Formerly there was monarchy, and the kings were called rājarṣis, saintly king. Imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). These instruction are meant for the rājarṣis, not for the śūdras. So the rājarṣis, they would take instruction from superior authority, brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas, and they will accordingly rule over. And the vaiśyas would produce food grains sufficiently and milk sufficiently. People would eat very nicely, and they keep their health fit and save time for understanding his relationship with God. That is perfect civilization.
Health (Conversations 1975 - 1976)
Expressions researched:
"health"
|"health's"
|"healthful"
|"healthfully"
|"healthier"
|"healthiest"
|"healthily"
|"healthiness"
|"healthy"
Conversations and Morning Walks
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation with Bernard Manischewitz -- March 5, 1975, New York:
Prabhupāda: Yes. Nutritional information means that we require for balance food: starch, carbohydrate, protein, fat. What else? Starch, carbohydrate, protein, fat. These are necessary nutrition, but these things are there in vegetable diet. Rice, starch; wheat, protein; dahl, protein; then vegetable, carbohydrate; and milk, fat. So if we take food and test it within these four, five groups... Eat according to our conception, sattvikaḥ. Sattvikaḥ means foodstuff in goodness. There are three qualities in the material world—goodness, passion and ignorance. So they are described: these are goodness foods, these are passion, these are ignorance. So these items: rice, wheat, vegetables, dahl and milk is sufficient for nutrition. Above that, you take little fruit, it is very good. And in India this foodstuff is taken by the learned circle—brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas—and they keep very good health, very good life.
Room Conversation with Bernard Manischewitz -- March 5, 1975, New York:
Prabhupāda: Yes. This is experience. You will find many healthy persons in India subsisting only on these foodstuffs, and they have good brain also. India is still, I think, eighty percent people are strictly vegetarian. Not to speak of the higher class, but the lower class also. The higher class, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and vaiśya. Vaiśya is via media, between higher and lower. And the śūdras and less that the śūdras, caṇḍālas, they are lower class. So meat-eating is current among these lower class of men, śūdras and caṇḍālas. The caṇḍālas, they have no discrimination, they eat everything, and śūdras, they eat meat, but under restriction. Some of them do not; some of them do, but under restriction, and that is restricted with the goat animal. Less than the śūdras-caṇḍālas, pañcama, fifth grade—they eat everything. Especially they eat—because cow protection in India is very strict—so these caṇḍālas, fifth grade men, they eat generally pigs. Pigs they eat. Outside the village, they have their residential quarters, and they fry live pigs. And they make... Not daily; sometimes. But they eat pigs, and amongst them, there is a class—they are cobblers—they eat this cows' flesh when the animal is dead, not living and we'll kill.
Room Conversation with Canadian Ambassador to Iran -- March 13, 1975, Iran:
Prabhupāda: You are looking little reduced than before, in health.
Ambassador: Oh, perhaps slightly older.
Prabhupāda: You are not as old as I am. What is your age?
Ambassador: I am fifty-six.
Prabhupāda: Oh, you are just like my child. My first child was born 1921. What is your birth date?
Ambassador: That was three years earlier. So there you are.
Prabhupāda: 1918? In that year I was married. I was student at that time. I was student, 1900 up to '20. Then I joined Gandhi's noncooperation movement and gave up my education. His points were to give up English education, English court, English-manufactured goods, in this way.
Morning Walk -- April 2, 1975, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: Therefore, because you have no brain, therefore you cannot understand the rasas with Kṛṣṇa. That is spiritual; that is not material. Ānanda-rasa. Ananda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). That is the Vedic statement. There is cinmaya. In the spiritual world there is ananda. You... You have no knowledge. You, due to your poor fund of knowledge, you think that in the spiritual world there is no rasa; it is simply void, negation of this rasa. Just like a diseased man. He is practiced to drink bitter medicine and pass stool on the bed and so many inconveniences, so if some of his friends says, "When you'll be cured, you'll be able to pass stool in the lavatory. You haven't got to, haven't got to pass stool..." Then he shudders: "Again I have to pass stool after becoming cured? Again I have to eat? No, no, this is not good. Make it zero." He has no idea what is the meaning of passing stool in healthy stage.
Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: Therefore we are offering this place. Come here. Why do you not come here and live with us? Then this is... The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is... This is the movement, that you come here, live with us, and produce your food, produce your milk, be happy, healthy, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is our movement. Therefore we are creating New Vrindaban and farm, and we are trying to purchase... This is our movement, that we give you sufficient food, shelter, health, philosophy, religion, character, everything, purity. Come here. Why don't you come? They come here on the weekdays, and then fly away, go away. You see? We are giving such nice room, but they will not live here. They will go to the hubble-bubble of the city. They like to come here. Therefore they spend so much money for gas and come here. But because they are not accustomed, they go back again. Return ticket. From hell to heaven, and again hell (laughter) Return ticket-coming back to hell again, not going back to God.
Morning Walk -- April 6, 1975, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: Yes, buffalos. Cow is very important animal. Therefore it is recommended to protect it. From social benefit point of view, it is essential that cow should be protected so that you can get lots of milk preparations and keep your health very nice. So many nice preparations can be made from milk. In New Vrindaban, the other farmers, they come. They are surprised to see: "Oh, so many nice preparations!" They are appreciating. They do not know. It is the industrialist who has introduced this meat-eating. Because they are attracting men from village to work in the factory, so they have made it a policy that "We shall eat cow's flesh. That's all. We don't require..." In Russia, practically, they eat only cow's flesh. They do not know anything else to eat.
Morning Walk -- April 6, 1975, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Is yogurt as healthy as milk?
Prabhupāda: No. Yogurt is healthy when you cannot digest properly. One who can digest, for him, milk is better.
Pañcadraviḍa: (Heavy wind static) Even now the...
Prabhupāda: Where? (end)
Conversation with Governor -- April 20, 1975, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, sva-karmaṇā tam abhyarcya saṁsiddhiḥ labhate naraḥ (BG 18.46). That is another way, that "I have no other means of earning livelihood." But if he becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, then even though he is acting as an electrician, he is in touch with Kṛṣṇa. That is recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā, sva-karmaṇā tam abhyarcya. That I explained in the varṇāśrama-dharma, that even though leg is leg, it is not as important as the head. But the leg is also required to keep the body in healthy condition. So that electrician who has connection with Kṛṣṇa, he is no more electrician; he is Vaiṣṇava because he has got his relationship with Kṛṣṇa. So that is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Find out Bhagavad-gītā. Sva-karmaṇā tam abhyarcya saṁsiddhiḥ labhate naraḥ. You can get perfection.
Morning Walk -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:
Madhudviṣa: That is a subjective experience. When you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa you can say, "Oh, I feel good," but to someone who won't chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, if there was some objective way of measuring the difference between the Hare Kṛṣṇa sound and the sound of, let's say, someone's name.
Prabhupāda: No, the sound is the same. I gave you the example. The tongue is the same, but according to your condition of life you taste differently. Tongue is not different. But if you are diseased, then with this tongue you taste something else. And if you are in healthy condition, with the same tongue you can taste differently.
Room Conversation with Director of Research of the Dept. of Social Welfare -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:
Prabhupāda: That is a foolishness. They are not eating meat for the last ten years. Do you think they are reduced in their health? Rather people say bright faces. In Boston one priest, I was going from Los Angeles to Hawaii. One gentleman in plain dress, he is a priest, he said, "Swamiji, how your students look so bright?" And sometimes we are advertised as bright faces. In Boston or somewhere the ladies were asking, "Are you American?"
Director: How would you react if somebody breaks into this place and tries to rob some of the...
Madhudviṣa: He says "How would we react if someone breaks in and tries to rob the building?"
Prabhupāda: Rob?
Madhudviṣa: A thief. What would we do if a thief came in? In other words, would we be violent?
Prabhupāda: If a thief came in we shall punish him.
Morning Walk -- May 22, 1975, Melbourne:
Prabhupāda: Yes, but there are snakes which has got jewel on the head. That light keeps them illuminated.
Madhudviṣa: But does that light also keep them healthy?
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Madhudviṣa: Like the sun gives us, keeps us healthy.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Morning Walk -- May 23, 1975, Melbourne:
Prabhupāda: So that means nobody will die. Is there... The law is it to die. Why disease? Disease or no disease, everyone should die.
Śrutakīrti: But if we kill the cow without it, while it is healthy, then it is very good to eat the meat.
Prabhupāda: Yes, but the argument is die. As soon as you kill, it is died. As soon as you take the fish out of the water it dies. So how you can say that dead animal is not good? It is dead. For argument's sake, "A dead animal is not good," but you make him dead. Then you eat. Where is the argument that dead animal is bad? You are eating dead. That means they are not even common sense. That is the rascaldom. Rascal means one who has no common sense even.
Morning Walks -- June 18-19, 1975, Honolulu:
Prabhupāda: (in car:) ...and Russian, they are different country. Chinese, Oriental; Russian, Occidental.
Siddha-svarūpa: Yes. Like all Occidental countries or at least in the United States, there is the philosophy that, if you have sex, that your sexual energy will not be lost. In other words, their feeling is that one doesn't lose his health or strength from having too much sex or from using his sexual energy, whereas the Chinese, they are very... Everyone in the society for centuries and centuries have accepted that even for physical strength and, mental strength it's very important not to...
Prabhupāda: Indulge in sex.
Siddha-svarūpa: ...indulge in sex so that it's just a cultural thing that they actually try to control that just for health and mental power, whereas in the west the leaders and the people in general... (break)
Prabhupāda: ...and because they indulge too much in sex, therefore they cannot understand. That is the proof they are fools.
Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: These are all material necessities. So if you come to the spiritual platform, the test is that you have no material necessities. So long you are diseased, you require medicine, but when you are not diseased there is no need of medicine. It is the healthy state. So so long we are materially diseased, we require all these material necessities. So when you are on the spiritual platform there is no material (indistinct). Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau **, then you conquer over even our prime necessities, eating, sleeping, mating, and defense, the prime necessities the primary necessities, you don't require. You will sleep less, you will eat less, there is no need of mating, (indistinct), very less. So the lesser, lesser you become, that means spiritual. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra (SB 11.2.42). Your spiritual advancement means you become reluctant, disgusted with this, no more.
Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Because even if you find somebody diseased, still, spiritual consciousness is not hampered. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, ahaituky apratihatā. Apratihatā means without any impediment. There is no checking. Just like in the Ganges water you will sometimes find the stool is floating there. But that does not mean the Ganges water has become polluted. It is practical. In Calcutta, in our childhood, I was taking bath in the Ganges with my father. Many gentlemen regularly takes bath in the Ganges. And the modern scientific method is: all the garbage, throw into the river. So we were taking bath, and here is some stool floating. So we used to drive away the stool and take bath. The stool is unable to pollute the Ganges water. You will find in India still. The advanced gentlemen... "The dirty water," they say, Ganges water. But you will find practically, that anyone who is taking regular bathing in this dirty water, he is healthy. You will find. It is very healthy. No disease touches him ordinarily. Of course, the body is susceptible to disease, but generally, those who are taking regular bath in the Ganges water, they are not diseased. You will find it practically still. So as the stool floating in the Ganges water cannot pollute the Ganges water, similarly, a devotee, even if you find scientifically that he is crazy or he is diseased, that is not impediment.
Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: No, even if you find... You cannot find it, but even if you find, that is not impediment.
Bahulāśva: Śrīla Prabhupāda, what these tests will show is that when a person came first he was doing some drugs or some nonsense, and now that he's taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he has become so much more of a healthy and wholesome person.
Prabhupāda: That is the test. That is the real test, how we got so many devotees from the hippie group, so how they have given up all their bad habits. This is the real test.
Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: And they will say that because they are not eating meat, they are weak in health.
Dharmādhyakṣa: But their children are not chanting and dancing. You see? In their schools... When people come here and they see the young children chanting and dancing and so energetic, they say, "Where are these children getting their energy?"
Prabhupāda: That is real study.
Morning Walk -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: So retire.
Dharmādhyakṣa: He's in very good health, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Bahulāśva: We spoke with him that when we incorporate Berkeley temple as a university, he can be affiliated with that, and he thought that would be very nice.
Prabhupāda: Oh. So let him help that our center be affiliated.
Morning Walk -- June 25, 1975, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: ...manufacturing so many things, United Nations, World Health Organization, and this philanthropism, but the real thing is wanting that the human life is meant for understanding God, there is no such organization. This is the only organization, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. (break) ...neglectful I do not know. (break)
Devotee: I'm very happy in my new engagement. I'm finding very much success now. We have made four devotees since I have left, three days.
Prabhupāda: Oh, very good. (break) ...the definition of God according to the theologicians?
Dr. Judah: Well, there would be many different definitions of God, I suppose, in Christian theology.
Prabhupāda: Why many?
Dr. Judah: It involves various theologies...
Prabhupāda: There is no summary?
Dr. Judah: No. There is no actual statement of any one person or any concept concerning God that would be accepted by all Christians. There are various theologies about God, as I said.
Prabhupāda: No, theologists, some of the prominent theologist, what do they say? How they describe God?
Dr. Judah: Well, it depends upon whether one is a Lutheran or a Calvinist or...
Prabhupāda: Let any one of them say something, I want to hear.
Morning Walk -- June 28, 1975, Denver:
Harikeśa: Hawaii was not a very healthy place for me. Hawaii.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Harikeśa: All the rain and the sun and the rain.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...you will find today's text. It has given very nice example, that the prostitute changes her dress to attract people. Similarly, we are changing our dress for sense gratification. Yes. (break) Nature, material nature, has been described as the prostitute, and we are trying to become the husband of the prostitute. Has anyone become happy by becoming husband of a prostitute? (laughs) (break) ...Paṇḍita has said, duṣṭā bhāryā śāṭhaṁ mitraṁ bhṛtyaś cottara-dāyakaḥ, sasarpe ca gṛhe vāso mṛtyur eva na saṁśayaḥ. A prostitute wife, duṣṭā bhāryā, and dupli..., what is called, duplicity? One who speaks something and heard something? What is called? Hypocrite.
Morning Walk -- June 28, 1975, Denver:
Satsvarūpa: Oh, yes. There's a very high altitude. It's a mile high. They call it "the mile high city." Because it's five thousand feet above sea level. It's supposed to be good for health.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...in India up country. Up country, in northern India. It is very good health, Punjab, because up country. (break) ...place Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says,
- māṭā yasya gṛhe nāsti
- bhāryā cāpriya-vādinī
- aranyaṁ tena gantavyaṁ
- yathāranyaṁ tathā gṛham
A man who hasn't affectionate mother at home, neither very good wife, so he should immediately give up that home and go to the forest because for him it is as good, either you remain in forest or in home." (chuckles) How intelligent.
Morning Walk -- July 1, 1975, Denver:
Yadubara: That is what they say in these books on health, these health books. They say that cow milk is no good.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā?
Harikeśa: But meat is all right.
Yadubara: No, some of them, most of them don't say that. It's very contaminating to read those and to follow.
Prabhupāda: Therefore follow taking prasādam. Let whatever may happen.
Room Conversation with the Mayor of Evanston -- July 4, 1975, Chicago:
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. We invite. As soon as they have got a leisure hour, let them come and live with us for one week and see the result. They can remain forever. It doesn't matter. But for experimental sake they can come, live with us and associate with us. It is not difficult. And we invite everyone. We have no such discrimination that black, white, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, no. Anyone. It is universal. Because we consider every living entity is part and parcel of God. That is a fact. We are teeny gods, part and parcel. The same quality we have got—in minute quantity. Quality is the same, quantity is less. So God is good, so we are also good. But we have become bad under circumstances. Just like under infection, one becomes diseased. So if we cure that infection, again he becomes good. So it is the curing process. It is not an external artificial thing, imposed upon somebody, no. His goodness is there. Just like generally a man is healthy, but by infecting some disease he becomes diseased. So this material way of life is a kind of infection.
Room Conversation with the Mayor of Evanston -- July 4, 1975, Chicago:
Prabhupāda: No, social reform will automatically come. The first-class reform, the brāhmaṇas, if their advice is taken, then the other classes the kṣatriya, vaiśyas, and śūdras, they become automatically.
Mayor: We're aware that a religious approach is more successful and our mental health society here is funding the Reverend Perry who is a black ordained, I think, a Baptist protestant minister, formerly a drug addict. And he's been working out with, especially with the blacks who have drug addiction and he achieves much more success than other agencies.
Prabhupāda: Which process? Drug addiction has been helped by somebody?
Brahmānanda: No, the mayor's saying that the administration is not against supporting religious organizations.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Room Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Wax, Writer and Editing Manager of Playboy Magazine -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:
Prabhupāda: It has to be. If you don't, then you must suffer with all these criminals. That is natural. Just like in your body there is head, and there is arm, and there is belly, and there is leg. The head is the most important part. Why? Why not all legs? Why there are different divisions? Similarly, in the human society, if we want to make it perfect, there must be head, there must be arm, there must be belly, there must be legs. So leg can walk, but leg cannot do the work of brain. So at the present moment we have got all walking men, no brain. Therefore the society is in chaotic condition. There is no brain in the society. That is the defect of modern civilization. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). According to quality and work, there are four divisions. (aside:) You can push it back. Four divisions. So similarly, four divisions must be there: a group of men, first-class; a group of men, administrators; a group of men, food producer; and a group of men, general worker. So the brain is the chief. If your body... There are other parts, but if your head is cut off, then what is the use of other parts? If your hand is cut off, you can live. If your leg is cut off, you can live. But if your head is cut off, then finished. So that is lacking in the present society, no brain how to guide, so that whole human... If the brain is there, then it can guide. It can ask the hand to work in a certain way, the leg to work in certain way, to eat in a certain way. Then the health of the whole body will be quite competent. But if there is no brain, then everything... Just like a man becomes mad when the brain is not working.
Room Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Wax, Writer and Editing Manager of Playboy Magazine -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:
Prabhupāda: So that is stated in the Bhagavad..., er, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that during Mahārāja Yudhisthira's time the cows were so jubilant that milk was dropping from the milkbags, so much so that the pasturing grounds became muddy with milk. So if you keep... Killing of cows means utilizing the blood in different form. The milk is also another transformation of the blood. So if you take milk sufficiently and prepare nice foodstuff, then it is equally beneficial like the meat from health point of view. But one must know the..., learn that keep the cow living; at the same time be benefited by the blood. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā you will find this word kṛṣi-go-rakṣya. Go-rakṣya. This animal has to be protected. Not other animals it is mentioned. And go, cow. So those who are meat-eaters, they can eat nonimportant animals. But cows should be given protection. This is the instruction. But in the western country the cows are specially being killed. Now the reaction is war, crime, and they are now repentant. And they will have to repent more and more.
Morning Walk -- July 8, 1975, Chicago:
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...is concerned, "How Kṛṣṇa will keep good health?" And we are concerned, "Kṛṣṇa will go to hell. Please supply me food so that I might keep my health good." That is the difference between materialistic and spiritualist. The foolish man does not understand that Kṛṣṇa is supplying food to the elephant, to the ant, and why I shall go to the church for asking my food? It is already there. And our policy is, "Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, please engage me in Your service." Hare Kṛṣṇa means, "O Kṛṣṇa, O the energy of Kṛṣṇa, please engage me in Your service." We create problem. Otherwise, no problem. Kṛṣṇa has arranged everything. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Just see so many fruits for the birds. They are so sumptuously supplied, they are thrown. Pūrṇam idam (Īśo Invocation). Everything is sufficient. But these rascal blind, they do not know. They are trying to adjust. What adjustment? It is already sufficient. You are misusing that. Sufficient land, sufficient intelligence. Everything is sufficient. They are misusing. In Africa, in Australia, sufficient land, and they are raising cattle to kill them. This is their intelligence. And growing coffee and tea.
Morning Walk -- July 8, 1975, Chicago:
Sudāmā: And they even indicate, Prabhupāda, on the advertisements that smoking is hazardous for the health.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...for money, the money which will push them to hell. This is their intelligence. We have to give them intelligence, open their eyes. (break) ...angry first of all because mūrkhāyo 'padeśo hi prakopāya na śāntaye: "If you give good intelligence to the fools and rascals, they will be angry." But still, you have to do it. Just like when Nityānanda Prabhu went to Jagāi-Mādhāi to deliver them, they became angry and injured. So that is preacher. These rascals will be angry, will sometimes do harm to you, and still, you have to do it. That is preaching. Are you understanding what is preaching? Yes. You have to prepare like that. At all risk you have to preach. (break) ...world is full of rascals, and you have to educate them. So according to one's capacity let them preach, prāṇair arthair dhiyā vācā. But everyone can preach to some extent. There is no hindrance.
