Hair (Conversations 1967 - 1975)

Expressions researched:
"hair" |"haircutting" |"hairpin" |"hairpins" |"hairs" |"hairstyle"

1967 Conversations and Morning Walks

Discourse on Lord Caitanya Play Between Srila Prabhupada and Hayagriva -- April 5-6, 1967, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: That scene described in the Dilip Kumar's house, that Caitanya is consulting mother, that is a false scene. The actual scene is that after accepting His sannyāsa, His mother came to see Him at Advaita's house. That is the...

Hayagrīva: Yes. Does she give Him her blessing finally?

Prabhupāda: No. Of course, mother's blessings are always there. But the scene was that mother was crying and He was falling on the feet and His mother was very sorry that He had very beautiful hair. Now it is all cut off. In this way, the scene is very pathetic. So in this way, after remaining at Advaita's house, His mother was asking Him through Advaita, "Let Him remain for some time." Then He consulted "Mother, now just you think over that I have taken sannyāsa. And if I remain in this way, leaving My own family, and if I leave another family, do you think this is very nice for a sannyāsī? So give Me permission to go away." Then mother agreed and other friends like Advaita and Śrīnivāsa requested His mother that "You give Him permission." Then (s)he said, "Yes, I have to give Him permission because He has already accept sannyāsa. If somebody blames Him, blasphemy, that is also not good. So my last request is that He may make His headquarter at Jagannātha Purī so that... Because people generally go to Jagannātha Purī, so I shall be able at least to know about Him, how He is faring there. That is my last request."

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 11, 1969, New York:

Prabhupāda: So similarly, in Vaikuṇṭha the inhabitants, they got svarūpa. Their form is exactly like Viṣṇu. There is no difference. When the Viṣṇudūta came to take Ajamila from the hands of Yamadūta. They were four-handed with śankha-cakra-gadā-padma as Viṣṇu, the lotus flower, this disc, and the club, and the conchshell. There is no difference in the body. Simply by that special mark, some special hair on the chest and there is Bhṛgu, I mean to say, sole, sole, a mark of the feet of Bhṛgu Muni. So by some special marks one can recognize He is Viṣṇu.

Room Conversation -- April 11, 1969, New York:

Prabhupāda: When the Viṣṇudūta came to take Ajamila from the hands of Yamadūta. They were four-handed with śankha-cakra-gadā-padma as Viṣṇu, the lotus flower, this disc, and the club, and the conchshell. There is no difference in the body. Simply by that special mark, some special hair on the chest and there is Bhṛgu, I mean to say, sole, sole, a mark of the feet of Bhṛgu Muni. So by some special marks one can recognize He is Viṣṇu. Otherwise, from bodily features and from dress and from ornaments, there is no distinction between Viṣṇu and His devotees in Vaikuṇṭha.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: He saw he is nice gentleman. He was a rich man, brāhmaṇa. "What is this?" He said plainly, "Oh, I have been attracted by your wife, by the beauty of your wife." "All right, come on. What is that?" You enjoy my wife. You are brāhmaṇa. You are..." So he was received well. And at night, when he was given place, then he asked that woman, "Mother, will you give me your hair pin?" He took the hair pin and pushed in the eyes: "Oh, these eyes are my enemy." Since then he became blind. And in that blindness he was worshiping Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa was coming to him. And he would not touch. He'll sing, dance, and He'll supply milk and go away. So this Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura wrote one book, Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta. It is very valuable book. That is very highly estimated, Lord Caitanya.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: No. She appreciated that Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa, and she has written one poetry, song, that "Now You have left aside Your flute, and You have taken the sannyāsī rod." In that way she has written nice poetry. "And where is Your hair and peacock feather? Now You are bald-headed." In this way. So Mīrā appreciated. Her life is also very excellent. Her father gave her a small Kṛṣṇa doll to play, and she developed love for Kṛṣṇa as husband. So when she was married... She was princess, daughter of king, and she was married with another prince.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Twelfth Canto. And you will find that all the descriptions are coming to be true. Just like there is one statement, svīkaram eva udvahe: "Marriage will be performed simply by agreement." Now that is being done. And lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dharaṇam: "People will think that he has become very beautiful by keeping bunch of hairs." That is coming true. These are written there. All things are there in Bhāgavata history.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Oh, you have?

Allen Ginsberg: Yes. I got inside the temple. I was silent and made believe I was a mad, a madman. I had long hair, and I had pyjamas, white khadi, khadi cloth.

