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Hotel (Conversations 1968 - 1975)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1968, Montreal:

Śivānanda: No. In the correct position then, the temple would be the center of the community.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Temple is open for everyone. Let them come and sit down, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, hear Bhagavad-gītā. We don't say, "Oh, are you potter? No. You are not allowed." We don't say that. "Are you cobbler? Oh, you are not allowed." No. We don't say that. Everyone is welcome. Come on. And what is the business? Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Everyone can do it. And what is the next business? We read some nice philosophical portion from Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Yes. You have got ears. (shouts:) But the rascals are not coming! That is their rascaldom. Because they will go to hell. We are offering the greatest facility, but they are so rascals they are not coming. This is a rascaldom civilization. What is difficulty there? You come, sit down, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, take nice prasādam, hear philosophy, see nice pictures, decorated Deity. What is the difficulty there? But their brain is full with rascaldom. They will go to cinema, they will go to hotel, they will go to some other thing, but they will not come to temple, or church, or anywhere where these things are being done. This is called Kali-yuga. Kali-yuga means they are so condemned that they don't take facility of the highest benefit. They have been educated. They have been trained in such a way that they don't like this. But this is their success. Bhāgavata says, saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam (SB 1.2.13). Ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ. Vibhāgaśaḥ means sectional division.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation Before Lecture -- April 29, 1969, Brandeis University, Boston:

Prabhupāda: We cannot say, just like, in some hotels, that "Such and such persons are not admitted." No. We cannot. We admit everyone. Our mission is to elevate persons from down state of life to the highest state of life. So everyone is in down state. Lord Jesus Christ also said that "You do not hate the sinners, but hate sin." Is not that, Lord Jesus Christ said? So hippies may be sinners. We raise them to the pious life. But we say, "Don't do this. Don't do this sinful act. Don't take intoxication. Don't do this. Don't do this." We hate sin, not the sinners. Actually. If we hate sinners, then where is the possibility of preaching?

Miss Rose: If the hippies would come, come, come...

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:

Prof. Kotovsky: But in any case, if you have come, you ought to go somewhere and to see something.

Prabhupāda: I'm not...

Prof. Kotovsky: 'Cause to stay in a hotel, old style hotel like National, is not interesting. Not many people to see. And you are leaving day after tomorrow?

Prabhupāda: That is my program. Day after tomorrow...

Prof. Kotovsky: From here you are going to...?

Prabhupāda: Day after tomorrow or...?

Śyāmasundara: Wednesday.

Devotee:: Today is 22nd. We leave 25th, morning.

Room Conversation -- London, August 10, 1971:

Prabhupāda: The bank will not be prepared to advance in such property?

Mr. Arnold: Well, they may well do, but it would only be... One couldn't guarantee that they would be expected to. But the bank manager, where the account of this temple is kept, they may be tempted to loan a half or three quarters of it, if they think that the thing is a good... I mean, this site at Kings Street, Hammersmith, for instance, if we don't buy it, then the suggestion is that within the very foreseeable future the place will be pulled down to build a large hotel, which means to say that the site is very valuable. On this score, the bank may well be tempted to loan you some money, just on the site alone, (indistinct) the premises. They would be interested.

Prabhupāda: Then means that a church turned out a new building. So that is a big stake.

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

Dr. Singh: (indistinct) the day when you chant Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the Red Square.

Śyāmasundara: Ratha-yātrā, sankirtana.

Prabhupāda: You have been in Moscow?

Dr. Singh: Yes.

Prabhupāda: I was staying in that National Hotel.

Dr. Singh: Who sponsored your (indistinct)?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa. I had some correspondence with one Professor Kotovsky, and he said that... (end)

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Bob: Yeah, I've seen...

Prabhupāda: They have no tendency for going to cinema or going to hotel, no. Everything all stopped. Anartha-nivṛttiḥ. Anartha means unnecessary things, all rubbish.

Bob: I feel that when I go back, though...

Prabhupāda: The whole human life is meant for purifying. Śuddhyed sattva. Sattva means existence. So if you don't purify your existence, then you'll have to change your body, from this body to that. Sometimes it may be higher, sometimes lower. Just like, if you don't cure your disease, it can take turn in so many ways to put you into trouble. Similarly, if you don't purify your existence, then you'll have to transmigrate from one body to another. And there is no guarantee what kind of body you'll get. Very subtle laws of nature. Now there is no guarantee that you will get a very comfortable body or American body, no. Therefore for human being it is essential that he should purify his existence. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam (SB 5.5.1). Unless you purify your existence, you're hankering after happiness, you cannot get continued happiness. That is not possible.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. So long you are in the material world, what is physical laws, you cannot neglect that. Just like if you go to a jungle, there is tiger. It is known that it will attack you. Why should you voluntarily go and be attacked? It is not that a devotee should take physical risk so long he has got some physical body. It is not a challenge to the physical laws: "Oh, I have become a devotee. I challenge everything." That is foolishness. Anāsaktasya viṣayān yathārham upayuñjataḥ. Viṣaya, these physical necessities, the devotee is advised to accept the necessities of life without any attachment. Physical law is take the boiled water, but if boiled water is not available, does it mean he'll not drink water? If it is not available, you drink ordinary water. (break) We take Kṛṣṇa-prasādam. But while in touring, in hotels sometimes we have to take some food in the hotel. Does it mean, "Oh, I do not take any foodstuff from the hotel, I shall starve"? If I starve, then I'll be weak, I cannot preach. (break)