Press Conference -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:
Prabhupāda: Just like part and parcel of our body, this finger, it is always engaged in serving the body according to the desire of the person. Similarly, we being part and parcel of God, our duty is to serve God as He wants service from us. This is perfection. If the finger or any part of my body cannot give service to the whole body, it is to be understood that the part is diseased. Similarly, when we do not give service to God, that is our material condition, or diseased condition, or miserable condition. And if we learn how to love God, how to serve Him, that is our healthy condition. So in the material world everyone is busy how to satisfy the senses. Nobody is interested to satisfy God. So in this condition of life we are misled, misled in this way, that we have got this human form of body, very nice body, and if we are misled, instead of giving service to the Lord, if we simply are engaged in the service of the senses, then we become subject to the karma or fruitive activities. That means we get different types of body.
Morning Walk -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:
Prabhupāda: They are already doing that.
Rāmeśvara: It is considered a health food in many vegetarian restaurants, they import it as a health food.
Prabhupāda: That Ahmedabad, that gentleman in his house, you were guest, you were in Ahmedabad?
Jayatīrtha: Ahmedabad, that...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:
Ṛṣi-kumāra: You have to possess some food and some shelter.
Prabhupāda: No, no. The food is supplied. Who is supplying food? If there is a hole in your room and so many thousands of ants are coming out, who is supplying food? Are you supplying that "Here is a hole. There are ants. They must be given some food"? Of course, that is your duty according to Vedic civilization. But who is doing that? But he is quite healthy. There are so many fishes in the water, many millions. Who is giving food them? There are many elephants in African jungles. They eat at a time forty kilos. So who is supplying food? This is not the problem. If the bird, beast, animals, fishes, aquatics and cats, dogs, everyone, can get food, what you have done that you will not get your food? You are human being. This is the right conclusion, that "If food is supplied to the elephants and to the ant by some superior arrangement, what I have done that I will not get my food?" Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ. Find out this verse. It is not in Bhagavad-gītā. In Bhāgavata.
Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:
Bhojadeva: Plant?
Prabhupāda: Yes. So it dies before. All these food grain plants, when the food grains are ripened, they dry. So it is not required to kill the plant. When it is already dead, you can take the food grains. When you take milk, the cow is not killed. The milk is nothing but transformation of the blood. So we are taking milk means blood. The blood is in a red color, and milk is in white color, but it is blood. Unless it is blood, how so much liquid comes from the body? So we take the same blood in a very intelligible way so that cow may live, he can continue to give me more and more, and I take more benefit from the wonderful food, milk. This is intelligence. And because cow blood is very beneficial for health, if I kill the cow, that is not very good intelligence. In our New Vrindaban the cows are giving more milk than others because they know we shall not kill them.
Morning Walk -- July 27, 1975, San Diego:
Prabhupāda: No, this keeps healthy.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's good for the body.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Śīrṣāsana, it is called, "sitting on the head," Śīrṣāsana. Śīrṣāsana, padmāsana, yogāsana. There are so many āsanas.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We don't practice those.
Prabhupāda: We have no time from sleeping. (laughter) Otherwise, this is not bad. This is not bad. It keeps good health, these yogāsana.
Jayatīrtha: So if we have time we can do that?
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Not required.
Morning Walk -- July 31, 1975, Dallas:
Prabhupāda: (in car:) Why money? "No. Because I will be able to satisfy my senses more and more." This is the whole civilization. They have no other aim, no other ideas. "How to get money?"
Brahmānanda: Another thing that is difficult for health is the constant flying in jet plane
Room Conversation -- July 31, 1975, New Orleans:
Prabhupāda: That is not very healthy.
Brahmānanda: Oh, no. But they have made it so that there's less...
Prabhupāda: They are impetus to catch their disease.
Brahmānanda: So these are the reactions.
Prabhupāda: Yes. The disease is already there, but we have made such a disease that it will be incurable.
Room Conversation -- July 31, 1975, New Orleans:
Prabhupāda: ...healthy place.
Nityānanda: So mostly gṛhasthas should stay on the farms, or brahmacārīs also? Prabhupāda: No, brahmacārīs and sannyāsīs especially they should preach. And gṛhasthas may produce necessities. They also preach, preaching everyone. Especially for brahmacārī and sannyāsī.
Room Conversation with Devotees -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans:
Upendra: At the moment of pregnancy? From the moment of pregnancy one and a half years?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Pregnancy is understood at three months. From that month till further, sixteen months at least, she should not come to be near husband. That is eka-kadi (?). The child does not live. And they are not inclined to come unless a man induces. So the man, if he has got more than one wife, so man will not disturb her. And she will take rest for the next eighteen months. So after ten months she will give birth to the child, and for six months continually she will take care of the child. Feeding the child with breast milk, the child will be healthy. If the child can take mother's milk for six months at least continually, he'll become healthy for life.
Room Conversation with Devotees -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans:
Devotee (1): I have heard that.
Prabhupāda: No. This is not good. Ghee should be prepared where there is no more use. The Indian village, simply by keeping cows, they... Just like Nanda Mahārāja was keeping cows. Similarly there are many villages. So the system is: they have got a big pan, and whatever milk is collected, put into that pan. It is being warmed. So they drink, the whole family members. They drink milk whenever they like. So whatever milk remains at night, they have to convert it into yogurt. The next day they use milk and yogurt also, as he likes. Then, after converting the milk into yogurt, still, it remains. It is stocked. So when there is sufficient old yogurt, they churn it and then butter comes out. So they take the butter, and the water separated from the butter, that is called whey? Whey, yes. So they... Instead of dahl, they use this whey, for capati. It will be very healthy and tasty. And then the butter they turn into ghee.
Morning Walk -- August 12, 1975, Paris:
Brahmānanda: Yes. There are certain pending investigations. So he is eligible for being called to give testimony for these investigations. But on the plea of his bad health, therefore he is not being called. He is afraid actually. Right now he does not go to any social gatherings, he does not make any public appearances. He is afraid that as soon as he makes public appearances, then he will be called to give testimony. So he is actually being forced to live a very lonely life.
Prabhupāda: Lonely life means drinking. What he will do? (break) ...this was made by Napoleon?
Bhagavān: Yes.
Brahmānanda: So the arch is still here. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: People, they come to see the arch. Just like in Rome, so many broken buildings, thousands of men go to see them, and they get good income, tourist.
Morning Walk -- September 6, 1975, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Ha. (break) ... putrakā yena śuddhyet sattva. Our existentional position should be purified. How? Tapo, by tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattva (SB 5.5.1). "And we are enjoying life. Why we should undergo tapasya?" And you are enjoying, but you are not enjoying; you are suffering. Even if you think you are enjoying, there are so many sufferings. That the foolish people, they do not know. Just like a healthy man, he thinks, "I am enjoying," but he does not see that even he is now healthy, he will be an old man, he will be attacked with disease, he will die, and still he thinks, "I am healthy." Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Therefore the intelligent man will see that "Where is my enjoyment if I am going to die? I don't want to die, but I am going to die." That is sure, as sure as anything. And still the rascal will think that "I am happy." He will become old man, he will be attacked with disease, and still he is thinking that he is happy. Apart from this, there are so many other sufferings, but he thinks that he is happy. And that happiness is centered around sex. That's all. Yan maithunadi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). Their only happiness is sex. Therefore in the Western countries they are simply trying to increase the sex enjoyment. That's all. Is it not?
Morning Walk -- September 18, 1975, Vrndavana:
Dhanañjaya: So Bhargava has taken many good shots of the Deities on color film, and Gopāla Kṛṣṇa informed me that we should print postcard-size photos of the Deities and sell them for fifty paisas each. So that, Gopāla Kṛṣṇa is arranging for. (break) ...demand for prasādam will go on increasing because one doctor came to our temple and informed us that at Bankebihari Mandir, because they have been giving out old prasādam, selling old prasādam, which is not in accordance with the health safety rules, they are going to take away that privilege of selling prasādam from Bankebihari temple.
Prabhupāda: So you don't do that. You prepare and sell fresh. Don't prepare more what is required. You have brought that pulleys?
Dhanañjaya: Yes. And he got two.
Prabhupāda: You have fixed up?
Guṇārṇava: They are fixing today. They started the work.
Prabhupāda: You know how to fix?
Guṇārṇava: Yes. They know how to do it.
Prabhupāda: One bamboo, you just crosswise fix up and then in the middle... The rope should come through one pulley first, then the second pulley. Then it will not go out.
Morning Walk -- Durban, October 13, 1975 :
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Free.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And advertise, "If you drink tea, then you will not feel very much hungry. Your health will be improved," and so on, so on. In this way they distribute pamphlet and giving free. Just like we distribute prasādam, they used to distribute very tasteful tea, and people liked it: "Oh, it is very nice." Then they began to drink. Vigorous propaganda. And culturally, in our school days they wrote… One Mr. N. Ghosh, he, bribed by the Britishers, he wrote one book, England's Work in India.
Morning Walk -- Durban, October 13, 1975 :
Prabhupāda: Yes. They have finished all their theories. Still, they could not do anything. This is their position. (break) Margarine is also another bluff. It is oil; it is taken as ghee, er, butter.
Harikeśa: They say it's very healthy for you.
Prabhupāda: They will say.
Harikeśa: It doesn’t have all those cholesterols.
Prabhupāda: Otherwise how they will sell? They will say. They will present anything nonsense in flowery language, and people will be cheated. That's all.
Room Conversation -- October 15, 1975, Johannesburg:
Prabhupāda: That may be in few cases. Generally the duration of life is reduced. Nobody lives nowadays like his forefather. So where is extension? It is reduced. And what is the extension? In old age the body becomes subjected to so many ailments. What is the use of living with ailments, with toothache and many other things? What is the use of such life? Better die young, in good health, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. What is the use of prolonged life? The prolonged life... The trees are also prolonged life. Does it mean it is happy? They live for five hundred years, five thousand years. Hundred, two hundred years' living for tree is not at all difficult. But they live for thousands of years. So is it very pleasing to live like a tree for many thousands of years? Hm?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No.
Morning Walk -- November 1, 1975, Nairobi:
Prabhupāda: They know that you have violated these rules of health, therefore you are diseased. There is no chance.
Harikeśa: But he is fit to live so he can live. But someone other than...
Prabhupāda: Nobody is fit. The doctors also become sick as soon as there is violation. The violation is the cause of sickness, so either he may be doctor or no doctor, that does not matter. If you violate, you'll be sick. That is nature's law. Nature's law.
