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I have come (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- March 9, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: You can fight against death very nicely, but you cannot stop death. These are the problems. But there is no education in the modern civilization how to stop death, how to stop disease, how to stop old age, how to stop birth, how to attain eternal life, how to attain blissful life. They have no education. But this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, although it appears a new movement in your country, but it is known to the world. But nobody had previously attempted to put these ideas and movement in practical shape. So that I am doing. That I am attempting. And with this mission, I have come to your country with the hope that if the American people take it very seriously, then it will be the greatest contribution to the world. So I have already published this, my magazines and my books, in this connection.

Interview -- March 9, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: So every student has to follow these four prin... Otherwise I don't initiate. I don't take cheap students, that "You can do whatever you like, and you pay me some money. I give you some mantra, and you become God." I don't say like that. I don't bluff like that. I have not come to earn money from your country, but I have come to your country to give you something sublime, not to take you, not to take from you, not to exploit you, but to give you something sublime. You see? So that is the third stage, initiation. And then, if you are situated in the third stage nicely—that means if you follow the regulative principles under my direction—then the fourth stage automatically comes.

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: Now, He ordered every Indian to spread this message of Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over the world, in every village, every town. That was His order. But unfortunately, since India was under foreign subjugation, they could not spread, or they lost their own independence of culture. But everyone expected after declaration of independence by India, such things should come to the outside world. But the government did not take much care of it. So far I am concerned, I belong to Lord Caitanya's disciplic succession, and my spiritual master, who was just ninth generation from Lord Caitanya, he ordered me that "You try to spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the Western world." Therefore in pursuance of his order, I have come here.

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: Of course, faith is the basic principle of everything. If you have no faith, then you cannot make progress in any line of action. So in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is also... Faith is the basic principle. Just like I have come here. I started my classes in New York. So I was alone chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Somebody came. Naturally, out of inquisitiveness, somebody comes. Somebody came and, "Oh, what this Indian swami is doing? Let me see." So he sat down. Some other came. He sat down. Then some of them took it, "Oh, Swamiji speaks very nice. Let me come again." He comes, he comes, and then he gets some faith: "Oh, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is very nice."

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: I have come here for the last ten days only. And at least two or three is already converted (in) Seattle. Yes. I want to see the youngsters in your country to be happy. Everyone wants that, but not only in your country, I want to see everywhere. Because that is the duty of every human being, to give information of highest happiness. That is the duty of every human being. The animal propensity is to exploit others. And human propensity should be to do good to others. That is the difference between animal propensity and human propensity.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: I don't feel too much difficulty, except aesthetically I do feel a difficulty. Yes, there is. The difficulty I feel is that there should be some flower of the American language to communicate in rather than...

Prabhupāda: Therefore we are seeking your help.

Allen Ginsberg: Yeah. Well I haven't found a way, I still just stay chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Therefore why I have come to you? That is also my view. I have come to America with this view, that America is on the summit of material civilization. They are not poverty-stricken. You see? And they are seeking after something. Therefore I have come, that "You take this, you'll be happy." That is my mission. And if the Americans take, then all other countries will take because America is leading at the present moment.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: No. You see, I recommend it quite a bit but it isn't accepted by very many.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) No, no. Then I say, you are American. You are popular leader. You have got some voice. I am a foreigner. I have come new, and who cares for me? That is a different thing.

Allen Ginsberg: Well, that's why I'm asking you very specifically cause I've been chanting for five years, six years. Since 1963, '64. Since the fall of 1963, I've been chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa on this continent, beginning in Vancouver in July, 1963. And I am finding there is a limitation to how many people will join that chant. Or I have found a limitation. Part of the limitation is the fact that it is strange and new to people here.

Prabhupāda: But there is no loss.