Room Conversation -- April 1, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: We say in our śāstras that this sense gratification facility is there to the hogs and dogs, better sense gratification. If you have to enjoy sex life, you'll have to find out some room. Either you go to a hotel or have your own apartment, otherwise you cannot have sex life on the street, although you are too much lusty. But you have to arrange for it. But the dogs and hogs, they have no such restriction. Immediately "Come on. Let us enjoy." So they are better, in better position for sense gratification.

Sudāmā: So better to become and hog and dog.

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

Prabhupāda: You have got your own apartment?

Ian Polsen: I've just transferred down from Edinburgh on Friday for the first time. So I have not found a place yet. I'm staying in a hotel for the time being.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Devotee (2) (Kulaśekhara?): Śrīla Prabhupāda, he used to be a shepherd in France.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee (2) (Kulaśekhara?): He used to be a shepherd three years ago. He used to be a shepherd for some years. And, ah, he was with a Muslim man who was telling him about sac-cid-ānanda, explaining to him about the philosophy of sac-cid-ānanda, about the soul and the spirit. So in Spain—that's where I first met him—he said, "I may appear to you to be a businessman, but also I've been known as a shepherd."

Prabhupāda: So you can read our Teachings of Lord Caitanya. You have got?

Room Conversation -- August 1, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: Commonwealth is in name. (pause)

Devotee: Still, there is something about London. Everyone likes to come here. There's so many... There's not enough hotel rooms even.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee: There's not even enough hotel rooms to accommodate so many tourists who come here to London.

Prabhupāda: London is still famous. People outside, they have got very high idea about London.

Devotee: Civilized. Very civilized city.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And I was in month of June, still in the morning the wind was so cold. And there is double glass in every window, double glass. Just like aeroplane, double. And at half past eleven in the month of June, when in your country it is half past eleven o'clock, that is evening. And at half past three o'clock, morning. And still the little night, that is just like dusk; it is not completely dark. And laborer class... (speaks to someone in Hindi) Keep it open. (break) (indistinct) Every corner of the street, Lenin's picture. All books are sold, they are Lenin. No other literature. You cannot get taxi. Poor men, they cannot pay for taxi. Very little number. When I was talking with Professor Kotovsky, so I asked him, "Now we shall go. Get me taxi." So he, "Yes, it is Moscow." So he got down, he personally showed me, "Instead of taking taxi waiting, please go in this way when you go to your hotel." He showed me shortcut. People are walking, and they are running for the bus. It is not at all a rich country. A poor country. And if you see the shops, you will find old (indistinct), just like antique shop.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 29, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: I, I, I am traveling all over the world. My opinion is that, materially, America is happy. And spiritually some portion of India is happy. Otherwise, there is no happiness all over the world. And material happiness is illusion. That is not happiness. Because it will break at any time. Therefore that is not happiness. And spiritual happiness is real happiness. So in Russia, there is neither material nor spiritual. So they are unhappy in all respects. I asked Professor Kotovsky to call for a taxi. So he said: "Well, it is Moscow. Very difficult to get taxi." So he came down himself, he showed us this way: "Please go in this way, in this way, and you get (to) your hotel." He's a big man. He knows that taxi will not be available. And there are few taxis only, show. I did not see any store very neat and clean, well-decorated. Not a single. All old with dust. As if antique shop. The antique shop, just like in your country. I was daily having my morning walk in the Red Square. The most dangerous square...

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

Prabhupāda: The same thing happened in Kanpur in a hotel. One man was eating meat, and he found a little finger...

Guest (4): Finger of some...

Guest (2): That was in the Bombay, in the Villa Parle, in my place, where I was living.

Guest (4): Newspaper (Hindi)

Guest (2): This gentleman went to the hotel and found a small finger.

Prabhupāda: Small children cut up. And there was another case in Calcutta. The, one Chinaman, he was eating human being. And then... (break) ...some Kancawala (?) (beggar) him called, and then captured and killed him. This was going on. Later on, when police enquiry was made, so many human...

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

Prabhupāda: Working?

Guest (5): Yes.

Prabhupāda: What work?

Guest (5): Well I'm on the (indistinct) hotel. In the kitchen working, all the washing, and the supervising and things. You know, my father's seen you. He's come and seen you a bit.

Prabhupāda: Ma-phal?

