all. These are crazy fellows. So independence means that you can do or not do. Just like you, as a nation, American nation, or English nation, you are all independent. But why you go to the jail? Is it government's fault that you go to the jail? Therefore government has fault? Why this nonsense question. When a man, instead of going to the university, goes to the police custody, is it government's fault? Is it?
Yogeśvara: ...but in their society they have many different religions, many different groups, and they don't ask anyone to leave being Christian or Jew or Muslim or Hindu or anything like that.
Prabhupāda: So we are not asking in that way. We are asking, "What is that ultimate goal?" (break)
Yogeśvara: ...ultimately, by following a process that the Rosicrucian order gives its students, one reaches the goal.
Dr. Hauser: But it also seems to me that you have, by gaining this consciousness, you can skip a lot of hard work that it takes in ordinary analysis or in a group therapy, for example...
Prabhupāda: No hard work.
Dr. Hauser: You have to work a lot with yourself to gain...
Prabhupāda: No.
Dr. Hauser: ...insight.
Prabhupāda: It is very easy, very easy. Just like we, we recommend this chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Anyone can chant. Even child can chant.
Banker: We have had a long history of debate in America over wealth. We have had one group, the fundamentalist Protestants, who argue that... Most of them are poor, and they feel very guilty if they have money. And then you have another group of Protestants, the Gospel of Wealth Protestants, who say that if you are truly holy, then it is better that the money be entrusted to your hands than to a man who is unholy. And then you have still another group that regards money as an end in itself, rather than a means to, committing you to do other things, And this confuses people in America. Your parents will be one thing, you'll be another. In my case, my mother is a Gospel of Poverty person. Blessed are the poor. She thinks you won't get into heaven unless you are poor. And I'm in the Gospel of Wealth category. (laughter) And you just select your own philosophy along the way. Carnegie was in that philosophy. He even wrote a book about it a one hundred years ago. The steel Carnegie, Carnegie steel.
Prabhupāda: Yes, Carnegie's name I know.
Banker: Well, you could say the same for the lower group people who work one third of their life in business, spend one third in sleep, and spend one third in whatever else they want to do. That is also a routine.
Prabhupāda: What is that? I do not follow.
Banker: My point is that the average person lives a very similar type of routine even if... Those who do not take business as an end in itself spend one-third of their life doing that. They spend one third of their life sleeping and they spend one third doing what they want to do.
Prabhupāda: Why one third? They are sleeping more than half.
Prajāpati: There's a large segment of the population today who say, "We only speak about God in terms of our own relationships with each other." So one group, they say, "This is all male chauvinism, to say God is a male. Actually, we are saying now the women should be elevated so God is woman for us." They say like that.
Prabhupāda: God... But uh... Well, that's all right. God is male and female both. God, our God, sometimes He takes the form of female, Mohinī-mūrti. Mohinī-mūrti. But comparatively studying, God is puruṣa, male.
Umāpati: He's always a potency.
Prabhupāda: Eh? Yes. He is potent.
Prabhupāda: Confusion is not... Chaotic condition, confusion is not proper stage. That is a state of suffering. That is the position at the present moment. Otherwise, why they are fighting, nation to nation, man to man, group to group, community to community, diplomat to dip...? They're simply fighting like cats and dogs. This is not perfect society. Simply ca... They can say dogs. They can simply make barking, "Whowf! Whowf! Whowf! Whowf!" That is not perfect society. Human society should be sober. That is Vedic civilization.
Prajāpati: They had a great difficulty. Because of poor fund of knowledge in the śāstras, they formed doctrines, so many doctrines, where groups of men got together and said. "This is what we believe." And they have so many doctrines. Many people killed, fighting over these doctrines, and even the intelligent people will simply, instead of trying to find out about God, simply try to clarify these doctrines more and more.
Prabhupāda: As soon as you say there are so many doctrines, that means that all of them are rascals. All of them are rascals. Otherwise, why there should be so many doctrines.