Morning Walk -- November 2, 1975, Nairobi:
Prabhupāda: Brāhmaṇa's qualification is there—śama, dama, titikṣa, ārjavam and jñānam, vijñānam, āstikyam, brahma-karma... (BG 18.42). Everything is there, the symptoms. So you are doing business, the occupation of the vaiśyas or śūdras, and how you are claiming to become brāhmaṇa? The... Who is a brāhmaṇa, that symptoms is there in the śāstra. And not only the symptoms, Nārada Muni has said, "If these symptoms are found elsewhere, then he should be accepted according to the symptom." There is no question of birth. Yasya hi yaḻ lakṣanām proktaṁ varṇābhivyanjakaṁ yady anyātrāpi dṛṣyeta tat tenaiva viniriset. This is Nārada's vision. So it is the symptom. Just like a doctor, medical man. He diagnoses according to the symptom. He finds out the cause. So symptom is required, not that a man has become diseased or healthy by birth.
Morning Walk -- November 3, 1975, Bombay:
Dr. Patel: Mātra-spārśas tu kaunteya, sukha-duḥkha-daḥ (BG 2.14).
Prabhupāda: Yes. So long the body is there, in connection with the skin disease, we shall be suffering in so many ways. Just like there was accident. So it does not mean that because there was accident that...
Dr. Patel: But somehow or other, you have very much improved after accident, your health.
Prabhupāda: No, I was eating nicely in Africa. The climate is nice.
Indian (6): Was it?
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Dr. Patel: South Africa is just like, just like, as cold as Europe.
Prabhupāda: Not very cold, but it is cold. Durban. Durban.
Morning Walk -- November 16, 1975, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Just like the queens of Dvāraka were plundered by the Ābhīra. That's why. There is no pasturing ground. Otherwise this cow would have been taken there. He would have eaten grass. That's all. What she will eat here in the town? Even Sumati Morarji's cows, they are not healthy. (Hindi) (pause) It appears to be so because in the evening the milk, whatever you give me, that appears to be powdered milk.
Room Conversation -- November 25, 1975, Delhi:
Prabhupāda: So in every center they must rise early in the morning. They must follow the regulative principles. They must attend class. Otherwise let them go out. We don't want. And if anyone wants to marry, first of all he must show that he has some earning capacity. Not that "Because there are so many girls, and I marry one to satisfy my senses..." I thought that boy was nice, and I heard all these stories. That is also another defect, that we have got young boys and young girls open for lovemaking. And brahmacārī means strictly prohibited to see the face of woman. But we cannot stop it. That is also another defect. Fire is good and butter is good, but when they come together everything become bad. Is it not? Fire is good, just like heat. And butter is good, healthy. But when they come together the butter melts and the fire extinguished. This is māyā's arrangement. Puṁsa striyā mithunī-bhāvam etam. This whole world is going on by the sex attraction, and when they come together both of them become spoiled. Therefore it has to be dealt with very, very carefully, so many rules, regulation. (break) ...used, Nitāi?
Nitāi: Whenever there is necessity.
Prabhupāda: Compulsory.
Morning Walk -- December 7, 1975, Vrndavana:
Aksayānanda: Accha.
Prabhupāda: Yes. On the other land. Make a shed immediately and keep some cows. And Viśvambhara, he is experienced. He will help. (break) ...necessary vairāgya, there is no need. We don't approve that. Yuktāhāra-vihāras ca. What you require for keeping health but not to eat too much. But what is absolutely required must be done.
Morning Walk -- December 16, 1975, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Healthy, he's quite healthy. (Hindi conversation with other man) We repeat simply Kṛṣṇa's statement. That is our... Our mission is "Kṛṣṇa's standard"—yare dekha tare kaha kṛṣṇa upadeśa. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission. Don't manufacture, rascaldom. Simply repeat what Kṛṣṇa has said. And it is simple. And as soon as you try to manufacture, it becomes difficult. How Caitanya Mahāprabhu has made things so easy.
- amara ajnaya guru haya tare ei deśa
yare dekha, tare kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa
That's all. How simple it is. You, every one of us, we take this missionary activities of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we see immediately the face of the country will change. Every gentleman, every sane man, may speak to his family, to his community, to his nation, to his friend, what Kṛṣṇa has said. Then see the result. But they're all manufacturing, concocting. Becoming big scholars. The more you deviate from Kṛṣṇa's instructions, you become a scholar.
Morning Walk -- December 18, 1975, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: By the grace of Kṛṣṇa keeping good health.
Dr. Patel: Yes, I have got...
Prabhupāda: You never use the shoes.
Dr. Patel: But on sand this shoeless, this walking it is very...
Prabhupāda: Nehi, it is practice. So remember mahā jasha advertised.
Indian man: It is medicine.
Prabhupāda: No, not medicine.
Morning Walk -- December 19, 1975, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Ācchā. Why?
Dr. Patel: And look at him. He's so, I mean, so absolutely healthy. I mean it is, we should not laugh about it, but there is something right in it.
Prabhupāda: No, no. I don't laugh; I am surprised! (devotees laugh)
Dr. Patel: No, we are surprised. I also, I also was surprised first, but then it is not so.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa! Thank you very much (to passerby) Who is your devotee daughter?
Dr. Patel: Janice.
Morning Walk -- December 19, 1975, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: In good health.
Dr. Patel: He always runs like this. All the time. He is so much frightened of his wife in the house that he cannot speak a word. Still he is in the house. That is why he makes good of the things when he comes out. (laughs) He behaves so naughtily like that. (Hindi with one man) Sir, shall we go this way, if you don't mind?
Prabhupāda: That Mr. Punja is staying? From Fiji? He has not come?
Morning Walk -- December 23, 1975, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: So you are imperfect; therefore this movement is to make you perfect. If you are not imperfect, then why the movement is there? To make you perfect. Saṁsiddhiṁ paramaṁ gataḥ. Mām upetya kaunteya duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). So long you are imperfect, you must suffer in this material world. And as soon as you become perfect, you go back to home, back to.... Because you are imperfect, therefore this movement is necessary. Medicine is there for the patient, not for the person in perfect health. Mūdho' yaṁ nābhijānāti mām eva param avyayam (BG 7.25). These rascals they do not know Kṛṣṇa; therefore the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is necessary. Para upakāra. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says para upa, para upakāra. You know yourself what is Kṛṣṇa, and distribute this knowledge. That is wanted. That is entrusted to the Indians.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- January 12, 1976, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: But they have to accept because they cannot do it.
Dr. Patel: We give you health, sir, from the disease. We don't...
Prabhupāda: You cannot give health. Why he is dying?
Dr. Patel: Dying is not health. We talk of health and disease, not of the death and life.
Prabhupāda: No. Unless there is some disease you do not die.
Dr. Patel: No, what is disease? Disease is something...
Prabhupāda: Again you are coming to...
Dr. Patel: ...that is not physiological. The end of physiology is death.
Prabhupāda: So why you are trying to cure it?
Dr. Patel: We don't try to cure it.
Morning Walk -- January 12, 1976, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: No, no. What is the value of your health if you do not save him?
Dr. Patel: The value of the health is being found out the whole over.
Prabhupāda: That is, I am asking you. (laughs)
Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: So why not do? (break)...ing in their health?
Sudāmā: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Thank you. (Gurukula kīrtana party, chanting, meets Prabhupāda)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (break) ...like they are doing in so many other places?
Prabhupāda: You spend it.
Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: Which way we shall go now?
Sudāmā: This way, Prabhupāda.
Jayapatāka: Previously the cows... Now, since before, the cows have become more healthy.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Jayapatāka: Since before, cows have become more healthy, and now people are appreciating very much.
Prabhupāda: What is the cause?
Jayapatāka: The cost?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The cause for the...
Jayapatāka: Oh, because of Pīppalāi's very careful service.
Prabhupāda: That's it.
Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Harikeśa: They never said anything more than you'll just get good sex life and good health.
Prabhupāda: That is.... Becoming God means the same, money and sex. That's all.
Harikeśa: Wouldn't it be handy, though, to be able to fly around without having to use airplanes?
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Harikeśa: I mean, if you had some mystic opulence like being able to fly.
Prabhupāda: Yes, the yogis can do that.
Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:
Hari-śauri: That John Paul Getty is the richest man in the world, and they asked him, "What would be your wish if you could have anything?" He said, "I just want to be healthy. I've got so much money but I'm not healthy."
Prabhupāda: Yes. There are many. There was a big, rich man in Calcutta, Raja Jyotindramana Ṭhākura. So just like you give me so many things, he was king, he was getting more supply, but he had no appetite. So one day he was given so many things—because it was routine. So one coolie was going on the street, taking a fish and chanting very pleasingly. So he said that "Instead of becoming Raja Jyotindramana Ṭhākura, if I could have been a coolie like that, at least I could enjoy by eating. And what is this? I have got everything but I cannot eat." He regretted, "I would have become a coolie like that instead of becoming a Ṭhākura."
Morning Walk -- January 20, 1976, Mayapura:
Prabhupāda: Which minister?
Jayapatākā: The Ajit Panja. He's the health minister. So we didn't see him...
Bhavānanda: (break) ...that we must take drastic steps for curbing the population.
Prabhupāda: Why don't you become brahmacārī?
Hari-śauri: Too drastic.
Jayapatākā: We want to present that we are, by moral training, achieving that.
Prabhupāda: Yes. We are making them celibate. What is called? Celibacy.
Morning Walk -- January 21, 1976, Mayapura:
Prabhupāda: (break) ...here for some time. You'll like it very much. (break) ...you all that in this center very nice foodstuff is supplied, and nobody becomes sick. Everyone complain, "I am sick because I am eating too much," or "no eating." Why? No eating or eating too much should be avoided. Simply you eat what will keep your health nice. That is eating. No eating is also not advised, and overeating is also not. Atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca. Yuktāhāra-vihārasya (NOI 2). Yuktāhāra, not atyāhāra. Yukta. Where is this Śāstrī? He's sleeping?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.
Prabhupāda: Sick?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He was in the class.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, he doesn't sleep at this...
Prabhupāda: (break) ...possible for us to challenge the whole world that "You are all fools." Huh? Is it possible?
Harikeśa: Yes.
Morning Walks -- January 22-23, 1976, Mayapura:
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why don't they see this, that just by killing a cow you don't get more cows. They're going to die anyway.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone is going to die, but they are so voracious, they do not wait up to the death, and they have theorized that "Dead animal is dangerous to health. Now kill while it is in life."
Harikeśa: Yes, they think like that.
Prabhupāda: Yes, but... They have got so many nonsense philosophy. But if that philosophy is supported, when you kill the animal, he becomes dead. (laughter)
Morning Walk -- February 3, 1976, Mayapura:
Jayapatākā: But first.
