Inside (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"in side" |"inside"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 2, 1976, Madras:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...fire, explain.

Harikeśa: Oh, because people can't see life in fire, they think there's no life in it, so therefore there's no life in the sun. But it's just like the Tata factory. When you see it from a distance there's many planes and fires, but inside there's many people who are working. Therefore just because you can't see life in fire doesn't mean it's not there. We see life in the earth, we see life in the water, we see life in the air, so why not in the fire? Is that all right?

Prabhupāda: Now question, answer.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, one question is that the people in the Tata factory are not actually in the fire.

Prabhupāda: So they are also not in the fire. I say even if it is in the fire, there is no harm because the living soul is not burned to fire. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Adāhyo 'yam. Dāhya. Dāhya means burned. It is not burned. These are wrong conception. Because they have no conception of the soul, they think bhaṣmi bhūtasya dehasya: "When the body is burned, then the soul is also burned." If the soul is burned, then where is the question of tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13)? How? In the Hindu system they burn the body. So if the soul is also burned, then where is punar janma? You?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can accept that the soul is not burned, but what about the body?

Prabhupāda: Body is burned.

Morning Walk -- January 3, 1976, Nellore:

Harikeśa: Yes, but the only thing that makes it a school...

Prabhupāda: You cannot imagine by seeing a building that it is a school. You cannot imagine that. That is foolishness.

Harikeśa: But all the people inside, they are also imagining that it's a school.

Prabhupāda: So that is all...

Acyutānanda: Just like if there is a pen. If I use it to kill someone, it is a weapon. If I use it to mix something, it is an instrument. If I use it to write with, then it's a pen. So it is not a pen. It is not a weapon. It is my idea that I impose on the object that makes it what it is.

Prabhupāda: No. No. Your idea, that is foolishness. But you learn from a teacher that this is pen; this is not a weapon. You have to learn it. If you don't learn it, then you will go on making experiment whether it is pen or it is weapon or it is this or that. Go on. But it will never come to any conclusion.

Morning Walk -- January 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Jayapatāka: This is what the Gargamuni's money, as we get, we're using for these programs.

Prabhupāda: Why it is being broken again?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why are these rooms being broken?

Jayapatāka: This is.... We're putting on the other side the doorway. You commented that "Why the door should be facing inside?"

Prabhupāda: No, no. No inside store.

Jayapatāka: It's facing outside.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can...

Jayapatāka: It's already finished. We're just going to...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, these are stores.

Jayapatāka: Bookstore and...

Bhavānanda: Yes. We're going to make a small entrance door on this side.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Morning Walk -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Guru-druha.

Prabhupāda: He is not a devotee. Mad-bhaktya... There is a verse. Kṛṣṇa says that "Worship of My devotee is greater worship than to Me."

Śāstrījī: Mad bhaktyā yānti mām.(?)

Prabhupāda: And Lord Śiva, he advises Parvati when she was questioning.... Oh, there is no stair from inside? You have to go like this?

Bhavānanda: No, ladder, there is outside stair that has to be fixed yet. It is just now finished in two stories.

Prabhupāda: Outside?

Bhavānanda: Outside stairs.

Prabhupāda: How?

Bhavānanda: Metal stairs.

Prabhupāda: Where to do it within?

Bhavānanda: No. Outside will be fixed.

Prabhupāda: How you can? Outside how it can be fixed?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where is it going to go from?

Morning Walk -- March 5, 1976, Mayapur:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...for getting a big display inside. And I got him to agree to only seventeen point five percent commission, which is very reasonable.

Prabhupāda: All right. Let them send. (break) ...is compared with a rose flower without flavor. Man with education is compared with the koi. (cuckoo bird) Kokilānāṁ svaro rūpam. The bird, koi, is very black, but his sound, sweet, so sweet, everyone likes. Kokilānām svaro-rūpaṁ vidyā-rūpaṁ ku-rūpanam, nārī-rūpaṁ pati-vrataḥ. And woman's beauty is how she is chaste and devoted to the husband. That is beauty, not personal beauty. Vidyā-rūpaṁ ku-rūpanam. And education is the beauty for the brain. And the beauty of the koi is her sweet voice. Kṣamā-rūpaṁ tapasvinaḥ. And those who are saintly person, they should be simply forgiving. That is their beauty.

