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Health (Conversations 1967 - 1974)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1967 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Particular incident is significant, that Caitanya Mahāprabhu was a brāhmaṇa and He was a sannyāsī. According to social custom He should not touch even a Muhammadan, but this Haridāsa Ṭhākura was a Muhammadan, and at his death He took the body Himself and danced, and He put him in the graveyard and distributed prasādam. And Haridāsa Ṭhākura for two, three days he was feeling not well. Because he was Muhammadan he did not enter the temple of Jagannātha temple. Because the Hindus were very strict. He was devotee, he never mind. Why he should create some row? So Caitanya Mahāprabhu appreciated his behavior that he did not want to create any... Because he has become devotee. Forcibly he was not going to the temple. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself was daily coming and seeing him. While going to take bath in the sea, He'll first of all see Haridāsa. "Haridāsa? What you are doing?" Haridāsa will offer his respect and He will sit and talk for some time. Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu will go to take His bath. In this way, one day when He came He saw Haridāsa not feeling very well. "Haridāsa? How is your health?" "Yes Sir, it is not very... After all, it is body." Then the third day He saw that Haridāsa is going to leave his body today. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu asked him, "Haridāsa, what do you desire?" Both of them could understand. Haridāsa said that "This is my last stage. If You kindly stand before me." So Caitanya Mahāprabhu stood before him and he left his body.

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- March 9, 1968, San Francisco:
Prabhupāda: So in order to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, this is necessary, just like an important segment of the work. We cannot accept anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa. Therefore this diet, this sort of diet, as you have tasted in our love feast, that is important. We cannot take outside the scope. So in that sense, diet is important. Besides that, from health point of view also, you require a balanced food—carbohydrate, starch, protein, and fat. That is scientific. So fat we are getting from milk, butter. So if I can get fat from milk and butter, why shall I kill the cow and animal? This is humanity. My necessity is to get some milk and fat. The cow is supplying you milk and fat sufficiently.
Interview -- March 9, 1968, San Francisco:

It does not require to take separately any food. But the karmis are trying to enjoy themselves just like the finger. If it takes a nice cake and if he thinks that why shall I give it to the stomach? So it cannot eat. It simply spoils. That's all. So we are spoiling our energy without Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And therefore you are being subjected to the laws of transmigrating from one species of life. We are simply spoiling our time and energy. So if we take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness that is the proper utilization of our energy given by God. Just like if I'm healthy the finger is also healthy. Then what is the duty of the healthy finger? To serve this body. Similarly, we have got this energy from Kṛṣṇa, from God. So if you utilize this energy from Kṛṣṇa then it is proper utilization.

Morning Walk at Stow Lake -- March 27, 1968, San Francisco:
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa does not send you liquor. You have manufactured. Kṛṣṇa has sent you this fruit, He has sent you the grains, Kṛṣṇa has sent you the milk. You should be satisfied. Why should you manufacture liquor? Why should you manufacture slaughterhouse? We don't eat meat. Are we dying ninety percent of Indian population, they don't eat meat. They're simply vegetarian. Yes. And you can see how they are healthy. They cannot get sufficient food, that is different thing. That is maladministration. Kṛṣṇa has given sufficient food for all the people of the world. Somewhere the foodstuff is being thrown in the sea, and somewhere people are starving. This is want of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If a man becomes, if the president becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious president, then he'll think "This foodstuff is Kṛṣṇa's. It is not our result. So Kṛṣṇa claims all living entities as His sons.
Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Girl Devotee: (inaudible)

Prabhupāda: Oh. Just see. All very healthy, I see, because very energetic.

Śāradīyā: (break) Simply by Your Divine Grace, on Kṛṣṇa's appearance day in San Francisco my mother came to the temple and she wore a sari and a tilaka.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (chuckles) You are converting your mother to this cult.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Jadurāṇī: Doesn't sound like you're concerned about temple affairs.

Prabhupāda: No. It... That's all right. For the time being you don't touch. You chant and everything will be... Soon you will be in good health. Then you will again work. Yes. Śāradīyā, you are painting? No. All right, you finish your school. You are going to school?

Śāradīyā: Yes.

Room Conversation -- May 10, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Devotee: There's no value in keeping the body fit through exercise?

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can become very healthy. But does it mean that health is the perfection of life? Do you mean to say healthy life will not die, will not change his body? So health is required, but health is not the ultimate goal of life. Ultimate goal of life is here.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Kīrtanānanda: You can use those machines if you want. If you want to live in the so-called American style, that is so. But if you're willing to adopt the Vedic way of minimizing the material needs in order to pursue Kṛṣṇa consciousness, what does one need? He needs sufficient food to keep the body healthy and a place to lay down. So four acres is plenty.

Allen Ginsberg: Where do you get the... How do you feed the cow, or would you?

Kīrtanānanda: On four acres you can do it.

Allen Ginsberg: You can get enough hay for a cow, for...?

Prabhupāda: Fodder. Yes. We grow.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: So we have to live that. Plain living, high thinking. The necessities of this bodily existence, that should be minimized and not unhealthy. Healthy. To keep oneself fit. But the time should be utilized-develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness, spiritual life. Then his whole problem is solved. Here is the big man.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: For young man, the more he sleeps, he is dead. He's a dead body. A child, if he overeats, if he overeats, then it is not bad for him. So anyone overeats, it is bad, specially for old man. And if child gets diarrhea, it is good for him. When a old man gets diarrhea, it is death for him. Child gets diarrhea means whatever poisons he has acquired he gets out. His health becomes renovated. And old man, if he gets diarrhea, he loses his vitality. Chele hange bastre guru hage mostre.(?) These are the para... What is called? Common sayings? Parables? Oh, it is the time. They are not yet ready?

Haṁsadūta: No. If we get that house, Prabhupāda...

Prabhupāda: You can get.

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Haṁsadūta: George Bernard Shaw.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So they are becoming animals, animals eating animal flesh. Bernard Shaw was vegetarian.

Devotee (6): Except he would take liver for his health.

Prabhupāda: Liver?

Devotee (6): Yes. He used to take some liver periodically for his health.

