I have started (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"i have started" |"i started"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- February 1, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I am an ordained minister for preaching these missionary activities. So I came here in September, 1965. Then, for one year, I was traveling in many parts of your country. In the beginning I was in Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, and then I went to Philadelphia. Then I came to New York. And in this way I was traveling, not very much. And in 1966, in July 1st, I started my class in New York at 26 Second Avenue. That is my first starting. Then the younger gene

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Interviewer: Did he aid you in setting up the first center or temple?

Prabhupāda: No, I started my temple in 1967, first July.

Interviewer: In New York.

Prabhupāda: New York, yes.

Interviewer: How many temples are there now?

Prabhupāda: Now we have got six temples. One in New York, one in San Francisco, one in Los Angeles, one in Boston, one in Montreal, and one in Santa Fe. And another one of our students has gone to Buffalo, he's on the professional, for starting another temple.

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."

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: Then I took regularly renounced order of life in 1959. Then I devoted myself in writing books. My first publication came out in 1962, and when there were three books, then I started for your country in 1965 and I reached here in September, 1965. Since then, I am trying to preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness in America, Canada, in European countries. And gradually the centers are developing. The disciples are also increasing. Let me see what is going to be done.

Press Interview -- December 30, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. I started in 1947 under the order of my spiritual master. So whatever I was earning, I was spending. I was not getting any return, but I was distributing. So I was doing this business since a long time. But actually after giving up all connection with my family, I'm doing this work since 1959.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Guest (2): Can I ask about your rate... about growth? How, can ask how the movement is growing? Can you give me any figures at all? I was speaking to one of your colleagues earlier who mentioned 150, but seventy-five approximately which were in London. Are the figures growing week by week?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I started this movement alone, and now there are eight thousand.

Guest (2): I'm talking about in Britain.

Revatīnandana: Same thing. Yes, every few days somebody joins.

Guest (2): Can you tell me how many of those actually stay?

Haṁsadūta: Oh, 99% stay.

Guest (2): And what is the figure likely to be? Five a week, ten a week?

Prabhupāda: We don't keep any statistics, but actually the fact is that I started alone; now we are eight thousand.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 18, 1972, Hong Kong:

Prabhupāda: So there I began to write books, and then when three books were finished I started for America. And there also I wrote many books, dozens of books. You have seen our books. Our Kṛṣṇa Book is selling like anything in Europe and America. We are practically maintaining ourself by selling books. We have got our book sale all over the world, about twenty to 25,000 rupees daily and we have to spend seven to eight lakhs of rupees monthly. In Los Angeles alone we spend $20,000 per month. In New York we spend $10,000 per month.

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

Karandhara: Yes, he's probably meeting with Jayatīrtha. (indistinct)

Dai Nippon representative: Other ways we are quite satisfied.

Karandhara: Oh. Thank you. We are also very satisfied.

Prabhupāda: You started this business? I am asking your father. (Japanese)

Introduction Speech By Dr. Kapoor and Conversation -- October 15, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Then I began chanting in the Tompkinson Square, and I think, in the first day this boy, Acyutānanda Mahārāja now, he and another boy, Brahmānanda Mahārāja, he is also preaching in Africa, these two boys danced, and this photograph was published in the New York Times with great details. That was the first encouragement. And after chanting in the park, many young men and girls used to come to my apartment and my meeting place. In this way I started, first in New York, then in San Francisco, then Montreal, then Boston. In this way, now we have got about one hundred branches all over the world, forty branches in America. Big, big cities, Australia, I mean to say, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Boston. What is that? Other cities? San Francisco.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So in this way my connection became developed with Gauḍīya Maṭha. Then, gradually the process began, hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ. (chuckles) I wanted to become very big businessman and there was good opportunity. I was very nicely associated with the chemical industry of India. Dr. Bose's laboratory, Bengal Chemical, V.K. Farr (?), and all of them, they liked my business organization. Then I started big laboratory in Lucknow. So that was golden days, but gradually everything becomes (indistinct). And at last, my Allahabad business was lost.