Haṁsadūta: Forgiving?

Pusta Kṛṣṇa: Forgiving.

Prabhupāda: Forgiving. Kṣamā-rūpaṁ tapasvinaḥ. Did Christ said that "Father, they did not know..."?

Haṁsadūta: Yeah. "Forgive them, for they know not what they do. Forgive them for they know not..."

Prabhupāda: Just see how much forgiving. This is saintly character. They're killing, and still forgiving. Kṣamā-rūpaṁ tapasvinaḥ. Christ is very ideal character, but these Christians, they not dignified him-degraded. So you can get on?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Dancing?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: ...effulgence.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Very nice. (looking at photos) What is this?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: This is Rādhā-Dāmodara preaching.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is inside our bus, one of our buses. This is the bus. Inside, kīrtana, Deities from that bus. Brahmā dāsa, he is in charge. He is the leader of the bus. They're having kīrtana inside the bus. This is another bus. Ādi-keśava. These are Deities in his bus.

Prabhupāda: Who is this gentleman? Police?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This man? He's a military man. This is one of our airport distributors, distributing books. Here is the bus construction. You can see how they're building the buses. That's our head office in-charge, Keśava-bhāratī.

Prabhupāda: Where the head of office? It should...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now it's in Phoenix, but it may be shifted soon to New York. Airport distribution. This is the installation of all the Deities you were attending in Chicago. That was a big ceremony.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Chicago? Did I install? No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, you were present on the vyāsāsana...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation With Radha-Damodara Sankirtana Party -- March 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: In Bengali there is a proverb, "If you are good men, then you can accommodate yourself lying in a leaf of the tamarind." You know the tamarind leaf? That is the smallest leaf of the tree. Big tree, and the leaf is very small. (Bengali) And just contrary to that. These are American tape recorder or Japanese?

Devotee: Japanese.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda! (obeisances)

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. All glories to the saṅkīrtana party, Rādhā-Dāmodara.

Devotees: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda!

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, we signed only the two top checks. The left we left blank so you can do whatever you want. You can fill in whatever you want on the inside.

Prabhupāda: That is good. (end)

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Vaiṣṇava ācāra. (break) ...how nice. This kind of building cannot be constructed. It will require crores of money, yes.

Indian: (break) ...nobody. Only (indistinct) would come here, they would stay here for a few hours and then go back.

Prabhupāda: The tank is not with water.

Indian: Yes, they used to have water at both sides of the inside. Now, probably, they are short of water or they have switched on to agriculture. So many they used to have flowers and tulasī and all that. Now they have come to agriculture-wheat, barley.

Prabhupāda: Money. Such a nice tank is vacant.

Indian: I remember my young days. People, young boys, they used to come swim here.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Just see. So you may pay them, say, 150, 200 rupees each. Then it will be all maintained, and that much money you can spend.

Indian: And if it's nicely maintained, possibility you can get some return out of it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That way we shall get fruits and flowers.

Jayādvaita: I was seeing yesterday in Rādhā-Dāmodara Mandira that nothing is nicely maintained except for your rooms.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Therefore I said that we are not material; it is all spiritual. That they do not know. Where is material? If everything is prepared and everything, there is Kṛṣṇa, then where is material? When it is misused, other than Kṛṣṇa, then it is material. Now, just like the university department and the criminal department. Where is the difference superficially? That's a building; that's a building. There are officer; there are officer. There are rooms; there are rooms. Why it is called criminal, prison house?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The activities inside.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is the activity which concerns. In the university there is only activity of education, learning. And here, all the criminals are violating the laws, they are put together. But superficially they look the same room, same food, same office, same typewriter. So it is the question of understanding why it is called criminal department and why it is called university. So as soon as it is university department, that is good. The same building, the same dictaphone, the same typewriter, same table, same chair, when they are used for Kṛṣṇa, it is spiritual. The same money, everything, it looks like that. Therefore they cannot understand. The nirviśeṣavādī and the śūnyavādī, they: "Spiritual means these things should be zero." They say it should be zero. "No table, no chair, no house, no, no, no, no..." But that is (laughs) ignorance. Prāpañcikatayā buddhyā hari-sambandhi-vastunaḥ. The things which are usable by Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, if we give up them, prapañcikā, as material, that is foolishness. That they do not know. They have yet to learn. It is Rūpa Gosvāmī's injunction. Prāpañcikatayā buddhyā hari-sambandhi-vastunaḥ, mumukṣubhiḥ parityāgaḥ. Parityāga means giving up: "Oh, it is material." So we are not such fools, śūnyavādī and nirviśeṣavādī. We are not such fools. Arjuna, he thought that not killing is better than killing, but Kṛṣṇa convinced him, "Yes, killing is better than not killing." Therefore he, after reading Bhagavad-gītā, he took it, "Yes, killing is better than not killing."