Guest (5): My father.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation With Three College Students -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Now, first of all you have to find out secluded place. Yoga practice is not possible in a hotel or in a public place. It is not possible. You have to find out a secluded place. First condition. Then?

Pradyumna: "...and should lay kuśa grass on the ground and then cover it with a deerskin and a soft cloth."

Prabhupāda: Then there is process of making the āsana, deerskin, kuśāsana, then cloth. You have to sit down in that āsana. Āsana, dhyāna, dhāraṇā, prāṇ... Then?

Pradyumna: "The seat should neither be too high nor too low."

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything is there. "It should not be too high nor too low." Then?

Room Conversation With Three College Students -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: A sacred place. Just like formerly those who were practicing yoga, they were going to Gaṅgotri where the Ganges is coming down, in the Himalaya, in the Haridwar, in a secluded, sacred place. These are the condition, first condition. So where you are getting these conditions fulfilled? You cannot practice yoga in a hotel or in a club. That is not possible.

Student (2): How do you decide whether a place is sacred or not?

Prabhupāda: Sacred place, generally we take as a lonely place, solitary place. If it is not solitary, it is not sacred.

Student (2): Is sacred the same as solitary?

Room Conversation with Cardinal Danielou -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Bhagavān: Installed in our temple.

Cardinal Danielou: Yes, this is very, very, very beautiful. Yes, I would be very glad to visit you. You was in the Hotel De Ville of Paris this afternoon?

Yogeśvara: Yes, we just came from the Hotel De Ville.

Cardinal Danielou: Yes, yes, yes. A very nice reception, the Hotel De Ville.

Bhagavān: Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda spoke on our philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā.

Cardinal Danielou: Oh, Bhagavad-gītā, yes, yes, yes...

Bhagavān: People were very interested. Our spiritual concept of soul, he spoke on.

Cardinal Danielou: Yes. It is a... Personally I like very much Hinduism. And I have a brother, (indistinct), it is my brother, who is a specialist on Hinduism...

Bhagavān: Yes, his brother has written a very great book which is known all over France...

Cardinal Danielou: Especially on Indian music, Indian music. He live many years in Benares.

Prabhupāda: Benares.

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I went there in June, 1971.

Ambassador: And did you stay in the city, or did...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, in National Hotel. One Madrasi gentleman...

Ambassador: I remember now, sir. Abhiyarthe(?) Natarajan.

Prabhupāda: Nataraja, yes.

Ambassador: Mr. Natarajan Rao told me because I was away. I was away in Central Asia. I remember his telling me. And Natarajan looked after.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- September 19, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Office means their business is office. But your business is begging. Your business is not office. Your business is not... They have to direct so many things from there. That we can do. Besides that... Anyway, even they have got office, they come from in Bombay, Calcutta, even from hundred miles away. So if there is no such program, Deity worship, regulative principles, then it will be a joint mess. Hotel. Transcendental hotel. And transcendental fraud. This will go on. The business will be transcendental fraud, and life will be transcendental hotel. (Break) ...twenty, twenty-five. So these women devotees, they are given cāpāṭis by the bābājīs. Kṣurasya dhārā. Actually it is like that. A sharpened razor, A little inattention, immediately blood. Kṣurasya dhārā niśitā duratyayā durgaṁ pathas tat kavayo vadanti (?). That is the risk. Nowadays modern civilization, as we are accepting, there is jeep, there is telephone, everything is there. One can conduct his activities from anywhere.

Room Conversation with Banker -- September 21, 1973, Bombay:

Banker: National and Grindlay's bank officers are there. Several British companies have officers there. I was the only American for awhile.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So you'll be moving out there again when you come back?

Banker: No, I've been transferred to New York. I'm in a hotel because my things are packed.

Prabhupāda: You are going to New York?

Banker: Next week. I brought Bhanu, so in the future if you need any help, you just see her in the bank. She's interested and aware.

Prabhupāda: She's going also with you?

Banker: She will be in Bombay. She's at our main branch.

Prabhupāda: You are working in the bank?

Room Conversation with Banker -- September 21, 1973, Bombay:

Banker: I haven't read most of this. I have a tiny one in my hotel room. There is a Gītā society in this country, leaves a Gītā in every hotel room. I have only read a few selections. Like the Gideons, the Bible. You go in any hotel in India now and you have one Bible placed by the Gideons and one Gītā by this Gītā (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Gītā Press. Sit down, I am coming. (break) In the U.S., I understand, there are 75,000 libraries.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But lot of the libraries in U.S. are running short of funds because the Nixon administration has withdrawn the support of the funds that they were giving to the various libraries.

Prabhupāda: State aid?

Morning Walk -- December 11, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: ...innocent child, woman, they're innocent. They should be given full protection. There is no such thing. They're being exploited, keeping them unmarried, and the hotels, and the clubs, and the, what is called? Top... top...

Devotees: Topless.