Prabhupāda: No. That is not... You are making better progress, Western countries. Kṛṣṇa is not limited anywhere. But in India they have got the facilities. But they are becoming rascals, so they are not taking the facility. The facility is there. That is everywhere, especially in India. You see everywhere, every day, the sunrise, so beautiful. In Western country, some places, sometimes. But here you'll find every day. That is the facility. This is Gāyatrī mantra. Oṁ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ tat savitur vareṇyaṁ bhargo devasya dhīmahi. This facility is in here. You get sufficient sunlight, and in sunlight you keep very healthy and happy. That facility is here.
Morning Walk -- March 10, 1976, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: Hm? Attraction?
Bhāgavata: ...a point about attraction and aversion, that there's a complaint that sometimes there's too much aversion on the part of the brahmacārīs. But isn't that not a quality, to a point a brahmacārī should have a healthy contempt for sense gratification?
Prabhupāda: I do not follow.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He's saying that sometimes the brahmacārīs, even the sannyāsīs, they may have a very strong aversion towards association with women and/or householder life, things of this nature. And sometimes the gṛhasthas will criticize the sannyāsīs and brahmacārīs that "This is fanaticism," or it's, to the other end, "It's just as bad as the enjoying spirit, because you're meditating on the same thing, but only you're averse to it." So what is the...? Bhāgavata dāsa's question is "What is the condition?" Is it better to be neutral or to be averse?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Neutral.
Prabhupāda: These are all fanaticism. Real unity is in advancing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva... In Kali-yuga, you cannot strictly follow, neither I can strictly follow. If I criticize you, if you criticize me, then we go far away from our real life of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Morning Walk -- March 12, 1976, Mayapur:
Revatīnandana: Dharmadhyaksa dāsa used to be one of his disciples before he joined your, he became your disciple. And he said that he was talking to Dr. Miśra, and Dr. Miśra still talks about your cooking. He said, "Oh, Swamijī, he saved my life." He said, "He taught me how to eat properly." He still talks about you.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...improved his health. He says still?
Revatīnandana: Yes. Yes.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Revatīnandana: Dharma was telling me.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...to rise early in the morning and do whatever is needed. Then, at nine, half-past nine, I will go his apartment and begin cooking. Then, after finishing, I'll take my bathing, and then we shall eat together. And then, after eating, I will go to the Fifth Avenue for loitering.
Morning Walk -- March 15, 1976, Mayapura:
Revatīnandana: (break) ...is that they are very interested in health, exercise, dancing, like that. They have huge, mass swoopings of...
Prabhupāda: So introduce this dancing as health exercise dancing.
Revatīnandana: They dance very gracefully. If we dance gracefully, instead of going like this, if we dance like this, they'll actually appreciate, because they have huge groups together, thousands and thousands, all dancing in unison.
Prabhupāda: So why don't you take him also?
Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:
Guru-kṛpā: Soil. One lady was eating soil, one glass, saying it was good for health.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think the goat, the animal, the goat, they eat cans. They can eat metal.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. The pigeons, they can eat stone.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you once explained how the cow eats grass, and it produces such a rich vitamin food like milk.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:
Prabhupāda: That is ignorance. His nature is to become happy. He is happy, happy. Just like our natural position is we are healthy. Nature has made this body. But we create such situation that we become ill, sick. And at that time we see, "Oh, I am..." What is that? "I am infected. I have been contaminated." Go to the doctor, injection. But the natural life is no disease.
Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:
Prabhupāda: No, no.... These things are very common. Just like in your country the government has written on the cigarette box, "It is harmful to health." But if you still smoke at your risk, do it.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: So freedom.... You can smoke, but you cannot avoid suffering from the result.
Prabhupāda: Yes, from the result.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: You have to suffer.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:
Reporter (1): Then from where does this impurity come?
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is.... Just like your are healthy, but wherefrom the disease comes? You are not diseased now, but sometimes disease comes. Wherefrom it comes? So at the present moment we are in diseased condition. This has to be cured. Otherwise we are pure, as pure as God.
Reporter (1): Then what is the way to purity?
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is Bhagavad-gītā.
Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:
Reporter (1): Which particular teachings you think can purify a man? Because you said the salvation lies in practical teachings of Gītā.
Prabhupāda: Yes. You have to revive your consciousness that you are part and parcel of God. And the part and parcel of God means to serve God. Just like this finger is part and parcel of my body, but it is meant for serving my body. I ask the finger, "Come here"; it is serving me. "Come here"; it is scratching. "Pick up the food. Give it to me"; he is giving it. This is business of the finger. If the finger cannot carry out my order, then it is diseased. And if he immediately carries out order, then it is healthy. Similarly, we being part and parcel of God, we must be ready to give service immediately. Then it is healthy condition. And if we do not, then it is māyā. We are serving. You are serving. Everyone is serving, because our constitution is to serve. Big, big leaders, they are also serving. Anyone you can see. The sun, he is serving. Exactly in the time it is rising by the order of God. Exactly in time it is setting. So everyone is serving. Ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa āra saba bhṛtya: (CC Adi 5.142) "Only master is God, and everyone is His servant." But the diseased condition is that when we do not serve God, we serve something else, māyā, and that is diseased condition.
Morning Walk -- April 12, 1976, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Nobody comes to hear.
Dr. Patel: When you are staying here in Bombay your health does improve very well.
Prabhupāda: No, Bombay I like very well. Because I like Bombay and this beach, I was so much persistent for get this land. That is the history. Every one of my disciples, they declined. I insisted, "I must possess this land." And Nair was thinking that "This man has no money, so just involve him, and whatever money he gives us, I take it."
Morning Walk -- April 14, 1976, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Remain healthy.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Twice a day.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Twice a day can come, take bath and enjoy sporting life and then chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, take good prasādam. That's all. Why they should waste their time in technology to become a coolie?
Girirāja: Actually there was once a case. A newspaper once wrote that Henry Ford was ignorant. So Henry Ford filed a case against the newspaper. So in the hearing, the defense asked so many questions about science and history to Henry Ford. So Henry Ford said to the judge that "In my office I have a panel of buttons, and I can press any button and someone will come running to answer any of these questions. So am I ignorant?" (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Just see.
Morning Walk -- April 14, 1976, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Very good health.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And they're doing it every day now.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...intelligence and kṣatriya's executive power and vaiśya's productive capacity and śūdra's labor. This combined together makes the whole society perfect.
Dr. Patel: How this social order can be generated in India?
Prabhupāda: (to passerby:) Thank you. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya.
Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:
Devotee (2): One devotee in New Zealand, his father was dying of leukemia. He told his father to stop eating meat and smoking cigarettes, and his health would improve. His father said, "If I can't do these things, what is the use of living?"
Prabhupāda: So somebody should.... (break) ...committed suicide?
Hari-śauri: Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway. When he found out, when the doctor told him he couldn't have sex life anymore, he killed himself.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He was a very big and rich author.
Prabhupāda: This is the important men.
Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:
Guru-kṛpā: You are feeding the beef grains to fatten it for slaughter, but you could eat the same grains and be healthy.
Guest (2): That's true. And we have many people who are in the church who strive to teach people of the church to eat more grains and milk products and...
Guru-kṛpā: That is not the point Śrīla Prabhupāda is making.
Prabhupāda: No, point is that every living being has to eat another living being. That is the law of nature.
Guest (2): Right.
Prabhupāda: Jivo jīvasya jīvanam. That we admit. But in the human form of life if one thinks—now they are eating—that "Another living being is my food, so I kill my own child and eat," so you mean to say to apply the same law, that "A living entity is food for another living entity. Therefore a human being kill his own child and eat?"
Morning Walk -- April 26, 1976, Melbourne:
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They can't stop, na śocati na kāṅkṣati. They have to go further.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And this is negation. Just like one man is diseased. He is also eating, he is also sleeping, but that is not healthy eating, sleeping. He has to get relief from this eating, lying down on the bed and eating by some instrument. This nonsense eating, sleeping should be stopped. And when he's healthy, he eats also, sleeps also. That is different. That is different eating, sleeping, but they do not.... He is suffering from disease. He thinks, "Again eating? Make it zero. Make it zero." This is Māyāvādī. He has no taste what is the other eating. He wants to make it zero because here the eating is so botheration, "Oh, let me commit suicide. Make it zero." So that is Buddha philosophy.
Morning Walk -- May 26, 1976, Honolulu:
Devotee (2): When the government comes they may have so many health rules and regulations that if someone has a little hut, they will not let them stay there.
Prabhupāda: Yes. They set fire. They set fire. "Let them become without home, then they will work for my shop."
Morning Walk -- May 28, 1976, Honolulu:
Prabhupāda: Anartha. (break) ...they stop here. No more this material necessities. But he does not know that he cannot live without necessities. That they do not know. They simply beget these false necessities. Just like disease. I do not want disease, but that does not mean I do not want health. (everyone laughs) So these rascals, they are thinking that "We do not want anymore this material world, brahma satyaṁ jagat..." But Vaiṣṇava says "No, you must have the real thing, then you can cease from this unreal necessities. Otherwise after living for some time in brahma satya, then you'll come, "Oh, this is useless. I don't enjoy. Let me go again to open hospital, school, engage in something politics, no work..." But you cannot do. Āruhya kṛccheṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ. We are living entities. We require engagement, necessities. So give up necessities means these rascal necessities. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He's sannyāsī, He has no necessity. Why He's crying for Govinda? He has given up the whole world, sannyāsī. And why He's crying for Govinda? That is real necessity. Govinda-viraheṇa me. Govinda necessity. The necessity is Govinda is not alone. There again life, again Vṛndāvana, again gopīs, again dancing, again eating, again everything. That necessity.
Morning Walk -- May 30, 1976, Honolulu:
Prabhupāda: Go-rakṣya, the point is that cow's milk is very important. Therefore specifically mentioned go-rakṣya. Kṛṣṇa does not say that don't eat meat. It is not really said that meat-eating is forbidden. But meat-eating is tāmasika, prāmādya (indistinct). But He's speaking of go-rakṣya for our special material benefit, that if we protect the cows, we can have the facility of drinking milk, which will help us in keeping our health in order and developing very nice brain tissues to understand spiritual subject matter. Fish-eaters, they're all dull. They cannot understand finer philosophy of life. Meat-eating, not good. But the śūdras, and the less than śūdras, they eat. But for them there's lower animals, not cow.
Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: That I am not contemplating now. But there is no need of one person. As other things are managed, but by committee, so this can also be managed, and the committee may elect one person as chief. As, just like in the democracy there are senators and there is president, so it may be I may nominate or they can nominate.
Reporter: Do you feel are you in good health now? You look it.
Prabhupāda: Yes. After all, of course I am some eighty, eighty years old. And I complete eighty years next September. So the age is there, although I am feeling not aged by..., the effect of age must be there.
Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's also a healthier environment, I think. It's a little...
Rāmeśvara: She lives alone with Dīna-tāriṇī. She doesn't have much association. She's keeping herself apart a little bit.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I think, that's one..., there's one disadvantage is that they have a little bit of a, their attitude is a little bit separatist from ISKCON in the sense of keeping aloof, and if the girls go there and live there, they may develop that same mentality. It might be better for her to come to the temples to teach.
Prabhupāda: Then make arrangement; I have not objection.
Rāmeśvara: (laughs) She has objection. We can't force her.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's the problem. And if that's her feeling, then if you send people there they'll get the same.
Prabhupāda: (break) Worshiping Deity.
Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: No newspaper, it is horrible. Ask the health department of government, that "You write on the cigarette box: 'It is injurious.' " What is that?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: We are preaching that; give us some money.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we're helping them.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Similarly, intoxication. And see practically, at least take some certificate from the health.
Hṛdayānanda: If they find out that the solution is with God, they would rather have the disease.
Prabhupāda: Apart from God, see practically.
Morning Walk -- June 7, 1976, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: A patient is thinking, "How shall I dance when I become healthy?" First of all, rascal, become healthy, then talk of all this. The rascals are thinking like that. You are patient; first of all cure your disease, material disease. Then talk of all this. Utopian. "When I will get rich, how I shall treat.... I shall.... Then my wife is disobedient and I shall kick her like this," (laughter) and as soon as he kicked on the earthen pots, all broken. Then he, "Oh, then my.... All prospects have gone." You know this story?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What was in the pot?
Prabhupāda: That.... A potter, potter boy, he had got some earthen pots selling. So he was dreaming, that "By selling this earthen pot, I'll make so much profit. Then I shall purchase another batch, I shall make profit. In this way, I shall be millionaire. Then I shall marry, and my wife must be very obedient. Otherwise I shall kick." So in this way, he kicked over the pots and (laughs) all of them broken.
Morning Walk -- June 7, 1976, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: And there is no fasting. Fasting is recommended when a man is diseased. When he's in health, there is feasting. So spiritual world means health. Why there should be fasting?
Hari-śauri: And our disease is uncontrolled senses.
Prabhupāda: There is no sense agitation.
Hari-śauri: No, for us though, conditioned.
Prabhupāda: Yes, conditioned. Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvam.
Garden Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Nobody can answer. They simply falsely argue. Therefore less intelligent. Mūḍha. If he was intelligent, then he would immediately accept the Kṛṣṇa's teachings, beginning with dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). On account of the soul, the body is changing, kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. The body is sometimes child, sometimes boy, sometimes young man, sometimes old man, sometimes diseased, sometimes healthy. All these terms are there on account of presence of the soul. If the soul is not there, then it is simply a lump of matter, and it is going to decompose into matter again, and then it will smell, either you have to throw it for being eaten by the vultures or you can bury it under some ceremony or you can burn it. Three.... What is called? Pariṇamanam. Transformations. Either as stool or as ash or as earth. Those who are burying, the bodies gradually becomes earth; those who are throwing, the vultures eat, the jackals, dogs eat and it turns into stool; and those who are burning, it turns into ashes. Three transformations. This beautiful body.
Room Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Because the time was taken, extension. Then, in 1967, in July, I thought, "Now the health is broken." I was very sick after heartstroke. So I thought "Now I shall not exist. So let me go to Vṛndāvana and die there." So I came back in July 1967. So this Brahmānanda and others, they were crying when I got on the boat. Hm? The heart was so weak...
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You went back to India by boat?
Prabhupāda: No, by plane.
Room Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Yes, July to December.
Trivikrama: And your health was better?
Prabhupāda: Not very good. So many troubles. When I came back there's always a bad sound going on, gong gong gong, in my brain. Very disturbing, in this Los Angeles. I was staying in some... I forgot.
Trivikrama: La Cienega?
Prabhupāda: Yes, huh?
Trivikrama: In La Cienega?
Prabhupāda: No, no, La Cienega, later on. I was staying near Pico, is that Pico? There was a... I think Washington Boulevard? Near there. I forgot that quarter. It is black quarter. And this boy—who is he now? Aniruddha? What is his name?
Devotee: Gurukṛpa?
Prabhupāda: No, no. Aniruddha.
Room Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: So Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja, how you are keeping your health?
Kīrtanānanda: Pretty good.
Prabhupāda: That's.... And things are going nice?
Kīrtanānanda: Yes. The devotees are all anxious for you, to see.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And Hayagrīva Mahārāja is being forced? (laughs)
Garden Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Yes, Dr. Wolfe.
Dr. Wolfe: Do not some physical means come into the keeping the body strong, healthy, so that devotion is possible at all? Because to produce sick people, of course, is not in the Lord's spirit either, I think.
Prabhupāda: No. Our aim is not to create sick people. That is not our aim.
Dr. Wolfe: Swimming, walking, is still important I think.
Prabhupāda: No, we do not say. Neither.
Dr. Wolfe: I miss it in the Movement. I think it should not be made a sport, but it should be made, perhaps, a physical must under control.
Prabhupāda: No, if you eat more, then you require more exercise to digest unnecessary loading, but if you eat simply, just to keep our body and soul together, you don't require exercise.
Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:
Prabhupāda: This is rascaldom. They are eating so many dead animals.
Hari-śauri: But they say if they kill it in a healthy condition then the meat they eat is good.
Prabhupāda: No, no, just like lobsters, they are very fond of lobster. Lobster is never bought living. It is dead and rotten, decomposed, and they eat. They cannot say that by killing we get fresh. You are eating so many rotten things, decomposed. Actually, I have seen. It has become like puss, and still they are eating.
Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:
Kīrtanānanda: Well, first of all, we have to satisfy the health department.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...wood as fuel so that gradually this jungle will be clear. Thank you very much.
Devotees: Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! (break)
Kīrtanānanda: (in car:) It's sand, yes. It's not from our property, but it's gotten locally. It comes out of the river.
Prabhupāda: Everything you had to purchase?
Kīrtanānanda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: It will be required.
Garden Conversation -- June 23, 1976, New Vrindaban:
Prabhupāda: The other fools, rascals, they are thinking, "What these people are doing? They are (indistinct) to have no this program, that," according to them. Just like our Vivekananda, he prescribed, daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā. The same thing—hospital. We kill all animals, and the hospital patient is given the meat for improvement of the health. But he does not know that this is not curing; he is become implicated in his karma. He has to be killed again, and eaten by the other animals. That he does not know. They do not accept karma-phala. Eh? The result of fruitive activities, (indistinct). But you will have to accept. There is no excuse. If you contaminate some disease, you must suffer from that disease. There is no excuse.
Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:
Prabhupāda: So you have touched the sky in such a way I cannot see even. (laughs) This is the result. You demon, you have captured the sky, so I have no opportunity to see even. Always electric light. Now we see the sky, the sun, how nice it is. This is life. Green, down and up, clear sky, sun, this is life. We get rejuvenation in this atmosphere. What is this nonsense, all skyscraper building, no air, no light? Jagato 'hitāḥ. The mind becomes crippled, the health becomes deteriorated, children cannot see even the sky, everything is spoiled.
Kulādri: Every day in the city they make a report, pollution report. And they say you should go outside or not go outside. Some days it is not good for your health to leave your home.
Devotee (1): They are also selling fresh air, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Fresh air? (laughter) Fresh water, also.
Garden Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:
bluffing—that is another thing.
Rādhāvallabha: They get angry if we tell them that.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is, means they are rascal. When there is argument between you and me, if one becomes angry, that means he's a rascal. That is the proof. He cannot reply anymore. He has become angry. That is his defeat. Upadeśo hi mūrkhāṇāṁ prakopāya na śāntaye. Mūrkha, a rascal is given good instruction, he'll be angry. So that is the proof that he's rascal. That is the proof. The example is given, payaḥ-pānaṁ bhujaṅgānāṁ kevalaṁ viṣa-vardhanam. Just like if you give milk, very nourishing food, to a human being, he'll get strength, but if you give to a snake, it will increase poison. So that is the proof that here is a snake. So payaḥ-pānaṁ bhujaṅgānāṁ kevalaṁ viṣa-vardhanam. If you give milk to a human child he'll grow healthy, and the same milk you give to a serpent child, it will grow poison. One day he'll: "Ohnn!" He'll ready to bite you.
Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Prabhupāda: Food, diet, living condition, healthy, hygienic, everything. You prove that this is the best way of life. That's a fact. From all sides, prove that Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is essential for the human society, to make them happy in this and the next life. That is a fact.
Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Prabhupāda: So we should understand what is the duty of the part and parcel. Now, just like this finger is the part and parcel of my body. So what is the duty of the finger? To serve the whole body. I order the finger "Please come here," immediately it does like this. So the finger, being part and parcel of the body, it is the duty of the finger to serve the whole body. When the finger is unable to give any service, then it is diseased. If there is some pain in the finger, I want to use this finger for some purpose, to pick up this flower, I cannot do it, that means it is diseased. Similarly, we living entities, part and parcel of God, when we are unable to give service to the Supreme, that is our diseased condition. That is not normal condition. And when we are actually able to give service to God, that is our healthy condition. So in the materialistic way of life we are diseased. Because we are diseased, therefore we have to accept birth and death. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). So we have to get free from this diseased condition.
Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:
Prabhupāda: That pathologist.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. He works in National Institute of Health in Washington, D.C. We was telling me he was from Haridwar from a very pious family, and he said his parents are Vaiṣṇavas, and he has been thinking since from his childhood about this problem about life, the origin of life and consciousness, and we talked a little bit about our concept of this origin of life, connecting from the Vedas and the scientific interrelationship. And he was very much impressed, and he told me that if he can be of any help, he's willing to...
Prabhupāda: You should call him, let us.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, he's coming this evening.
Prabhupāda: All right, very good.
Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:
Prabhupāda: I know that. Sometimes they are advised to do business. I know that. When, in our society, in the beginning, I started marriage, the father, mother, did not like it. Nowadays it has become custom, in India also, let the girl have many friends, but don't marry unless you find out a suitable man. Society degrades. Actually the Indian system is that when the girl is utmost twelve years, not more than that, ten to twelve years, she must be married. And the father would see, not necessarily in every case the boy is rich man or educated. If he's healthy and if he can work, he'll "Take charge." Then fortune, faith.
Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, yes, he's very willing to help anything along these lines. But he told me that once we have this Bhaktivedanta Institute and we have this done, he told us that he can find some means by which we can get some grant from the government. There are several funding agencies, and he's one of the important men for giving grants, this National Institute of Health, and he has several connections with the top rank...