Meeting with Devotees -- June 9, 1969, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That plan is pending. But I have just now received letter from Mukunda that they are negotiating three houses. Out of that, one they must get. And if they invite me, then I shall go. That is already settled. But I don't wish to go unless they have got their own house. I have waited so long, so I don't wish to go as a third person. I must go... Just like I have come here definite, New Vrindaban, similarly, when they get nice temple I go and open it.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Prabhupāda: Materially I do not commit any offense or undergo any loss, but if there is any gain, why not try it? There is no expenditure. (laughs) Everything has got some expenditure. So this mantra, Kṛṣṇa or His later succession, do not sell or distribute. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, everyone. Dance in ecstasy. It is very nice thing. So I have come to your country, come to your place. It is very good. So my request is that you are intelligent boys. Try to understand this Kṛṣṇa consciousness philosophy with your all reason, arguments. It will not to be accepted blindly.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So our present fighting is atheism, against atheism. They say, "There is no God. God is dead. I am God. You are God." We are fighting against these principles. So our fighting is very strong. You don't think that we are keeping idly. I have come here to fight with these atheists, you see, and we go everywhere. We are fighting with atheists all over the world. So we are meeting so many opposing elements. You see? They say, "God is dead." In America, when I first went, they were popularizing theory that "God is dead."

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Therefore our philosophy is to educate people how to love God. That is real religion. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). That is first-class religion which teaches the follower how to love God. And as soon he becomes a lover of God... Just like I am Indian, but I have come to western countries to teach love of God. It is not that I am satisfied only in myself that I love God, that's all right. But due to my love to God I love others also, because I am trying to teach them to love God, the same philosophy. So if people take seriously this movement, how to love God, then human society will be first-rate.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- June 29, 1972, San Diego:

Prabhupāda: Our business is to satisfy Him. Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). So we are preaching this, that "You take to Kṛṣṇa. Surrender to Kṛṣṇa." Kṛṣṇa said. The same thing we are saying. We are not manufacturing it. Why should we manufacture? The words are already there. We haven't got to manufacture anything. We simply... Just like I have come to your place. What am I speaking? I am speaking that "You become Kṛṣṇa conscious." We don't talk of any economic problem, political problem. We don't talk.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: Three rathas, and thousands of.... oh, they're very much, I mean, enthused to take prasādam and dance. So this year they asked me to come here. Therefore I have come to see the Ratha-yātrā, how they...

Sumati Morarjee: But, ah, you will be here in October?

Prabhupāda: Ah, maybe.

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

Prabhupāda: The Kṛṣṇa prema, love of Kṛṣṇa, is within everyone. That love is being expressed in so many ways. Actually that is love for Kṛṣṇa. So when one invokes that love in proper condition, then he loves Kṛṣṇa and loves everyone. Here the so-called love is for some purpose. Just like we are... I have come to this country. My purpose is not to get some money from them. Because I think, "My Guru Mahārāja ordered that 'You go to the Western countries,' " so I have come to the Western countries to give them Kṛṣṇa. And because they, everyone has Kṛṣṇa prema, they are accepting it. You must be favorable.

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

Prabhupāda: And the Macmillan Company, the biggest publisher of the world, they are taking interest. Not only this book. For this book they are taking gradually all our books. So our point is: present Kṛṣṇa as it is. That is real Indian culture. Don't present Kṛṣṇa adulterated. Your country will be glorified. The whole world will accept that India has got something to give. You are simply now beggar. So I have come to this country not to beg, but to give. That is my mission. And they are feeling, "Yes, we are getting something substantial."

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Why you create the cause of cancer disease? You accept these four principles of life—no meat-eating, no intoxication, no illicit sex—there will be no cancer. There will be no cancer. You find out, those who are strictly on this line, they never suffer from cancer or any disease. Now take for example, me. I have come here in this country for the last seven years, 1965, and it is 1973, eight years. How many times I have gone to doctor? That once that heart attack. That is serious; that is another thing. Otherwise generally how many times I have gone to? I don't pay any bill of doctors. So if we live very hygienic life, regulated life, there is no question of cancer or any disease.

Room Conversation with Dr. Arnold Toynbee, Famous Historian, at his home or office -- July 22, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: In the month of May I was here. Again I have come in July. Formerly, from India to come to London, it was like a dream. And now it is daily affair. (laughs)

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: You get on the plane in the morning and go in the evening there. Simply you have to pay. Otherwise, there is no difficulty. So let us... So thank you very much for your...

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

Prabhupāda: That's... For translating of books it does not require... Of course, it requires when the purport of the translation is given. Otherwise,... Real thing is culture. That education is culture. Simply money-making education for maintaining this body, that education will not satisfy any more. Just like I told you, that despite all arrangements of education, why the young men are turning to be hippies? That is my question.