Room Conversation With David Wynne -- July 9, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Just like I started from India at eleven o'clock, and I came here at half past eight, the sunlight was still there. So if you proceed still further, further towards Western side, the night will not be able to come. So you can travel always in daylight. (laughs) Don't allow. It is an example.

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

Prabhupāda: And we are practically seeing that they are becoming delightful, living very happily, preaching all over the world. I started this movement alone in 1966, but these boys, inexperienced boys, having no spiritual training... They were trained up in their own ways, meat-eating, illicit sex, intoxication, but they gave up all these habits and delightfully they are going any part of the world and preaching this cult, and we are meeting with success. It is not that I have gone every place. It is not possible. I am old man. So I give them direction. Just like this boy. He's a gṛhastha.

Interviews with Macmillan and various English Reporters -- September 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: I was retired from my family life. I was living in a holy place called Vṛndāvana. I retired from my family life in 1954. Then, in 1959, I took sannyāsa order. This is called renounced order of life. No family connection .

Reporter (2): Yeah.

Prabhupāda: And then I started for American in 1965. And then my movement was started from U.S.A in 1966.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1973, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: The Smith Stanstreet gave me agency. Because in my work, in Dr. Bose's laboratory, I did it very creditably. So every other manufacturers, they became attracted to me, how to get me. The Smith Stanstreet Company, Bikepala(?) Company, Bose's, Bengal Chemical Company, they all wanted me. And I thought, "Oh, everyone wants me." So, so I refused. And later on there was a clique between Dr. Bose and me. So I lost everything. Then I started my own laboratory. Somehow or other, there was something, and...

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

Prabhupāda: The America will be the best person to be educated in this line and to lead, to become the leaders. They're already leader, but they must be real leader now, so that the whole world may be happy. That I can give direction. If the topmost American gentlemen come to me, I can give them direction how they can become the world leader. Actual leader. Actual leader, not bogus leader. Because God has favored them, so many things. And this movement has been started from America. I started this movement from New York. So it should be taken very seriously by the government.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Viṣṇujana: One good example in New Vrindaban, they're actually doing that. They're training kṣatriyas, they're training...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes. That was the very beginning...

Viṣṇujana: ...vaiśyas...

Prabhupāda: I started the New Vrindaban scheme on this formula.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, I have got experience. In our Calcutta house, there was ghost. In Lucknow when I started that laboratory in Mr. Bhattacarya's house in Vat-nagara(?), there was a ghost. I have practical experience.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Building is not very important. Work is important. Activity is important. I started my movement not with buildings, but real activity. So building is opulence. You can do without opulence. You can start anything, even underneath a tree. There is no difficulty. (break) They will allow our men?

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

Prabhupāda: Very good picture, encouraging, that so many devotees in one center. It is very much pleasing to me. I started single-handed.

Yogeśvara: 1944.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no, not '44, '66. '44, of course, that was idea, plans, Back to Godhead started, '44.

Yogeśvara: Looks like it will be heavy competition for the next French issue. Looks like strong competition for the next French issue.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (chuckles) Very good. The pictures are very nice.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: But he preferred to resign that post and become a minority, to live alone in Vṛndāvana underneath a tree. Why he preferred this? And remaining there alone, he has given you the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. So we have to see how much service we are going to give Kṛṣṇa. This minority, majority, these are all material conception of life. If you can give major service to Kṛṣṇa, that is your success of life. I started this movement alone, minority.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: I was not chemist, but I was manager in a big chemical factory. Therefore, automatically, I learned something of chemist. And later on I started my own chemical factory.

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have traveled all over the world in eight years. Eight years? From 1967, eight years. So eight years I have traveled around fourteen times or more than that. No, twice in a year, almost.

Professor: (laughs)

Prabhupāda: No, this time, I started from India. Then I went to Hong Kong, from Hong Kong to Tokyo, from Tokyo to Honolulu, from Honolulu to Los Angeles, and from Los Angeles here, Mexico. And then where?