Prabhupāda: Just like some Punjabi.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1971, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, we are dressed, the spirit soul. The spirit soul is also a measure one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is very important in this sense, that they are trying to bring people to the constitutional position. A living entity is transmigrating from one body to another, as well in our present body also, we are transmigrating. In my childhood I had a small body. That body is no longer existing, but I am existing. So there is no reason to believe that when I give up this body, I'll not exist. No. I shall exist, but in another body. So people are not interested to make the research work how the soul is working. This is ignorance. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to revive the pure consciousness of the human society so that he can know himself and act accordingly. Then his life is successful.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be. By your energy you are creating. This body is my creation. Just like I am the soul, I am here within this body. So I cut my hair; it is again growing. I do not know how I am creating, but I am creating. My nail is growing—I am growing, I am creating. But I do not know. That is ignorance.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: It decomposes.

Revatīnandana: But they say hair continues to come out sometimes from dead bodies.

Prabhupāda: Sometimes.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is also... Everything is there. But actually, it is Kṛṣṇa, but we cannot see. Idaṁ hi viśvaṁ bhagavān ivetaraḥ. The whole cosmic manifestation is Kṛṣṇa but it appears it is different from Kṛṣṇa. Idaṁ hi viśvaṁ bhagavān ivetaraḥ. This is acintya-bhedābheda. So unless we accept the thesis or philosophy expounded by Lord Caitanya, inconceivable one and different... Inconceivable. For us it is inconceivable. You cannot have any clear distinction. Therefore take it as inconceivable, acintya. But from theoretical or by logical conclusion, everything is one: Kṛṣṇa. That's all. And another example is that the finger is myself, but I am not finger. This is the position. The hair I am. I am the hair, but I am not hair, at the same time. This is like that. This is called acintya-bhedābheda, inconceivable.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, three dimension. It is said, it is estimated that ten... one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair.

Room Conversation with Dr. Karan Singh, -- November 25, 1971, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Cinmaya, cinmaya-śarīra (?) we have got. In the Padma Purāṇa, the length and breadth of this cinmaya-śarīra is given: one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya (CC Madhya 19.140).

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1971, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Gañjā, yes. Not sādhus, rogues. Sādhu's description is there—bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. Fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, he is sādhu. Sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). He is sādhu. Api cet sudurācāro. Even one is found that his habits are not to the standard, but if he has unflinching faith in Kṛṣṇa and engaged in His service, then he is sādhu. These sādhus with long hairs and gañjā smoking, they have no idea what is the ultimate goal. And those who come from Western countries, naturally they find out these are the sādhus and they imitate. Hippies, they do like that, imitation. They do not know what is the philosophy, what is religion, what is sādhu.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Why follow? It is a fact. (Bob laughs) Your hairs are growing daily. Why? Because you have got some energy.

Bob: The energy I obtain from my food.

Prabhupāda: Somehow or other, you have obtained that energy. And through that energy your hairs are growing. So if your body is manufactured by your energy, similarly, the whole gigantic manifestation is made of God's energy. It is a fact it is not your energy.

Conversation with Author -- April 1, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: At least, they can take by shaving head means it cleans, cleanses. The head is not overburdened with unnecessary... (laughter) We want clear brain, and that is the system, Vedic system. All learned scholars, they cleanse head. Cleanse head. Yes. And at least we get relief. A little hair growing is also burdensome. We cleanse. So it is personal convenience. So that is not the point of preaching.

Room Conversation with Maharishi Impersonalists -- April 7, 1972, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: That is the way of proving that whatever I am speaking, it is fact. In the Bhāgavata it is already stated, lavaṇyaṁ keśa-dharaṇam. Keśa means hair. To keep long, long hair will be the practice of people because they will think by keeping long hair they look very beautiful. That is stated in Bhāgavata. Five thousand years this prediction is there: "In this Kali-yuga people will keep long hair, and..., because that will be appreciated, that a man keeping long hair is very beautiful." So that is happening.

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Prabhupāda: So take note. So eyes are all right. Eyes are all right. It is all right. Simply you have to, all the hairs to make black up to the...It is all right?

Cintāmaṇi: Yes.

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Cintāmaṇi: I made hair. But I don't know how long it should be.

Prabhupāda: That you can see Kṛṣṇa's picture.

Cintāmaṇi: Picture of Kṛṣṇa? Is His hair curly?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Curling, (indistinct) black.

Cintāmaṇi: Is this too long?