Prajāpati: There's a group called Christian Scientists. They say God is not a person. He's simply a principle, a principle of truth, beauty, all these, just qualities.
Prabhupāda: But show the example, what is that principle?
Karandhara: What is the meaning of principle without person?
Prabhupāda: What is the meaning of principle? Show me. You are talking nonsense.
Prajāpati: They say He's a principle is...
Prabhupāda: As soon as you call "principle," there must be a person. There must be a person. Otherwise, there is no principle.
Karandhara: Well, the difficulty is, in a group of atheists, you can't prove God no matter what you say.
Prabhupāda: No, atheists, kick them on their face. Atheists, they are... Those who are reasonable, that everything see, that somebody has made. So this sand is also made by somebody, the water is also made by somebody, the sky is also made by somebody. Now you find out who is that somebody. That is knowledge.
Dr. Wolfe: They do not want to transcend the limits. They do not want to transcend the limits.
Prabhupāda: Yes, so if you travel, you will also experience. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Then you'll also experience. We don't say that you are unable to, but if you adopt the process you'll also know.
Prajāpati: There's a large group today, Śrīla Prabhupāda, called humanists and they have decided that this concept of God is not very useful. We can solve all the problems ourselves.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. These are rascals. You see, humanists, they are professing humanists and they are killing so many human beings daily. You see? These are all escapism. What is called? Escaping? They could not find any, I mean to say, solace and now humanity... What they can do? There are so many people suffering in the human society. What they can do? Suppose they are opening hospitals.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because they do not believe in the śāstras, they are rascals, creating disturbances. The Guruji's group, they say, "There is no need of books." Do they not say like that?
Devotees: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Therefore simply set of rascals.
Hṛdayānanda: Actually, Prabhupāda, in the beginning, in the beginning, they used Bhagavad-gītā, but when we kept defeating them, they said, "All right, no more books."
Prajāpati: ...movement for the church today, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is called the ecumenical movement. Ecumenical movement means all the different divergent groups are trying to get together to understand..., you know, make a common ground. Now we have the perfect platform...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prajāpati: ...for giving them that common ground.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is your duty. You do it as theologicians. Bring them on the platform. This so-called church is going on. They're doing all sorts of sinful activities, and it is going on church and religion. Therefore the importance of Christian religion is diminishing. How they can bluff all the time? (japa)
Prabhupāda: They are rascals. They will say anything. (laughter) But this is the fact. When a madman speaks, he speaks all nonsense. But we are not madmen. We cannot accept their version. What they will say?
Prajāpati: Even in a group of chickens, there is one who is the...
Prabhupāda: Mother chicken.
Prajāpati: The head chicken. Or monkeys. There is also what's called pecking order. One is at the top, and then there's one at the end who gets the least, and all these gradations in-between. In any group there is always like that. So they say simply the reason we have government with one man head is because that's the natural pecking order like chickens.
Prajāpati: If we see a group of demons fighting, killing each other, should devotees go and try to stop them from killing each other?
Prabhupāda: First of all you must know whether they are demons. But demons fight. Gentlemen do not fight.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Let them fight.
Prabhupāda: Let them fight. (laughing)
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The devotees should wish that "O my Lord, please..."
Prajāpati: Many of these bogus groups, Prabhupāda, they claim that God is simply sound and light. So their meditation means seeing what they call ājñā-cakra, or point between eyebrows. They see there and they hear sounds, bells and thunder and flute all within. And that is their meditation. Hearing these sounds and see these lights.
Prabhupāda: That's all right, but what do you gain by that?
Prajāpati: Supposedly they go to higher levels of existence, higher levels of consciousness. They change the sound and the colors change...
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That means rascal. That means rascal. (japa) (break) ...plastic group like this? Their life will be finished. (break)
Devotee: ...in Time magazine yesterday, and the scientists are thinking now that man is his mind. They were talking about the brain.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Devotee: That if man only knew his mind he would know himself. What is actually the brain? And the mind?
