Expressions researched:
"Hardwar"
|"Haridvara"
|"Haridwar"
Prabhupāda: So here the scenery must be mentioned. It is on the bank of Ganges. There is a nice ghāṭa, just like... You have been to Benares? No. You have been to Hardwar?
Hayagrīva: Yes.
Prabhupāda: You have seen many ghāṭas, bathing places.
Hayagrīva: Oh yes, yes.
Prabhupāda: Similarly, there are ghāṭas in Benares, Prayag, and all, I mean to say, Vṛndāvana. That is the specific significance of Indian places of pilgrimage.
Prabhupāda: A sacred place. Just like formerly those who were practicing yoga, they were going to Gaṅgotri where the Ganges is coming down, in the Himalaya, in the Haridwar, in a secluded, sacred place. These are the condition, first condition. So where you are getting these conditions fulfilled? You cannot practice yoga in a hotel or in a club. That is not possible.
Prabhupāda: "This is my country. I am national," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am this." Why? The body has grown from this land. You see, every, the whole world activities is going on on this basis. Sva-dhiḥ kalātrādiṣu bhauma idya-dhiḥ. Idya. Idya means worshipable. The brain is full with this idea, dhiḥ. Dhiḥ means buddhi. The brain is congested with all these ideas. Then he wants to become a religious man. What is that? Now, bhauma idya-dhiḥ. Yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile. He goes to some holy place and takes bath. They go to Hardwar. The same Ganges in Calcutta, and the same Ganges in Hardwar, but he will go to Hardwar to take bath so that he may think that "I have come to some holy place." The holy place is Ganges, but Calcutta is not holy place and Hardwar is holy. Yes. Bhauma idya-dhiḥ. Yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile. Actually Hardwar or Vṛndāvana, such places are meant to see great saintly persons, to take some knowledge from them. To take some knowledge from them, that is the purport of going to the holy place. But without consulting them, without seeing them, he simply dips into the water and he takes, "My pilgrimage is finished."
Dr. Patel: So many people say (Hindi) about these American boys smoking their hashish, their LSD. They are smoking all sorts of things.
Prabhupāda: They have learned from India. The American hippies, they have learned from these so-called rascals. Yes. Ginsberg, he introduced this. He came to India, went to Haridwar, he saw so many rascals, sādhus, smoking gañjā. He thought, "This is the way..."
Pradyumna: Dūre vāry-ay...
Prabhupāda: Vāry-ayanam.
Pradyumna: Oh. Dūre...
Prabhupāda: Dūre vāry-ayanaṁ tīrtham. Tīrtham. If you go... Just like there is Vṛndāvana and here is New Vrindaban. But if you spend ten thousand dollars and go to Vṛndāvana, then it is pilgrimage. And here is Vṛndāvana-candra. So that is not very important. Dūre vāry-ayanam. You have to go far, far away, (laughter) then it will be pilgrimage. In India, there is Ganges in Calcutta. But they go to Hardwar. Then it is pilgrimage. (laughter) The same Ganges, coming from Hardwar.
Dr. Sharma: I'm professor at Berkeley, California. And I was Regents Professor at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā. In Los Angeles we have our mandira, we have... You sometimes go to our temple?
Dr. Sharma: Yes, I go to the temple in Berkeley. I was at Berkeley about a week ago. I'm in London now, at the Royal Institute of Chemistry. I was born in Haridwar.
Prabhupāda: Haridwar. (laughs) Bhagavān ka deśa hari. Hari, Hari means the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and dvāra means the door, the doorway to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is a place in India, Haridwar, people go there for pilgrimage, very famous place.
Nava-yauvana: "First we must reach to your standard, then we can become interested in spiritual life." It's an envious position. On the material platform they are thinking, "You have gotten so much, now you can afford to practice this. We cannot afford such practice."
Prabhupāda: Then it is a luxury, it is not necessary. Is it not?
Nava-yauvana: Yes, that's what they are thinking. After the material luxury, then you have this.
Prabhupāda: But why the Indians, they are not like the Americans? You find in India still millions of people will go to the Kumbhamelā with torn cloth. They are not like Americans, riches. Why they take? Indian is well-known poverty-stricken. So why almost ninety-nine percent people, they are after Kṛṣṇa consciousness naturally? Still they'll go, when there is Kumbhamelā, so many saintly persons are coming. They will come by lakhs. Have you seen it? You have seen Kumbhamelā? You have seen? That is the proof. Not only Kumbhamelā. In Vṛndāvana, just like in our temple, recently it was jam-packed. Why they are coming to Vṛndāvana? Mostly they are coming from villages. Especially during this time at least twenty thousand, fifty thousand men are coming, daily. Still. We held Hare Kṛṣṇa festivals in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras. As soon as it is advertised, you'll find fifteen thousand, twenty thousand men come. And if you hold for weeks, for weeks they will come. You have seen? They are not like Americans, rich. They are all poverty-stricken. To the general eyes they are poverty-stricken. Kumbhamelā you'll see, Hardwar, in Vṛndāvana. Or even in big, big cities like Calcutta, Bombay, such festivals are held, people will come by thousands. It is training, culture. And this boy is taking three times bath, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. It is training and culture. And if he is kept in this culture, in future he'll be great saintly person. Then he'll do everything automatically. He will deliver others. It is training.