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: No misunderstanding. It is a common sense that if you have got respect for a person, instead of installing his form—either it is statue or stone, it doesn't matter—keeping it outside and giving chance the bird to pass stool on his head, if you keep that statue in a nice place, which is more respectful? That is my question. It is a common sense. If you have got respect for a person.... You have installed the statue. Don't call Deity. Statue. So which is more respectful, to keep him exposed on the open field or to keep him in a temple?

Guest (2): Well, I think if I was looking at it in your point of view, it would be more respectful to put him inside.

Prabhupāda: That's the.... That is the point.

Guest (4): That's your point of view, not ours.

Prabhupāda: Then? That is your.... I do not know what is your point of view, that you expose this to the open air and the birds pass stool on it and you still...

Guest (2): It is simply a workmanship of man to make the building maybe more...

Prabhupāda: I am just talking on the practical point of view. Which is more respectful? Apart from other points, if we actually offer somebody respect, then you must give him proper respect.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Guest (2): We were going to get one more book, buy it, and have you sign another one. Would that be all right?

Hari-śauri: They're just bringing one more copy. They want one each. No, they want one copy each of Īśopaniṣad. So he's just waiting. He would like you to sign that one also, if you could.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Why don't you read one of these? I think you'd be interested in some of the finer points in the philosophy.

Guest (2): How much would that be? We can't afford too...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It only costs four dollars.

Guest (2): We can't afford that. Something small.... Does it have a picture of him in there?

Hari-śauri: There's a picture of Prabhupāda in the back of that one, in the back. On the inside also there's just a few notes about him.

Prabhupāda: Paper is ripped. Another copy. (end)

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: He can come and help.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He'll be free pretty soon.

Guru-kṛpā: Someone has to organize for the construction though. That's the main thing, then later the inside.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In Māyāpur they are completing the, um, that building? They had begun that long residential building.

Prabhupāda: Which one?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The one while we were there.

Prabhupāda: Uhuḥ.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I remember they were doing the first, ground floor, I think you told them to.

Prabhupāda: They are completing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about the other side?

Prabhupāda: That side also scheduled to begin.

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's a fact.

Rāmeśvara: We have also won awards for Back to Godhead, the cover design.

Prabhupāda: Cover designs?

Mahendra: They like the cover, but they're afraid to look inside.

Rādhāvallabha: Śrīla Prabhupāda, at the time of death, when the soul leaves the body, at that time the body is destroyed. So at the time of sleeping, when the soul leaves the body, how is the body maintained?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Rādhāvallabha: At the time of sleeping, when the soul leaves the body, why is the body not destroyed at that time?

Prabhupāda: Why? Suppose you have left the car; does that mean it is destroyed? You are going again.

Rādhāvallabha: But at the time of death it is destroyed when you leave it.

Prabhupāda: Death is different. When the car is no more usable, that is death. But we are returning to the car because we know that it is usable. And if we know that it is useless, we don't go to that car. That is death.

Yadubara: Śrīla Prabhupāda. At the time of sleeping, there is a subtle reality that the subtle body enters into?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Reality means as you take this awakening vision as reality, similarly, the dream vision is also real.... Nothing, none of them are reality. They are all temporary.

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: He's collected all these bad.

Rāmeśvara: "Lying and cheating," he says.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A few devotees who have joined him, who left and have joined him, they have given him this inside information, so he tries.... Actually, though, no strong devotee can be changed by him. He only gets the very new men. So now he's written a book.

Prabhupāda: About us?

Rāmeśvara: About his experiences of kidnapping our students and others.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the book called?