Prabhupāda: Mind, that is also matter, material.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Two of them do it here, but I think the big group does it on Chowpati.
Guest (1): Chowpati Way?
Prabhupāda: Ācchā.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because they live in Woodlands, Warden Road. So they go to Chowpati.
Guest (1): They also own flat, I think.
Guest (2): No, they are not staying in that same flat where they stayed.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā?
Dr. Patel: I don't think he would say that so you could... Must have just joking. He's religious, highly religious man. Yogendra Bhai is the most highly religious man in the whole group. Eh?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You mean he actually said that?
Dr. Patel: Not actually, he's... (?)
Prabhupāda: No, that's all right.
Dr. Patel: There is no question of action. It will also act, how much we are religious, only God knows.
Prabhupāda: (japa) (break) ...there is there. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva sanmukharitāṁ bhavadīya.
Prabhupāda: Eh? Yes. Anyone. Just like engineering college is open for anyone. He must be ready to take up the training. Similarly, this varṇāśrama college, he must be ready, the student, must be ready to take up the training.
Hṛdayānanda: Would it be for a particular age group?
Prabhupāda: Yes, any education, from childhood. Yes. Education means from childhood. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha (SB 7.6.1). The... How... We are getting so many sannyāsīs, they should teach. Teaching should be done by the sannyāsīs. Just like in missionary school, the fathers teaches.
Hṛdayānanda: How would it be different than gurukula?
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Prabhupāda: Business means if you have got extra grains or extra foodstuff, you can sell where there is necessity, there is want. That is business. We are not going to open mills and factories and... No. We are not going to do that. That is śūdra business. The real business is that you produce enough food grains, as much as possible, and you eat and distribute. That's all. This is business. He does not require any so high technical education. Anyone can till the ground and grow food. Is it difficult? This is the business. The first thing is that everyone, man and animal, especially the cows, they must be properly fed so become very stout and strong. Cows will supply milk, and man will work hard, without being suffered by dysentery. He must work hard. Any capacity. Work as a teacher or work as a kṣatriya, work as a ploughman. Or work as general assistant. He must work. Everyone should be employed. And his employment will be provided from any of these groups, according to his capacity. Either as a brāhmaṇa, or as a kṣatriya, or as a vaiśya, or as a śūdra.
Prabhupāda: This is another instruction. That I explained, that before accepting a so-called incarnation of God, one should ask him to show that "How you are God?" But they do not ask him. A group of persons... Because he is accepted by a group of persons, not by all... There are so many avatāras. But who knows them?
Dr. Patel: Shall I read?
Prabhupāda: Let us understand it. Don't be anxious to go forward. This is the..., that... Suppose a man declares himself that "I am avatāra." So intelligent man should test him, how he is avatāra. We accept Kṛṣṇa or Lord Rāmacandra for their uncommon activities. But what is the uncommon activities, so many avatāras? Simply being praised by a group of persons. That's all. Yes.
Dr. Patel: Paśyādityān vasūn rudrān aśvinau marutas tathā (BG 11.6).
Prabhupāda: Now, first of all, he's saying that paśyādityān. Ādityān, plural number. Not only one, plural number. Ādityān means the Sūrya...
Dr. Patel: Sūrya and all those twelve sons.
Yaśomatīnandana: There is nothing like Kurukṣetra, they say.
Indian man (4): That is another group of people, their own brain creation. That we should not...
Prabhupāda: What right you have got to interpret?
Indian Man (1): Whatever it is they are saying, but the real thing we should not interpret and we cannot.
Prabhupāda: But you are, after all, material. You are not spiritual. In order to get you on the spiritual platform, things are being spoken by Kṛṣṇa.
Dr. Patel: But final, the main group is this.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...teṣv avasthitaḥ. Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Go on.