Prabhupāda: Topless, bottomless. That is going on. It is a regular policy that girls may remain unmarried, and the drunkards and the meat-eaters may take advantage of the prostitution. This is the policy. They have no sympathy. So many hundreds and thousands of innocent girls, they're like children. And they're exposed to prostitution. They have no shelter. Now these girls who are with us, they're feeling some shelter, you see? That we are giving some shelter.

Morning Walk -- December 18, 1973, Los Angeles:

Devotee: They made a movie like that, Śrīla Prabhupāda, about people... They give up their lives and they are sent to this place where they are mashed up and made into meat, and the people eat them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They do that in many hotels. They, it was in India done. The childcatcher? What is called?

Girirāja: Kidnapper.

Prabhupāda: Kidnappers. They kidnap and they slaughter, and mix with other meat. It becomes very tasteful. In hotel, one body found a finger of a child. In Kanpur.

Devotee: Some social scientists were saying that in twenty years cannibalism will be as acceptable among the society as illicit sex is now.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...that business in your country. What is that? Topless, bottomless?

Devotee: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: No? They want. There is regular business. In India also. In the hotels there are regular business to pick up college girls and enjoyed by the guests. So many things are going on on this basis of sinful activity. All over the world. So they become polluted, all people..., population, then how they can expect good government? Some of them will take the charge of the government, and he's polluted. (pause) Indigestion. You know that? Indigestion.

Devotee: Ha.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Not kīrtana. Kīrtana, ārati, bhoga, lecture, so many ways. I have explained this.

Guru dāsa: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...big hotel, ISKCON Vegetarian Hotel.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Five star.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One of the big points is...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...five star hotel. It must be very gorgeous.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Immediately submit plan and... Where is Surabhi?

Guru dāsa: Surabhi? He's here. (break)

Prabhupāda: Where you get plan for hotel in Bombay?

Surabhi: Inside?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Full front of the land, whole front land. No temple.

Prabhupāda: Whole...

Surabhi: Only hotel.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. With a hall, hall on the ground floor. Covering the whole land.

Prabhupāda: Not for the whole ground floor. First floor.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Not for the whole ground floor. First floor.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: On the first floor, one big, big hall.

Surabhi: Only hotel? One plan?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You have got the site plan of the land?

Surabhi: Yes, I have all the plans for Bombay.

Prabhupāda: Ah. Then you can make a sketch. (break) ...plan.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One thing you should know, Prabhupāda. The hotels in that area are being sold. ("Hotel" in India may mean merely a restaurant. Publisher's note.)

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Ah. Then you can make a sketch. (break) ...plan.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One thing you should know, Prabhupāda. The hotels in that area are being sold. ("Hotel" in India may mean merely a restaurant. Publisher's note.)

Prabhupāda: Let them be sold. Our hotel does not depend on them. We are always independent.

Guru dāsa: Why are they being sold? For lack of people coming?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whatever the people may be doing, they...

Prabhupāda: Two hotels?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Two. King's Hotel, and Horizons.

Prabhupāda: Are for sale, or they have been sold?

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Are for sale, or they have been sold?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are selling. The owners are selling.

Prabhupāda: So...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say... I spoke with one hotel man, and he says the price of petrol is now three rupees, twenty-five paise per liter.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Petrol now costs three rupees twenty-five per liter. That means about three or four times what it was previously. So people are not so much inclined; since they have their business in the city, if they stay in Juhu...

Prabhupāda: That is one of the reasons.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is one of the reasons.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...they have to go all the way from Juhu into the city. It costs twenty-five rupees by taxi.

Guru dāsa: This is happening all over the world to the hotel business.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guru dāsa: All over the world. All over the world.

Prabhupāda: Hotel business declining?

Guru dāsa: All over. Because of the petrol shortage.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But it's not permanent.

Guru dāsa: They'll have to do something, because...

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not permanent. The thing is that our life, if we put up a hotel, Prabhupāda, all of our life members, at least, I know, in fact, will use the hotel. Plus many foreigners will still use. Because we are not, we are not... Our hotel will not simply be for the business foreigners.

Prabhupāda: It is for spiritual culture.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Spiritual culture. Right. So for that purpose it makes no difference the center of the city or elsewhere.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...dependent any condition. We are independent. And you are criticizing. Permit has not been obtained. And if you think that there is no possibility of temple being sanctioned, then we start hotel. (break)

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: All right, that is already there. But if the sanction is not there, what we will do? Keep the land vacant? (break) That I am trying to get sanction, "Is it all right." If you don't, then hotel.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Otherwise build a hotel in the front and a temple in the rear.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And then it satisfies both. (break)

Prabhupāda: No. The same view. Eh?

Devotee: Yeah. (break)

Prabhupāda: One man's walking, Letchmore Heath.

Morning Walk -- March 23, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Yogam aiśvaram.

Prabhupāda: Just like in this hotel. There are so many furnitures, so many rooms. If you say, "Everything is hotel," what is this nonsense?