Prabhupāda: You have heard the name of Vidyāpati? He was a great poet of Darbhanga.
Dr. Patel: Vṛndāvana?
Prabhupāda: No, no. Darbhanga, the entrance to Bengal from Bihar.
Dr. Patel: Darbhanga. Door to Bengal.
Prabhupāda: Hardwar. "Door to Hari." Dwar means gate.
Gurudāsa: Someone invited me last year to Hardwar for the Kumbha, and I said, "Why should I go to the door when I live in the house?" I was in Vṛndāvana.
Prabhupāda: We are not interested with the door. You are doormen, dvar-men. We are inmates.
Hari-śauri: In the West they regard rice as the poor man's food.
Prabhupāda: But Japanese are very intelligent, Bengalis are intelligent, by taking fish and rice. In Bengal ninety percent people, they take fish. Here also, Orissa, cent percent, even the Jagannātha pūjārīs. In Bihar also, fifty percent. The more you go towards Western part of India, you get more wealthy province, just like Uttar Pradesh, very wealthy province, enlightened. All the big cities are there: Allahabad, Kanpur, Agra, Lucknow. Every hundred miles you get a very nice city in UP, the best province in India. All the holy places-Vṛndāvana, Prayāga, Hardwar, Ayodhyā, many celebrated holy places. Ganges and Yamunā flowing, two sacred rivers. Both of them through in Uttar Pradesh. And all the cities are either on the bank of the Yamunā or Ganges. And that is the best province, state, in India. It has got fifty districts. And fifty districts means fifty towns. Little more or less important. But the Kanpur is the third important city in India. First Calcutta, Bombay, and next, Kanpur.
Please accept my respectful Namaskar. I beg to inform you that your speech on 2/8/58 at the Gurukul University Haridwar, has given me some inspiration to inform you something about Indian culture. The basic principle of Indian culture is spiritualism which defies the external attraction of phenomenal materialism.
If Western people are expert in technological knowledge, and if their natural tendency is to develop it, let them do it. But as far as we Indians are concerned, our people are naturally inclined for spiritual elevation. Therefore, even in these days also when there is Kumbha Mela at Prayag or any other place, or there is a particular function in some pilgrimage like Jagannatha Puri, Vrindaban, Haridwar, etc., millions of people gather without any advertising. So these natural tendencies should not be disturbed, but the people of a particular section of the world should develop their indigenous talent and then exchange with others. So the Western people may give us their product, and we may give them our product; and by such exchanging policy, both of us may flourish in our civilized way of life.
Regarding the Cox and Kings proposal, that is very nice. I have no idea about Haridwar and Hrshikesa. I think Acyutananda was there, along with Harivilasa. But our point is that the tourists may concentrate in Vrindaban with us, live with us, and learn from us the spiritual life. What is the use of wandering here and there, simply seeing this and that and going home? Our main business is to teach them Krishna Consciousness.
Yes I am ready to go to Dvaraka. I have never visited there so now I am taking the opportunity. Similarly, Mr. B.R. Mohatta who was recently here in Los Angeles, has promised me accommodations at Allahabad and Haridwar for the Kumba Mela observances in these places next year. Also Mr. Bhogilal Patel who has given Rs 25,000 donation has also promised accommodations at Haridwar. So I have never seen Haridwar also and I am getting older so before my last days I wish to visit the holy places in Northern and Southern India. Mr. Badruka has promised to make arrangements for my accommodations in Southern India so you may fix up the program.
With regards to the question of our devotees being permitted to remain in India, this point should be discussed in Parliament. The point should be raised why our devotees who are coming from foreign lands should not be permitted to remain indefinitely in the Holy Places? We have nothing to do with politics and our cultural and religious movement is being spread throughout the world. When they become actually devotees, it is the instruction of the sastra to live in such Holy Places as Vrindaban, Mathura, and Dvaraka. The references are there in the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu. Other sects also have their holy places of sanctuary. Even the Buddhists' sect have a place in India, Gaya. Our Vaisnava injunction is there in the sastra, that devotees should dwell in the Holy Dhamas; many hundreds and thousands of devotees live in places like Vrindaban, Haridwar, and many other such places. Similarly, foreigners who have accepted this sect and religious process, they should be allowed on our recommendation to stay in India. So if some Parliament members debate on this question on the basis of cultural platform, it is a glory for India that our Krishna Consciousness Movement is being accepted all over the world, why the government of India should not accept?
| Page Title: | Hardwar (Conv and Letters) |
| Compiler: | Sahadeva, Ingrid |
| Created: | 05 of May, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=9, Let=5 |
| No. of Quotes: | 14 |