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Conversations and Morning Walks

1967 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: So He accepted spiritual... Not spiritual master, but a sannyāsa-guru. That is also master, but he's not spiritual master. But he's also considered as sannyāsa-guru, spiritual master who offers him sannyāsa. Just like myself, I took initiation from my Guru Maharaja, but I took sannyāsa from a Godbrother who is a sannyāsī. So my original guru is that spiritual master who initiated me, but he's also a śikṣā guru. Like that. Teacher. Then His renunciation of householder. He became sannyāsa.

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Questions and Answers -- Montreal, August 26, 1968:

Prabhupāda: If we play, train our devotees to present some dramatical performances or movie, I think it will be very successful, because they will play from transcendental sentiment, not for trade purpose. So that will come out very successful. Yes. In our childhood we had the occasion of taking part in a drama, Caitanya-līlā. I took the part of Advaita, and our friends, others, somebody took the part of Caitanya, Nityānanda. So that drama was so successful, it was unique in Calcutta. Because we were not, we were not professionals. I saw from the stage a huge gathering, they're all crying. I was surprised, "Why these people are crying?" You see? It was great successful, because we were not professionals.

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: I was married in 1918 when I was still a third year student. And so I got my children. I was doing business. Then I retired from my family life in 1954. For four years I was alone, without any family. 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.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: The first thing is that according to our knowledge from the Vedic literature they cannot go there.

Reporter: But you admitted that it may be possible for them to go there for a short time and leave.

Prabhupāda: That I am taking this example just like we go for a short time on the sea but we cannot make any permanent settlement there.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, if you go and land there and come back, that may be a pleasant thing for you, but we don't think it is a very nice thing. If I go in New York border and see and come back and I am not allowed to enter, why should I take so much trouble? It is useless trouble.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: He is taking the cows as a sporting. You see? And when He was called for killing Kaṁsa, He left everything, renounced everything. Aiśvarya samagrasya yaśasaḥ... Everything in full, so much love, so much everything, but at once, in a moment, He renounced everything, went to..., left Vṛndāvana, and all these devotees, they began to cry for Kṛṣṇa for the rest of life. And whenever Kṛṣṇa was reminded, oh, He will say, "I am very soon coming. Don't worry. I am very soon coming." (chuckles) You see?

Girl: Have took, Your Grace?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have taken. You take. You know how to make lugdoo? Himavatī is good. (chuckles) She learned many things about... We have got another nice girl in Buffalo. I have given her name... What is? Sadā?

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

Prabhupāda: No. You are very intelligent boy. Why not you are intelligent? You are recognized poet, you are popular poet. Why you... I take you are intelligent. You are first-class intelligent. You are chanting.

Allen Ginsberg: But that's almost a physical body movement, the chanting rather than a...

Prabhupāda: Maybe, but your intelligence is sufficient. That is... If that standard of intelligent men I get, that is my fortune. You see. Now, at least I request you, you try to understand this Kṛṣṇa consciousness philosophy. It is not sentiment. It is not bluffing. It is not a money-making business that I give you some...

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 14, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Whatever you like. You give me four capātīs, little rice, and little vegetable. That's all. Don't put much butter, ghee. Yes.

Śyāma dasi: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Old age, we cannot now digest too much butter. That creates air. Although at night I don't take anything. Once I eat. And in the morning I take little fruits. That's all.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: Not always these people. Not all. (Hindi) We have created this problem. (Hindi) (break) You'll get your bread, bara, and somebody will fill up your belly. (Hindi) It is not possible. (Hindi)

nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām
eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān
(Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13)

These are Vedic injunctions. You know all this; then why don't you believe in this? (break) (Hindi) So it is coming? (Hindi) (break) We must have faith. Adau śraddhā (Hindi) You should be prepared even there is difficulty. Just like when I took sannyāsa I gave up my family life. In the beginning there was so much difficulty. I was living alone. But I never cared for it. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Discussion with Indians -- January 18, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: I am following so many authorities. Then... Then there is no question.

Guest (2): I am only...

Prabhupāda: You are yourself authority. Now, if you say my views are not correct, I may be incorrect but I am following the predecessor. I am taking...

Guest (2): What is the difference there? Sir, I accept that.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (2): Hundred per cent, you are very correct in saying what you have just said.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: So any, any society you conceive, unless there are these four divisions, there will be chaos. It will be, not be properly, I mean to say, going on, smoothly going on. There will be some disturbance. Brain must be there. So at the present moment there is scarcity of brain. I am not talking of your state or my state. I am taking the world as it is. The brain... Formerly the Indian administration was going on in monarchy. Just like this picture. This picture is a kṣatriya king. Before his death he renounced his, I mean to say, royal order and he came to the forest to hear about self-realization.

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

Prabhupāda: So Vedic authorities, authoritative statement, are accepted by the ācāryas. Just like India is governed by the ācāryas, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, and Śaṅkarācārya. They accept in that, and the followers accept them. The benefit is that whether cow dung is pure or impure, I do not waste my time, but because it is stated in the Vedas, I take it, so I save my time. Śruti-pramāṇa. In that way there are different statements in the Vedas for sociology and politics and anything because Vedas means knowledge.

Darsana -- June 28, 1971, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: I have purchased one land. I took contribution 25,000 from Birla. I wanted 100,000, he gave me 25,000. That's all right. So with that money I purchased one land. So it is just to be developed. The foundation stone, cornerstone laying down. In India we require another..., altogether at least one hundred men, Americans. So contribute some men from each and every center.

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is nice. So that is our philosophy. Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1). Whatever God has given you, you possess. Don't try to possess other's property. Mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam. Everything belongs to God, so whatever God gives me, you enjoy it. I take it. I don't encroach upon other's property.

Interview with Reporters -- November 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: No. I am taking for example India, the president is the supreme personality. The president is the supreme personality. You have to admit it. You may accept him or not, but officially you have to admit. So in this whole creation, cosmic manifestation, there must be some Supreme Personality. That is Kṛṣṇa.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: Māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.15), yes. All nonsense. You take it granted that anyone who has no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is a nonsense, whatever he may be. That is I take it, and I challenged him like that. I criticized Dr. Radhakrishnan in my Back to Godhead, "scholar deluded." I was criticizing him like anything.

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

Śyāmasundara: Do you want us to distribute this? Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is special water from the Ganges if you want to drink some.

Prabhupāda: I have taken it, little. That's all. (pause) Harer nāma, harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21). (pause) So tomorrow you are all invited. Please come. You are also invited.

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

Prabhupāda: Anyway, it is better late than never. After my retirement, I was living in the Keśī-ghāṭa, Nāthagrāma(?) Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Temple. But this Gosāijī, Gauracanda Gosāijī, he asked me, "Why don't you come here?" So I left that place. I came here. And with some arrangement, I took this room. But I was always thinking that "Guru Mahārāja asked me, and he asked also some of my other God-brothers, but up till now, nothing has been done. So let me try, at least, at the fag end of my life." So I left Vṛndāvana in 1970 and went to New York. Uh, not. 1965. At the age of 70 years. But for one year I had no place to live. I took some of my books, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, printed here, up to three parts, First Canto.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So you should do in such a way that he cannot accuse you. If you ask him to rise early in the morning, take your bath, and if you do not take. Supposing some special case. I was taking early bath. Now I do not take, because due to my health. That is because... Otherwise regularly I was taking. Not even hot water. Regularly. This hot water bath I have begun in your country, otherwise I have never taken. Even in severest cold. Here also I am trying to avoid. I am keeping tub of water sunshine. Whatever little warm may become, that's all.

Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: So I replied him, "Sir, we are dependent nation, who will hear our message? We can talk all these things after we get independence," because I was politically-minded at that time. So he refuted my argument. Certainly I was defeated, and I took his words very seriously, I appreciated. Then we were offered some prasādam, we came down, and my friend Naren Mullik asked me, "How did you like this sādhu?" "Yes, here is a sādhu in whose hands Caitanya Mahāprabhu's message is there, and it will be done. I think this is very nice." That was my appreciation.

Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) ...in my house, some may say, a few years, so naturally we had very intimate talks and he was my good adviser. I took his advice, his instruction very seriously, because from the very beginning I know he's a pure Vaiṣṇava and devotee, and I wanted to associate with him, and try to help him also in so many ways. He also tried to help me, so our relationship is very intimate.

Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Bombay light, yes. Bombay light, that is during my householder life. I opened an office in Bombay for my business and... The (indistinct) Gauḍīya Maṭha was established by us. I am one of them. Śrīdhara Mahārāja also. And we made two parties for begging, collecting alms. Śrīdhara Mahārāja, myself and Gosvāmī Mahārāja. That time he was Atula, Atulacandra Gosvāmī. So I took them to some of my friends, chemist friends, doctors friends. So I collected about five hundred rupees to this.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: They're not even gentlemen. At least, I take them like that. They're talking that in the past, from matter, living force came, and when I ask them: "Why don't you produce?", "Oh, that we shall do in the future." Why? You have already experienced in the past, and you cannot do it, and you are leaving the matter for future. So they're shameless. Not even ordinary gentlemen. Shameless. That in talking all this nonsense. That is my charge. What do you think?

Morning Walk -- April 28, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So we are also sāṅkhya philosopher. But we are taking direction from Kṛṣṇa, and they're making their own attempt. That is the difference. They're depending on their own intelligence. We don't depend on my own intelligence. We depend on Kṛṣṇa's intelligence. That is the difference. Then, if Kṛṣṇa is perfect, then my intelligence is perfect. I may be not perfect, but because I take Kṛṣṇa's intelligence, therefore I'm perfect.

Morning Walk -- April 28, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: "Under My superintendence, the whole cosmic manifestation is working." The difference is you don't believe. I believe. That's all. I take it immediately: "Yes, Kṛṣṇa is operating." Therefore I have no problem. Somebody's operating, that you have to accept. But you do not know who is that person. At least, we have got knowledge, here is the person. That's all. Now if you say: "No, Kṛṣṇa is not the person," then you have to accept another person. So present him, that "Here is the person, not Kṛṣṇa. Another..."

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

Prabhupāda: No, we are thinking in that way. It is all right that we have to eat some living entity, but a difference... If we can get... Besides that, when you get the grains, it is not actually killing. When you get the fruits, I am getting these fruits from the tree. It is not killing. The fruits are there. I take it. It falls down. I take it. The grains also. It is not killing.

Mother: Well, I think... No, well, I don't think we're really worried about whether we kill or you...

Prabhupāda: So similarly, if I take milk from the cows, that is also cow's blood, but I don't kill it. So if I can live in such nice way, without killing, I get the fruits and flowers and the milk and the grains, why should I kill the animals?

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, but because I am old man, it is little troublesome for me. Otherwise, I like travelling.

Reporter (2): What, what were you doing, what did you do before this, before 1966?

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.

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

Prabhupāda: No. We had studied Sanskrit in school, colleges. In our time, Sanskrit was compulsory. In our days. Nowadays, I don't think so...

Indian Man: I, I also had compulsory.

Prabhupāda: Sanskrit compulsory and additional there was Sanskrit. So I took both, compulsory and additional.

Prof. Gombrich: I see.

Prabhupāda: Up to my I.A., I regularly studied Sanskrit, and in my B. A., I gave up Sanskrit. I read history. (laughs) No. Not in B.A. B.A., my combination was economics and philosophy. In I.A. I was intermediate, I.A. I had history and Sanskrit.

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

Prabhupāda: No. Just like Dr. Bose's laboratory. So Dr. Bose's laboratory, I was manager. Then I took his agency, very good terms. I was earning money like anything. But the next manager, he became envious. He began to poison Dr. Bose, to cut off our relationship. So it happened. Then, when I was Dr. Bose's agent, I become so much famous that Bengal Chemical, the biggest chemical factory, he, they wanted to give me the agency. If I would have taken that agency, I would have been the richest man in the chemical world.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 5, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Now things have gone very high, I cannot sell." So he knows that we are eager to purchase. Then I said, "Then what do you want to do?" "Now I want thirty thousand." "All right, yes. Take it." I did not argue. In this way I settled up. And our Girirāja's father appreciated that "It is better a bad settlement than to prolong the case." So I took this policy. It is bad settlement, from twenty thousand to thirty thousand. But settled out. "I give you 85,000 black." But one thing I gain—that by cancelling the agreement, their proposal was that increase the price, twenty lakhs from fourteen lakhs.

Morning Walk -- January 10, 1974, Los Angeles:

Candanācārya: Is it not better just to say, "Kṛṣṇa, whatever You decide. Whatever You give me, that I will accept." Like Kuntī.

Prabhupāda: Why shall I take from Kṛṣṇa? You should give.

Candanācārya: No, I mean. Instead of praying to demigods to give me something, saying, "Whatever you decide Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. No. A devotee never prays to Kṛṣṇa. They have to undergo so much trouble; still they never pray to Kṛṣṇa. They know that "Kṛṣṇa will give us ultimately protection. Let us do our duty."

Morning Walk -- January 22, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: Generally, it is not practiced, but if people come, how can you check them? (pause) So we were talking about Darwin's theory, eh? What is that?

Nitāi: It is survival of the fittest, his evolutionary theory?

Prabhupāda: Now, we talked about that if you do not take my documentary, what is called, evidence, why shall I take your documentary?

Bali Mardana: I think the only reason it is accepted is because it was very popular among the atheists. They said, "Oh, yes, let us support this idea."

Prabhupāda: Yes, but there is theist class also.

Morning Walk -- January 23, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: Therefore they have been called as mūḍha, duṣkṛtina, duṣkṛtina: showing very good merit for this big, big building, big, big road... Kṛti, kṛti means meritorious. But duṣkṛti. Duṣkṛti means for useless purpose, real purpose missing. They have no information of the soul within the body; simply they are engaged in the bodily activities. The soul is neglected.

māyār bośe, jāccho bhese',
kāccho hābuḍubu bhāi

(japa) (break) ...at least one verse of Bhāgavata, every one of you, and try to understand scrutinizingly, life will be successful. At least one verse.

Bali Mardana: Every day?

Prabhupāda: Every day. Why I am taking so much trouble? Everything enlightened.

Room Conversation -- February 9, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Next time I, when I come...

Devotee: Come, it, roof should be ready.