Prabhupāda: Medicine. There are many liver extract preparations.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1971, Gorakhpur:

Prabhupāda: That is my opinion. But as soon as you go to a medical man, especially in your country, first of all, you have to give blood, immediately. (laughter) One ounce of blood immediately. First business. And then other injection. Because I underwent so many medical examination, I have got experience. For my immigration. I think, three or four times I was under health examination, and blood-taking, and injection. Of course, it is not very painful. That arrangement is there. But the business is like that, "First of all give your blood; then talk of other things." Better to die without a doctor. (laughter) That's the best principle. Don't call any doctor. Simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and die peacefully.

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Revatīnandana: At the stage of awakening, when you're waking up, when you're becoming cured of the diseased condition, you sometimes have to restrict your diet. Later on, when you are healthy, you can take all kinds of foodstuffs in the proper way. But while you're getting over a disease you have to restrict your diet. Therefore we hear things that are directly concerned with Kṛṣṇa's name, form, activities. Later on, then we'll be able to see God in a flower, God in everywhere. Otherwise we'll see the flower however we enjoy a flower because we're not at that healthy stage. So therefore there are regulations that we follow for curing the disease. That means for a little while we restrict the diet. Then when we're healthy...

Prabhupāda: Just like these flowers. These flowers the devotees are bringing to their spiritual master, to God. They are not enjoying. Ordinary man, if he gets a flower, he'll put it in the pocket. How... You see? That is the difference of God consciousness. The flower is the same, but use is different.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Before that. So what news?

Śivānanda: Nice place in Heidelburg. Kṛṣṇa gave us a very nice temple there.

Prabhupāda: Your health is all right?

Śivānanda: My health is fine.

Prabhupāda: Thank you. You are the pioneer of European activities.

Śivānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: From Montreal, you were pushed. Yes. And from San Francisco, Gaurasundara was pushed to Hawaii. (chuckles) So Śivānanda Prabhu was also pushed from Montreal. So Kṛṣṇa is very much pleased. And Sudama was pushed to Japan. Now, anyway, that pushing has not become unsuccessful.

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

Mensa Member: I think he is a physician, and he makes a mistake, a healthy, genuine mistake.

Prabhupāda: Therefore we say, we have to receive knowledge from a person who does not commit any mistakes. That is our proposition.

Dr. Weir: Well, that would be going like God if you define it that way, you're (indistinct).

Mensa Member: That does seem a bit...

Prabhupāda: Therefore I said...

Śyāmasundara: This can be proven. This can be tested, if someone's cheating or not cheating can be tested on a factual basis. Similarly, this science can be tested...

Prabhupāda: Observation and experiment.

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

Dr. Weir: You see, what worries me, Swami, is that there is two ways of making sure (indistinct), each containing this necessity of eating. Now, some people eat (indistinct). They digest it, they live perfectly healthily. They know nothing about carbohydrates, proteins and fats. They know nothing about saliva. They know nothing about enzymes or digestion. Well they live quite satisfactory lives. Other people start worrying about whether they've got the right amount of calories, the right amount of vitamins, whether they're taking enough water at the meal or not. One wonders that if you're starting to, worrying about that, it means somehow you're less perfect than the person who's able to digest quite happily without the knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Well, if you say like that, the majority of living entities, they are eating without this knowledge of enzyme and other things. So if you take votes the votes are greater. Just like human being, a few human beings are interested in analyzing this enzyme. But the human beings are very small quantity. There are 8,400,000 species of life. They're eating with a natural way and they're quite healthy.

Room Conversation with Mayor -- November 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Working.

Guest: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: Good health and working. Never mind rich or poor.

Guest: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: You should see that he is good health and working. That's all. Not idle.

Room Conversation -- December 11, 1971, New Delhi:
Prabhupāda: You cannot neglect, because outside unclean means inside also you'll see unclean. If you keep both sides clean, then you will be healthy inside and outside. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇa puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi. Abhadrāṇi, all inauspicious things, that will be cleaned. They should be washed. To become sacred thread means he must be śuci. Satya śamaḥ damaḥ śaucam, śaucam. One must be very clean. That is brahminism. Not simply having a sacred thread: "Prabhupāda, give me sacred thread, sacred thread, sacred thread," everybody. You have got sacred thread, that is certificate, but what is your śaucam? Cleanliness. The brāhmaṇa's name is śuci. He is always cleansed. Everyone will see, and he'll immediately feel how cleansed he is. What is the difficulty? God has given sufficient water. For cleanliness you simply require water, that's all. No antiseptic bottle-Dettol, this, that, so many. You are manufacturing so many rascal things, but ultimately unclean. Ultimately unclean.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Dai Nippon -- April 22, 1972, Tokyo:

Prabhupāda: (chants japa) So there are many Japanese vegetarian? Or he is only.

Dai Nippon Representative: Lately it is quite increasing in Japan, yes, becoming popular, because we have a lot of problems with pollution. We have a lot of social problem like pollution, traffic jam. So people, in order to keep good health, vegetarian is very good for health.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Vegetarian food is very nice. We can give you vegetable menu, three hundred items at least.

Room Conversation -- June 14, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Well vegetarians are not animals. (laughter) In India, you'll still you'll find ninety-percent of the population, they're vegetarians, strictly. Always vegetarians. They're quite healthy, they're working. Therefore vegetarians are human beings. Vegetables, that food is meant for human beings. That is natural. For a human being to become nonvegetarian is unnatural. And to become vegetarian, that is natural. Just like our teeth, it is meant for cutting vegetables, fruit, not meat. You will find cutting by these teeth, meat, it will be difficult. But you take any vegetable, any fruit, you can immediately cut.

Room Conversation -- July 4, 1972, New York:

Devotee: So shall I take your passport now, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: And health card?

Prabhupāda: Yes. So here is my passport, and here is my health cards. Is that all right?

Devotee: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: This we have to turn in when leaving the country.

Bali-mardana: Prabhupāda, can I offer you a fresh garland?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Thank you. It is too fresh.

Room Conversation and Interview with Ian Polsen -- July 31, 1972, London:

Ian Polsen: And one needs guidance.