Dr. Patel: Ah, but without furniture hotel cannot be? Without building, hotel cannot be. Without this...

Prabhupāda: But why do you say, "It is furniture"?

Dr. Patel: ...parts, all this, the body cannot be.

Prabhupāda: No, no. This is means less intelligent.

Dr. Patel: That is what I am...

Morning Walk -- March 23, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes

Dr. Patel: I want to correct my intelligence.

Prabhupāda: If you say the furniture is hotel, that means less intelligent.

Dr. Patel: Ah, but then you take out the furniture, hotel will not be there.

Prabhupāda: That's all right, but you cannot say the furniture is the hotel.

Dr. Patel: I am arguing like a Buddha.

Prabhupāda: You cannot say that.

Dr. Patel: But then, that is also an argument.

Prabhupāda: That is nonsense argument. "Hotel is furniture."

Morning Walk -- March 23, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You cannot say "Everything is hotel." "The furniture is hotel, the man is hotel, the food is hotel." What is this? There must be varieties.

Dr. Patel: So you have gone on the top of the tree. We are trying to give him the root.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) But you do not know how the root is manifested. Therefore you are less intelligent.

Dr. Patel: I am very less intelligent. I have no intelligence.

Prabhupāda: No.

Dr. Patel: The root is manifested from the seed.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That everyone knows.

Morning Walk -- March 24, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They are observing hygienic principle as far as possible, but only thing is they require little guidance.

Dr. Patel: This kitchen behind is too small, hotel, they...

Prabhupāda: No. We can make a big kitchen, we have got enough room.

Dr. Patel: I told them, maybe away we must have a small room attached to it where these boys can take... (break) (Hindi) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...I am not this body.

Dr. Patel: That's right. So the mosquitos also have no body.

Prabhupāda: They tolerate. Actually, they tolerate because they factually think that "I am not this body. Let the mosquito bite my body."

Morning Walk -- April 1, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. It doesn't matter whether a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, or vaiśya, śūdra. If you are conscious that "I have to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead according to my capacity of work," then he'll not fall down. He'll not fall down. (break) ...fall down from the position, then it is dead society. It is not living society. At the present moment. Yes. If you don't find actual brāhmaṇa, don't find actual kṣatriya, don't find actual vaiśya, so all śūdras. And there is no guide. Therefore chaotic condition. (break) ...ship without rudder? What is called? Yes. They do not know what is the aim of life. Ask any leader. The leader, he says, "No, this aim of life is to drink and enjoy. That's all." This is going on. After diplomacy, politics, when they are tired, they go to the hotel or club and enjoy and drink. That's all. This is their aim of life. (break) ...countries there are even shops, they indulge all these things, topless, bottomless, like that. Because that is the only solace to this materialistic life.

Room Conversation -- May 20, 1974, Vrndavana:

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

Yamunā: For health.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Yamunā: For their health.

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

Devotee (2): Mountain.

Room Conversation with Catholic Cardinal and Secretary to the Pope -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: No, not on the street. Some of the boys, they came to my hotel. So so far I saw, the people, they are very nice. They are very nice, but the government supresses their sentiments. Everyone has got religious sentiments. The people is as good as in other places. I don't find any difference. It is not that the whole Russia is atheist. It is not that. They are as others. They are like that. And our philosophy is that everyone is God conscious; simply it is being suppressed, either by the so-called leaders or by the influence of external energy, which is called māyā. We have got a verse in this Caitanya-caritāmṛta where it is said that nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti sādhya kabhu naya. It is not an artificial thing. To make one God conscious is not artificial. God consciousness is there, even in the life of aborigines, most crude people. It has to be awakened by education. Śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte.

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Twenty-five years in a place means you domicile. Yes, naturally.

Priest: Did you come to Poona?

Prabhupāda: Once I went. One friend took me there. I stayed in that Gujarati hotel, near the station I think.

Priest: Yes, not far.

Prabhupāda: Poona is nice place. Climate is nice.

Priest: For studies it's a beautiful place, and particularly for Sanskrit.

Prabhupāda: Yes, there are many good scholars.

Priest: Many scholars, many institutions, and also the society is rich.

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, Bombay just now we have got a very big place.

Priest: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And we are constructing a big hotel, strictly vegetarian prasādam. We are at Juhu quarter. (someone enters room) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. So you can give him a chair, this one. You can come forward here.

Bhagavān: You have been to India? You've worked there.

Priest: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he was twenty-five years there.

Priest: Twenty-five years.