Room Conversation with Journalist -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is since five thousand years ago or before that. You may say forty millions of years ago as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. But taking it by modern history, in your country, in the Western countries, I have started it since 1966 from New York. The movement is very, very old. But it is started in the Western countries since last seven or eight years.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. When I was twenty-five years old I met him first. On the first meeting he ordered me to this. So at that time I was married man. I had two children. So I thought, "I shall do it later on." But I was trying to get out of family life. It took some time. But I was trying my best to carry out his order. In 1944 I started magazine, Back to Godhead, when I was gṛhastha. Then I started writing books in 1958 or '59. In this way in 1965 I came to your country.

Morning Walk -- July 21, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Yes. My Guru Mahārāja passed in 1936, and I started this movement in 1965, thirty years after. Then? I am getting the mercy of guru. This is vāṇī. Even the guru is not physically present, if you follow the vāṇī, then you are getting help.

Morning Walk -- August 15, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) ...this land will be banyan, full of banyans. (break) ...many obstacles we are facing. Never mind. Still, we are coming out, gradually. Kuntīdevī said, "Kṛṣṇa, all those dangerous days may come again so that I can always remember You. Now... When we were in dangerous days You were always with us. Now we are prosperous; now You are going away. So better I call for again those dangerous days so that You can remain and we can become surrendered to You." (break) ...country, I started on this ocean, thirteenth August, thirteenth August, this ferocious ocean. Everyone said, "This time you don't go by sea."

Morning Walk -- November 8, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, because you are saying like that. You do not know that I started this business without nothing, you see, with practical nothing. I offered Mr. Nair that "I will give you two lakhs, and the balance I'll give you in three years." So who will believe? "He is a beggar, and he promises to give me fifteen lakhs of rupees within three years." Who will believe that? He knew that "He will not be able to pay. So whatever two lakhs, three lakhs he gives, that will be mine. That's all. Bas."

Morning Walk -- November 12, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa says that, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). There are two kinds of principles: attachment and detachment. So mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. So this material attachment and detachment one should give up. He should surrender to Kṛṣṇa. This is bhakta's principle. So there is no cloud in the sky, eh? Completely clear. (break) ...the sea-going is not dangerous. It is very calm and quiet?

Brahmānanda: Sea?

Prabhupāda: Sea. Yes.

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: I started during monsoon, (laughs) in September.

Morning Walk -- November 14, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Avyavasāyinām bahu-śākha. And vyavasāyayinām-one. From practical point of view, from business point of view also, I started this Kṛṣṇa conscious business with forty rupees. Now we have forty crores. Who has got such business success? (laughter) Bring anyone. Within ten years. And here is Ambarīṣa Mahārāja. He is ready to give us any money, any amount of money, Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, yes, whole Ford Company. (laughter) So who has got this business? Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. I think there is no such history in the world, to begin business with forty rupees, and within ten years it becomes forty crores. One cannot imagine even.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: But why? Because they have no eyes. Has Satya Sai Baba so many properties all over the world? He is creating gold but has he got so many properties? One property like this? Huh? I started this business with forty rupees; now it is forty crores.

Press Conference -- April 27, 1976, Auckland, New Zealand:

Prabhupāda: Personally, I have got not less than ten thousand. But I was deputed by my Guru Mahārāja to make propaganda in the Western countries. So this movement... Of course, I have started in the Western countries, but in India it is very common movement, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Everyone knows.

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. We have got many things, stock. We shall exhibit gradually. We have got many things in stock.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Many new ideas.

Prabhupāda: First of all, I started the book. That is, by Kṛṣṇa's grace, it is becoming successful. Then diorama. Then I shall give next idea.

Conversation with Clergymen -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: I began.... What do you mean by beginning? My beginning is from my childhood.

Kern: The Kṛṣṇa movement, in the Kṛṣṇa movement.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa movement I started 1966.