Girirāja: "The residents had no knowledge of what had happened. After entering the village Vṛndāvana, all the calves entered their respective cowsheds and the boys also went to their respective mothers and homes." (break)
Prabhupāda: My younger sister, up to seven years she was sucking my mother's breast.
Prabhupāda: No, no, she said. She was captured by a group of negroes to rape her. (break) That girl, what is his name? (name withheld) wife?
Satsvarūpa: (Name withheld).
Prabhupāda: She was raped.
Satsvarūpa: Trinidad.
Prabhupāda: Yes. She was raped.
Satsvarūpa: Some devotees express the fear that after some time all these bogus groups, they will start running political men, too, and then the field may be ruined, that...
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Satsvarūpa: Soon, they say, especially the Bala-yogi, he always follows whatever we do, when we go out and distribute books, they do, when we have kīrtana, they do. So there's the fear that soon they'll all be running for office, all these bogus men, because we are doing.
Prabhupāda: But they cannot say anything.
Prabhupāda: You first of all eat mercury then. (laughter) You'll be finished. (break) ...no scarcity. Why should we go to imitate the rascals? We have got enough gold. Kṛṣṇa is supplying gold whenever we require. (break) ...artha-prayojanam. Whatever you need, Kṛṣṇa will supply, if you actually remain dependent on Kṛṣṇa. There are so many literatures of different groups, but who is selling so much? Forty thousand, fifty thousand daily? Unless Kṛṣṇa is helping us. In the history no religion book have sold thirty thousand, forty thousand daily. There is no history. So why don't you see this wonderful thing? All the money that I have brought from USA, India, it is all book fund. Nobody has given. George has given. That is not in cash. And he gave that two lakhs. That was spent for Kṛṣṇa Book. So wherefrom the cash is coming?
Guest: And meditation, meditation. Being devoted, your life will be changed. The master teaches these things, purification. He has written also some books. When he came to America in 1967, I met him personally. And he initiated a group of people. And I was also aiming at that, being a vegetarian a few years prior to that. He accepted me and gave me initiation with the group. And, of course, he went back in about... He stayed in the States about twelve days then he came in Europe. Then he went back. I haven't seen him ever since. I have a picture of him. I carry a picture of him, the leader of, in our movement. (indistinct) meditating on the master. And I try to live up to it, to the teachings. Would you like to see that picture?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, I have seen this gentleman. In Delhi I have seen him.
Prabhupāda: Yes, name, must be there. But name... Just like you are feeling as Irishman, but your name may be different from another Irishman. How do you feel that "We are all Irishmen"? The name may be different. That doesn't matter. But the quality can be one. That is required. So when acquires that quality, Kṛṣṇaite quality, that in spite of different names... That is called so 'ham. One feels... The same example: In a nation, in a group, the names may be different, but because they feel nationally or religiously one, so that is one. Varieties. Varieties may be different, but the object being one, that is oneness. What is that, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā?
Prabhupāda: Yes, by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And practically, you are coming from different groups-Americans, Indians, Africans—but you don't think yourself as American or Indian or African.
O'Grady: But the system insists that you do.
Bhagavān: The world as it is, the society, the materialistic society, puts these bodily demands...
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. The materialistic society means duality.
O'Grady: But that's unavoidable.
Prabhupāda: Even snake poison is used, but that does not mean snake poison should be used perpetually. So for benefit of the body under particular circumstances something may be recommended, but that is not for general use or for intoxication. That is condemned. Just like animal killing is sometimes prescribed in the yajña. The purpose is different. But that does not mean unrestricted animal killing in the slaughterhouse should go on, no. That is sinful. So if we violate the laws perpetually, then how we can consider as belonging to a certain group of religious system? There must be principles.
Prabhupāda: And it is being effective. It is being effective. In our group we find Africans, Americans, Indians, Europeans, Canadians, Japanese, Chinese, everyone.