Prabhupāda: Yes. First of all we have to know ourselves. To know ourselves means self-realization: "I am not this body. I am spirit soul." Then what is this spirit soul? Naturally, part and parcel of God. Therefore as spirit soul my duty is to serve God. That is religion, plain thing. Just like this finger is part and parcel of my body. It is serving me. That is healthy condition. If there is any pain—"Oh, this finger cannot scratch. I'm feeling pain"—that is irreligion. So long the part and parcel of my body, the finger, cannot serve me, it is not normal condition. So every living being is part and parcel of God. So long he's unable to serve God, that is his material condition. But as soon as he's engaged actually in the service of God, that is his real liberated position. Same example: If the finger is diseased, it cannot serve. But when it is serving, that is healthy condition.

Room Conversation and Interview with Ian Polsen -- July 31, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

māṁ ca yo vyabhicāreṇa
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa guṇān samatītyaitān
brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
(BG 14.26)

As soon as you are engaged in the service of the Lord, you are in healthy condition, there is no suffering. Just like these boys, they did not know Kṛṣṇa, what is Kṛṣṇa, two years or three years ago. But since they have been engaged in the service of, they are feeling very nice, healthy. Everyone is asking me, "Why so many young men are attracted by this movement?" (laughs) They think it is movement. No. They have taken the real occupation-serving Kṛṣṇa. Therefore they have (indistinct). When one is normally situated, naturally he feels happy and he's healthy. When in the diseased condition, he cannot be happy. When the disease is gone, in healthy condition, naturally you'll be happy.

Conversation with Bajaj and Bhusan -- September 11, 1972, Arlington, Texas, At Their Home:

Prabhupāda: That's all. The finger, so long it is serving my body like this, like this, it is in real condition, real, healthy condition. And if it is painful—it cannot serve—then it is not in healthy condition. So therefore any living entity who is not serving Kṛṣṇa, he is not in healthy condition. He is in māyā. Anyone who is not in Kṛṣṇa's service, he is in māyā.

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

Prabhupāda: Easygoing, that is actual real life. But that easygoing, you must come to that stage. If you come to a healthy stage, then when you eat you can digest nicely. But unhealthy stage, if you eat, how you will digest? Therefore, you have to cure your disease first of all. Then you eat, it will be digested. So in the material condition, nothing can be (indistinct). Therefore, how it is called conditioned life?

Jayatīrtha: We're bound up by so many conditions.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Gurudāsa: They like to cook for themselves. They cook without spices and like that, because they are thinking of their health. I gave them... I know, I can... (break)

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) a nice place, a very open place. (indistinct)

Gurudāsa: You have your choice.

Prabhupāda: No, no, it's a very nice place, undoubtedly.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: So you should do in such a way that he cannot accuse you. If you ask him to rise early in the morning, take your bath, and if you do not take. Supposing some special case. I was taking early bath. Now I do not take, because due to my health. That is because... Otherwise regularly I was taking. Not even hot water. Regularly. This hot water bath I have begun in your country, otherwise I have never taken. Even in severest cold. Here also I am trying to avoid. I am keeping tub of water sunshine. Whatever little warm may become, that's all. So, of course, for special health reason one cannot rise, he is sick and cannot attend, otherwise everyone should rise early in the morning, take bath and be ready for performing our service by six o'clock or five o'clock. And the kīrtana party, you should know everyone go. It may be small distance, but all our men should go. That will be real (indistinct), early in the morning. So many parties come.
Morning Walk -- April 30, 1973, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: They say it's unhealthy.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā. What is healthy? Meat?

Karandhara: Meat.

Prabhupāda: Do the scientists say like that?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I'm not very sure. But they produce imitation milk, the milk produced from soya bean. That's available in the market. Many, in fact I find, many people do not buy the natural milk. They buy the imitation milk, milk produced from the bean, soya bean. They say that milk contains too much fat. So that makes them very fat. So they want to control their weight by taking the imitation milk which contains less protein and...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Milk will disappear.

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

Brahmānanda: We develop our attraction for Hare Kṛṣṇa; we lose our attraction for sex life.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktiḥ... That is the sign of advancement of bhakti. If you don't be... I was explaining this. If you don't be detached to these material things, then you should know that you are not advancing in spiritual life. If you have got still attachment for these nonsense material things, that means you are not advanced. Just like if you are eating, and if you are not getting health, that means you are eating nonsense. Eating must result in good health. That is eating. Eating does not mean to fill up the belly with all rubbish things. Eating means that you become healthy, nice eating.

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I said that just examine the healthy body. This material world is an excema expect(?) in the healthy body.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Material, material atmosphere means diseased condition.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Diseased condition, very negligent or diseased condition, very negligent part, forming very negligent part of the whole, this material world, where creation and dissolution is compulsory.

Prabhupāda: Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19).

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Creation and the dissolution is compulsory. That is a negligent portion of the real universe.

Prabhupāda: ekāṁśena.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Otherwise, if a major portion of a body is bad, then that cannot stand. So the major portion of the universe must be healthy, wholesome. And the negligent part is the diseased portion. That is the world, where the majority lives.

Prabhupāda: One fourth part.

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Prabhupāda: Here is Śrutakīrti.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: His health, you have to arrange what will be...

Prabhupāda: Śrutakīrti wants to serve you, provided you go with us, USA (laughter) He says, "If Mahārāja goes with us, then I shall take care of him."

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Father Tanner: Do I lose that little bit of freedom?

Prabhupāda: No, that is real freedom. Just like this, my finger, is part and parcel of my body. So long the finger serves the body, it is healthy. If it is painful, it cannot serve, then it is unhealthy. Similarly, a living entity, when he cannot serve God, that is his material condition, or unhealthy condition. When he serves God, that is his natural condition. Because he's part and parcel of God.

Father Tanner: Where did we lose the contact with God?

Prabhupāda: When you misused your freedom. You have got little freedom.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: It is said... Suppose I am serving my master. I can think of, "Oh, why shall I serve him? I shall become independent." That is my freedom, little freedom. So I cannot become independent. That is not my healthy stage. Just like... Take for example, a dog. A dog is healthy when he has got a good master. And if he hasn't got a good master, he's a street dog, neglected. He's not healthy. Similarly our position is like that, that we must be dependent on God. Therefore in your Christian Bible also you go for your bread: "God, give us our daily bread." So you are dependent. So it is better to remain dependent on God than to use your so-called little freedom.