Prabhupāda: Authorities. So keep connection with him.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. And he even wants to write some articles along these lines.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He is favorable, keep in touch.
Morning Walk -- July 9, 1976, Washington D.C.:
Prabhupāda: Śudhyeta satya (?) Sometimes the spiritual master has to suffer for the sinful activities of his disciples. (break) ...this suffering is short cut. For the karmīs it would have been a huge suffering but devotee is (indistinct).
Devotee (2): So then if he is sincere, then he should not be so sick in due time, his health should be good if he's practicing. If a devotee is practicing principles, then he should become healthy.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, you cannot avoid sickness.
Devotee (2): No, but I mean, overall.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Devotee (2): Devotees are generally healthier than karmīs.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Morning Walk -- July 9, 1976, Washington D.C.:
Prabhupāda: "You're simply working as my servant, that's all."
Rūpānuga: They can make.... We'll chant and dance and they can make the car to take us on kīrtana, make the pills so we can keep healthy.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The best pill is this hari-nāma.
Rūpānuga: Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you are the great physician. Everyone should come under your treatment. They're taking this hari-nāma as a bitter pill. But we are tasting it now, and after chanting and chanting, we're tasting, it's becoming sweeter and sweeter.
Prabhupāda: Hmm. This is all of us?
Devotees: Oh, yes.
Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:
Prabhupāda: Pennsylvania. So we get enough milk, enough food grains, enough fruits. So there is no economic problem. Our purpose is to save time from unnecessary necessities of life, from unnecessary necessities of life, to save time and utilize the time for developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And so far the body is concerned, as much as it is required take and maintain the body. That's all.
Interviewer: Your devotees' health is looked after, then.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Interviewer: By who?
Prabhupāda: They are instructed in that way, plain living, high thinking.
Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:
Prabhupāda: And the view of the river is very healthy. If you can see the river from your house, it is to be understood that quarter is very nice. If you can see sky from your room, then it is understood the room is very nice.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, all these things are here.
Prabhupāda: We can see from the room the river.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Otherwise from the roof. So it is very nice.
Morning Walk -- July 20, 1976, New York:
Prabhupāda: The seed creates a favorable situation, and the life comes. On account of the life's presence, it grows, it develops. This is right explanation.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes we say, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that when the body is useless, then the soul leaves, just like giving up an old pair of clothes. But sometimes we see that someone in very good health, youthful, all of a sudden they give up their body.
Prabhupāda: You are very healthy. Is there any guarantee that you will not die?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, there's no guarantee.
Prabhupāda: That is the life.(?) You may be very stout and strong. The death may take from so many causes. It does not depend on your healthy body.
Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:
Prabhupāda: May be true to some extent, but they do not know the ultimate truth. That they do not know. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān (BG 7.19). He understands, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). That requires many, many births, to come to that conclusion. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). This Kṛṣṇa says. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya: (BG 7.7) "There is no more superior than Me." Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). He explains to everyone, sarva-dharman parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66). That is the.... There is the ultimate person. You call Him Kṛṣṇa or something, but you must know Him. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ, there must be. Father's father's father's father's father's.... Who is the original father? There must be. Where is the wrong in this statement? So you find out the supreme father, but He has no father; He is the Absolute. Sarva-kāraṇa.... Anādir ādiḥ: "He has no beginning, but He is the beginning." Anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (Bs. 5.1). So, Bhagavān may carry one letter that "I am very sorry. On account of my health failure, I could not go to see you, that professor and all devotees, and I am very, very sorry for this, but, I humbly invite you, come to India, and we shall be very glad to sit together," like that.
Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:
Jayatīrtha: Harikeśa Maharaja and I were discussing last night about your travel plans, and we were debating on what was actually the best place for you to go. So someone was saying Tehran, someone was saying Paris farm, like this, but the point that came out was that as far as health is concerned, India is not the best place for you to go at all.
Prabhupāda: India.
Jayatīrtha: Not the best place. However, the main point is that you want to go there. That was what was felt by the devotees who were discussing, that you want to go to India immediately and that you will feel more comfortable by going to India immediately. That was what was being discussed. Although for health purposes that may not actually be the best.
Hari-śauri: For us India is not very healthy. But for Prabhupāda it's the best place.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Hari-śauri: I said for us India is not so healthy, but for yourself it's the best place.
Bhagavān: Prabhupāda also got sick in India. Remember? Two years ago in Vṛndāvana.
Prabhupāda: Vṛndāvana.
Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:
Prabhupāda: We shall go immediately?
Jayatīrtha: I think that, Srila Prabhupāda, you should not feel obliged in any way to go. Only whatever you think is best for your health condition.
Prabhupāda: No, obliged, I am always obliged to you. That's a fact. Yes.
Jayatīrtha: We are only obliged to you. That's a fact. That is the actual fact. It must be decided, though, what you think is best for your health situation.
Prabhupāda: Whatever you decide.
Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:
Prabhupāda: If the health suits, I can stay there. If the health improves, I can stay.
Pṛthu-putra: Air India is direct from Geneva.
Prabhupāda: I shall not stay...
Pṛthu-putra: I came back from Bombay to Geneva by direct plane.
Prabhupāda: Yes, there is plane.
Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:
Prabhupāda: No, if I improve my health, I shall stay there for some time.
Jayatīrtha: Actually, it's a fact that you...
Prabhupāda: Everywhere is my home. Not that India.... If I am attached to India, then how I am sannyāsī? (laughter)
Bhagavān: And every other day I will give you a new book. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Where is?
Hari-śauri: You have to keep it, too, when you promise.
Prabhupāda: All right.
Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. Phalena paricīyate. By the result, one has to study. Yesterday, one devotee's father and mother came, Hari-śauri. She and his father were very pleased to see him healthy, bright.
Mukunda: They hadn't seen him for six years.
Prabhupāda: Six years, yes. So we are inviting everyone, "Come here. Such a nice house given by George (laughs). You live here comfortably, eat nicely, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." We don't want any factory work.
Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:
Prabhupāda: "At the time of death," prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ, "when the physical condition of the body will be in disorder," kapha, pitta, vayu will not be in order.... Prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ kaṇṭhāvarodha, "At that time I shall not be able to speak. I'll 'ahn, ahn,' but that's all. So I may not be able to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Better I am now in good health, so let my mind be entangled in the stem of Your lotus feet." Very nice poetry.
- kṛṣṇa tvādīya-pada-paṅkaja-panjarāntam
- adyaiva viśatu me mānasa-rāja-haṁsaḥ
- prāna-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ
- kaṇṭhāvarodhana-vidhau smaraṇaṁ kutas te
- (MM 33)
"At that time I may be not able to utter 'Kṛṣṇa' or think of You, and now I am healthy, let me finish this business." That means "Let me die immediately. Now I'm healthy, I'm quite fit." This is the ideal. Ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ (SB 2.1.6). At the time of death, if one remembers Kṛṣṇa, then his life is successful. Immediately he goes to Kṛṣṇa.
Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):
Prabhupāda: They take bath thrice, cook their own food, very strictly. The government had to give them a big hall for cooking. So, it will not take much space, say, little space. One small oven and demarcated: "This, you see, is mine, and then I, you get, this is yours, this is yours." So within that space they'll sit down and cook dāl, cāpāṭis, rice, one vegetable, and cook, and immediately all the utensils will be cleansed and washed, and the space washed and kept. You'd like to eat, they cook so nicely, although simple. And I have got practical experience, if you cook your own food, whatever it may be, it is healthy.
Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):
Prabhupāda: And if you do it very carefully, then you'll never get disease. Take simple food, neat and clean, you'll not get disease. So everything depends on eating to keep the health proper. But these things can be simplified when the life is simple. If I go to work in office at this time, then so many things become topsy-turvied. But if you depend on yourself, either as a brāhmaṇa or kṣatriya, you haven't got to depend on others, then you can do timely. Now we have to go fifty miles at least to attend office. In your country at least, this is the system. They are coming from Long Island, Liberty Island. In New York I have seen. Three, four hours to go to work. And again three, four hours to come to home. And work there eight hours. Then what is value? He's shattered. He has no other solace than wine, and he has no other culture. No family, dog friend (laughter) and television idea, that's all. What his life? Every man has got a dog friend because he has no family. Men, women, and television, engagement, I have seen it, all this, in New York.
Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):
Prabhupāda: The body means sickness. The body itself is sickness.
Harikeśa: In illusion I think I come back here, I get healthy. In illusion I think if I leave India and come here I will get healthy. But I come here I also get sick. I go there I also get sick. (laughs) You seem to be much better now.
Prabhupāda: Yes, little better. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...thinking of how to utilize the whole land. The situation is very good, good prospect. I want that self-independent here, as far as possible. But you have got enough materials. With woods you can make cottages. Then land becomes clear, then utilize it.
Room Conversation -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):
Prabhupāda: Very good. This should be arranged with lemon juice. If you have got these fruits, there is no need of purchasing.
Bhagavān: The tomatoes are supposed to be as good as oranges. The tomatoes are supposed to be as healthy as oranges.
Prabhupāda: Yes. In our childhood, these tomatoes were called foreign eggplant, bilāti beguna. And because it was foreign, nobody will touch it. In our childhood we'd never eat the tomato. It was rejected by whole Indian Hindu culture.
Room Conversation -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):
Prabhupāda: Not yet harvested.
Bhagavān: Not yet harvested. But the plants are all very healthy, strong.
Prabhupāda: So in the morning you can give. We have got other mung dāl? Soak it, soak it, and raw mung dāl also. Ginger and this cucumber.
Bhagavān: When we installed the Gaura-Nitāi Deity last January, many villagers came, and they all came, they were touching the floor, they have never seen such a nice floor, how smooth it was. (laughing)
Prabhupāda: Such marble floor they never saw. (pause) (break) ...who has paid you more than five thousand dollars and he has joined, that does not mean that he's a foolish man. He's a businessman. So what about his business? Leased to somebody else? He leased out to somebody else?
Bhagavān: He's finished.
Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:
Harikeśa: Last year when we were in Denver, I think you were very healthy there, and this is the same altitude.
Prabhupāda: So then we can stay here.
Hari-śauri: I'll go down and see how the prasādam is coming along. They've brought the prasādam up now?
Prabhupāda: You can bring here. Who is there in the bathroom?
Hari-śauri: They're just cleaning it out. They're giving you the big bathroom because it has a Western toilet and a nice shower and separate everything, it's very nice, and we'll use the small one. They're just cleaning it now, if you want you can use.