Mother: Oh, but not your followers. Your followers are not being hippies, people who follow you. Therefore you've got the people who you could help to become cultured like you.

Prabhupāda: So my father educated me in a different way. Therefore I have come to this stage. My father never allowed me even to drink tea.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, if you love children for making them Kṛṣṇa conscious, then it is loving Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa wants sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). So if you help... What is our movement? Why I have come to your country? Because to make you Kṛṣṇa conscious. So there is love of Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise why what is the business, I have come to you? I have no business. Because I love Kṛṣṇa, I want to see all, everybody in the world to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Otherwise why in this old age we are trying so much? Similarly, if you love your children to make them Kṛṣṇa conscious, then produce hundreds of children and make them. That is love of Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- February 19, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes, śubhāśubha. When I was in Boston, I was thinking that "I have come here. How they will receive me? As soon as I'll say that 'No meat-eating, no illicit sex, and no gambling, and no intoxication,' immediately they will say, 'Please go home, don't preach here.' All right." So for one year there was no success, you see? And I was going to the shipping company: "When your next ship is coming to return back?" So the manager was telling, "Swamiji, you are always inquiring, but you never go." (all laugh) I said, "Yes, when I am too much frustrated, I come to here to ask you. Then again I go back: 'Let me see two months more.' " It was going like that. Nobody was there with me.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Still, he claims, "It is my land." Ahaṁ mameti, janasya moho 'yam ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8). This is the illusion. Nothing belongs to him; still he is fighting, "This is mine. This is mine." "I" and "mine." Identifying himself with this body, "I", and wrongly conceiving that "This is mine." This is the basic principle of wrong civilization. Both things are... Nothing belongs to him. Suppose I have come here in Switzerland. If I remain here for one month and I claim, "Oh, this is mine," what is this? So similarly, I come as guest. Everyone comes as guest in the womb of his mother and lives here for fifty years. He is claiming, "It is mine." When, when, when it became yours? The land was long, long time before your birth.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: You don't know Kṛṣṇa, but it belongs to somebody. He may be named as Kṛṣṇa or something else. That doesn't matter. But it is, it does not belong to you. How you can deny it? You have come here... Suppose I have come here, in Paris. I stay here for one week, two. Does it mean Paris is mine? Similarly, you come from the womb of your mother and stay here, say, fifty years. That is mean yours? The same example. Does it mean that the world belongs to you? Why you are claiming, "This is France," "This is Europe," "This is America," "This is mine," "This is mine..."? Before your birth it was there, and when you go, it will remain there. So how you claim that it is yours? So you don't... You must know as it remained, it was there before my birth, and it will remain after my departure. Then how it belongs to you? What is the answer?

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

Prabhupāda: From Caitanya Mahāprabhu? Yes. The Six Gosvāmīs: Rūpa, Sanātana, Bhaṭṭa Raghunātha, Śrī Jīva, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa, Dāsa Raghunātha. The Six Gosvāmīs. Then from the Gosvāmīs there is Śrīnivāsācārya. Then from him, I think, this Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, and then Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura. Then Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, then Jagannātha dāsa Bābājī, then Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, then Gaura Kiśora dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja, then my Guru Mahārāja. Next we are. I am the tenth or eleventh, eleventh from Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Professor La Combe: And you have come to a round visit to the west now?

Prabhupāda: I have come several times.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Carol Cameron -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: That I was speaking. Of course, it is very strong words. That Western people they are claiming very civilized, but I have got objection. Therefore I have come to the West. Because, for example, the animal-killing. The Western people are mostly Christians. Now, Lord Jesus Christ said that "Thou shall not kill." But the result was that two thousand years passed, but the people of the Western countries, they are still killing. So when they have accepted Christianity? What is your answer?

Room Conversation with Carol Cameron -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: And in the record album he has given this picture. So you are intelligent girl, you study about this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That will benefit you. The anthropology you may get some degree, adoration. What is the benefit? Jaya. (Carol leaves) They enquire why I have come to the West. If I enquire that two thousand year ago you have been taught that "Thou shall not kill," and your business is only to kill. I have come to enquire from you, "What is your answer?" How you have become civilized, that you cannot accept one instruction of Jesus Christ. And you are declaring yourself as Christian and civilized. This is my question.