Father Tanner: But your dog can be healthy in two ways, can't he? The dog can be healthy... ,

Prabhupāda: No, no, this is an example.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Father Tanner: ...if he has a good master, and he can be healthy if he has no master.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Father Tanner: If your dog is just running free in its natural state, he is a healthy animal, but...

Prabhupāda: No, a dog is not healthy. I am giving that particular example. Then he's a street dog. A street dog has no position. He's not healthy. I am giving a crude example, that a dog's posit... Similarly, we are all dependent on God. That is in your Bible also.

Father Tanner: Oh, yes, I accept.

Prabhupāda: So to remain dependent on God is our healthy state. As soon as we declare independent of God, that is our unhealthy state. This is our philosophy. And your philosophy also. To remain there. That is the Vedic injunction, that nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām, eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). What is the difference between God and ourself? God is also a living entity like us, but He's the chief living entity. He's maintaining all others. Therefore we have to ask God, "Give us our daily bread." He's the maintainer; we are maintained. Just like in a family, the father is the maintainer, and the mother and the children and the servants, they are maintained, similarly the whole universe, whole creation, it is maintained by God, and we living entities, within this universe or within this creation, we are maintained. So as we are maintained, it is better to remain dependent on God than to declare our freedom.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Father Tanner: ...be a healthy person without admitting your dependence on God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We are depending. We have no business.

Father Tanner: You can be healthy and live...

Prabhupāda: Now, healthy, what do you mean by healthy?

Father Tanner: Well, you know, you were saying it's what a man does that makes him that if he is pure here and now, then, and it's not his inside. It's his outside...

Prabhupāda: Our description of healthy life, healthy life is to become God conscious. That is healthy life. Otherwise do you think that an animal like elephant, very strong, does it mean that it is healthy? No.

Father Tanner: No, I would say an elephant can be healthy, my body can be healthy.

Prabhupāda: Well, that is temporary. Everyone is subjected to death. So you may be very strong, healthy, but you cannot avoid death.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So, so therefore, ultimately, you become so-called healthy or not healthy, you'll die. That is the fact. So we do not want that kind of healthy life. Our proposition is that we go back to home back to Godhead and remain with God, eternally enjoying blissful life. This is our healthy life.

Father Tanner: I, I accept these principles, but, you know, the words, I would say you could be healthy, but, you know, when you go to God at the end, this isn't on your physical healthiness.

Prabhupāda: No.

Father Tanner: This is on your spiritual self.

Prabhupāda: When you go to God, you go in your spiritual body.

Father Tanner: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Spiritual body.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Father Tanner: But you can be physically healthy...

Prabhupāda: Spiritually, when you get your spiritual body, there is no such material inconveniences. The material inconveniences means so long you have got this material body, you are subjected to birth, death, old age and disease. When you revive your spiritual body, these four things are not with you. No more birth, no more death, no more disease, no more old age. This is the difference between spiritual life and material life.

Room Conversation with Two Buddhist Monks -- July 12, 1973, London:

Buddhist Monk (1): Yes, but later it goes to add something that "Meat is meat unto you." Yeah. There your difficulty comes in. Well, Isaiaḥ in the Bible, one of five prophets in the Bible, he says: "Peace will come on earth when even the feroci..." (break) May you have long, healthy life.

Prabhupāda: What is your age?

Buddhist Monk (1): I am fifty-nine years.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Buddhist Monk (1): (Sanskrit or Pali:) We say arogya parama labha santuṣṭi paramam dhanam, viśvasa parama narthi nirvāṇa parama sva-dharma. (?)

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya.

Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Oh, I see.

Lord Brockway: All from ascetic ideas, humanitarian ideas. And I've proved one can be just as healthy.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you look very healthy.

Lord Brockway: Over eighty-five years. I'm very fortunate.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he's older than me. Still, he looks very nice.

Śyāmasundara: Yeah. Still active in the Parliament.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Therefore you are keeping your health very nice. In younger days, you were sportsman.

Śyāmasundara: You eat entirely everything. (laughs)

Lord Brockway: You have done very well. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Garden Conversation with Mahadeva's Mother and Jesuit Priest -- July 25, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: You need it... Just like if you can get nice fruits, grains, milk, why do you need animal? You have to eat. You have to eat and live. Not to kill. Similarly, that if you can get nice foodstuff from food grains, from fruits, from flowers, from vegetables, from milk, why you should kill the animals?

Mother: Well, a lot of people now are going over to health foods.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Mother: This is thought of by a lot of people.

Prabhupāda: Well, lot of people may do anything.

Car Conversation after meeting with Cardinal Danielou -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: That is another story. No Indians are dying, not by eating cow's flesh. That, that is the theory at the present moment given. But there are so many vegetarians in India. They do not touch even fish, or eggs, or animal flesh. They're quite healthy. It does not mean...

Yogeśvara: I think his answer would be that vegetarianism is reserved to the rich people who can afford it. That if you're poor, you have to eat whatever you can get.

Prabhupāda: Well. Now in India, meat is selling at high price than vegetable.

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

Prabhupāda: (break) ...last time I was so much deteriorated in health, I had to leave this place. That does not mean I'll leave the Society. I went to India and recuperated. Or came to London. That's all right. So health may be sometimes... But that does not mean we shall give up the Society. If my health is unsuitable here, I go... I have a hundred centers. And you'll not go out of this universe for your health recouping. You have to remain within the universe. Then why do you go out of the Society? (break) ...Śrī Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura. We have to live with devotees. Why I left my family? Because they were not devotees. Therefore I come... Otherwise, in old age, I would have been comfortable. No. We should not live with the nondevotees, may be family men or anyone. Just like Mahārāja Vibhīṣaṇa. Because his brother was not devotee, he left him, left him. He came to Rāmacandra. Vibhīṣaṇa. You know that?

Sudāmā: Yes.