Prabhupāda: Too long. This is also too long.

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Devotee: Is it all right for the Deities' hair to show?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee: Sometimes, at some temples, the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities, sometimes Their hair shows.

Prabhupāda: Shows?

Devotee: Yes. Like Rādhārāṇī's hair is down in front. Is that all right?

Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter. That is for beauty, as it is possible. Better keep it that side. Just like Rādhārāṇī's hair... There is picture. That gopīs, they have got their hair that side. Rādhārāṇī is also one of the gopīs, but she is the dearmost gopī. That's all. Otherwise, she is also gopī.

Interview -- July 5, 1972, New York:

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in our fully developed state in the spiritual sky, are we still one ten-thousandth the size of a tip of a hair like we are now in conditioned state?

Prabhupāda: Your real dimension is mentioned there that you are a spiritual atom. The measurement is one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. That is the seed, or basic principle. Now, on that small particle of spirit soul we have developed this body. We have got human bodies, other has got the elephant body, other has got the mountainous body, but this is external. The real seed is that one ten-thousandth part of the hair. Similarly, as you have developed this material body under different consciousness, similarly when we give up the material connection we shall develop our spiritual body, and in that spiritual body we shall be able to enter the kingdom of God, back to home, back to Godhead. This is the position.

Morning Walk Conversation -- September 28, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That also they do not understand properly, because they do not see the spiritual energy. Just like we know that within this body there is a small bit of spiritual energy, spark, which is ten thousand part of the tip of the hair. How small it is. But due to its presence within the body, the body is working so nicely. We know that, that how a small particle of spiritual energy can work so wonderfully. They do not know it.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 3, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So that proprietor is 1/10,000th part of the tip of the hair, very, very, small, atomic. On account of that atomic spiritual energy, there is working. This is bare fact. That small atomic spiritual energy is within this body, and therefore the body is working, and therefore the plane is working. Where is the difficulty to understand? Now, this man thinks himself very stout and strong, but why he is stout and strong? On account of that small spiritual spark is there. As soon as the small spiritual spark is gone, stout and strong has no meaning. Immediately all the birds will come. Vultures will come and eat him, eat the body. Immediately.

Morning Walk -- May 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, why? Just like Lomaśa Muni. Lomaśa Muni, his duration of life is that when one Brahmā dies, one hair from the body falls. So in this way, when all the hairs of his body will fall down, he will die. He has such a great length of... So he was standing on the side of a sea and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. So Nārada Muni approached him, "Why don't you make a small cottage here?" He said, "How long I shall live? (laughter) Ah, standing will do. Let me finish my bead...(?)" Just see. And here they'll live for twenty years and making skyscraper building, (makes sound:) "Doc, dong, doc, dong, doc, dong." (laughter) Does not calculate that "I shall live for twenty or thirty years."

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: But that microscope is imperfect. That is our contention. Because the living entities, the dimension of the living entity is 1/10,000th part of the top of your hair. So what you can see?

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Without nails how can I exist? Without skin, how can I exist? My existence means everything—my skin, my hair, my nails, my legs, my hands, everything.

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything. Mountains have been described in the Bhāgavata as the bones of God. These grasses are described as hairs on the body of God. These holes, there are holes, we saw that. They have been described as oceans. So in this way, this virāṭ, the biggest body. As the smallest body is producing chemical, similarly the biggest body also, producing chemical. A small tree, lemon tree, how many pounds of the citric acid it is produced?

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So how you can see? It is... The measurement is given, 1/10,000th part of the tip of the hair. So where is your seeing power?

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: But we get information that there is a measurement. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya, śatāṁśaḥ sādṛśātmakaḥ (CC Madhya 19.140). The tip of the hair you divide into one hundred parts, and take that part, again divide into one hundred parts, that is the measurement. That is one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. How far do you agree with this?

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: Just like I was speaking that the measurement of the living entity is such and such. So how God has become so small? Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān. This is... This we can simply imagine: one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. I don't think any scientist can have any measuring instrument.

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: The one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair.

Krishna Tiwari: Well that's very easy to measure.

Prabhupāda: So why don't you find it.

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Krishna Tiwari: Well, that is... I don't understand that, because that will be, at that time I think it was all right, because people thought nobody could measure one thousandth, ten-thousandth of the tip of a hair.

Prabhupāda: I, we don't say people could not measure. People could measure. People measured; therefore it is, the measurement is given there. It is not that people could not measure. People measured it, definitely, and then gave it, "This is the measure."