Monsignor Verrozano: And what concern the Buddhist countries where God is not so, at least, the prayers or the name of God is not so well known. I am just coming from Bangkok where we had a meeting with Buddhist monks of the (indistinct), and have you also some movement, some kind of action to spread love of God to (indistinct)?
Prabhupāda: Well, Buddhists, they do not believe in God.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because they are bahir-artha-māninaḥ, they are thinking that this is all. A group of men is coming, and they are exploiting the resources, material world. Just like this building. It is nothing but exploiting the resources. Making brick from the earth or stone or iron. And they pile up. Just like the children goes to the beach, they pile up the sand, and they imagine that somebody is making big palace, somebody is...
Dhanañjaya: Big castle.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is going on. There are some philosopher. He has written book—he has got Nobel Prize—that "This Russian government, simply terrorism." He has written a book. He is a famous man. He got Nobel Prize. He has said that "This is simply terrorism; a set of, a group of men, simply under terrorism they are governing."
Dhanañjaya: Solzhenitsyn?
Prabhupāda: I think so. Yes. So where is the satisfaction? He wants something. That is... That is not possible. When there is full knowledge, one can be satisfied on knowledge, not by this artificial means. That is not possible. So actually the whole world is suffering for want of knowledge. So we are giving that knowledge. We are satisfying everyone. We are giving the knowledge.
Prabhupāda: Just hear me. But when you come to the form of human being, you should have discrimination. If you have no discrimination, simply you live like animal, then where is the difference? My only point is the lack of brain. Human being, he has been given by nature... They are also life, the fruits, the vegetables, the food grains, the milk, the sugar, they have got enough food value, and the human being should be satisfied within this group. Why they should maintain slaughterhouse, and do not think that they are not sinful, and still they want to be happy without caring for God? That is lack of brain.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Wrong civilization, rascal civilization. And this is due to this rascaldom, nationalism, "This is my land." And at any moment he will be kicked out. Still, he claims, "It is my land." Ahaṁ mameti, janasya moho 'yam ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8). This is the illusion. Nothing belongs to him; still he is fighting, "This is mine. This is mine." "I" and "mine." Identifying himself with this body, "I", and wrongly conceiving that "This is mine." This is the basic principle of wrong civilization. Both things are... Nothing belongs to him. Suppose I have come here in Switzerland. If I remain here for one month and I claim, "Oh, this is mine," what is this? So similarly, I come as guest. Everyone comes as guest in the womb of his mother and lives here for fifty years. He is claiming, "It is mine." When, when, when it became yours? The land was long, long time before your birth. How it became yours? But they have no sense. "It is mine." "Fight." "My land, my nation, my family, my society." In this way, wasting time. These things have been introduced by these western mlecchas. In the Vedic civilization there is no such thing as nationalism. You won't find. Have you seen in the Bhagavad-gītā any word, "nationalism?" No such thing. This is the original ideas of the tribes. In the jungle there is... Just like in Africa there are still groups of tribes.
Dr. Sallaz: I believe on this point of view. (speaks in French with Yogeśvara)
Yogeśvara: He explains that the group that he is heading up is a little bit revolutionary in the biological field. Instead of taking biology from the point of chemical, microscopic analysis, they take biology from the point of view of energetic, that is to say, everything being energy, stemming from some source, that everything is energy.
Prabhupāda: This is nice. Actually, it is so.
Yogeśvara: He says first of all, so far as cooperation is concerned, he is just one man. He is the president, although he is the president, still, he is only one man, and he can only speak in terms of cooperating with the spiritual movement among the more enlightened members of his group.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is required, because if the enlightened men of the society does something, others will follow. It is not that the general mass of people has to be educated. They will be automatically educated. They will follow. If the enlightened man is living in such a way that he is going to be transferred to the spiritual world, then others will follow. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhaḥ (BG 3.21). At least, there must be a class of men, ideal men, that they are preparing themselves for transferring to the spiritual world.