Room Conversation with Latin Professor -- December 9, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: So they learn how to examine the pulse beating, the heart beating. And they have got description. Just like the sparrow walks, the crow walks, so in this way they have given the example, "If the pulse is beating like the walking of the sparrow, walking of the crow, then his health, his condition, is like this, and the symptoms will be like this." So the physician first of all studies the pulses, and he remembers the symptoms, and he corroborates, asking the patient, "Do you feel like this? Do you feel like this? Do you do this, like this?" If it is corroborated, then his diagnosis is given: "He has got this disease." So similarly, in Jyotir-veda they have got similar symptoms: "If such and such stars are now nearer to this star"—they have got this calculation—"then the position is this." So they learn very quickly. Indian brāhmaṇas, they learned Jyotir-veda, Āyur-veda, very quickly. Because brāhmaṇas they are meant to go to every house to inform the date, the everything. So generally people are inquisitive about the health.
Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: But he has got so many difficulties because he's diseased rascal. So he has to be treated. But his only fault is that he doesn't want to be treated. He's a diseased person, but he doesn't want to be treated. When he's treated, he'll understand. But he doesn't agree to be treated. That is his fault. A tuberculous patient, he doesn't want to be treated, but if he's treated, he can be brought into healthy state.

Morning Walk -- December 11, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Household life or in city life we should not be extravagant, unnecessarily eating, unnecessarily enjoying. No, that is not the... One man's food, another man's poison. We must know this philosophy. (break) ...and even we..., my health is not always going on nicely. Still, why I am trying? That is my ambition. I want to begin one revolution. Their godless civilization..., against godless civilization. That is my ambition. The America will be the best person to be educated in this line and to lead, to become the leaders. They're already leader, but they must be real leader now, so that the whole world may be happy. That I can give direction. If the topmost American gentlemen come to me, I can give them direction how they can become the world leader. Actual leader. Actual leader, not bogus leader. Because God has favored them, so many things. And this movement has been started from America. I started this movement from New York. So it should be taken very seriously by the government.
Morning Walk -- December 12, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Simply they fight and loss of life and money, energy. War must be for the good. If there is some war, it must be for some good. But where is that goodness? The world remains the same; rather, it becomes more worst. Then why fight? But they will fight. Because both of them demons, they will fight. But not for any good result. War means... War is not bad. Just like disease. If somebody is diseased, then he becomes healthy. The whole polluted situation of the body becomes repaired. Just like when you get a boil or dysentery, all the poisons of the body, they become purged out. Then your health becomes nice. That is the law, nature's law. Similarly, war or famine or pestilence, they are meant for purging out all undesirable men. But the demonic principle is so strong that it is not becoming so. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Make this approach. The Americans have placed in their constitution, "In God we Trust."

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 11, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Ah! Mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahai... (Cc. Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4). That is... There is no question of desirelessness. We desire for Kṛṣṇa. That is desirelessness. Just like a diseased man, if he desires for healthy life, is that bad thing? To desire for further disease, that is desire. That is bad. Therefore I say, you cannot give up desire. That is not possible. You have to purify your desires. But when you desire for Kṛṣṇa, that is desirelessness. To become free from disease, that does not mean you have to stop eating. In the diseased condition, you are eating. As soon as you want to desire, that "Let me, give me this nice food," but you cannot eat on your diseased condition.

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1974, Vrndavana:

Bhagavān: So there's so much to do in Kṛṣṇa's service, everyone can be engaged in some...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that everyone should know... Suppose one is engaged in cooking prasādam. You should see that nice prasādam is served to the worker, quickly, so they can take prasādam, be healthy and go on preaching. So he is helping preaching by cooking. Just like you are working and the brain is also working, "Go this side, go that side, the car is coming." Brain says, the... "Leg, come this side." Everyone is working. The leg is working, the brain is working, the hand is working, the tongue is working. But the business of the tongue and business of the leg is different. The aim being, the central point being Kṛṣṇa, to help, to serve Him, then everything is work, absolute. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they cannot understand it. They think that "Kṛṣṇa is working like ordinary man. How He can become God? It is māyā. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is also māyā." Therefore we called them Māyāvādī.

Morning Walk 'Varnasrama College' -- March 14, 1974, Vrndavana:

Hṛdayānanda: So they should be trained to rise early and so on.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, if you keep healthy, then you will naturally rise healthy, er rise early in the morning. But if you... Because you have lost all, what is called? Stamina?

Hṛdayānanda: Yes. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Therefore sleeping is my only business. Sleeping means for the weak. And for the strong, perspiration. This is the sign. When a man sleeps too much, he's weak in his health. And the strong man will perspire. These are very... Balera ghāma, and the durbalera ghuma. Ghāma and ghuma. Ghuma means sleeping, and ghāma means perspiration. (break) ...principle. And human beings means trained up under principle. That is the difference between animal. The animals, they cannot take up any training. But the human being, this human form of body is meant for taking training.

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Rascal civilization, rascal government. And people are transferred into rascals. (Hindi) Annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). Without anna, how they can live? There is no arrangement for anna. They're simply passing resolution, legislative laws. And no anna. Just see what kind of wretched government it is. Everywhere. There is no anna. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni. The first duty of government is to see that everyone is happy, without any anxiety. These preliminary necessities of life, āhāra-nidra-bhaya-maithunam, there must be sufficient arrangement for these preliminary necessities of life. One must eat sumptuously. Not over-eating, indulgence. No. But he must have sufficient food to keep up the health. Similarly, he must have place to sleep. We, we are prepared to offer everything. And be Kṛṣṇa conscious. This is our mission. Not by eating and sleeping, become rogues and thieves and rascals. That we will not allow. That is varṇāśrama-dharma. (Hindi conversation for a few sentences) Why unemployment? There is no scarcity (of) water. Just have a big well. Electricity pump water. Oh, immediately, it will be all green. Immediately. (Hindi for a while) Jayo! Hare Kṛṣṇa! (break) ...all round, for the benefit of the human society. You'll be honored everywhere. Everywhere, any part of the world. And automatically these bogus avatāra, incarnations, God, and yogis and swamis will be all doomed. You see? These rascal society, avatāra, "Bhagavān," incarnations, yogis, these rascals will be doomed.