Prabhupāda: Lock this door, otherwise if you come there, it will be disturbance.
Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:
Prabhupāda: Huh? Did you like it?
Parivrājakācārya: It tasted very healthy.
Prabhupāda: Healthy?
Parivrājakācārya: Healthy. It tasted like it was good for me.
Hari-śauri: That means it didn't taste very nice, but we accepted it was good.
Parivrājakācārya: I know by my intelligence that it is good to keep eating, even though my tongue was saying "Stop."
Prabhupāda: No, this nim is good. They say that if you eat at least two leaves of nim daily, you'll never lose your appetite, appetite will be continuing.
Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:
Prabhupāda: Yes, I was going... (break) Generally, this baḍā are made with paṭola(?) leaves, paṭola leaves mashed and mixed with this dahi.
Hari-śauri: Is that just as healthy as nim leaves? Paṭola leaves? Just the same.
Prabhupāda: It is better. (break) ...the influence of the moon planet, the vegetation grows. Do they accept, the modern botanists, influence of moon planet?
Parivrājakācārya: All the farmers, they...
Prabhupāda: They do believe?
Parivrājakācārya: They believe that. They plant certain seeds according to the moon.
Pradyumna: Even in the West they only plant certain things on the waxing moon, not on the waning moon. On śukla-pakṣa.
Prabhupāda: And moon is vacant. By the influence of moon, other vegetation growing, and it cannot grow itself.
Morning Walk -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:
Dr. Patel: I think go-rakṣya must be the backbone of the economy.
Prabhupāda: No, health, brain, everything. Milk is miracle food. And we are practically experiencing in our farms that if the cows are protected nicely, they can supply immense milk. We are getting in our farms, extra milk. Everyone is eating so many preparations, sandeśa, rasagullā, rābrī. They are surprised. In their history they have not eaten all these things.
Evening Darsana (on night of arrival) -- August 16, 1976, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: Ha. Four hundred acres land, we are producing our vegetables, vegetables, fruits, and food grains, milk, and two hundred devotees, they are living very happily. (converses in Hindi) It is, for health it is very nice. (Hindi)
Mahāṁśa: We were planning on your staying over there, and this last night this thing happened. So this morning we tried our best to complete your room, but then finally it was not coming off, so I...
Indian man (1): It came as a surprise that one o'clock he says Prabhupāda will be staying here. We said nothing more than that, it will be my privilege, but I was just embarrassing, whether it would be inconvenient.
Prabhupāda: Not inconvenient. But now we have comfort. For staying, it is the best place. There is no question about it. But because for the function we have come, so little too far away.
Room Conversation -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: My health is not well.
Acyutānanda: Yes, I have heard. We brought you some medicine from your sister.
Prabhupāda: Oh, oh!
Acyutānanda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes I wrote her.
Acyutānanda: Yes. We have that with us.
Prabhupāda: So. Everything all right?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Everything all right to have your darśana, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We have heard that you are not feeling well.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: That, we shall go in October. We shall go. So when Saurabha has seen, that is my seeing. You give me a site plan. And we shall take it and develop it.
Gargamuni: So many of our men get ill health. They can go there...
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Gargamuni: ...and then come back. Then we don't have to send them to America...
Prabhupāda: No.
Gargamuni: ...because of being sick.
Prabhupāda: No.
Gargamuni: We need a place-health.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda wrote, he wrote that to me last year, to get a Hill Station...
Prabhupāda: Yes. The Mahabaleswar(?) is well known. Yes.
Room Conversation About Blitz News Clipping -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: So this paper is against Sai Baba also?
Pradyumna: No. On the front page it says... Because he is doing a lot of educational... He has made all these universities and health centers and everything. So it says that he is doing good to the people. So for that reason they said, "We don't want to see him criticized."
Hari-śauri: They're supporting him.
Prabhupāda: So the case is already in the court?
Pradyumna: No, it is just a challenge.
Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: Take care of the cows, and?
Maṇihāra: It says, "This is ISKCON's first venture in protecting cows from going to slaughterhouses. Over four hundred cows give twelve hundred litres of milk daily, providing natural, healthy products like butter, ghee, etc. And especially milk sweets like gulabjamon, rasagullā, etc."
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Pradyumna: Just the names of those...
Prabhupāda: That's all right. Enclose this quote.
Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: So you are keeping good health?
Prabhā Viṣṇu: Oh, yes, very good health.
Prabhupāda: So, wherefrom just now you are coming?
Prabhā Viṣṇu: Well, we've just come from Eastern coast. We came down from Calcutta through Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. We took some orders in Guntur. And before that...
Prabhupāda: Guntur there is university?
Pradyumna: Yes, there's a new one.
Prabhupāda: Guntur, our Tīrtha Mahārāja has got a branch there. Is it not? Gauḍīya Maṭha they have got branch?
Prabhā Viṣṇu: In Visakhapatnam.
Prabhupāda: No, that is another. In Guntur, yes.
Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: Keep your health nice, because Indian climate sometimes does not suit. Eat simple things. Fruits, vegetables. Don't be miser in the matter of... But don't eat voraciously. Eat sufficiently, nutritious.
Gargamuni: Yes. I have also told they should eat nice fruits and vegetable so they will keep healthy.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Vegetable, fruits, very innocent, little milk. That's all. Even if you don't eat these foodgrains, that is preferred. Better. Vegetable and fruits and milk, that is sufficient nutritious. There is no question of disease. But for our tongue taste we eat so many cooked food, but if we eat vegetables, boiled vegetables and fruits and milk, ah, it is sufficient. Ekādaśī. (laughter) Daily ekādaśī.
And these peanuts, a few grains. Not much. That is also nice. Cashew, peanut. Yes. So thank you very much. You are working so much for Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission. Yāre dekha tāre kaha kṛṣṇa-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). Bas. You become a guru. Actually you are doing the guru's work. "Here is a message from Kṛṣṇa. Please take it." Bas. Simple. Yāre dekha. And whomever you meet, tāre kaha kṛṣṇa-upadeśa. Either you speak personally or give him a book.
Maṇihāra: This is the noon paper published...
Prabhupāda: "Explosion." Mahāṁśa Swami is continuing this.
Prabhā Viṣṇu: Yes.
Garden Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Rascal. That is his bad association. Therefore I say don't follow these so-called Rādhā-kuṇḍa bābājīs. Nara-kuṇḍa bābājī. And they smoke biḍi. I have seen. Richard is still there?
Akṣayānanda: Yes. He's in very bad health.
Prabhupāda: But he has got money. Spending money there?
Akṣayānanda: I haven't been there for a long time, but I just heard about.
Prabhupāda: No, he has got money. How he is spending?
Harikeśa: He has hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Prabhupāda: Where it is?
Harikeśa: Probably in New York.
Room Conversation -- September 30, 1976, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: So I shifted there. And there I remained up to May 1967, I think. Then I got heart attack. Then I went to Stinson Beach. Then I could not improve my health. No, first of all, I went to San Francisco. There also I could not sleep at night. There was throbbing in the heart. Kīrtanānanda, he was serving me. So many difficulties. Then I came back to India in 1967 July. Here also not very much improvement. Then again I went to Los Angeles. There also one symptom developed. Always some sound in the ear, gongongongongon. It was so disturbing. Almost half-mad. And then Los Angeles. Then I think I went to Seattle. In this way, in the beginning there were so many difficulties. Montreal. I took Canadian citizenship. America I could not get. So one gentleman in the immigration department, he said, "Swamiji, you go to Canada and from there you try. It will be easier." Actually, it acted. The Canadian consulate general was a black man, American black man. So in the consulate I applied for immigration, and he was sympathetic. He saw my Teachings of Lord Caitanya and he became attracted. So he settled up. "This gentleman must be allowed." So he expedited the matter within three months. And then I became immigrant in the U.S.A. Then again I came back in Los Angeles, and then we took that house, La Cienega.
Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: They-fresh fish—they smear with turmeric and salt and keep it in the sunshine and they dry it. And of course this fish it has no, what is it taste. (laughter) But they keep it. (aside) Bring me little water. (Bengali and Hindi) This I want to introduce, let them be satisfied whatever they can produce themselves locally. What is that, little cloth, little food? Any man can produce these things. There is no difficulty at all. They must agree to this simple life. Otherwise, everywhere you can produce your own food and cloth and cottage. If possible you can construct big buildings. There is no need. And they should be satisfied, happy with Kṛṣṇa. Then life is successful. This I want to introduce now, anywhere. And it is practical. It is not something bogus. It is... We have already experimented. By God's grace we can produce everything from the lands, sarva-kāma-dughā mahī, sarva-kāma-dughā mahī? You can get everything. If they are satisfied with this simple life, then they save time for Kṛṣṇa consciousness and happy life. In India they don't require even cottage. One katiya (?) is sufficient. Keeping in one place and lay down. Eight months, at least six months, it is very nice. At night, even in daytime it is very hot, at night it is cool. So you have got very good sleep, soothing, then you become refreshed in the morning. If you have got good sleep at night, then you become refreshed, your health is regained.
Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: For feeding. Feeding. Give them sumptuous food so that they may become healthy, nice food. (laughter) Yes. That is also wanted. Children, they must eat sufficiently. Not overeat. Even overeat, that is not wrong for children. And that will be exercise, by going to Yamunā and coming? That will be bodily exercise. This is nice. Do that. Strictly follow. There is no scarcity of space there, yes. Vṛndāvana is holy place. And there is no government interference, so increase it. Bring more student from all over the world.
Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: Nobody is in healthy condition. (devotee offers obeisances—break)
Devotee (2): Just like a medicine... We may understand it. For myself, I can tell. I study Bhagavad-gītā and I understand it, but I find so much difficulty to applicate it to the life of every day because...
Prabhupāda: That is... Everything is difficult but... Why "but"? (pause—break) ...a physician, to purchase the medicine, to drink the medi..., that is also difficult but we have to do that.
Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:
Prabhupāda: That is negation. Just like you become freed from fever. So the symptoms of fever finished. But your healthy life begins. And after submission of the fever, still you lie down, that is not cured. Cure will be recognized when you work in your healthy state. That is bhakti. After becoming brahma-bhūya, the activities should be devotional service. Then it is healthy life, liberated life.
Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: That is the explanation required.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Is to concentrate, and by concentration your health will improve.
Hari-śauri: The idea is to tone the body so the senses are subdued.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hari-śauri: So we engage their senses in kīrtana.
Prabhupāda: That is the actual fact.
| Page Title: | Health (Conversations 1975 - 1976) |
| Compiler: | Rishab, Mayapur |
| Created: | 18 of May, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=138, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 138 |