Conversation in Airport and Car -- June 21, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: You have all got this experience. This is the only way. I started this movement on this determination, that they have nothing to give, simply by propaganda they are exacting so many people and befooling them. And I'll give them prasāda, nice chanting, and they will not come? They must come. This was my determination. And I began with this. So this is the only way. Give them chance "No talk, please come. Chant and dance with us and take kṛṣṇa-prasāda and go home."

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: So Kṛṣṇa is giving us facilities to preach this cult. Everywhere we have got very, very palatial buildings to accommodate devotees. Now we have got here a very nice place, accommodate devotees. Everywhere we have got. In Bombay we are getting the best temple in India. We are spending crores of rupees, Kṛṣṇa is giving us money. So I started the business with forty rupees. That was also not American currency. They allowed me to bring forty rupees.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: So, we shall have to go now?

Rūpānuga: I think it's best if we would drive back now to Washington.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Let us go.

Devotees: Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (offer obeisances)

Prabhupāda: Try your best, Kṛṣṇa will give you intelligence. I started this fight alone, now Kṛṣṇa is... (end)

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.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Thank you. Sit down. You have seen our books?

Interviewer: Yes, I have. You translated all of those. (pause) (break) ...I wonder if you could tell me how you came to founding the movement here in the United States.

Prabhupāda: I was ordered by my spiritual master to do this work, so on his order I came in 1965. That is the beginning of this. I came alone with no help, no money. Somehow or other (laughs) I started.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: So I was at that time family man, so I thought, "Let me adjust my family affairs. Then I shall take it." So by doing the adjustment it took me long years. So I retired at the age of fifty-eight. Then I took up seriously. And when I was seventy years old, then I came here.

Interviewer: Were you a businessman?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I was connected with some chemical industry. I was manager in a big chemical industry. Then I started my own business. In this way I was family man.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. I can stay here also. I like especially New York, because I started the movement here. And because there are so many branches, if I go they become enlivened.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, right, just like we are enlivened.

Prabhupāda: Everyone wants.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: And they are accepting it. They are accepting Bhagavad-gītā as it is. They do not make any interpretation, that "Kṛṣṇa means this, Kurukṣetra means this, Pāṇḍavas means this." No. We are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is. You have seen our Bhagavad-gītā? That's all. (break) Before this, before this movement I started ten years ago, so many swamis, philosophers came in the Western country. Not a single person became a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. That is our challenge. And now you'll find thousands and thousands. Because, what is secret? "As it is," that's all. No change.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: We don't require much money also. We require men first. Money will come. Money is coming. I started this business forty...

Indian man: Forty rupees.

Prabhupāda: So there is no scarcity of money. Now our daily collection is six lakhs of rupees throughout the whole world.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So that was my policy, that I shall go America, and if the Americans become devotees then these rascals will be automatically. Here they could not appreciate. When I started, wanted to start this movement, they refused to give their son.

Room Conversation -- December 20, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You try to understand that before me for 200 years so many swamis, yogis were there. Not a single man became Kṛṣṇa conscious. (Hindi conversation) He is not teacher he is cheater. Why should you change Kṛṣṇa's words? That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu, yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). Don't manufacture. What Kṛṣṇa has said, you say. Just as a child he can say, "This is a stick." "How you have learned?" "Father said." That's all. (Hindi) I started this business with forty rupees. (laughter) (Hindi) Yes when I went to New York they allowed me only forty rupees.

Room Conversation with Mr. Tombe (M.L.A.) -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then things will be perfect. India, if the whole world can be saved from this chaotic position, India can do. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission. But that India leaders first of all make his life perfect. Then it will be all right. Just like our... Of course, I'm not proud, but I am alone. I started this movement alone, without any help. But because I am giving them the perfect information, whole world is taking it.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes, it is magic. It is magic undoubtedly. But I never created any gold or some other... And neither I do know it, how to do it, although there is no scarcity of gold in my pocket. I started this business with forty rupees. So I'll go to take massage. Thank you very much. (Hindi) ...prasāda. Show. Show the film. You are going to show?