Room Conversation -- March 16, 1974, Vrndavana:

Guest: I think it's probably just a coincidence that the name is Maya, more than, you know.... (break)

Guest: How's your health?

Prabhupāda: Health is not very good. I am not (indistinct).

Devotee: It's almost time to go to your.... (break)

Prabhupāda: This we will take more, it will not harm, but the other, if you take little less.... (break) Mexico? No.

Guest: There is good butter.

Prabhupāda: Butter?

Guest: Very good butter. I suppose you could make good ghee out of it. The butter there is, you know, like uh...

Prabhupāda: Are there any flowers there? There are so many flowerstall.

Room Conversation -- March 16, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Guest: I think you looked in better health then.

Prabhupāda: When I was...

Guest: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Since then I have no stroke.

Guest: You still have massages every day?

Prabhupāda: Yes. We have massages. One day him, one day Acyutānanda. (break) What philosophy you are following?

Guest: Pardon?

Prabhupāda: Which philosophy you are following?

Guest: Uh, Buddha philosophy, and uh, Vedānta and uh, Kṛṣṇa philosophy. I have a Tibetan teacher now, (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: He also teaches Kṛṣṇa?

Guest: Uh, he teaches uh...

Prabhupāda: Buddha.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa is everywhere.

Satsvarūpa: When Prabhupāda was walking in Letchmore Health, he said, "This looks like Govardhana Hill."

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Bicyclist: (ringing bell) Hare Kṛṣṇa! Hare Kṛṣṇa! Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: It's like you said last night. They begin to chant.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guru dāsa: Do the rickshaw drivers in Letchmore Heath chant Hare Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: No, they were sleeping. (laughter) That is western. Here you will find even the old man rises early in the morning. Yes, take bath. Without any reference to Hare Kṛṣṇa. They chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. In the village, they take bath early in the morning. That is very healthy.

Morning Walk -- March 29, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Pāṇḍu-putrāṇāṁ jaysam pakṣe janārdana. Pāṇḍu-putra, the Pāṇḍavas, are glorified because on their side, Kṛṣṇa is there. Therefore, victory for them. One very big doctor of Allahabad, my old friend, Dr. G. Bose, he is also D.T.M., M.A.B. He wants to join this movement.

Dr. Patel: Haribol. There is one doctor, he'll look to the health and hygiene of the inmates.

Prabhupāda: Why not yourself?

Dr. Patel: ...on that point I'm going to (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: These rascals, asuras, they do not know what is the goal of life. But in which way we should direct? These rascals, they do not know. Still, they become public leaders, asuras. Na viduḥ. How to dissuade people to stop this? Just like we are doing: no illicit sex. Nivṛtti. Nivṛtti. No illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling, no meat-eating. This is nivṛtti. And pravṛtti, take to Kṛṣṇa. This is pravṛtti, nivṛtti. But the rascal demons, leaders, they do not know these things. Pravṛttiṁ ca nivṛttiṁ ca na viduḥ asura-jana (BG 16.7). They do not know it. Still, they become leaders. They do not know in which way people should be directed, and still they claim to be public leaders.

Morning Walk -- April 1, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13).

Prabhupāda: Guṇa... Yes. So if the four divisions work nicely, then it is healthy society. Otherwise it is not. If different parts of your body work nicely, then you are healthy.

Dr. Patel: Each section of the society has to, I mean, work as a...

Prabhupāda: For the maintenance.

Dr. Patel: ...part of the whole.

Prabhupāda: Whole, yes. That doesn't matter whether you are śūdra or brāhmaṇa. Your aim should be how to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then it is perfect.

Press Conference -- April 18, 1974, Hyderabad:

Guest (2): What is the ultimate aim of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Yes, ultimate aim is that there is spirit and matter. As there is material world, there is spiritual world also. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ avyaktaḥ avyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20). The spiritual world is eternal. The material world is temporary. We are spirit soul. We are eternal. Therefore our business is to go back to the spiritual world, not that we remain in the material world and change body from bad to worse or worse to bad, er, good. That is not our business. That is a disease. Our healthy life is to enjoy eternal life. Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). So our human life should be utilized for attaining that perfectional stage—not to get any more this material body which we have to change. This is the aim of life.

Morning Walk -- April 29, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Mirzapur is rich people. They have got carpet industry. Mirzapur carpet is very famous. They manufacture and sell big, nice carpets. Just like Persian carpets. So similarly, Mirzapur carpet. Besides that, they have got many other businesses. So it is on the Ganges side and the healthy quarter also. (break) ...still, he is the biggest practitioner in Allahabad. He has offered his house. In old days he constructed it for four lakhs.

Room Conversation -- May 20, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, Śyāmasundara, "Oh, I have to..." He spent money for that. I thought "It is hellish." (laughter) Always covered with snow, I could not get out. Two days I was imprisoned in that hotel room. But people go there.

Yamunā: For health.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Yamunā: For their health.

Prabhupāda: What is the health there? But one wonderful I saw from there. Down 10,000 feet, (indistinct) hill.

Room Conversation with Richard Webster, chairman, Societa Filosofica Italiana -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: We don't find there is sanction by God to drink. But under certain circumstances, beverages, different types of beverages allowed, not for intoxication but for keeping health. That is different thing. Just like in the moon planet, it is mentioned they drink soma-rasa. Soma-rasa is a kind of beverage made from extract of herbs. So because it is very cold there, so they drink that, but not for intoxication. People drink for intoxication. Just like in medicine, so many drugs are used. Even opium is used. Yes. Morphia is used. But they are not used ordinarily. For a specific purpose. 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.

Morning Walk at Villa Borghese -- May 25, 1974, Rome:

Bhagavān: The easiest way to manage, then, is to have everything more or less in small villages.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that was Gandhi's philosophy, village organization. These people, they are attracting villagers to work in the factory, and they are exploiting them. Instead of producing food, they are attracted by so-called high salaries, to the factory, and they are producing bolts and nuts, motor parts. But food is produced somewhere else. But the food producers, they are working in the factory. Therefore scarcity of foodstuff. But this factory owner, he has got more money. He doesn't care. The poor public, they are suffering. Our philosophy is that you produce your food anywhere. You stay, and keep cows, take milk, produce vegetables, food grains, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all. This is our philosophy. Make your life successful. By becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious, you become free from all these troubles of material condition. This is our education. Don't be after these motorcars, television, and all nonsense things, sporting, wine, women. Don't be after these. Simply eat sufficiently, keep your health nicely, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, realize Kṛṣṇa, and go back to home. This is our philosophy.