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: So in another place also it is said, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65), mām evaiṣyasi, asaṁśaya. "If you want to enter in the kingdom of God, always think of Me," man-manā, "and you just become My devotee and worship Me and offer your obeisances." These four principles, it is not difficult. To achieve the kingdom of God is not at all difficult. It is very easy. Anyone can go. But they are not prepared to accept the process. That is their misfortune. Otherwise, always thinking of God. We are thinking something, but the thinking should be turned towards God. That is our teaching. They are always chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. So by uttering the word Kṛṣṇa, immediately you think of Kṛṣṇa. This is the process. It is not difficult at all. And you can always think of, just like these boys have been taught, walking on the street, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma... Just like we have got this. I am talking with you, but two minutes I talk with you, as soon as I stop, I chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma... What is the difficulty? It is simply practice. No difficulty. And simply by chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, everyone can see how these young boys and girls, they are not very old, they have taken to it quite young, but they have forgotten everything. They do not go to cinema, do not go to hotel, no dancing.

Room Conversation -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Same charge. Same charge. You sit down, eat to your heart's content, be satisfied, and let him also eat. Don't waste. We supply. This is our program. Not that each time... Just like in hotel, each time a plate is brought, immediately a bill. Is it not? No. You sit down, eat to your satisfaction. Charge is the same.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: I think they will leave the restaurant with their pockets full of samosās. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: That we shall not allow. That we shall not allow.

Bhagavān: You were telling us one time that in India, if a person has a mango orchard, you can come in if you're hungry and eat, but you cannot take any with you.

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

Prabhupāda: That I do not know, but many French men came to see me, and...

Yogeśvara: Last year, at Hotel De Ville.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Yogeśvara: Last year, you were received by the Mayor at Hotel De Ville.

Prabhupāda: No, but in America we have reception from highly scholarly people, university heads, like that. Our books are being read in universities, colleges, and they're accepted in big, big libraries. Not only accepted what is published, but they have forward order for all the publications that will come. Yes? Hmmm. (someone comes in with a plate of prasādam)

Morning Walk -- July 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. And the waves are not so ferocious. It is coming. And the whole thing is clean, whole beach. Yes. And it is ten miles long. Therefore so many foreigners' hotels are there. (japa) (pause) When I was last here, Los Angeles, which chapter I was reading? Who knows? Which chapter of Bhāgavata I was reading?

Guru-kṛpa: Fifth?

Sudāmā: The last time he was here?

Jayatīrtha: In Los Angeles you were reading in the Third Volume of the First Canto. I believe it was about...

Hṛdayānanda: About Arjuna, how Arjuna left the earth, how the Pāṇḍavas retired.

Jayatīrtha: Ah, Pāṇḍavas Retire, yes.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 23, 1975, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: In Vietnam, Śrīla Prabhupāda, I heard that the North Vietnamese and Vietcong were killing...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Now they are killing child in the womb. That killed child is taken in the hotel.

Brahmānanda: There was a report that that was going on in New York.

Prabhupāda: Yes?

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: It is going on in London, in all civilized countries, advanced civilization.

Guest: And they say that there was report in Bombay also.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Amogha: They come for pilgrimage?

Prabhupāda: No, no. They will be sent to your house. Pay for it. Hotel. In the Kali-yuga the sex impulse is so strong, but it is utilized in so many ways. The yogis, swamis, school, college, philosophy—at the end sex, that's all. That example, dog's tail. Whatever you do, greasing, the tail will be like this. (break) I think it is sooner. It takes time less than for going there.

Devotee (1): Oh, I came the short way.

Prabhupāda: Oh, he came by the short way.

Devotee (1):. Yes.

Morning Walk -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Paramahaṁsa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: They don't make much profit. That is the oriental culture. They make little profit; they are satisfied. Still in India you will find many hotel, very cheap, very cheap. Especially Mohammedan hotels. Still, by paying eight annas, you can get full meal.

Devotee (1): When Rāvaṇa was on the earth, was the whole earth populated, like Brazil and also the other parts of the world?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everywhere population. This is a new theory of the rascals that there was no civilization before three thousand years. This is wrong theory. Everything was there.

Morning Walk -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: So you are not distributing now?

Devotee (1): Yes, we are still distributing, only around Christmas in Perth. During the rest of the time of the year, it is not very crowded.

Amogha: When we came over here, we stayed in a hotel before we found the house about ten days ago. And when we came to the motel, the lady said, "Oh, someone has left this book here." And she gave us a Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. (pause) Yesterday the United States attacked and sank three Cambodian boats. They are fighting because the Cambodian Communists, the new government, captured one United States freighter. So now they are beginning to try to take it back. (pause) The bus is empty again.

Prabhupāda: A very good bus.

Room Conversation with Director of Research of the Dept. of Social Welfare -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: In Paris very, very old men, seventy-five years, eighty years old, they are going to the nightclub, paying $50 entrance fee, then they spend money for woman, wine. And few hours they stay there and come back. They are all old men. It is very difficult job, but still by Kṛṣṇa's grace you are accepting this principle. That is great mercy of Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise it is very, very difficult. One old man, I told you that Marquis of Zetland? In London? So he proposed one of my Godbrothers went, "Can you make me brāhmaṇa?" "Oh, yes. You give up this habit." "Oh, that is impossible. That is impossible. This is our life." So in the Western countries that is the life, to have illicit sex, meat-eating, drinking, and gambling. There are organized clubs, brothels, hotels, only for this. People are accepting this principle, young boys like you, it is Kṛṣṇa's mercy on us. Otherwise it is impossible.