Rāmeśvara: It's called Let My Children Go.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Let Our Children Go, yes.

Rāmeśvara: So we have got our lawyer to start a lawsuit against him, because in that book they are blaspheming us like anything. And this very big publisher, who published the book, has spent lots of money in advertising. And the advertising always uses our name, because it's controversial. They always try to get people to buy the book, saying "Now you can read about the dangerous Hare Kṛṣṇa people."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughs) It's a good propaganda, I think.

Rāmeśvara: But we're trying to stop that.

Prabhupāda: America is feeling the strength of Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.

Morning Walk -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Hari-śauri: There's no smog.

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we were painting one painting for the last volume of Seventh Canto which shows that Kṛṣṇa is in the heart of all living entities. Now, the question came up whether Kṛṣṇa.... Since Kṛṣṇa is inside every atom, are there living entities in every atom? So I said that you had already answered that, that Kṛṣṇa is never alone, so there must be some living entity within the atom. So then the question was: Is this atom one of the bodies, just like human body, and then gradually that living entity gets a higher body, higher body, or does he always remain inside the atom?

Prabhupāda: Body does not develop. He changes body. Why don't you understand this?

Rāmeśvara: He changes body.

Prabhupāda: The motorcar does not develop. I change this motorcar to another.

Rāmeśvara: But that's the question.

Prabhupāda: That is Darwin's theory. Motorcar is not developing to big motorcar. That is nonsense. Motorcar is motorcar, but I can change from this car to that car.

Hari-śauri: Yes, that's what he was wondering, whether the spirit soul leaves the atom to take another higher body.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is always.... Transmigration means going on, simply changing.

Morning Walk -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No responsibility.

Prabhupāda: Other relationship of Kṛṣṇa rejected, take, jump over the gopīs' relationship. This is the meaning. (break) ...this line? Is it not? So as many lines, that means so many years.

Hari-śauri: (break) ...cut inside the tree, there's circles, and for each circle that means one year. That's what they say, anyway.

Prabhupāda: Island separate?

Mahendra: That's an island, Śrīla Prabhupāda, yes. Santa Catalina island. It's a very big tourist resort. We were just discussing how it would be nice to send saṅkīrtana party there for book distribution.

Gopavṛndapāla: We already do that every weekend.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (break) ...problems. It seems there are so many social problems in the world today that by patchwork nothing can, er, can't hope to come of anything good.

Prabhupāda: Because they do not know what is the aim of life. (break) ...one center. With center, you can draw so many circles, big or small; they will not overlap. But if you have got different center, it will overlap. Your circle will come upon me; my circle will go upon.... So there is svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum. They do not know the central point is Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Hari-śauri: People become very enamored by this mystic display. You were speaking about mystic power, and peo...

Prabhupāda: Four annas. (laughter) For four annas I'll have to try for four hundred years. Why mystic power? To show some jugglery—"How I can fly in the sky, I can walk on the water"—by this mystic power, they create amazement and become imitation God. Imitation God you can become, but you cannot become real God. That is not possible. That is warned. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). That's all. Asamaurdhva: "Nobody equal to Me; nobody better than Me." So why should you waste your time to become God? You cannot become actually. So why should you waste your time? Remain servant. Then you're actually.... Get this light. No, no that, inside. You can give me little pineapple juice. Is it possible?

Hari-śauri: Right now?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Prabhupāda: You can sit down here. Then also for mahārājas. So when you started from New Vrindaban?

Kīrtanānanda: This morning.

Prabhupāda: And you are coming directly here?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rādhāvallabha: Yes, two, one girl here got it. Another girl was suspected of having it.

Prabhupāda: What is the symptom?

Rādhāvallabha: Generally, with women, they get some lump...

Rāmeśvara: Pain, the symptom is lump and great pain. Cancer is said to be some bacteria or virus cells that are inside the body, eating the body organs.

Rādhāvallabha: The cells increase, the cancer cells increase, and they take the place of the regular bodily cells, but they themselves are worthless.

Rāmeśvara: And the only idea they have for curing cancer is to cut out the diseased area from the body, remove that part of the body.

Devotee: Kill it with X-ray.

Rādhāvallabha: Yeah. They also try to bombard it with radiation, and that has its very bad effects. Their hair falls out. They get burns, sick.