Room Conversation with Mr. C. Hennis of the International Labor Organization of the U.N. -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

C. Hennis: My organization is in fact concerned with the well being of all four classes. It is not only with the laboring man. It's also primarily with the producers, but also with the managers, leaders, and to a certain extent also with the protective classes in that we are interested in the well-being of policemen, hospital personnel, doctors, nurses, that kind of social security workers, and that kind of person. We are interested in the intelligentsia in that they are professional workers, often independent, whose professional rights and obligations need to be safeguarded and codified. That's a standard laid down in the form of international labor standards. One of our activities, not perhaps now the most important, but one of the first.

Prabhupāda: No. My point was, point is that... Because one is fourth-class, therefore we are not interested in that—it is not my point. My point is that there are four classes of men: first-class, second-class, third-class, fourth-class. And our point of view, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is meant for taking care of all classes of men. Although by natural division there are four classes of men, first-class, second-class, third-class, fourth-class, but the example we generally give, just like in your body there are four divisions: the head division, the arm division, the belly division and the leg division, but all of them meant for keeping the body fit. And body is meant for giving supply to everyone of them. But if you comparatively make division, the head comes the first division, the arms comes the second division, the belly comes the third division, and the legs comes the fourth division. So we should organize in such a way that all the classes of men in the society be happy, not that we simply take care of the head. The same example: In your body it is not your business just simply take care of the head or the legs. No. All these different divisions of your body, you take care. That is healthy body. When your brain is working nicely, when your arms are working nicely, your abdomen is working nicely and legs are working nicely, then you are fit. If you simply take care of the legs, not of the brain, that is not a good healthy body.

Room Conversation with Mr. C. Hennis of the International Labor Organization of the U.N. -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: I am not speaking of the food. I am speaking of the benefit. Benefit should be equally shared. Now, benefit means... Suppose you can eat more than me. You can eat, say, half a pound of foodstuff, or I can eat one pound, foodstuff. So to give me food, one pound, and to give you food, half pound, that is equal because I require so much. Similarly, the benefit must be equal, as far as you require, I require. Therefore we call it benefit. There is not, I mean to say discrimination in deriving the benefit out of the energy produced in the body. Then everything will be all right. And if the brain works nicely, if the arms work nicely, if the stomach works nicely and the legs work nicely, then you are healthy body. You can do everything very nicely.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1974, Geneva:

Bhagavān: (about passerby) He's got one arm, and he's running to keep healthy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughs) In the morning they begin fishing, this walking, and golfing, no engagement. These poor fellows, they have been not informed that there is better engagement. They do not know. This is their civilization. And here, Kṛṣṇa conscious young men, they are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference. They appreciate the Kṛṣṇa conscious boys. "Bright faces," they say. The priests and the common gentlemen, they say, and they inquire, "Are you American?" They see it. Come and see in our Los Angeles temple, in every temple, how these younger boys and girls are sitting so peacefully, look so nice. Is it not? A year ago, all hellish. Hellish. The same boys, the same girls. That's a fact. Just the counterpart of our society is the hippies-frustrated, all disappointed, mad. They should come forward now to cooperate with this movement. The other day one somebody came to solve the problems of the hippies.

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: That is... We are speaking, that you cannot do anything. Even in spite of your so-called health (indistinct) or old, you cannot stop it.

Robert Gouiran: So you don't think that somebody could be an instrument to help other?

Prabhupāda: What is that instrument if this instrument is blunt or what is the use of that instrument? Simply possessing one instrument is sufficient? It must work, but if it does not work? You cannot stop death, you cannot stop birth, you cannot stop old age, you cannot stop disease.

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Ignorances. They have opined, they have given the opinion that children born between the ages of twenty years and thirty-six years, they are healthy. But we have got experience that children born even at..., in India, twelve, thirteen years, they were healthy.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: They were what, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Satsvarūpa: The parents were twelve or thirteen. The children were healthy. But this magazine said that children are healthy if the parents are from twenty-one to thirty-six.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: In the Bhāgavatam, you said that by the age of sixteen, a girl should be married, or twenty-four for a man. We were just reading that...

Prabhupāda: That is the maximum.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: We were just reading that.

Prabhupāda: The point is that supposing this twenty to thirty-six years is nice age... For women. But before twenty years, she is sacked, and her health is broken. What she'll produce, children? Because this is... The girls, from twelve years, thirteen years, nowadays, they begin sex.

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: So before she reaches twenty years, twenty times she must have taken contraceptive method. And that means her health is ruined. What she'll produce? They are given in the schools, colleges, contraceptive tablets. And they are prohibiting, "Don't get child before twenty years." What is this nonsense? This is the difficulty. All rascals, they have taken leadership. Women should, should be allowed to beget children as soon as they're able. But as soon as the pregnancy is there, there should not be any sex life. They have got sex life in pregnancy also. So many things, we have... We can guide them all, all these rascals. From śāstra, we can guide them. Therefore immediately human society, a class of men who are fully conversant with the Vedic conclusion required to guide these rascals, socially, politically, in every respect.

Room Conversation with Monsieur Mesman, Chief of Law House of Paris -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Oh, sandeśa. It is milk preparation. Give him one more. No, no. This sandeśa, you give him one more. So our recommendation is, "Don't kill cow." Take milk and make thousands of preparations, all nutritious and very healthy. They do not know how to use cow. Instead of killing, if we take, let the animal live and give us milk, and from the milk, we make hundreds of preparations. The milk is nothing but blood, transformation of blood. So we take the blood by killing the animal, but we do not wish to kill such an important animal, but they take the blood in form of milk and make preparation. And those who are flesh-eaters, let them wait for the death of the cow.