Conversation and Instruction On New Movie -- January 13, 1977, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: No, my... Of course, I did not attempt in the beginning. I started my activities when I was seventy years old. So they thought, "This man is gṛhastha. He is embarassed with family life. What he'll do?" (laughs) That was their impression. But I never neglected. Guru Mahārāja told me. I was simply thinking, "How to do it? How to do it?" I thought, "Let me become a rich businessman.

Conversation and Instruction On New Movie -- January 13, 1977, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: Therefore I started Māyāpura this prasāda distribution. And it is coming to be successful. People are, politicians are appreciating that here is Hindu-Muslim unity.

Rāmeśvara: All the devotees will appreciate this then. That the records now, the money is going to be used for food relief.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And we can increase. The same thing (indistinct) in the farm, in the village, "Come on, any number, I shall feed you. Come here, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and take prasādam." And we shall increase the quality of the prasādam.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: (laughing) "Fabulously rich."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Fabulously rich," they say in Parliament.

Prabhupāda: So I started... Was I rich?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Forty rupees.

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom...? Forty rupees. So it is Kṛṣṇa's mercy. So if we work sincerely, Kṛṣṇa will supply us.

Room Conversation -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Now you try to manage the whole world organization and all GBC men. Suppose I am not there. Manage very nicely. Independently. Not to create havoc. But really to manage. I am still present; I will give you direction. Don't spoil it. We are in very good, prestigious position. That is sure. Don't spoil it. So much hard labor. I started with very humble condition. Now it has come to this, such exalted position. You don't spoil it. That is my request. Increase. That will depend on your character, behavior, preaching. Everyone knows. Everyone is astonished. Without any help, I started. Only asset was sincere... Everyone knows it.

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But we have got. The example is already set up. These boys, they have not come here for learning your cycle manufacturing. They have enough of it.

Mr. Rajda: That matter of cycle he is doing.

Prabhupāda: And we are proud of manufacturing cycle and sewing machine. So that is my request, that I have started it. Make it an organized institution that the people from all parts of the world...

Mr. Rajda: Would come over here.

Prabhupāda: ...would come here and learn this knowledge. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission is...

Room Conversation with Alice Coltrane -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and everything will be clear. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). The more you chant, the spiritual life will be revealed. So it is very easy: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma... As much as possible, you chant. Then everything will be revealed and you'll be able to do something. I started this movement simply by chanting.

Alice Coltrane: Yes, I started chanting as soon as I got your message.

Prabhupāda: Now we are... It has spread all over the world.

Room Conversation with Devotees -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: We believe in this. Therefore I said twenty years before. That is the difference. We take the words of śāstra, words of Kṛṣṇa, ultimate. That's all. So we have no difficulty. They do not believe in śāstra. They do not believe in Kṛṣṇa. So they were bluffed. That is the difference. We have... I started this movement. It is not manufactured by me. Take the words of authorities and spread. There is no adulteration. There is no alteration.

Room Conversation with Mr. Myer -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I started this movement with forty rupees. You know that Scindia Steam Navigation Company?

Mr. Myer: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So they gave me a free ticket, and the government allowed me to take with me, forty rupees. In this state, condition, I started for New York. You see? No friend, no secre..., no hotel, nothing, arrangement. This was the beginning. Then I went there. So I do not know how it happened. Now we have got forty crores. It is all Kṛṣṇa's mercy. I never expected that my books will be sold and appreciated all over the world. So that is being done. People are appreciating the whole movement.

Room Conversation with Mr. Myer -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hayagrīva was eating also. (laughter) And he was typing. He's a very good typist. He'll type very swiftly and correctly. Then I started this Back to Godhead, Hayagrīva and Rāyarāma, editors. And I purchased two machines. What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mimeograph machine.

Prabhupāda: There was advertisement. So I went to Long Island. That two machines... I asked, "What is the price?" "$150 each." Then he wanted to take away the machines. Machine was all right. And then I told him that "I have got $150 only. If you want to give us, give those two machines." So "All right, you take these all." (laughter) So I gave him $150, whatever I had, and I took the machine. In that machine was printed Back to Godhead. So five hundred copies... How many copies you were selling?