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: But, if you study my body, you have to study the whole body, not my nails or my hair.

Krishna Tiwari: No, we have to start somewhere.

Prabhupāda: No. That is...

Ātreya Ṛṣi: The scientific process.

Prabhupāda: Scientific process, you begin studying... Suppose you are studying biology, you begin from hair, do you mean to say?

Krishna Tiwari: Yes, but something I..., can I have my some doubts?

Prabhupāda: No, no, first of all you answer me.

Krishna Tiwari: Yeah, I answer you because, uh...

Prabhupāda: That because you are studying my body you begin studying from my hair?

Krishna Tiwari: Some place, some place. It is hair, eyes, ears, someplace.

Prabhupāda: You think that is, uh, scientific?

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: You are studying the hair. Your point is you're studying... Soul is the part of God, mamaivāṁśo (BG 15.7). God says, "The soul is My part and parcel."

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Ah, very good boy. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...ready to sacrifice your hair?

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1973, London:

Pradyumna: It will be a city. It's so nice, all the children live there together. Next door there is Baladeva, that little boy with red hair. Aniruddha, he is blond hair and another boy with red hair, he is next door. He is best friend. They always play, all boys.

Prabhupāda: Hm. And in the front house, there is ample space back there for children's play. This will facilitate... Very nice. And then one house after, there is another house.

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

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.

Morning Walk -- August 30, 1973, London:

David Lawrence: The British Association which is, many people regard an irrelevant bunch of scientists, who meet once a year, one of the good speeches was in fact given on the question of the value of human life. And one of the points was made there by somebody who has had to talk to these girls who come in to have abortions, some cases their third and fourth abortion, and they're not married of course. And saying that many of the girls regard an abortion in the same way as they regard a shampoo for their hair.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

David Lawrence: "O, well you know, hair's got to be washed, we wash hair. Womb's got to be cleaned out, we clean the womb out." Just like that.

Prabhupāda: And where is movement in the shampoo? That means that human beings are simply being put into ignorance, animal kingdom. This is modern civilization.

Room Conversation -- September 1, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Because God is unlimited, He has got unlimited energy. have got limited energy. I can pass urine, say one pound, I can have perspiration say, one ounce but if God likes He can produce unlimited water. Why this one Atlantic Ocean? Many millions of Atlantic Oceans He can produce. Water produced from His body. So where is the difficulty to understand? When Kṛṣṇa says that the elements... Other matters are growing. Just like the hair. Now, today, I have shaved. Three days after, again it will grow. So I have got my energy within by which I'm constantly growing. But, hair is a material thing. So anything you take, it grows from the Supreme. It is very easy to understand.

Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: You'll have. You like to be bald-headed?

Pearl: (laughs) No, I think I'll keep my hair if you don't mind. I can't give up everything.

Prabhupāda: All right.

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

Prabhupāda: It is very nice. It makes the head cool, not with big bunch of hair, burden. We feel it burden. When there is bunch of hair, we feel it is an extra burden.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: The jīva is atomic. It is smaller than the atoms. One ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatāṁśaḥ sādṛśātmakaḥ (CC Madhya 19.140). So every living entity, atom.

Morning Walk -- December 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, you are not boss. You are also one of the workers.

Prajāpati: Are you telling how the stomach to digest and how the hair to grow and how the...

Prabhupāda: No, you are not.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 2, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Front seat, yes. So I was criticizing my friends in Calcutta that you have paid twenty-five rupees, you have got last seat. I have paid one rupee, I have first seat. We were very thickly... Not very thickly, but as customer... Do you know? I shall tell one incident. One day Jawaharlal Nehru came and he asked me, "Give me prophylactic hair brush." So I told, "Panditji, we are selling prophylactic tube brush and we do not know that there is prophylactic hair brush." "No, you do not know. You get it for me. I want it." So I got it from Bombay, here, and supplied him.

Dr. Patel: There is no prophylactic hair brush anywhere.

Prabhupāda: No, I got it, prophylactic hair brush.

Morning Walk -- April 4, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Entered. So just like it is to be understood. He's very intelligent. Now, I am... As soul, my magnitude is described. What is that? Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca (CC Madhya 19.140). Keśa agra, the tip of the hair, divide into hundred parts. And again take that one part and again divide into hundred parts. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca (CC Madhya 19.140). Now, it is simply, it is to be imagined. Kalpitasya. Jīva-bhāgaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ. That is the magnitude of the jīva. Now, that magnitude of jīva has entered in this body or in the elephant's body. Now, which is important, the body is important or that small particle is important?