Room Conversation with Mr. Deshimaru -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: That is the trouble, yes. He does not know what is the sleeping in healthy condition and what is the eating in healthy condition. He thinks this eating and that eating the same. (French)

Pṛthu Putra: He says for him, spiritual and material, they are going together. In spiritual is something material, and in material is something spiritual. And they are... Together they form harmony, and this harmony is the goal.

Prabhupāda: But he has no knowledge that although... Just like here is my leg, and here is my nail. Now when I cut the nail I don't feel, and as soon as you come little later, the skin, you feel pain. So they are one. But why there is no sensation, and why there is sensation? (French)

Yogeśvara: He doesn't understand the analogy. He doesn't understand the example, how that explains spiritual life as compared to material life.

Prabhupāda: Then why... How he will understand? Let me know. I will tell him. Let me know how he will understand.

Room Conversation with Mr. Deshimaru -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: "Me" means from the spiritual master. If you don't work for Viṣṇu, Yajña, yajñārthe karmaṇaḥ anyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9), then you will be entangled in this birth and death. Just like if I do not know what is healthy life, then, if I live whimsically then I will infect so many contaminous disease, and I will have to suffer one after another, one after another, one after another. Therefore the aim is Viṣṇu. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). These people, they do not know that what is the aim of life, the aim is Viṣṇu. Durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ. They are implicated with the external energy, therefore very much anxious to mitigate this suffering, mitigate that suffering, mitigate that suffering, that suffering, that suf... The suffering will never end. Simply they will be bewildered, one after another, one after another, sometimes man's life, sometimes a dog's life, sometimes cat's life. That's life. So this kind of philosophy is propounded by blind men. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ. One blind man is guiding another blind man without knowing the strict, stringent laws of nature. (aside:) There is one bead lying for three hundred years there. Whose? He has taken initiation. He does not know where is the bead? On the... There is a bead. Just see.

Room Conversation with Professor Oliver La Combe Director of the Sorbonne University -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Professor La Combe: Oh, I shall be seventy after three weeks.

Prabhupāda: Oh. I am also seventy-eight. But your health is better than me. You have got your natural teeth?

Professor La Combe: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Oh, then very good. (laughter)

Professor La Combe: This is a nice...

Prabhupāda: Yes, this place is nice.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: Zero, yes. Well, zero from the point of view of the alter ego, but this zero is everything from the outside. From the point of view of the natural ego it's zero, but once you touch it, it's the plenitude, everything. But it's beyond something and everything, as far as I understand it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is beyond. That beyond is realized, as I explained to you, in different angle of vision. Some, impersonal, without any variety, and some, localized Paramātmā, and some, the Supreme Being. As you are sitting, I am sitting, we are talking, so the Absolute Truth is a person, Supreme Person, Supreme Being, and we approach Him, talk with Him, sit with Him, play with Him. That is Kṛṣṇa realization. First of all, negation of the material varieties, then impersonal realization, then localized realization, then personal realization. Just like a diseased man. First of all cure, then healthy activities. A diseased man has got activities. He also eats, he also sleeps, he also evacuates, but all troublesome. Therefore, being disgusted, he wanted to make everything zero. But if he hears that again sleeping, again eating, again evacuating is healthy life, he thinks it is something like his diseased condition. But healthy life is different from diseased life. So some philosophers, they are trying to negate this diseased condition only, without any realization of healthy life. So I think Buddha philosophy is called nirvāṇa, negation of this diseased condition of life, pains and pleasure. Am I right or wrong?

Professor Durckheim: You are certainly right. We see the... It is a big... In our work, as I see it, to realize that what from one point of view seems too bad, bad, for instance, illness or dying, what the natural ego does not like, if you goes through, it's also the threshold to quite a different reality.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Yes, different it is. The same example, as I gave you: In diseased condition the reality is something, and healthy condition, the reality is something else. But if we compare the reality of healthy life with the realities of diseased life, that will be a misconception.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: The consciousness is covered by impurity, just like your health is covered by disease, and the symptom is fever. But that is a covering. That is not your healthy state. Similarly, my consciousness, when I think that "I am American," "I am German," "I am this," "I am that," "I am that," that is impurity. And when he thinks that "I am neither German, neither American, nor this nor that. I am part and parcel of God," that is pure consciousness.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: Now may I put a question? Just I think there is one way to reconcile. This was given just now as a Christian view or of the other side, as far as the body is concerned, because I think there are three consciousness, conscience of body. The one looks only at health, the second one only of beauty, but the third one we are never talking about has to look to transparence of our body consciousness, to become transparent in a way that in our body and through our body we might look for the Absolute Truth.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Professor Durckheim: That this goes together. (German)

Prabhupāda: Yes. So the thing is that if my life is based on false conception that "I am this body," so the bodily appreciation of beauty or any other thing, that is also false. That is also false. If I am not this body, then anything conceived in relation with this body, that is false. (German)

Vedavyāsa: He says that usually we see the body in connection with beauty or health. But there is another possibility, to use the body as a transparent medium to conceive the Absolute Truth.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is explained here. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. That means with this body you should not waste your time like the birds and beasts but utilize it for inquiring about the Absolute Truth. That is reality.

Morning Walk -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Haṁsadūta: In greenhouses. They play music. Then they become more healthy.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Their sensation is very covered. Just like you cut the nails. There is no sensation. And does it mean there is no sensation-therefore there is no life? Unless there is life, how it is growing? It is growing; therefore you cut. But when you cut, there is no sensation. But there is life. Otherwise, how it is growing? The same nail, when you cut, you throw it on the ground. It will not grow. These are practical example. Just like little child. Their sensation is less. I know. My eldest daughter, when she was six months old, there was some boil. So the doctor operated.

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

Rāmeśvara: They consider it a delicacy in the restaurants for the macrobiotic people, the young people who are into health foods. It's a health food. It's a delicacy.

Prabhupāda: This is also eaten. (laughter) Yes. This is eaten by the Japanese. They eat it.

Bali Mardana: They say it contains much iodine, certain minerals.

Prabhupāda: They make some food and it is sold. What is called, that? They make some cakes by soaking in the water.

Page Title:Health (Conversations 1967 - 1974)
Compiler:Rishab, Mayapur
Created:18 of May, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=77, Let=0
No. of Quotes:77