Prabhupāda: ...I want to see that it is, roof is complete, and then we begin. So another thing: should I take rates for the marble from others, or we shall accept this?

Room Conversation -- February 9, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It is natural when money is misspent, one who brings money is (indistinct).

Guru dāsa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: I take so much trouble and then.... That is, that is always (indistinct).

Guru dāsa: Yes. I also would feel that way.

Prabhupāda: So the money raised for the other business, that should be spent for that purpose.

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. At that time. Then there was repeated letters, come back, come back. So I returned in 1968. So, in spite of heart weakness, I worked. I suffered that weakness continually for one year.

Dr. Kapoor: Naturally, naturally.

Prabhupāda: Then I was taking Kavirāja's medicine. I took it from here, that Yogendranātha. That gave me good strength, and massage the body. Not taking bath in cold water. In this way, somehow or other, still going on.

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, I took two-hundred sets of books.

Dr. Kapoor: I see.

Prabhupāda: So I was taking the stock to the booksellers there or some institution or some friend. In this way, sixteen dollars, the full set sixteen dollars. In this way collecting. (break) ...That gentleman who carried me in his car, he is Mr. Kaśinātha Servan(?). (break) ...Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, a large edition, this size, eleven hundred pages.

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So I asked him the quotation of that small edition of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. He told me that he will inform me. Anyway (Hindi).

Guest (5): (Hindi).

Prabhupāda: Whenever I take ticket, round trip. (Hindi) (break) Ye 'nye ca pāpā, śudhyanti, prabhaviṣṇave namaḥ. Bhāgavata...

Morning Walk -- March 5, 1974, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: ...no woman can... (break) So I took it very a cheap price. There was no question of woman. I kept my office there. And the address was Multani temple. It is a temple. Multani temple, Grant Road. And in my retired life my office was there, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa temple and Delhi, Chippiwada. And my residence was Rādhā-Dāmodara temple. And before that, that Keśī Ghāṭa. Who has seen that? You have...?

Morning Walk -- April 2, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). You'll take a practical... My Guru Mahārāja gave me hint that book publication is more pleasing to me than Maṭha-mandira. So I took it and I began to publish books and that has come successful. Kāryaṁ karma. I took it, "Oh, Guru Mahārāja wants that books should be published. So let me concentrate on this instead of..." My creating so many centers, big, big temples, that is not my primary duty. My primary duty is to write books. Therefore I am going on still. These are coming automatically. Maybe this is the secret of my success.

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, that is ahaṅkāra, that "I have got my own interpretation." That is ahaṅkāra.

Dr. Patel: But you say your own interpretation also. That is also ahaṅkāra, sir.

Prabhupāda: No, no. I am taking the interpretation of Kṛṣṇa.

Dr. Patel: He must be also taking in that way.

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 1, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, Germany, whole Germany. They do not like to speak in English also. Yes, I have seen it. Even they know English, they'll not speak. In the bank they could speak a little, little English, but they avoid. Then I took... What is that boy that first went to...?

Bhāgavata: Śivānanda.

Prabhupāda: Śivānanda. Then I... Śivānanda talked in German. (break) ...two wars is due to Germany's hatred to Britain. That's all. There was always competition in colonization between France, Holland...

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Or Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is great. So I am talking of what Kṛṣṇa has said. Therefore I am great, I am knowing everything. It is not that I know everything. I do not know anything, but I, I am surrendered to a person who knows everything. Therefore I know everything. I take my knowledge from Him. So you should think how much knowledge you have assimilated. The knowledge is there, guru-kṛṣṇa. Guru is there. Kṛṣṇa is there. So we have to take advantage of guru and Kṛṣṇa, sad-dharma-pṛcchā, ask him, and become man of knowledge.

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

Prabhupāda: We are getting knowledge from Kṛṣṇa, the most perfect. Or you get knowledge from Jesus Christ, that is also perfect, because source is perfect. I am taking knowledge from God and you are taking the knowledge from the son of God who has come directly from him, the same. So, but we have to receive knowledge from the perfect, not by ascending process, experiencing failure, experiencing failure, experiencing failure, not like that. That will take long time.

Morning Walk -- June 21, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: No. At night I get up at one, at half past one, sometimes half past twelve. But I take a little rest, one or two hour in the daytime. So two hours at night, two hours at day, or three hours at night, two hours in day. In this way, altogether five hours, not more than that. Our predecessor gurus, Gosvāmīs, they were taking rest not more than two hours or 2-1/2 hours. So we should come to that standard, yes. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau **. About them this description is: they reduced their sleeping, nidra.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) So we have to do like that. Here everyone is demon, everyone. Demon means they are busy for sense gratification. That is demon. And devotee means he has no sense gratification. He is only busy how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is the devotee. Anyway, if you serve Kṛṣṇa sincerely, Kṛṣṇa is with you. You will never fall in danger.

Tripurāri: Sometimes the devotees question, "What is the best book to distribute, Caitanya-caritāmṛta or Bhagavad-gītā?" We're thinking all of them are absolute. It does not matter.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is just like sugar doll. Anywhere touch—it is sweet. That's all. When I read books, I open anywhere. Any book I take, and anywhere I open, and I read.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. And then, by culture, another fifty percent. But they have given up this culture. But the birthright fifty percent is already also there. Prayāga, severest cold, eh, I took bath in the Ganges. It is simply cutting. But still, they are taking bath and smearing over the body the ashes and sit down, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. No care "Wherefrom food will come? Where...?" No. That's in India still. (break) ...it is also like this, cloudy?

Conversation with Devotees on Theology -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: No. You'll never see any picture, he was leaning. So that Lord Ronaldsey (?) was very good scholar. So we were... When he was invited, he was taken to all the classes. So I was, at that time, in the second year. So I took permission to sit down in the first benches. The... Our college was very big. So in each class there were 150 students. (break) Where is...

Brahmānanda: Tamāla Kṛṣṇa is taking a bath.

Prabhupāda: So they were giving role number according to admission. So I did not know that. So my role number was 105. So I thought it very incon... "I have to sit down after one hundred students?" So I took one certificate from Dr. Karttika Chandra Bose, who became, later on, my boss. Because he was our father's friend, so "Give me one certificate in this way, that I am hard of hearing. I must be given first row seat." So he gave immediately certificate.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So, on that point I have taken his ideas very nice, his thinking. He is a good thinker. And so I have taken his ideas, and I want to reply him. So any good thinker, leaders, they should do something so the India's glories... Now, these people, they are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is India's glory because we haven't got to give them anything. We are hundred years back always. When they manufacture jet plane, we manufacture sewing machine. Or cycle.

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: The more you fight with these rascals, the more you advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You are a fighting soldier. Kṛṣṇa very much appreciates. (long pause) So you take Bhagavad-gītā by your own interpretation, and I take Bhagavad-gītā as it is. So who is right? Who will decide this? You interpret in your own way. I don't interpret. I take it as it is. Now we are two parties. So who is correct?

Morning Walk -- May 17, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: They may say, they... Because we take them as rascals, why shall I take their words? We should consider them a rascals, that's all. (someone shouts nastily in background-Prabhupāda barks at them) (laughter) Another rascal. He is enjoying life. So the world is full of rascals. We must be very much pessimistic, not at all optimistic of this world. Unless you become pessimistic, you will not be able to go back to home. If you have little attraction for this world—"It is good"—then you have to remain here. Yes. Kṛṣṇa is so strict.