Morning Walk -- May 31, 1975, Honolulu:

Gurukṛpa: Sweet.

Prabhupāda: Five thousand years ago it was composed by Vyāsadeva. (break) ...only for the Juhu Beach so many hotels are being maintained. Even this Holiday Inn, they have also...

Gurukṛpa: Juhu Beach is a big beach.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Yes. (break) ...I told you, in my childhood I was consulting the time table, "What is the fare of Jagannātha Purī and Vṛndāvana?" (chuckles)

Gurukṛpa: You said it was two rupees.

Prabhupāda: No, not two rupees. Jagannātha Purī at that time was four rupees, four annas or one anna. And Vṛndāvana was six rupees.

Room Conversation after Press Conference -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Jagadīśa: The men are behaving just like dogs.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Brahmānanda: Today in the hotel where we went there was one barber shop. And the name of the barber shop was "The home of the dog."

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: What is the meaning?

Brahmānanda: Well, the idea is that the haircuts of the men are so long, they look like...

Prabhupāda: Dog.

Morning Walk -- July 10, 1975, Chicago:

Jayatīrtha: (in car:) It says, "Forgive me if this story is not well-written. I am a woman. My brain weighs less than a man's, and I am not equal in intelligence." So she admits. "His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, the seventy-seven year-old founder of the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, said so Wednesday. The Society is dedicated to peace in the world through love of God and relinquishment of all things material. The Swami spoke seated cross-legged on an expensive looking cushion surrounded by fresh flowers, microphones and burning incense in a conference room he rented at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel. He is in town for a Kṛṣṇa parade at 1:30 p.m., Saturday down State Street in which he will ride on a flower-bedecked float. He then will fly to Philadelphia for more celebration and philosophical chats. He looked occasionally at his gold watch as he explained his life philosophy. His adoring disciple, five men, knelt at his side. 'The MAN,' " capital M-A-N, "he said, 'who loves God, controls his sense, is clean inside and out, is simple and tolerant and uses knowledge he has acquired in practical life...' "

Prabhupāda: Intolerant?

Morning Walk -- July 16, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: That is very good. Students are the future hope, young students.

Dharmādhyakṣa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we should teach them to live very simply, to give up all of this complexity that is causing them so much agitation and depression and just live very simply, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is greatest common factor. Whatever he may be, if he is induced to chant, that is very good, and take prasādam. (break) ...canvas(?) pasted there? Granada? Granada.

Bahulāśva: This is a hotel.

Prabhupāda: Hotel. (end)

Morning Walk -- September 18, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What is the reception? Who is coming?

Dhanañjaya: Some people are always coming. They are inquiring about the guesthouse, about life membership. And Nayanābhirāma is instructing him how to inform the people about membership and about the guest rooms. Actually Rājasabhā, he keeps a hotel in Madhya Pradesh.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Dhanañjaya: He has his own hotel business, so he is quite experienced.

Prabhupāda: So he can manage.

Dhanañjaya: Yes. So there's no need for added expense of getting someone from outside.

Prabhupāda: No. No. If he can manage, that is nice.

Morning Walk -- October 4, 1975, Mauritius:

Brahmānanda: It looks like a hotel.

Cyavana: Yes. It will be very luxurious.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (break)

Devotee 2: ...Vyāsadeva and Nara-Nārāyaṇa, they are still in the Himalayas meditating, why don't they come and join our parties and help this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement by their...?

Prabhupāda: They are giving you chance to preach. They have given their books. Is it not sufficient?

Devotee 2: Yes, it's great help. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...bones or what?

Morning Walk -- October 6, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: This is residential or industrial?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Over here is all residential, European apartment houses. And along the beach there is all hotels. This is a very big resort area in South Africa. There's a... Whole south coast, going down for about eighty miles, is all resorts. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...English-made city?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Durban is English city. Capetown has Dutch influence.

Prabhupāda: It resembles Melbourne. Melbourne. Australian Melbourne, this quarter resembles. (break) ...from Indian Ocean?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Indian Ocean.