Yogeśvara: Doesn't that make us rather exclusive, that we have some facility for spending all of our time meditating and purifying our lives? Doesn't that make us a rather exclusive group of people? If only those who are completely pure can engage in service, that means only people like us who have time to sit and meditate...
Prabhupāda: What meditation? The thing is that here it is stated, "Unless one is free from all sinful activities, he cannot be engaged in My service." And the pillars, according to Vedic, pillars of sinful activities... Just like four pillars. One is this meat-eating, the other is illicit sex, the other is gambling, and the other is intoxication. So unless we break these four pillars of sinful life there is no meaning of meditation or worshiping God.
Prabhupāda: You cannot do anything. But they show. They make a collection, that "We are doing such nice work." The Vivekananda also imitated like that and could not do anything. It is not possible. Swami Nikhilananda said... He belongs to the Vivekananda group. Because they raise funds from America, huge funds, that "We shall feeding the poor in India." And they eat meat and big, big become fat, these rascals. So the Americans asked them that "You are taking away our money somewhere to feed the poor. But when we go to India, two sides we see all poor men are lying on the street. What you have done?" So this is a slogan. They cannot do anything. Thinking of poor... Now, those who have accepted voluntarily povertyism, the hippies, what you are doing for them?
Guru-gaurāṅga: That man yesterday wanted to know if we collaborated with other groups.
Prabhupāda: Yes. There is collaboration. We are proposing this collaboration. All religion, they're after... Religion means to accept God. So if you accept God, we accept God. Then where is no cooperation? This is cooperation. But if you don't know what is God, we know. That is the difference. Ask this Christians, Mohammedans, and any other religious group, they have got a conception of God, ask them what is the form of God, what does He do, what is His..., so many things. They do not know. But we know.
Prabhupāda: So one, our movement is saṅkīrtana movement, many devotees together would chant the holy name of God. Then it is very quickly successful. Just like a person who comes to our center in the association of the devotees, after few weeks, he also becomes devotee. Quickly. And there are many others, they are seeing that there is a group like this, but because they do not come, they do not understand. Therefore the quick development process is to execute devotional service in the association of devotees, sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83).
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Yogeśvara: In the United States, there are something called minority groups. Minority group means like the Irish or the Negroes, the Jews...
Prabhupāda: They're also fools. Minority fools. They're minority fools.
Yogeśvara: Minority fools?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because he's thinking, "I am Irishman."
Yogeśvara: Yes, but their point is that "Even if we are spirit soul, we are still being exploited because we are a small number. So we must band together to protect ourselves."
Prabhupāda: We do not deny anything. We simply request, "Be civilized, Kṛṣṇa conscious." And this is practical; everyone is seeing this. We have got gṛhasthas, vānaprasthas, brahmacārī, sannyāsī. We have no such objection.
Yogeśvara: I can remember now. When I was in college, there were so many groups trying to reform the young people, the Y.M.C.A, the church groups, so many different social-working groups, trying to make young people become more, not so restless, not so much wild, but no, nothing. Couldn't do a thing. I remember I used to go to school when I was in college once a week to take care of one young boy because he was making so much trouble.
Karandhara: The reason why we gather like this to discuss these principles is that just like a group of scholars will gather to refine and crystallize their knowledge.
Guest: (French)
Yogeśvara: He must excuse himself, he has a prior engagement.
Guest: I thank you so much for your... I must go now.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (some people leave)
Prabhupāda: Yes. He said that "Swamiji, you are doing the greatest work, that God's name you are distributing." He said like that. And when the record was going on, he was very rapt attention, he was very... So actual yogi means he'll be attracted by bhakti-yoga. And these gymnasticians, what they'll understand about yoga? That is a process to control the mind. Those who are too much bodily concept of life, for them that exercise is required. But that is also not properly done. They must find out a very sacred place and practice yoga alone, not with group. Group is possible in bhakti-yoga, not this haṭha-yoga. That is not possible. The first attempt is condemned. Therefore all the yogis in India, actually those who are practicing yoga, they'll live outside human society. They never live in the city and get students to get them practice. And take thirty-five dollar fee. These are all bogus.