Morning Walk -- June 16, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: We. (break) There was an artificial famine in India and I particularly inquired from all devotees whether they have got any problem in this famine. They said, "No, we haven't got." I have taken the statistics. In 1942 the artificial famine created by government... So there were big earthquake in Bihar. At that time one of my godbrother, he was government auditor. So I inquired. In that earthquake only his house was saved. I have seen it many times.

Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Because even if you find somebody diseased, still, spiritual consciousness is not hampered. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, ahaituky apratihatā. Apratihatā means without any impediment. There is no checking. Just like in the Ganges water you will sometimes find the stool is floating there. But that does not mean the Ganges water has become polluted. It is practical. In Calcutta, in our childhood, I was taking bath in the Ganges with my father. Many gentlemen regularly takes bath in the Ganges. And the modern scientific method is: all the garbage, throw into the river. So we were taking bath, and here is some stool floating.

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 the Rector, Professor Olivier and Professors of the University of Durban, Westville -- October 8, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: So I think I shall not be able to attend that class because I take my bath at half past eleven.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That's okay, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: I will go. These people will remain.

Morning Walk -- Durban, October 13, 1975 :

Prabhupāda: Then? Because the rascals are thinking in some way, we have to believe that? First of all let them prove that they are sane men. They are all insane rascals. Why shall I take their words? We are taking words from Kṛṣṇa, who is accepted the Supreme by all the ācāryas, all the great sages. Why shall I go to this rascal Darwin? We are not so fools. We cannot accept.

Morning Walk -- October 26, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: That is their defect. If my dream is wrong, why your dream should be right? That they did not conceive of, that "My dream is right(?)." And if you say that "Your dream is also wrong," yes, I do not dream. I take the facts from the authority. We do not dream. Dream is dream, either yours or mine. It doesn't matter.

Morning Walk -- December 20, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Huh? (laughing) This is a little revolting (revolutionary). But I am speaking from the very beginning. Yes, I wrote that Easy Journey to Other Planets in 1958, and you'll find this statement in my book. It is all childish.

Dr. Patel: You have to be yogi for that.

Prabhupāda: I am yogi because I am taking lessons from the yogis...

Dr. Patel: Yoga dhāraṇā.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yogi, I am taking lesson from Śukadeva Gosvāmī. I may be fool, but I am taking lesson from the yogi. Yes. So yatra yogeśvaraḥ kṛṣṇaḥ tatra śrīr vijayo bhūtir (BG 18.78). I don't require to be a yogi. I take shelter of the yogeśvara.

Conversation on Roof -- December 26, 1975, Sanand:

Prabhupāda: Not unknown. It is unknown to you. But known to us. If it is unknown to you, you take, you know it from me. That is real knowledge. Why you persist that "It is unknown"? It should remain ever unknown? Why shall I take from anyone else? That's a fact. Either you answer what is that element which is missing so that the body is now dead. Simply your denial is obstinacy. That is dog's obstinacy. Then you are like a dog. You answer that: "This is the reason." Make experiment; prove it.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 12, 1976, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (break) ...they'd be bothered by the boats being here.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They don't seem to be bothered by these boats.

Prabhupāda: No. No. (break) ...childhood I was taking bath. I used to come with my mother. She took bath; I also took bath.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughs) She'd bring you. (break) Madhya Pradesh?

Prabhupāda: (break) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Every day I was seeing how to go to Jagannātha Purī and how to go to Vṛndāvana. At that time a fare was, for Vṛndāvana, four or five rupees, and similarly for Jagannātha Purī. So I was thinking, "When I shall go?" That's all. I took first opportunity to go to Jagannātha Purī after my examination, and in business connection when I went to Agra, then I first of all took the opportunity to go to Vṛndāvana from Agra.

Morning Walk -- February 10, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: I think there was a Vaiṣṇava meeting inaugurated by Mahārāja Maṇīndrānandī. You are referring to that. (break) When I was visiting, I used to sit on his couch. Yes, like... Guru Mahārāja was sitting on the couch, so I took him as ordinary gentleman. So then nobody asked me that, that "You are sitting? Get down." No. Nobody asked me. Then I was seeing that all other big, big disciples, they are sitting down. So then I began to sit down. Neither Guru Mahārāja told me, neither anybody told me.

Morning Walk -- February 10, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So I did not go to parikrama, so he very much appreciated. There was announcement that "Now parikrama will start in the evening at five, and Prabhupāda also will speak. So anyone who wants to hear Prabhupāda, he can stay. Otherwise be ready for going." So about a dozen men remained, and all went to parikrama. So I was at that time new man—not exactly new man, but not recognized disciple. I did not go. So he saw that I am sitting, I did not go to parikrama. He very much appreciated. I preferred to hear him than go to parikrama. That he appreciated.

Hari-śauri: That was the same time that you took initiation?

Prabhupāda: Yes. After that, I took initiation.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Reporter (5): Initially it requires some money to print such a lavish book.

Prabhupāda: Initially I took some books from here. They are not so nicely printed, but still, I sold them. Then gradually increased. They paid the money and then.... They made contributions. One of my student, he first, Jayānanda.... He.... No, first paid me.... He, he has first paid me five thousand dollars. Then Brahmānanda paid me five thousand dollars. In this way gradually money came.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: But you see. I take little medicine and wash hand. But you don't learn it. You remain the same. You have to.... (microphone moving) I show example, but you don't do it. What can I do?

Hari-śauri: We're learning.

Prabhupāda: I do not know how long you'll learn.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: I make him promise before the fire, before the Deity, before guru. (break) That one moon is taken into account. Who takes account of the millions of stars? Ekaś candras tamo hanti na ca tārā sahasraśaḥ. Quality. So we should be quality devotee, not quantity devotee. I have taken two glasses. Just see how nice water is, tap water. Here so many dobs are available, and this rascal is manufacturing RC and he is going as to be..., business. And for hearing Bhagavad-gītā they have no time, and they are trying to go to Vṛndāvana.

Room Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Everyone, I am everyone also. I am also, I have taken up my translation work, Bhāgavatam. So I am trying to live at least up to the time I finish my translation. That is also.... I do not wish to die before I finish. That is also.... Everyone is like that.

Richard: But what happens if you do die before you finish?

Prabhupāda: Well, you are talking something extraordinary. Everyone has got some ambition, and he wants to do it, and death, disease, old age, these are impediments. That is the point. No one wants to die premature death. Family man, a family man wants to see that his sons are properly educated or they are well-placed, so on, so on, so many things. And if all of a sudden death comes, he becomes sorry, that "I could not finish my business." Therefore death is impediment.

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

Indian man: Is there any plan to translate into English? Is there any plan to translate Jīva Gosvāmī's Jīva-bhāṣya?

Prabhupāda: No, no. I am taking help from all these Gosvāmīs and giving a summary. Where is that book? That green book? (probably referring to Prabhupāda's green Bhāgavatam with eight commentaries) (break) First comment I find, Viśvanātha Cakravartī and Vīra-rāghavācārya, the Rāmānujācārya sampradāya. Vīra-rāghavācārya.