Hṛdayānanda: Miserable condition.

Rādhāvallabha: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: Many modern sociologists, they are predicting that in twenty or thirty years the population will increase so much on this planet that the cities will be very, very crowded, and there will be many, many new problems: no room for so many cars and not enough food, not enough housing. They predict very, very.... And then the result will be rioting. So many people will not have enough food and good places to live that they will...

Prabhupāda: So why don't you go back to home, back to Godhead? (laughs) We are trying to save them. Why you are rotting in this problem? (out of car) That reporter?

Rāmeśvara: "No obstacle."

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

Prabhupāda: Here is the proof, he is giving proof. Therefore I said it requires little brain. He's giving proof.

Richard: I think it requires more than education; it requires faith.

Rāmeśvara: The first question Prabhupāda asked is what is the difference between a dead man and a living man. The body is the same, but something is missing in the dead man, in the dead body. So that is the proof that the body is not living at any time, but there is a living energy, and when that living energy is inside the body, it makes the body seem alive, and if that living energy is taken out of the body, then the body is seen as it really is, a lump of matter. The body is never alive; it is the presence of the soul within the body that animates the body.

Richard: Right, animate, that's the etymology of animation, anima, soul.

Rāmeśvara: So your body...

Richard: I agree with all that.

Rāmeśvara: And that living energy is eternal, and when this body becomes an old man's body, or rather when you get an old man's body, the body you have now will be finished, but you will still be alive because you are that eternal living energy.

Richard: Okay, and what I am saying is that I have, there has never been any empirical proof of that.

Rāmeśvara: But I have already explained that these senses are not the perfect instruments for experiencing reality. Just like sometimes there may be a cloud, and therefore you cannot see the sun with your senses, but that does not mean the sun is not there. It simply means your senses are not powerful enough to see. The senses are imperfect instruments for perceiving reality. The sun is always there, but sometimes you can see it and sometimes you can't.

Prabhupāda: Just like night, this is night, you don't see the sun. That does not mean there is no sun.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: The Parliament and that.... What is that church?

Hari-śauri: Westminster Abbey?

Prabhupāda: Yes. They charge.

Hari-śauri: Guided tour. They cannot live there themselves. They can only live there in the winter.

Prabhupāda: They collect very sufficiently. I have seen. Again, inside you go, and a particular section, if you want to see, the another payment. Yes. First of all, entrance fee; then, within that, if you want to see another particular section, then another fee. And they are collecting money. I have seen. Śyāmasundara took me there.

Hari-śauri: To Westminster Abbey or...?

Prabhupāda: Parliament, Westminster, everything.... (japa) They are now statues in Parliament and Westminster. So many statues, you know.

Hari-śauri: Yes. They're very fond of statues there.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...European civilization, coming from the Romans, statues also. (break) ...mean civilization means Roman civilization, is it not?

Hari-śauri: Yes. The Roman Empire extended all over there.

Prabhupāda: England was under Roman Empire. Normandy. Normandy?

Kīrtanānanda: That's France.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: This building is only two stories, even though it has three windows.

Prabhupāda: No, no, why two story? There is ground floor, first floor, second floor, third floor.

Rāmeśvara: One of the floors has two windows, top and bottom. But it's just one floor. Someone went inside and looked.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, that is not floor. There is no ceiling.

Rāmeśvara: No, just three steps up.

Prabhupāda: Anyway...

Rāmeśvara: All the instructions for the future-like you said that one day even we will have the government—how to run the government, everything is explained in your books.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I think like that. (laughs) Is there mention, "The slaughterhouse must stopped"?

Rāmeśvara: You've given all the major policies for the future government, Kṛṣṇa consciousness government.

Prabhupāda: Let us hope. (end)

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Mādhavānanda: People are opposing more. As our movement grows more and more, people want to check.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (1): ...trying to get it open in the terminals, and there's a possibility of maybe getting forty devotees inside the airport to distribute your books.

Prabhupāda: So, that is favorable. (break)

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: ...so powerful, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that all over the country young men are running away from home. We have one fifteen-year-old boy, he left everything after getting a book in a parking lot. Another boy is a sculptor, an artist. He's also runaway, seventeen years old. Just like Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, once he was attracted by Lord Caitanya's movement, nothing could keep him at home. So all the young men of America, as they read your books, will come and join us.