Prabhupāda: The difficulty is, "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." Better you keep yourself ideal character that people can see that "Here is an ideal group of men." Otherwise, in politics... They are feeling the necessity of an honest leader, but they are themself dishonest, they people. So when you point out that "This leader is dishonest," they do not very much appreciate. There is a story in this connection I will tell you, that one man was drunkard. So his friend said, "You are drinking. You will go to hell." "Oh, my father also drinks." "Oh, he will also go to hell." "My mother also drinks." "Oh, she will also go to hell." In this way, all the family members, they scrutinizingly studying, that all of them were drunkards.
Yogeśvara: "Do you think that in the future all religions and all these spiritual groups will come together and form one group."
Prabhupāda: There is no "all religion." There is only one religion. One who deviates, he creates another religion. Religion means there is God and we should be obedient to God. This is religion.
Madame Devi: (French)
Jyotirmayī: She says, "Therefore is not necessary to go by one's special path?"
Prabhupāda: No, there is no special path. There is only one path, that "God is there, God is great, and we are all subordinate to God." That's all. No, if you... They accept this?
Prabhupāda: No, just like these boys and girls, they are coming from Jewish group or Christian group. They have not come from India. Now how they're chanting and enjoying you can see.
Dr. P. J. Saher: No, I mean the intention was the same. They're looking for (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: (indistinct) ...you have to see the resultant study.
Dr. P. J. Saher: I was quite surprised.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...understood that this group is another edition of hippies. Gradually they are learning that they are not hippies. They are serious. (break) ...paper it was published that "Swami Bhaktivedanta has come in the right time." And what is that?
Satsvarūpa: Yes, in a number of articles, the writer notes that Prabhupāda came at a perfect time in history, and went to the right place, the lower East Side of New York, and then again in Haight Ashbury, just when the hippie movement was big but they were looking for spiritual life. That is a historical expert move that you made.
Devotee: That'll be nice. Śrīla Prabhupāda, tonight we've got about 70 Indians coming, big group of Indians. So, ah, would you like to take some rest before they come?
Devotee: They will be coming (indistinct).
Devotee: But I think that they won't expect to see you until about seven o'clock or so.
Devotee: In the temple room.
Devotee: They'll probably.... They'll wait for you in the temple room to come at about seven o'clock.
Prabhupāda: (indistinct)
Devotee: The government is against our movement but actually this movement is the only thing, even materially, that can help them.
Prabhupāda: (indistinct) (end)
Prabhupāda: No. We are negative of vegetarian and non-vegetarian. We are not vegetarian, neither non-vegetarian. We eat Kṛṣṇa prasāda. Rather, "prasādarian." We are neither vegetarian, nor non-vegetarian. Because we don't eat which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa. Things are prepared according to the order of Kṛṣṇa, and when Kṛṣṇa eats, we take the remnants of foodstuff. Therefore we do not fall in the group of vegetarian or non-vegetarian. We are transcendental.
Reverend Powell: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Reverend Powell: Well, thank you, Your Grace. If you'll excuse me, I have another appointment.
Prabhupāda: No, actually we are pledged to give something substantial to the human society. This is our mission. We are not that group, that showing some magic and take some fees and... It is not our business. We have got so many literatures full of treasurehouse of knowledge. We have to distribute that. Not bluffing, showing magic or this or that, miracles. No. We are not this. It is an institution for giving knowledge to the human society. The first beginning of knowledge is that at the present moment, people, although very much proud of their advancement of knowledge, he does not know what is the active principle of life.
| Page Title: | Group (Conv. 1967 - 1974) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 24 of Nov, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=102, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 102 |