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Therefore every living entity has got form. He is not formless. This less intelligent class of men, because they cannot see the form... It is so small... It is so small that if you divide the top portion of your hair into ten thousand parts,...

Italian Man (1): Your one hair into ten thousand parts.

Prabhupāda: The top portion, tip of the hair, the point, you divide into ten thousand parts, and that one part is the form of the soul. It is such minute, small... Because they cannot see, they say it is nirākāra. No, it is not nirākāra. It is there.

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: So these Chowringee and Camac Street, Park, these were all European. They liked very much to live in Bengal. And there is another story. One English officer he became attracted by the beauty of a Bengali woman. There is story by Bankima Candra. Candrashekhara. The man was after that woman, how to get it. That is the subject matter of story. He was attracted by the black eyes and black hair. Bengali beauty.

Yogeśvara: Kṛṣṇa has black hair, too.

Room Conversation with Monsieur Roost, Hatha-yogi -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: In the Upaniṣad also it is stated that 10,000th part of the top of the hair point, is the magnitude of the soul. Our knowledge is accepted in that way, Vedic knowledge. Whatever is stated in the Vedas, that is taken as Absolute Truth and we accept it. And that is fact. If you go to the same point by experimental truth, you will come to the same conclusion. So we think that by experimental knowledge, why should we waste our time? Better take the truth which is already stated in the Vedic literature and build up your farther premises on that basic principle. Just like that small fragment of spirit, 1/10,000th portion of the top of the hair, is there within you, within me, and that is rotating through the air, prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, like that, the vāyu.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Yes,

Yogeśvara: With the long hair.

Prabhupāda: Ah ha. So, he did not like the idea?

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our study. So the living energy, the spirit soul, it has got a formation, formation, form. That is also stated in the śāstra, that 1/10,000th part of the top of the hair. Hair, the point, hair. (Yogeśvara translates in French) 1/10,000 part of the... The exact version is keśāgra. Keśa means hair, and agra means the top. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya (CC Madhya 19.140). So that point, you divide into hundred, and take again one part of it, and again divide into hundred. That means you divide the top of the hair into ten thousand parts and then that one part is the magnitude of the soul, spiritual energy. That spiritual energy is within you, within me, within the ant, or within the elephant. So we are living entities. And the body is inferior energy, at the present moment. In the material world the body is covering. Just like you are covered by the coat.

Room Conversation -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: This is cleanliness. Instead of keeping unnecessary hair, we keep very clean.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: How is it possible, Śrīla Prabhupāda? We're so tiny, one ten-thousandth the tip of a hair, and yet we can become so puffed-up as to think that even I am God or I am the controller of the material nature like the scientists are thinking?

Prabhupāda: Because they are in the bodily concept of life, they are thinking, "I'm not teeny, small particle. I am this big, fatty body." He's thinking like that. Just like a dog is thinking, "I am bulldog." It is like that, the same concep.

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: These hippies, they are exactly this. They have no place to sleep, no nothing of the sort and looking like big, big hair. Piśācī. Piśāca. What is the English?

Nitāi: Ghost?

Prabhupāda: Ghost, yes. Ghost, yes. Ghost-like. Hīnāḥ piśāca-sandarśā bhaviṣyanti kalau prajāḥ: "In the Kali-yuga, the prajāḥ, people in general, devoid of residence and proper food, then proper drinking, resting place or sex or bathing and dress, they'll look like ghost."

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Of course, they have discovered something, but not fully. So I do not know what is going in within my body. I do not know how many hairs are there. But God knows everything, nook and corner of the whole universe. But if we compare ourself with God, that is impossible, because naturally we get knowledge from others, we may question, "Wherefrom God got knowledge?" Therefore it is stated there, svarāṭ. He hasn't got to take knowledge from anyone else. He's independently full of knowledge.

Morning Walk at Marina del Rey -- July 14, 1974, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is. It is there. So actually our body's a combination of these so many living entities.

Prabhupāda: Atoms, yes. Why not? The every living entity is one ten-thousandth part of the tip of a hair. So many hairs are there. And that is one ten-thousandth part of the top of the hair. Where is the difficulty.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: Matter is a manifestation of life's energy. We can daily experience. The matter, hair is growing. Cut, again growing. Why? Because there is life. Dead body, hair never grows. Is it not?