Prabhupāda: Our books are prescribed as textbook in Hamburg University.

Room Conversation with Ambarisa and Catholic Priest -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Śrutikīrti: We took a few pictures that you could see. We took some pictures for you to look at of the restaurant. It's still being built, so there's not actually that much to see. This street that it's on is very heavily traveled all day. This is taken at about five o'clock in the morning, so there's no one there. It's still under construction, you can see all the cinderblocks inside. But it's all glass building.

Prabhupāda: It is being rented or purchased?

Śrutikīrti: That's still being worked out. I think...

Ambarīṣa: I think we're going to purchase.

Śrutikīrti: I think Ambarīṣa is purchasing.

Prabhupāda: The back building? That is a different building?

Śrutikīrti: No, yeah. This is condominiums, houses, for people living above, so the restaurant is just that one floor. That's what we would be purchasing, not the whole building.

Ambarīṣa: The kitchen is inside the big building.

Śrutikīrti: But it's very choice space. It's just two blocks from what's called the Ritz Hotel, which is most famous hotel in the country, they have in every large city. These pictures, that glassed-in area, that would all be just the serving area. Then the kitchen is behind the wall. There would be a large kitchen facility, where all the devotees would be cooking.

Prabhupāda: Kitchen is within the building?

Śrutikīrti and Ambarīṣa: Yes.

Room Conversation with Ambarisa and Catholic Priest -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Kitchen is within the building?

Śrutikīrti and Ambarīṣa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So one-story building also included?

Ambarīṣa: Yes, there's a kitchen and dish-washing room and office, storage...

Śrutikīrti: All inside.

Prabhupāda: Nice.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Did you explain that it was being built for someone who was going to start a restaurant, but they didn't?

Śrutikīrti: Yes. They ran out of money, these people, and there were so many restrictions at this location because of these buildings here. People live there, and they didn't want anyone in there who was going to cook meat. And they didn't want anyone who was going to serve intoxication. So practically we're the only people that don't serve meat and intoxication. So actually they're very glad.

Ambarīṣa: The man who owns it says he gets fifty phone calls every day from people who want that space. It's such a good space that fifty people a day call.

Prabhupāda: Fifty?

Śrutikīrti: People are very interested, the location is excellent. It's on one of the most important streets in all of Boston.

Ambarīṣa: Once we get open we'll be able to serve a thousand people a day.

Prabhupāda: Oh. And what you are charging?

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (reading) "...who has made it his life's work to debunk the so-called material powers of god-men the world over, and said that he is afraid for his life. Amongst those he has challenged is Satya Sai Baba, a mystic who has thousands of followers in South Africa. The man who is said to expose fraudulent practices amongst miracle workers is Dr. Abraham T. Kavoor, who recently held a spell-binding magic show at the Bangalore Town Hall to debunk the miracles of god-men. He claimed that several of the tricks demonstrated had, in fact, been learned from persons who had duped the public that they could perform miracles and other extraordinary acts. And this, he believed, would lead to an attempt on his life. 'I am not afraid of gods. They don't exist. But I am afraid of god-men, because they are alive. They have thugs as agents. If a good man like Gandhi could be assassinated, what keeps a Kavoor from suffering the same fate?' Addressing a press conference, Dr. Kavoor implied that an attempt might be made on his life if he tried to expose the fraudulent practice by god-men because this would involve a physical search of the persons involved. Hence his insistence that his investigation would have to be preceded by their permission. (The permission of these so-called mystics, registered letters.) To date, he said, he had written six registered letters to Satya Sai Baba issuing his famous challenge, but had no reply from him as yet. Asked how he produced ash and other objects out of nowhere, Dr. Kavoor indicated that one of the methods was by concealing the objects to be materialized inside of his coat. The rest was pure sleight of hand. Photographs of him (Sai Baba) exposing his coat have been published both in the national and international press, he said. Reporting that haṭha-yogī L.S. Lal had confessed to him that his much-vaunted show of walking on water had been pure trick designed to make some money, Dr. Kavoor said, 'How long can the government of India tolerate such hoaxers who claim to have supernatural powers and exploit the ordinary men?' "

Prabhupāda: You keep this. We shall have to show to the Indian government authorities.