Morning Walk -- Durban, October 13, 1975 :

Prabhupāda: No. Practically, because you have preached your culture in India; therefore they have lost their own culture. The Western, the Britishers were for two hundred years and they preached. Their policy was to kill the Indian culture. Because that report of Lord McCauley, after studying Indian situation, the report was to the Parliament that "If you keep India as Indian, then you will not be able to rule over them," so therefore there was regular policy to kill Indian civilization. And because they were on the governing power, they could do it. Therefore India lost its own culture and victimized by the Western culture. This is the position. Just they are learning how to eat meat, how to drink wine, how to dress them with coat and pant, how to go to the hotel, illicit sex—these things are…

Room Conversation -- October 29, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: That is natural. When they plunder, they are united, and when they share, there will be fight. This is psychology. When plundering others' property they will unite and take the whole thing, and then, when they come for sharing, there will be fight. This is the psychology everywhere. Therefore there are so many parties. Just like in India the... Of course, Congress Party was the predominant to fight with the Britishers. And as soon as they got independence, so many hundred thousand parties grew up: the Congress Party, the RSS party, the Hindu-mazara(?) party, the Muslim League party, this party, this party. And then they began to fight. This is the way. Senayor eva sa ucyate. All these thieves and rascal, rogues... God's property, why you should fight amongst themselves? Property belongs to somebody else. Insanity. Just like this is government park. Anyone can come in. Everyone can equally enjoy. So why not make the whole world as Kṛṣṇa's park? What is the difficulty? Actually it is the fact. Why do you claim? Now we have come. If you say, "No, this portion belongs to us," and another, "This portion belongs to us," then there will be fight. And if we are Kṛṣṇa conscious, every one of us, that if they see Kṛṣṇa's property, so let us enjoy. What is the cause of fighting? The hotels are the centers for all kinds of sinful activity. Huh? Illicit sex, drinking, gambling and meat-eating. No discrimination.

Room Conversation -- October 29, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bodily conception life means misery and fear.

Brahmānanda: In Mauritius one of our life members, he's a contractor. He's constructing a hotel that has four floors. On one floor is the gambling casino, one floor is the restaurant, one floor is the cabaret, and one floor is the, also rooms for the women to stay.

Prabhupāda: Naturally people are not very much interested in our movement.

Brahmānanda: Because these four things that they are supporting, we are against.

Indian: I asked that pilot who was staying in our Bombay, Juhu land.

Prahupada: Ha ha. Mr. Sharma?

Room Conversation -- October 29, 1975, Nairobi:

Brahmānanda: Oh, Ācārya.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Ācārya.

Indian: He was staying in the International Hotel, so I asked him, "Why don't you come and stay with us? Stay there and attend the Ārati and take Kṛṣṇa prasāda," but he refused.

Cyavana: But he visited the temple here.

Indian: He visited. He said, "No, hotel is good."

Prabhupāda: Once they are accustomed to take these four things, especially meat-eating and drinking, it is not possible to give it up. Very difficult. Without drinking wine or without eating meat, they do not feel refreshed.

Morning Walk -- November 13, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...not whimsically. That will not... That is a bad example.

Dr. Patel: Oh, yes. Otherwise it will become a hotel.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Dr. Patel: Otherwise it will become a hotel.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hotel we are preparing also, transcendental hotel. But they must pay for it.

Dr. Patel: That's right. I think it is perfectly right.

Prabhupāda: Otherwise what will be the impression of the sādhus, that one treatment to one and one treatment to another? Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...require, everything is there by God's arrangement. (break) ...heavy load, there is elephant, truck. Elephant is truck, horse is carriage. Everything is there by nature's... And for small load, the bulls, the asses. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) Where he is? He has gone back? In the kitchen they are preparing tea? They are preparing tea in the kitchen?

Morning Walk -- November 18, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He is suggesting, but he has no clear idea.

Dr. Patel: He definitely has said in thirty-fourth sutra, īśvaraḥ pari danaiva: "If you can't vacate your mind, put God inside." iśvaraḥ pari danaiva.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Holiday Inn Hotel? (break)

Yaśomatīnandana: ...accept God. But if they do accept God, then none of their activity shows it. They're constantly trying to disprove God.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Indian man (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda? This boy wants to go in gurukula school.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Morning Walk -- November 26, 1975, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (break)

Harikeśa: They are becoming very advanced, making big skyscrapers.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a big hotel.

Prabhupāda: Hotel? Oh.

Tejās: Hotel and office.

Prabhupāda: Those who are not cooperating...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They should be asked to leave.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They must cooperate.

Morning Walk -- December 11, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Follow the regulative principles, it will remain, always Vaikuṇṭha. Otherwise again material world.

Akṣayānanda Swami: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Free hotel. (laughs) That's all. And free hotel will not endure.

Akṣayānanda Swami: No.

Prabhupāda: Svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. By service spirit beginning with tongue Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then everything is revealed, Vaikuṇṭha atmosphere... Sethji has not come out.

Akṣayānanda Swami: Of course we accept, ah, when you tell us to chant sixteen rounds, we accept that figure as being, in perfect faith, that you're the ācārya, but ah, what if others we wanted to convince, is there any, any ah, śāstr... Is there any Vedic verse we can refer to to corroborate that at least they must chant sixteen rounds.

Page Title:Hotel (Conversations 1968 - 1975)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:27 of Mar, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=65, Let=0
No. of Quotes:65