Mādhava: Well the scientists will say it's just recombination of matter.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, when there is body dead, no hair grows.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That's a nice example.

Prabhupāda: They can use some bombastic word but we layman, we see this is the position. And you do not know how it is being done but the energy is there in you. That is called acintya-śakti, inconceivable energy. That is there. Now you shave every morning and next morning, again millions of hairs. You do not know how it is being happening. But it is happening, and this is called acintya-śakti. From Kṛṣṇa such big, big things are coming out. Even Kṛṣṇa may not know but Kṛṣṇa has got the inconceivable by which it is coming. The same example.

Rūpānuga: People will speculate so many theories as to why the hairs are coming out but then after some time they will see that theory is wrong they'll have to present a new one.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is their rascaldom.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: That is their foolishness. That is their foolishness. They are thinking God a person like me, like himself. That is foolishness. They cannot conceive that a person can become so powerful than myself. That is the defect. A person has acintya-śakti, acintya-śakti, inconceivable power. Now, just like you are person. You cut your hair. It is growing. Do you know how it is growing?

Haṁsadūta: No.

Morning Walk -- April 9, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: No, another. Lomarṣa, Lomarṣa Muni. He would die when all the hairs on the body will fall down. And each hair will fall down after the death of one Brahmā. So he was chanting on the sea, and Nārada Muni was passing: "Why don't you make a cottage?" "How long I shall live? What is the use of cottage?" He's also thinking: "I'll die."

Conversation with Devotees -- April 14, 1975, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Attack these rascals strongly in big, big meetings, and slap them, "Why you are cheating and spending our hard-earned money, taxes?" Better follow us. We are giving all credit to the person who has already..., going on with the big man. Very systematically it is going on. For ourself, we are human being. When there are long hairs, we cut. That person's (indistinct) is so nice... nobody's going to cut the (indistinct) ...of the street. But annually, they are already being changed. The whole (indistinct), thrown away. Who's doing that? You must get credit. It is very nice here in the springtime.

Conversation with Devotees -- April 14, 1975, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Because we know that there is no cure. You do not know. You are trying to cure. That is the difference between you and me. We know so long I have got this body, I'll have to suffer. So we do not stop our business. We tolerate and do our business. That's all. But you have no business. You are simply trying, hope against hope. But it will never be fulfilled. Just like birds, bees, they do not know science. But so long they have got this body, they are also sometimes diseased. But they have no science, how they are cured? The same thing, just like this tree, they have no scissors, so how their leaves are being trimmed, falling down, (indistinct). We have discovered scissors, or clippers, but you have no clippers. How their hairs, or their leaves are being cut?

Room Conversation with Kim Cornish -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: It requires elucidation. "Complete whole" means, just like your body is complete whole, and there are so many other things, there are so many holes in the body, there are so many hairs on the body, there are so many hairs on the head, so many fingers, eyes, ears—so many things—but the body is a complete unit, working as a complete machine. And there are so many things. Similarly, the whole cosmos is complete, exactly like this body is a machine.

Room Conversation with Kim Cornish -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Sometimes we see the sea waves, small molecules, cool. So it is combination of small Brahman. So, sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. Everything is Brahman. And we are a small, very small fragmental portion of Brahman. How small are we? One ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. We cannot see even the tip of the hair, very small point. And you have to divide it into ten thousand parts. And that one part—you, I, everyone. So small. So everything is Brahman. It is said sarva khalv idaṁ brahma. Everything is Brahman. Why? Because the Brahman is very big, but what is this big? The big is a combination of small molecules, atoms. What is your idea of Brahman?

Morning Walk -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Municipal sweeper also. (break) Similarly we can go to the place where there is simply pleasing atmosphere. Simply we have to become purified. That is required. But they don't want to be purified, they want to become more entangled in sinful life, illicit sex, meat-eating. That they do not know that "I am entangling myself. Instead of being purified, I am becoming more and more entangled." This is ignorance. (break) ...criticize us, shaven-headed. They don't criticize long hairs, but shaven-headed. Just see. If you don't criticize the long hairs, why should criticize the shaven-headed? But they criticize us. So regularly they are going out?

Room Conversation with Dr. Copeland, Professor of Modern Indian History -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Dr. Copeland: Uh, that wasn't in my question, That's... (laughs). Yes, I think it's very nice, I couldn't do it. I wouldn't shave my hair, and I wouldn't dress like that.

Prabhupāda: You cannot sacrifice so much. They have sacrificed.