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: They can do Deity also, they can.

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, after they've done with your palace they're going to start on some Deities. I think they would like permission to first start with your Deity.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Kulaśekhara is here?

Kīrtanānanda: Kulaśekhara, yes, he is editing Brijabasi Spirit now. We will put a wall around and then all nice gardens inside.

Prabhupāda: Cement wall or wooden?

Kīrtanānanda: No, a combination of masonry and fancy iron so that people can see through.

Prabhupāda: Reinforced.

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, but also so they can see through at certain points.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. With sunshine this wood becomes very, very beautiful. Tapo-vana. (break) ...in this house. Who is staying now?

Kīrtanānanda: Usually there are devotees that stay there. Right now we are not having anybody stay there. Lord Jagannātha stays there.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Here, in this house? No.

Kīrtanānanda: What is that? No, Jagannātha stays in that house.

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: That one girl is taking care, she's doing very nice. We can sit down here?

Kīrtanānanda: Kulādri, find some more (indistinct). Come up this side. As soon as you sit down, everything looks complete.

Prabhupāda: Hm? (laughs) Where is Pradyumna Mahārāja?

Kīrtanānanda: He's just inside the house. You'd like him to come out?

Prabhupāda: No. Pālikā, you came before here?

Pālikā: Six years ago. There was just that one small, original farm.

Prabhupāda: Now it is a big property. And when the palace will be ready, many people will.... You simply advertise "Come and see palaces in New Vrindaban." It will be a combination of Western and Eastern culture. For the profit of the whole human society. So Vṛndāvana-candra will come here? No. Vṛndāvana-candra Deity?

Kīrtanānanda: No.

Prabhupāda: His palace will be different.

Garden Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: What is next verse?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:

nāhaṁ bibhemy ajita te 'tibhayānakāsya

jihvārka-netra-bhrukuṭī-rabhasogra-daṁṣṭrāt

āntra-srajaḥ-kṣataja-keśara-śaṅku-karṇān

nirhrāda-bhīta-digibhād ari-bhin-nakhāgrāt

"My Lord, who are never conquered by anyone, I am certainly not afraid of Your ferocious mouth and tongue, Your eyes bright like the sun, or Your frowning eyebrows. I do not fear Your sharp, pinching teeth, Your garland of intestines, Your mane soaked with blood, or Your high, wedgelike ears. Nor do I fear Your tumultuous roaring, which makes elephants flee to distant places, or Your nails, which are meant to kill Your enemies."

Prabhupāda: Nail is sufficient to kill an enemy like Hiraṇyakaśipu. No other weapon required. Simply tava kara-kamala-vare nakham adbhuta-śṛṅgam. Wonderful nails. Tava kara-kamala-vare nakham adbhuta-śṛṅgam, dalita-hiraṇyakaśipu-tanu-bhṛṅgam. Just like we sometimes press some insects; immediately dies. So this Hiraṇyakaśipu, simply by nails pressed and finished.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Like to go inside now, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Devotees: Jaya. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda!

Prabhupāda: Give it to Kīrtanānanda. Tava kara-kamala-vare nakham adbhuta-śṛṅgam. (kīrtana) (end)

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

Vipina: So what happens to us?

Prabhupāda: It is every man that this is the position. This is the position. And so long we will be charmed with these things, he has to take birth again and again. Viṣayināṁ saṁdarśanam atha yoṣitāṁ ca.

Vipina: This is the property, Prabhupāda. Excuse me. This is your home, and the devotees are here for you. (inside)

Hari-śauri: I can lock it now if you like, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes.

Vṛṣākapi: Would you like some warm milk, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No.

Rūpānuga: This is for your servants. Push the button, they hear in the back.

Vipina: Cold water for you too, Prabhupāda. Cold water here if you want some.

Prabhupāda: Cold water.

Hari-śauri: They are bringing some hot milk, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Vipina: Also something interesting about this water, Prabhupāda. It's all natural spring water, it's not city water. Underground water, fresh water.

Rūpānuga: It's quiet here.

Prabhupāda: Nice.