Morning Walk -- May 10, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: How you can see? You cannot see. You do not believe in transmigration. So how can you see? Paśyanti jñāna-cakṣuṣā. When you will have the eyes to see—knowledge—then you'll see. Now you are monkey, how you can see? A monkey cannot see. Paśyanti jñāna cakṣuṣa. Just like our men in India, they know I have come to Australia. But he's not seeing by his eyes. He knows the arrangement was made, they purchased ticket, and they went to the airport. And they are confident. They are sending letters here. Has he come with me to see? How he knows? That I have come here, how he knows? He has not seen that I have come here. But how he knows?

Morning Walk -- May 10, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Therefore, jñāna cakṣuṣa. You can see with knowledge how this man is being transferred to the eternal life. But you have no such knowledge! You are monkey. A monkey cannot see, a monkey cannot understand. Suppose there is a dog at my house. He does not understand how I have come here, because he has no knowledge. So seeing means knowledge. Seeing, not the eyes. He wants to see by the eyes. He's a monkey. That's all. He's a dog.

Morning Walk -- May 17, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Civilization, but you will be finished. You will not take part in the civilization. You have no belief in the next birth. So why you are thinking like that? You will be finished, that's all. Why you are worried? Suppose I have come here for three weeks. If I simply think, "What will happen hundred years after I am in Australia?" What is my business? I will go away by three weeks. Why shall I bring so much thoughts about "What will happen, Australia, hundred years after"? You are going to be cats and dogs or something, or grass or anything else. But you will be finished. Then why you are anxious for Australia?

Paramahaṁsa: This is my country.

Prabhupāda: What is your country? You will be kicked out after some years, that's all. Where is your country? You cannot stay in your country. First of all you make sure that it is country. Where is your country? I have come here for three weeks. Shall I consider it is my country?

Morning Walk -- May 17, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: That we are loving. We are giving Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is loving, real loving. We are giving him eternal life, eternal bliss. Unless we love them, why we are taking so much trouble? The preacher must love the people. Otherwise why he is taking? He can do it for himself at home. Why he is taking so much trouble? Why in eighty years old I have come here if I do not love? So who can love better than a preacher? He loves even the animals. Therefore they are preaching, "Don't take meat."

Conversation in car -- May 23, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: No, I have come and that I shall think over. First of all let me know how you will believe. Suppose if I say, "I have come from spiritual world," will he believe?

Śrutakīrti: That's what I'm saying. No, they don't.

Prabhupāda: Therefore the method of his believing I must know. Then I present the man. What is the method of believing? Otherwise I can say, "I have come from spiritual world. You believe me." Will he believe it? Will he?

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Weather is changing. Weather is changing. Śītoṣṇa, it is called śītoṣṇa. Sometimes it is cold; sometimes it is hot.

Guest (2): Can I ask you where you come from?

Prabhupāda: I have come from India.

Guest (2): Oh, you came from India? Yeah? Oh. Which part? Ceylon?

Prabhupāda: No. I come from Bengal.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Just like here in America I have come to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I am not interested for sight-seeing. That is not my business. Whatever you say, "It is here like this," "All right, That's all, finished." Why should we try to confirm it? Whatever you say, that's all right. Now, we are seeing the other part; if somebody there, "It is like this," that's all right. I'm not going to test it. So what is the use of arguing? I have no interest.

Morning Walk -- July 8, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: No, it is due to their impurity, they do not take. What you are saying, that is pure. But the difficulty is if you instruct a rascal, he becomes angry. The example is given that if you give milk and banana to the serpent, he increases his poison. Payaḥ-panaṁ bhujaṅganaṁ kevalaṁ viṣa-vardhanam. Therefore we have to select sometimes that our preaching is in the proper place. Because a snake-like person, they will not hear. But if you are a good charmer, you can charm the snake also. (laughter) That depends on your quality. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu did. He made these snakes, the tigers, the elephants, all dancing Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is possible by Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Tripurāri: Just like you have charmed all of us, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Well, I am not going to imitate Caitanya Mahāprabhu. (laughs) I have come to New York, not to the jungle. (laughter)

Morning Walk -- July 8, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. I have already written that. I was thinking that "What shall I do here? I have come here. As soon as I shall impose these four principles they will say, 'Go home.' " But I took that risk. I never said anything palatable. Against their activities, "You don't do this, don't do this."

Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: I am praying for everyone. That is my business. Otherwise why I have come here?

Jayatīrtha: Are there any other questions from anybody, guest or devotee?

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, how does one become humble and remain humble?

Jayatīrtha: How to become humble and remain humble. Same question one devotee asked you in Chicago.

Prabhupāda: So you explain.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: No, soul never mixes with the matter. Now I have come here, I am not mixed up with this jungle.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But it looks like it...

Prabhupāda: It looks like. That is another thing. Asaṅgo 'yaṁ puruṣaḥ. The Vedic injunction is" "The puruṣa, the soul, is never complicated or mixed up with this." Because just like oil and water, it never mixes. The oil keeps its separate identity in water.

Press Conference at Airport -- July 28, 1975, Dallas:

Prabhupāda: This is my home. (laughter) I have got so many children, grandchildren. So I have come to see them. (break)

Woman reporter: Have you any comment about the lawsuit that the sect here is involved in with regard to whether they should be allowed to sell literature and collect donations?

Prabhupāda: Certainly. This is good literature. It should be encouraged. People will become sane, understand what is his constitutional position. Otherwise in your country, the other day I saw in the Times paper, they are very much perturbed, "Crime, what to do?" They are thinking. So if this literature is distributed and people read it carefully, there will be no more crime. They will be all saner to understand, self-realized souls. At the present moment people are misguided, accepting the bodily concept of life.

Morning Walk -- October 12, 1975, Durban:

Indian man (3): I think we could... (break) ...him and see what they are asking for applications from various charitable organizations.

Prabhupāda: So I have come temporarily. Why don't you approach?

Indian man (3): Yes, we will...

Prabhupāda: If he is known to you, you can approach, that "Here is a good cause, International..."

Indian man (3): I will send a message to him to come and see you this evening.

Prabhupāda: Ah, that will be very nice. Then I can talk. Yes. When you will bring him?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 9, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was scheming, "Whether I shall go this way, through Tokyo, Japan, or that way? Which way is cheaper?" That was my plan. And I was targeting to New York always. Sometimes I was dreaming that I have come to New York. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Bengali ) (aside:) We cannot accept food from the demons. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...supplied at least nice food. (break) You are the first time here?

Morning Walk -- March 16, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Apart from that, why, how the baby is becoming a boy? This is a fact. How a baby is becoming a child, a child is becoming a boy, a boy is becoming young man, a young man is becoming middle aged? Does it mean... Is it a particular type of religious system? Why this nonsense? What kind of intelligent person they are? It is a fact. Now we come to the old age. So I have come to the point of old age body after so many stages. Then where is the next? The next is tathā dehāntara: he'll get another body. This is very common sense.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: And if you do not know what is God, and if you do not know what is His law, then what is the meaning of religion? There is no meaning of religion. If blindly, if I have some faith in some dogmas and ritualistic ceremonies, that is not religion. Religion means the science by which you can understand God and the law of God. That is religion. It is not the kind of faith. Just like state laws. You may have faith or no faith. The state law is law; you have to obey it. Just like I have come in America. In our country, the street law is "Keep to the left." So I have come to America, you say "Keep to the right." If I say, "No, I have no faith in this 'Keep to the right.' " No, I must obey. That is law. Similarly, religion means you may have faith or no faith, but you must obey. It is a must. It is not optional.

Interview with Professors O'Connell, Motilal and Shivaram -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: No. I was not very much hopeful. That I wrote one poetry, that "Kṛṣṇa, why You have brought me in this country? What can I do? How I shall convince them how they will understand the philosophy? So, but because You have brought me here, must be there is some purpose. So all right. You make me dance as You like." That poetry, I (wrote) in Boston, Commonwealth Pier, on the sea. I came by ship. So I wrote that poetry, that I do not know what for I have come here, why Kṛṣṇa has brought me here. As soon as I shall say that there is no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no drinking, and no gambling, they'll say, "You go home. Don't talk." I knew this. Still I attempted.