Room Conversation -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Because we are intelligent. I love you. Therefore you'll die and you'll become a dog, so I am taking sympathy on you that "Don't become a dog." Every human being is anxious. The example is given just like a child flying kite and is going this way, this way, on the roof. Now on the edge of the roof, so one gentleman standing, "Hey, you'll fall down." That is his duty. He says, "Why you are checking me?" (laughter) "Why you are checking me?" "Because I am human being. You are foolish boy. Therefore I am checking you." That is natural.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: But there cannot be new smṛtis. We are giving the sanction to Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra because it is already there in the śruti. But for this time it is suitable. I am taking a certain type of medicine in the evening, it is already recommended by the physician. I am not doing it whimsically. So whimsically you cannot change. It must have reference to the śruti-smṛti-purāṇadi (BRS 1.2.101).

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

Prabhupāda: I take America as my fatherland. India is motherland, and here is fatherland. (laughs) So many fathers. My father was very affectionate to me. He would do everything for me. I lost one father, I have got so many fathers.

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

Prabhupāda: As soon as we see that somebody is not Kṛṣṇa conscious or Kṛṣṇa's devotee, I take them immediately he's a duṣkṛtina, he's a mūḍha, he's a narādhama. "Oh, he's educated!" māyāyapahṛta-jñānā. Finish. Our study finish. We take it immediately that here is a māyayāpahṛta-jñānā. That's all. Āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ. Because he denies to accept Kṛṣṇa, he must be within this group. Duṣkṛtina, mūḍha, narādhama, māyayāpahṛta-jñānā. So people will be sorry or happy, we take them like that, that "Here is a duṣkṛtina," that's all.

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

Prabhupāda: The more we minimize this āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithuna, this means we are advanced in spiritual taste.(?) It is practiced. My, my personal life, I don't sleep at night. And nowadays, at most, one hour. Yes. But I take rest in the daytime, at least two to three hours. So it is not that I am sleeping one hour. I sleep three to four hours total. But if practiced, it can be reduced, practiced. We see in the life of Gosvāmīs. About them, it is said: nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau **. They conquered over sleeping, eating.

Evening Darsana -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Then you present them. That is, I have taken, that this is the summum bonum of Indian culture, Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is accepted all over the world as the greatest book of knowledge, so take this standard and preach, and people will be enlightened, without misinterpretation.

Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: I think third floor. And there was an electrician, he was my friend, one Jewish gentleman.

Devotee (1): You would walk on this street?

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is one building with temperature, a gauge? Here it is. This is Broadway. I was taking bath here in a station. Sometimes I was taking the station(?)... I think this building is new. I was going to Dr. Mishra's apartment for cooking.

Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: No, there was bed. There is toilet and water, but no bath and no cooking.

Devotee (1): Did you have to go there to bathe also?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I was taking bathing there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where did you... Did you sleep on the floor?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I had little platform. So on that platform...

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.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. Of course in daytime I take rest two hours. So in this way altogether about three to four hours. Our philosophy is not that you sit idly and God will send everything, no, not like that. We know God will send everything, still we work. Without God's sanction nothing can come. But we must be qualified to receive the favor of God. That is our philosophy.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: One doctor came, he gave me three bags of tablets.

Hari-śauri: He wanted to give you five. He gave us five different prescriptions.

Prabhupāda: I did not take anything, tablet. Rather, what one I was taking, I have stopped that also.

Jayatīrtha: You do not put very much faith in these doctors.

Prabhupāda: What this medicine will help?

Hari-śauri: Most of the medicine he gave was to dull your senses so much that you wouldn't feel any pain, or would make you sleep for six hours at a time or, like this.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: No, I never stressed on temple. I was engaged in publishing the Back to Godhead. Whatever I could do, I did it because I took it very seriously that he is very sorry that these things were not done. He said that "There will be fire in this Gaudiya Math." Āgun jvālbe, he said. Amari taci loka kichui boi kakrayebo (?): "If I can, I shall sell these marbles of this temple and convert them into books." That was his ambition. He started a very nice press and this Tirtha Maharaja sold it.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: I am taking rest now these twenty-four hours. I have no other business than to take rest. (laughter)

Jayatīrtha: Always resting at the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: At night I don't sleep. Not that because I am nowadays sick. But generally I don't sleep. At most two hours. At most.

Hari-śauri: I think it's a long time since you've taken any rest at night.

Prabhupāda: I take little rest during daytime. So on the whole, three to four hours. But actually I do not like to sleep.

George Harrison: No, it's a waste of time.

Prabhupāda: I think it is, when I go to sleep, I think that now I'm going to waste my time. I actually think like that.

Room Conversation -- July 27, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: We are, rather, inviting, "Come here. Live comfortably. You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." Then what is the difference between Kṛṣṇa's state and ordinary state? When I see so many young boys are taking prasādam, I become so happy that they are having prasādam and good chance for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, that's all. They are living in the best house.

Bhagavān: Even the churches, they are not feeding people like this. They have so much money.

Prabhupāda: They do not know whose money, how to spend it. Bokāloka. In the evening I took that watermelon juice? That created havoc whole night. I think so. So for breakfast you can prepare that soup, the little. Just put vegetable soup.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Our Bon Mahārāja, once I was eating in his festival and... He's a bara-sahib. So he has given fork and knife. (laughs) So I did not know, I do not remember even which way I took fork. So Bon Mahārāja began to criticize "You are going to foreign country you do not know which hand to take this fork and knife." So I told him, "I am not going to learn all these things. I am going to teach them something else, to forget it. (laughter) You went to learn all these things. But I am not going to learn anything."

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: So there was no such scarcity. May not be very luxurious life, but there was no scarcity for food and shelter or cloth. There was no scarcity. Happy. That is wanted. Happiness in whatever circumstance. Not that because we did not possess a motorcar, therefore unhappy. I purchased one motor car in 1925, Buick car. Not for personal use, but for using it as a taxi. My one nephew, he was a good driver, so my father, "Why don't you give him? He can do that, we can use it our own car also taxi." So I took it, Buick car, I think I paid eight thousand rupees.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: No, you have got this cucumber?

Devotee (1): Yes, there is cucumber.

Prabhupāda: So if fresh, why not eat?

Hari-śauri: We have fresh cucumber every day.

Prabhupāda: But when I take it does not appear to be fresh.

Room Conversation with Endowments Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So, I have taken this veda-pracāra. Why not come and join with us?

Commissioner: Yes, definitely.

Prabhupāda: All over the world they're accepting. Now these foreigners, they're accepting. I have done it single-handed. So if the government comes forward and join with me, we can do at least ten times work.

Meeting with Endowments Commissioner -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: You can show, they'll be... How in the American industrial process we are printing our books. I made the Book Trust, sixty thousand dollars they are selling. So as author, I could have derived from them at least six thousand, ten percent minimum. Six thousand dollars per day. Six thousand dollars means sixty thousand rupees. That could have been my daily income. But I take little khicuḍi from them, that's all. (Harikeśa laughing)

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It is due to the blessing of my Guru Mahārāja. He directly told me that "If you get some money, publish some books." I took it seriously, so he's helping me. All our Godbrothers, they didn't take it. Did not know it, neither... Even they... They know it. Because from the very beginning, Guru Mahārāja was serious about publication. He started press and published these books. This Bhāgavata was published by him. And the journal, six journals, he was very much fond of publishing, publication. Very, very.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Six hundred rupees. So take another four hundred rupees, make one thousand. It should not go more than five hundred to one thousand. You spend.