Morning Walk -- June 7, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: But of the same kind, having bunch of hair. (break) ...three hundred varieties of birds. How many one has seen? One million. Pakṣiṇam dāsa-lakṣakam. Dāsa-lakṣakam means one million. (break) ...varieties of life, so many varieties of planets, sky, the sea, ocean, the mountains, the rivers, and they want to compete with God. Just see their foolishness. (laughs) Controlling nature, is there... Eh? Bali-mardana? Scientists they want to control nature.

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

Prabhupāda: No, no. You have already given up. My disciples do not keep so many hair.

Devotee (2): Many of your disciples do.

Prabhupāda: No. I don't accept that. You just this one circle, little. But those who are keeping big hairs, they are rejected from my disciples.

Devotee (2): All right. That is clearing some things up.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (2): This is what we want to know.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (2): Because then that is an unequivocal statement.

Prabhupāda: No. This is, that you can, that anyone who is keeping hairs and not following the rules and regulations, they are rejected from second initiation.

Devotee (2): What if they are keeping hair but they are following the rules and regulations.

Prabhupāda: Then let them follow. That's a good life. But from external features he must be a Vaiṣṇava.

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

Prabhupāda: Now I say, I'll repeat that anyone who is keeping long hairs, he is no more my disciple.

Morning Walk -- June 27, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: He could create thousands and millions of Sītās, but not for one Sītā He killed the whole family. That is husband. That is the duty of the husband. If wife's a little hair is infringed, he should take steps immediately. That is husband, not that accept wife today and give it up tomorrow. That is not husband. Husband must be very responsible to take care of the wife, and wife must be very chaste to serve the husband. Then family life is all right. (break) ...do not understand that "I am a living entity.

Morning Walk -- July 11, 1975, Chicago:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think there was one great personality—I forget his name—he was going to live as long as how many millions of years that he had hairs in his head. What is that story?

Brahmānanda: The story of the man who was on the beach...

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes. Romaharṣaṇa. Romaharṣaṇa Muni was standing on beach and was chanting. So Nārada Muni was passing: "Then why don't you make a cottage here?" He was: "Oh, how long I shall...?" That, his life, was: when one hair will fall, one Brahmā will die. (laughter) And in this way all the hairs, when they will fall—all the Brahmās will die—then he will die. And he was thinking, "How...?" Actually that is a fact.

Morning Walk -- September 4, 1975, Vrndavana:

Brahmānanda: Adolf Hitler adopted the idea of Aryan, but his criteria for Aryan was one who had blond hair and blue eyes.

Prabhupāda: That is bodily. (chuckles) That is another foolishness. Just like we have dress. So this dress of sannyāsī is not all. I must be real sannyāsī in knowledge, in education, in behavior, not that... Hitler studies by the dress. That is the foolishness. It is not by the dress, but by the quality. Dress is also required. As I am sannyāsī, I cannot dress otherwise. That is also essential. But if one judges, "Here is a sannyāsī," then he'll misled. That is being done. People are being exploited in the dress of a sannyāsī, although actually he is not sannyāsa. That is also stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. "A sannyāsī or a brāhmaṇa will be accepted by the outward feature." If somebody has got a thread only, two paisa worth, he becomes a brāhmaṇa. And when one takes a daṇḍa, he becomes a sannyāsī. This will be the identification in the Kali-yuga.

Press Conference -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: And keep the head light instead of unnecessarily burdened. In the Kali-yuga there is a symptom. It is stated in the... Lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam: "In the Kali-yuga people will think by keeping long hairs he has become beautiful." This is the mentality of this age. Lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam. You can write this. Lāvaṇyam means luster, and keśa-dhāraṇam means keeping hair.

Morning Walk -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Let him move. But he is going to cut his hair?

Cyavana: He said, "Yes." He agreed. (break) Is that one of you who said you were ready? (break)

Prabhupāda: ...nice. Here is... This is the qualification. (break) ...island can be developed in a very nice piece of country if the leaders are intelligent.

Room Conversation -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Hindi. (Hindi) You read it thoroughly and you explain it either in English or Hindi, as you think befitting to your friends. So we have got so many literatures in French language. We are also asking some men from Europe. That will create some impression. Yes. White elephant. (laughter) Dancing. Everyone will purchase ticket. Yes. (Hindi) Bring some white elephant. So literature is there. But one thing is that you must be placed in sadācāra, well behaved. So you have to sacrifice, especially your long hair. And if you sacrifice your hair, we can export it and get some money. (laughter) Because in Western countries they want these hairs to make wigs. Yes. So just... (Hindi) As they have been trained up to rise early in the morning, this will give you spiritual strength.