Arrival Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: ...live? Is he finished, or if somewhere he is still living, nobody knows. You are keeping his memorial, but where is the actual person, they do not know. Suppose I have come here and all of a sudden I go away, keeping my shirt and coat. And if you worship my shirt and coat and do not take care where I have gone, is that very good intelligence?

Arrival Speech -- July 28, 1976, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Not that we shall be indolent and lazy. No. We shall utilize our energy for giving service to Kṛṣṇa. That actually we are engaged. We are not lazy. Every one of us is engaged in some sort of service for Kṛṣṇa. So that is my request, that I am now getting old, and that you stick to this principle, and you'll remain always happy. I think this is for the fourth time I have come here? So I find you very happy. Continue, and whenever I shall come, I shall see you happy. Thank you very much.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And if there is little push, then this poor child

will be finished. We were going very slow, and we did not know. I like... I remember that, that "I have come in a very dangerous position." Perhaps 1928, or about fifty years ago.

Evening Darsana -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Take this process. This body is material; you have to give it up. But no more material body. Why don't you take this science; how it is possible? Why do you not contribute this science to the whole world as India's contribution? They need it. Why you go beg? Give something. In Berkeley University, one Indian student, "Swamiji, what this hari-kīrtana will do? We require now technology." So I replied, "Yes, you have come to beg here. I have come to give something. I am not a beggar like you." So we are working... Of course, we are Indian, we are poor. That is another thing. But I never went to beg something from them. I never asked them any money. I never asked them. They give me money because they understand that I am giving something.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Therefore our Trivikrama Mahārāja is reminding me... When I was lecturing in Berkeley University, one Indian student asked me, "Swamijī, what this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement will benefit? We require technology." So I replied that "You have come to beg technology; I have come to give them, not to beg from them."

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So "All right, you have satisfied your master." No, no. That is also not the fact. Teṣāṁ karuṇā na jatā na trapa: "They are neither satisfied, neither they are kind upon me that 'This man has done so much. Now don't order him.' " Teṣāṁ na karuṇā jatā na trapa. "Then what you do...?" "Now I have rejected him. I have come to Hare Kṛṣṇa-'Please engage me in Your service.' That is my life. I have done all this nonsense life after life. They are not satisfied. So therefore my business is to serve. 'I have come to You. Please accept me.' " That is Hare Kṛṣṇa. Because "I have to serve. I have no other business. So I have served these rascals, but they are not satisfied." Na trapa nopasanti. "So why shall I do this business anymore? Yes. You are asking sarva-dharmān parityajya mām (BG 18.66). I do that. That's all."

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda (Member of Parliament) -- March 27, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, I am..., my life is dedicated for this purpose. I am... It is convenient for me at any time. Otherwise, I am not keeping good health at the moment. Still, I have come. I am just trying even up to the last moment of my life, if I can deliver some good to these people. That is my determination. What is this life? Life will end today or tomorrow or day after. But if you live just to the point, that is the idea. Otherwise trees are also living thousands of years. What is the benefit?

Second Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 24, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So master can accept service. So whenever there is devotional service, it is called bhāgavata-sevā. And jīvera dayā. (Hindi) If you have got something, then you can be merciful to others. If you have no knowledge, what you can do? The basic principle... (Hindi) In India, Bhāratavarṣa, exalted knowledge, and if it is presented properly, people will accept. They are accepting now, one man's effort. If many men are prepared to do this service, the whole world will be followers of Bhagavad-gītā. (Hindi) (break) ... come to give here India's knowledge. In big meeting I told him that "I have not come here to beg. I have come here to give." Everyone goes from... Even the Prime Minister goes-beg. All beggars.

Conversation with Surendra Kumar and O.B.L. Kapoor -- June 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In the Berkeley University I was speaking. One Indian student got up, and he said, "Swamiji, what this Hare Kṛṣṇa will do? Now we require technology," like that. And "Yes, you have come here to beg technology. You remain beggar. I have come to give something."

Surendra Kumar: Correct, sir.

Prabhupāda: "I am not a beggar. I have come here to give something." I replied.

Page Title:I have come (Conversations)
Compiler:Matea
Created:23 of Nov, 2010
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=51, Let=0
No. of Quotes:51