Harikeśa: But milk, when you cook down milk to make a sweet...

Prabhupāda: I have taken from six hundred to one thousand. All the maintenance.

Akṣayānanda: I will take every item with Viśvambhara, every single item.

Prabhupāda: You don't believe me?

Akṣayānanda: I can't understand. My intelligence is not great enough to understand it. I believe you, but I have to do it. That's all.

Room Conversation -- September 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He was little sorry that his eldest son went to America to study electric engineering, and he was entrapped by an English girl, and he married and settled there and did not come back. In this way... So I took the opportunity, that "Why don't you ask your son to sponsor me?" I wanted to go to America. So I did not know how seriously he took it. But I simply told him that "Why don't you ask your son to sponsor me at least for one month. So I am thinking of going to America." Then that was talking, beginning and end, that's all. I did not know that he took it very seriously. Then after two, three months, some documents came. I was receiving my letters in a post box. So when I left Delhi I used to keep my key of post box with some nice bookseller, Atmaram, he was manager. So he opened that, he got that documents. That is No Objection Certificate, Sponsor, and everything. I was out of Delhi. Then when I came back I took it.

Room Conversation -- September 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, nine hours on the bus. And I took a little chipped rice, and whatever I had with me. So I got down from the ship about one o'clock. Then I had to wait for the bus till five o'clock. Then at five o'clock the bus started.

Room Conversation -- September 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Stationwagon. So he took my luggage, and from there thirty miles off, the Butler County. So I went there. Then at night he took my (indistinct). The next day, he had no many rooms in his apartment, he arranged for my stay in the YMCA nearby them.

Hari-śauri: You never actually stayed with him then.

Prabhupāda: I was going. I was taking my meals there.

Hari-śauri: Oh. And just keeping a room at the YMCA.

Prabhupāda: Because he had no room, so I was staying there.

Room Conversation -- September 30, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: There also one symptom developed. Always some sound in the ear, gongongongongon. It was so disturbing. Almost half-mad. And then Los Angeles. Then I think I went to Seattle. In this way, in the beginning there were so many difficulties. Montreal. I took Canadian citizenship. America I could not get. So one gentleman in the immigration department, he said, "Swamiji, you go to Canada and from there you try. It will be easier." Actually, it acted. The Canadian consulate general was a black man, American black man.

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...position. It is not a good position.

Hari-śauri: No, it's not very clear. I was just wondering who the other two were.

Prabhupāda: I took sannyāsa from him.

Hari-śauri: Who is that?

Prabhupāda: Sannyāsa has to be taken from a sannyāsī, so I took sannyāsa from him.

Hari-śauri: Yes, I was wondering what his name was.

Prabhupāda: Oh, his name is Keśava Mahārāja. He's one of the Godbrothers. He's also one of my Godbrothers.

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I took sannyāsa sometime in '59, and... No, that is after I took sannyāsa. No, no. Before, yes. Before or after,...

Hari-śauri: He said it was the day before.

Prabhupāda: No. That was an incident in Delhi. Now I think it was... It was before. Before. That was sometime in 1956.

Hari-śauri: Oh, that's a long time before.

Prabhupāda: And I took sannyāsa in 1959.

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I lived there for few months. Then I went to another Godbrother, that Imlitala, Delhi. Then I left there. I used to live alone in Delhi. Then I took one house in Keśī-ghāṭa. Then the Rādhā-Dāmodara men they called me that "You can live here. We give you two rooms. We don't charge. We give you the place." I came to Rādhā-Dāmodara. And from Rādhā-Dāmodara temple I went U.S.A.

Room Conversation -- November 20, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No. If I take anything else it becomes overburdened. Better take little less, just to satisfy that I am not starving. (laughter) Better to starve. That is better. But we are habituated, so better give some consolance, "No, no, you are not starving." Otherwise starving is better. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau **. (pause) So they were glad that I am coming?

Press Conference -- December 16, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: There is no income tax. We are charity.

Guest (9): 75,000 daily, you said.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because five to six lakhs daily collection. If I take minimum fifteen percent, what it comes to? Big, big authors, they get twenty-five percent.

Room Conversation with Indian Man -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: If I want to come to point of misfortune, that is my disease. Otherwise, we can understand little, Kṛṣṇa is explaining. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says,

janma karma ca me divyaṁ
evaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mām eti...
(BG 4.9)

Simply to understand Kṛṣṇa is liberation. And that is also explained. What is that tattva? How one can understand tattvataḥ, that is explained by Kṛṣṇa. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). That tattva is bhakti, not karma, jñāna, yoga. Everything is there. And still if we want to be misled that is our misfortune.

Indian man: I am a seeker; I want to know.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I am taking this trouble. Otherwise, I have no business.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That's fine. That's your process. You are trying to do something for the disease.

Dr. Patel: You see we must know exactly what is happening. After all, science is the same with the āyurvedic or allopathic or any. Science is... I mean, advancement of man's evolution of the man's understanding about things.

Prabhupāda: I say but somebody says that... What is the medicine? I take some āyurvedic medicine.

Press Interview -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So now it is late. So you stay, take prasāda.

Indian doctor: No, I'm... I am here only for three, four times a year. And get everything done. I'll give instruction in writing, they will write it down and I'll be there till evening or five tomorrow and go out for the preparation. These are to be taken with the the bath.

Prabhupāda: All right. Do it. For the time being, what I took yesterday, my lunch, I'll take. And these things we can begin from tomorrow because it is already arranged.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: This, our book distribution is the most important task in our society. Therefore I am giving so much stress and I am working so hard on this. Because this is my life and soul according to the order of my Guru Mahārāja. And by his grace it is to some extent successful. And I took it seriously. I take it seriously still now. That is my life and soul. I never tried in India to construct big temples or even in your country we didn't. I never tried. But I was selling personally books. That is the history.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with C.I.D. Chief -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I have no appetite also. (laughs) I do not eat too much. Whatever, one or two cāpāṭis, they give, I take. That's all. This is my royalty.

CID Chief: But any... How these politicians, they react to this in America? Do they...

Prabhupāda: There also... Here. Here people are suspecting that I am getting money from CIA, and they are also suspecting that I am cheating people and getting money.

Roof Conversation -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: It is very cold, huh? There will be extreme cold this season. And to take bath in confluence in this biting cold of this cold water.

Prabhupāda: Sometimes I was taking.

Dr. Patel: You should take warm water bath.

Prabhupāda: In 1925 I was taking. I was touching the water, and it was cutting.

Dr. Patel: Even my... It was cutting too much.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) And as soon as I take a dip, everything is warm.

Roof Conversation -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Now, if I take such dip I may be paralyzed.

Mr. Gupta: Oh, yes. One man had actually died in Kashi Benares by dipping in the Gaṅgā. The water in Gaṅgā is very cold even in summer, sir, huh? Summer also is...

Prabhupāda: Almost. Because it is coming directly from Himalaya. Up to Prayāga, pure, no mixture. And then Yamunā...