Room Conversation with Bill Faill (reporter) -- October 8, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: This saffron robe is not very essential, or cut the hair, but it creates some good situation, mental. You see? Just like a military man, when he is dressed properly he gets some energy to feel like a military man. But it does not mean that unless you are dressed, you cannot fight. It does not mean. So God consciousness can be revived in any condition, without any check. But these conditions are helpful, helpful. Therefore it is prescribed that "You live like this," "You dress like this," "You eat like this," "You do like this." These are convenient. These are convenient. So they are not essential. At the same time, if we take to these processes, then it will be helpful.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1975, Johannesburg:

Harikeśa: Over a very long period of time... Let's say in one ape somebody was born without hair, and then after a long period of time in the same line from that person who was born without hair...

Prabhupāda: But why the ape does not give birth now?

Morning Walk -- November 1, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: Now, just to understand that I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, so the chemical and the water and the earth is coming from my body, so why not Kṛṣṇa's body, gigantic, the greatest, the chemicals, water, earth, water...? When Kṛṣṇa says, bhūmir āpo 'nalo, "It is My energy," that's fact. Where is the difficulty to understand? We can... We are little sample of God, a small God. So if we can produce, this body... The spirit soul as I have described yesterday, one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair, it is very, very minute. From that minute spirit so much earth, water, fire is coming. So why not the supreme spirit, huge quantity of water, earth, will not come? How one can deny it?

Morning Walk -- November 1, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: Can you explain how your hair is... You shave today, and tomorrow again, how it is growing, can you explain? But it is coming out. The energy is there. Similarly, if in the small body, a sample of God, so many energies are there, automatically working, then, so far God is concerned, that parāsya śaktir, He has got unlimited number of energies and things are taking place automatically. This material world is also external body of Kṛṣṇa. Just like our body, external body, and the hair is coming out. Do you endeavor for it? Similarly, the trees, plants, they are coming out.

Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They are finding out so many atoms, electrons, this tron, that tron, not that one ten-thousandth part of God. That they cannot find. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca jīva-bhāgo sa vijñeyaḥ (CC Madhya 19.140). They have not come to that point, that one ten-thousandth part of the top of the hair is the jīva, living entity. They have not come to that, neither they'll be able to come to that, because they remain ass, more and more ass, first-class ass, O.K. ass and then going on, the quality of ass.

Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But the real particle they have not found. Real particle is one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. That they have not found.

Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay:

Find out the parā, the superior atom. That is life. (Hindi question and answer) But you cannot bring in life by so-called mantras. That is not possible. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Hindi) (break) ...can write to these particle men that "You are finding so many, but there is another particle which is one ten-thousandth part of the upper portion of the hair. Find out that. That is life. That is superior." And quote Bhagavad-gītā, apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parām. "Another atom." Give them information at least. (break)...Kṛṣṇa's message. Simply by reading one book, Bhagavad-gita, you become learned.

Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay:

Harikeśa: The scientists will say that their particles are smaller than one ten-thousandth the tip of a hair.

Prabhupāda: First of all find out one ten-thousandth. Then talk. Find out.

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...keśa-dharanam. Every young man is keeping big, big hair. Lavanyaṁ keśa... That is the symptom of this age. It is written in the Bhāgavata, lavanyaṁ keśa-dharanaṁ. Vipratvaṁ sūtram eva hi. Vipratvaṁ sūtram eva hi: "A man becomes brāhmaṇa simply by that thread."

Morning Walk -- December 3, 1975, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: One boy came a couple of weeks ago. He had long hair. But the next day he came back and shaved up. He's a devotee now. He's doing nicely.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Akṣayānanda: So they will still come. They can become devotees. It's all right then.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)

Akṣayānanda: ...doing, Śrīla Prabhupāda. If they come and they have long hair but if there's a chance they might become devotees, I tell them they must tie up their hair in such a way that you cannot see it.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. If many comes like that to become devotee, then it becomes a devotee place, er, hippie place. You give them chance to become a devotee. In the meantime, it will be known as a hippie resort.

Morning Walk -- December 12, 1975, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: Just like our hair grows, but we don't know how it's happening.

Prabhupāda: It is sanctioned. Mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate. Everything from Kṛṣṇa.