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, even from that point of view, I was taking aeroplane. Aeroplane was flying. So we admit this is contribution of the Western technology. But it is not safe. But what I am giving, it is safe. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato... So our, this contribution of India's culture and this contribution, far different. That is not safe. At any moment you'll be finished. But here-svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). This Manipur state is mentioned in the Bhāgavata. And these people say that three thousand years before, there was no civilization.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Jagadīśa: Yes. Since I've been taking two baths a day, unless I have two baths I don't feel clean. Sometimes I am very busy and don't get to bathe twice, and then I feel very dirty.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: I don't feel clean if I don't have three.

Prabhupāda: Also, he also. He also takes. So if it is practiced, it keeps health very nice. I was taking all along. Since I was attacked, heart, they said you should be kept from catching cold.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, I don't take. I... Since 1970, 1966, '67, I am not taking cold bath. Before that, even in America I was taking twice cold water bath.

Dr. Patel: I have never taken cold water in my life.

Prabhupāda: Shower I was taking.

Dr. Patel: All these boys take cold water, required from them.

Prabhupāda: I never used hot water. In India the Delhi is the coldest part. In my business life, in the hotel I was taking cold water. Everyone was surprised. "How you can?" In Saharanpur, in bitter cold, I was taking cold water early in the morning.

Dr. Patel: This will be extreme cold in river. I have taken bath in the confluence four or five years back. It was not winter, but then it was... It is cold throughout the year because snow melt and keep water very cold.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Therefore we could purchase that palace which costs six million dollars fifty years ago. And we have got for three hundred thousand. Why? Nobody was purchasing. Who will go to purchase there? I took it. "Yes it is..." I offered him... He was asking 350,000. So I told him, "I'll pay you cash, all three hundred." He immediately agreed. (laughs) I should have offered him less. He would have agreed. Nobody was purchasing.

Conversation During Massage -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: That is only pretext.

Rāmeśvara: You have already defined violence as "Anything which does not save a man from repeated birth and death, that is violence."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Violence, I take it in this way, that you have got right to possess this. If I do not allow you to possess, that is violent. Somehow or other, I check it, and that is violence.

Conversation During Massage -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Who can be better devotee than Arjuna? And why did he... He was, rather, avoiding the botheration. Kṛṣṇa said, "No. You must take the botheration." He chastised him, kutas tva kaśmalam idaṁ viṣame. "Rascal, what is this? You must take. You have to take this botheration." On this principle, at the age of seventy years, I took all the botheration—"All right." The other friends were thinking that "This man is going to die, and he is going to preach." (laughing) They said like that. And "All right. I shall die, I shall die for Kṛṣṇa's cause." So we have to face so many problems, botherations. That is natural. We should not be afraid of this.

Room Conversation -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No, that land I shall use, if I take it, for another gate, in and out. That is my idea.

Gargamuni: Oh, I see

Gurukṛpā: We are putting a road in front of this new building. There's a road in front of the new building.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Gurukṛpā: There must be some walkway.

Gargamuni: Just like where the wall is? There's one little road for walking. So similarly, in front of the long, this new building, will be one road for walking.

Morning Walk -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Already I have got relative value.

Devotee (1): They say that each man has his own life to live so he can take the best from many authorities. He can say, "Well, I like some of what you are saying and some of what someone else is saying, so I can take what's best for me in my life."

Prabhupāda: But if I find in one place the best, why shall I take so much trouble? Why do you induce me to go here and there if I get in one place everything?

Morning Walk -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So why shall I take the trouble? I throw it immediately. (laughter)

Hari-śauri: I got the book, and I... There was one chapter called, "Does God Exist?" something like that. So I turned to that one first. And after I read the first paragraph, I threw the book out, (laughs) because he was saying, "Well, God exists if you believe He exists. And if you don't believe He exists, then He doesn't exist."

Prabhupāda: So it depends on me. God's existence depends on me.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Do that. Think deeply, over and over again, and fight. What is your seeing? Useless. What you can see? You cannot see beyond this wall. Does it mean there is nothing? Why you depend on your seeing, rascal? That means brainless. So I take it, it is good opportunity for describing our whole philosophy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kṛṣṇa's arrangement.

Prabhupāda: You don't take it otherwise. Rather, prove yourself efficient in this subject matter. This is a trial examination for this knowledge.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Because she was always against Kṛṣṇa... My father said like that, that "You are so fortunate that you don't like your wife. Don't try to marry again."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were thinking like that.

Prabhupāda: "You are fortunate." I took it seriously. "People try to give up the company of wife with great difficulty. You have natural tendency."

Room Conversation -- March 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Therefore I persistently took that place. Nobody encouraged me. He is all. (laughter) Nobody helped me. I hesitated little, that "If I am persistent to take it, they will not cooperate. It may be failure." So still I took it. And only fifty thousand and one lakh of rupees I gave this thief Nyer: "All right, take it. Come on. Whatever I have got, you take it." Still he thought, "Oh. I'll get money."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He had already played the trick with one man.

Prabhupāda: Still, I took the risk that "I have no money. If he cheat me, that's all, but let me attempt."

Room Conversation -- March 27, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I never agreed to be misguide by these rascals. Perhaps I am the first man who protested against these authorized scientists.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, yes. Very strongly. Everybody is afraid except Śrīla Prabhupāda. (Prabhupāda chuckles) Frankly speaking, I never knew that the problem is this serious before I met Śrīla Prabhupāda. I never thought about this.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I took it so seriously. Every morning walk, I was, "Where is the scientist?" I thought "Here I have got an opportunity to impress that will fructify in fruition." That was my aim. Therefore I was bothering you in so ways.

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

Prabhupāda: But the danger is there. Danger is there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Therefore traditionally the sādhus will not go outside India. They won't cross the ocean.

Prabhupāda: And I took the risk. I told you the story, that I was keeping my foodstuff in the same Frigidaire that dog's flesh is here. What can I do? Circumstance. Therefore this rascal, Ginsberg, he used to say, "Swamiji, you are very conservative." And "You do not know what is conservative. I'm so lenient. You do not know what is the meaning of conservative," I used to reply him. If I was conservative, then for a single moment I could not stay here. Immediately I would have gone.

Room Conversation with Ram Jethmalani (Parliament Member) -- April 16, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They very much appreciated. Because they saw that I have got full respect for Christ and his real disciples. And actually we have. Why not? He said, "Thou shalt not kill," and they are interpreting killing. This is going on. And they are Christians. Just see how much cheating. It is clearly written, "Thou shalt not kill." And their only business is killing, and still, they are Christians. How much cheating it is. Whatever little success is in our movement, the cause is I have not tried to cheat. Honestly, what I knew, I heard it from Guru Mahārāja and scripture, I took it. There was no cheating.

Conversation with Yadubara (after seeing film) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Origin? There is no origin. It is always there. Origin is Kṛṣṇa. He has always been. Aham evāsam agre. The Bhāgavata śloka. Where is that śloka, aham eva āsam agre? First part? Where is that Gītā-bhāṣya.(?) You are doing nice. Go on doing like that. Try your best to convince. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu (BG 7.3). Out of many millions of men, one can understand Kṛṣṇa. So what the lawyer says? What is his name?

Girirāja: Mr. Jethmalani. I said I would come and meet him. I also wanted to show him the movie. So he said that "I would prefer to come back here, because it is so nice." Actually, when he was... After he washed his hands, he looked out of the balcony, and he said that just from this atmosphere, one can feel a sense of ecstasy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Those baṛā, would you like them, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, I have taken two, more than two. I could have taken...

Morning Conversation -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So by Indian birth, that is all right. Citizenship, I am also Canadian. I have got Canadian immigration. First of all I took Canada immigration. Then, from there, I took U.S. immigration. So make a subcommittee immediately. Make resolution. Ācchā. What about the Canadian, Australian, English men? They also require the same?

Morning Conversation -- April 29, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...in Calcutta. That is bathroom, very slippery. Anyway, why shall I take the risk?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, we don't want that.

Prabhupāda: So hold meeting daily and chalk out program. Do very diligently everything so I can see that things are going on nicely without my managerial interference. That will make me happy. And I'll go on writing. There is... (pause) You are feeling all right?

Discussions with Devotees and Conversation with Dr. Ghosh -- June 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) You are all qualified. I can give you ideas. Now I am doing. So I wanted to see that you are all busy. That I want because now I am becoming invalid. I cannot move very swiftly here and there. But if you move, I take pleasure. There is a Bengali proverb, na pajimane na jamai datta(?). A old lady, so she has lost her husband. She cannot joke. Husband, wife, they exchange some joking word. So with whom she will joke? Then the grandson-in-law, grandson... So in our society, Bengal, the grandson-in-law... I have got experience also.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That means Kṛṣṇa desired. Otherwise I had no plan to come back here.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your business was in the West. Still it is, you said. Still, whatever we're doing here...

Prabhupāda: Therefore I took this permanent residency.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not intention but... Do you regret having come back to India?

Prabhupāda: No, it is well. My plan was like that, but Kṛṣṇa's plan was different. When I was coming back, I was speaking to Dvārakādhīśa, "I do not know. I came here to live. Why You are driving me away?" While leaving Los Angeles I was not happy.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- June 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Actually this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is a process of making this animal society into human civilization. At the present moment especially, all animals. I take them as animals. Therefore I say so boldly. I care for them. They are animals. That's all. Maybe very well do. I have not said. Bhāgavata says. Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ (SB 2.3.19). What are these leaders? Paśu. "Paśu? And they are so much held in estimation." Whom? By whom? Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ: "They are in estimation by the dogs and hogs and camels and asses."

Morning Conversation -- June 23, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I took advantage, "Let me stay somewhere." I was loitering in the street, so I thought, "Let me stay somewhere. Then I shall see later on."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's exactly what you had, two hundred dollars. You had saved that money very carefully?

Prabhupāda: Not carefully. Anyway, I got it. I was never careful for anything. Whatever automatically comes... I was never careful. "As the Jew, I have to save..." No, no.

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

Prabhupāda: Sometimes somebody would come to assist me. He wanted to eat immediately. And "No, that you cannot. After I have finished, when it is offered to Kṛṣṇa, then I'll give you sumptuous prasādam, not before." So there was no... And little rice. Ḍāl, cāpāṭi, rice, vegetable, bas. Oh, it was so nice. Everyone would praise. The same thing, when I took my own apartment I did the same thing, distributed prasādam. Then, gradually, they came forward to assist me. First came Kīrtanānanda. He is the first cook. Then Acyutānanda. Brahmānanda was washing dish. He could not help the cooking.

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

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?

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Just like I take Kṛṣṇa's word. Bas, fact. You can say that you are prejudiced, you see. This is the book.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is a nice explanation, the petals.

Prabhupāda: Everyone is prejudiced. But who is rightly prejudiced who is wrongly prejudiced. That is everywhere. Just like materialistic person will think, "Brainwash. These rascals, they have given all up material enjoyment, and after some phantasmagoria they sacrifice everything. Brainwash." And we are thinking, "Oh, these rascals, got this human form of body, he did not understand what is spiritual life."

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: "You are imperfect. So whatever you have written, that is nonsense. And everywhere problem. Why should we waste our time?" Now just try to settle from point of. He's showing this book, I am showing the Bhāgavatam. So you are imperfect, that's a fact. What is the value of your book? If you are basically a rascal, then what is the value of your book? Why shall I waste my time? First of all I take it and I prove it that you are a rascal. You show your book, I show my book. But you have been proved that you are a rascal. Because practically you cannot cross Himalaya. You have no idea what is the Himalaya. You are giving some conflict.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Make it nice. We are going to spend so much money, people may not reject it. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just like as we're talking, we're a little... Sometimes it's difficult to understand the Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: But I take it simply—that there is ocean, and it was churned. So there is no difficulty.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Mostly we have understood. Only in one place we are a little...

Prabhupāda: But nobody has seen that ocean. And nobody can believe that ocean can be churned. Would you believe it? Because it is. And the Vāsuki was taken as rope.

Room Conversation With Son (Vrindavan De) -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Keep your position respectable. Don't create many enemies. It is very simple. Why should I try to understand the rascal Gandhi philosophy and Ramakrishna? I take it from the beginning, they're useless. Why shall I waste my time? I know it is useless. They'll require superficial touch, no important. I therefore say in every..., "I do not know who is this."

Room Conversation -- October 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: We have to invent some word for... Act very cautiously. Who are present here now?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Girirāja dāsa, Jayapatākā Swami, Bhavānanda Goswami, Hari-śauri Prabhu, Bhagavān Prabhu and myself. We are all sitting around you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So, if you want, you can give me little fruit juice. Will that satisfy you? Hm? I have taken that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Complan.

Prabhupāda: No. If I take a little fruit juice.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...reacting adversely. That is proved. Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it seems so.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's two days that we started this medicine.

Prabhupāda: And jāniyā śuniyā viṣa khāinu. It is acting adversely. If still I take, then, knowingly...

Trivikrama: Drinking poison.

Room Conversation -- October 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Not possible to leave you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. So would you like to go on the parikrama this morning? We can make arrangements now?

Upendra: We have some grape juice?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Would you like to take something, Śrīla Prabhupāda? Drinking?

Prabhupāda: I have taken in the morning Horlicks.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You took Horlicks? Want to take anymore?

Śatadhanya: We have some here.

Room Conversation -- November 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Makara-dhvaja was not giving strength.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, that was not makara-dhvaja. That kavirāja said that was not makara-dhvaja.

Bhavānanda: And he also said that in your condition now you can't take makara-dhvaja.

Prabhupāda: I cannot take anything. I feel comfort only lying down.

Bhakti-caru: You can take something lying down, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Just a little...

Prabhupāda: That I have taken.

Room Conversation -- November 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Mm. You have tried doctor, kavirāja, medicine, everything. Everything has failed. Now suppose I am taking the risk of death, what is wrong? When the..., I am dead you go India, within India, you go and bring the body either in Māyāpura or Vṛndāvana. Māyāpura the land is already there. Vṛndāvana I think on the gate side, that's all. That's wherever you like you'll do.

Page Title:I have taken (Conversations)
Compiler:Matea
Created:21 of Feb, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=139, Let=0
No. of Quotes:139