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Pradyumna: Venus is covered by clouds. So no one can see what is there. There's clouds all around the planet. Heavy, what do they call, so that no one can see. So they sent a rocket inside or something to go through the clouds to see what is there. Russians also tried. Fermament. In the Bible, they say that on earth there was also..., above the earth there were all clouds at one time according to the Bible. And then at that time men used to live very, very long, and then the clouds went away at some point. They call it a firmament. So the same thing is on Venus. No one can see what the planet is like, no one has ever known. That is also a heavenly, we say also... That is Śukrācārya's place?

Prabhupāda: Not Śukrācārya's, just Śukra.

Pradyumna: Just Śukra.

Prabhupāda: May be Śukrācārya's place. What benefit they will have? Nothing. This is science. Without any aim, without any objective.

Hari-śauri: What they're doing is entirely pointless. There's no proper reason for any of it. Because they aren't improving their actual living standards by it. They are... It's just like a jñāni, he thinks advancement of knowledge, just to simply acquire any amount of knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Kevala-bodha-labdhaye. They are described: Kliśyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye. Simply works hard simply to know things. No benefit. These rascals are like that. Kevala-bodha-labdhaye.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, so but people then believed like that. So Pasteur, actually he believed strongly in God, and he wanted to disprove that theory, and, in fact, he got prize for doing this experiment from a French academy and, during that year... This flask contains sugar solution and with some yeast to ferment at the beginning. But now the experiment was to completely kill any germs inside the flask by heating, in the beginning, and then cool it down automatically and to keep for some time, about two or three days...

Prabhupāda: Sterilization.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, sterilization. And then see whether there is any life developed within that broth. Now in the first flask, the neck is still attached to the flask. Now Pasteur found that there was no micro-organisms fermenting the flask, in the solution inside the flask. But after some time he cut the neck of the flask, that is in the second flask, then as soon as the neck is cut, then microorganisms from the air, surrounding air, atmosphere, entered into the flask, and then the solution is fermented. So that was actually the proof that without presence of the micro-organisms from outside, from the atmosphere, then life cannot grow into that matter.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is Vedic theory. That is explained in the Bhāgavatam.

Morning Walk -- July 4, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: This building?

Vipina: This is the historical building where they have the information about what this place used to be, how it used to function.

Rūpānuga: When it would fill up, then they'd let the boat down inside, from one level down to the next, on down. They were small barges.

Prabhupāda: This is river?

Rūpānuga: Potomac River.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I was going to ask that this soul, the nature of the soul, we find that...

Prabhupāda: Salt?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, no, the soul, the ātmā, jīva. We get a description that the soul, the size of a soul is one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. We were just discussing whether does this imply that it can be measured.

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is the measurement.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But we are claiming that it is nonphysical.

Prabhupāda: No, nonphysical, that doesn't mean it has no measurement. It has measurement.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Then the sun planet there are living entities. Their body is made of fire, that's all.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So it's better to say that when science says, scientists say there is no life in other planets, we can conclude that the senses or the forms that we have, or the elements that we have different...

Prabhupāda: They are different. Just like in the water, superficially we don't see any living being. But inside you go, there are many millions of living entities. They took photograph. What is the meaning of photograph from such a distance? If you take photograph of the sea, what you will find? It is vacant. So the rascals are taking photograph, and I have to believe it. Photograph, what is the meaning of photograph? There is no meaning. Take the photograph of the sea, if I know what is there. Then go deep into the water, you'll find millions and trillions.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: ...to attract people from all the world to see the planetarium.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Is this near the temple?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Planetarium name, actually it will be temple. But all round, things will be... Anyway.

Yadubara: I know before the idea was to have it inside the main temple.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Yadubara: As you walked up the outside of the, or the inside of the main temple, inside that dome, they would have it on the walls. But that would... That original plan was to have it inside the main temple.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You take all details, inside, outside. That will be nice.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Can you take inside? Is it allowed?

Yadubara: Yes, I think so.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa... (japa) And you prove that sun planet is first. It is stated in the Bible.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Bill Sauer: I've talked to your people, and I think there's pretty much agreement on the fundamental philosophical concept.

Dr. Sharma: There's something magnetic about it, something creative which comes from inside.

Prabhupāda: Where is our scientist?

Vipina: Svarūpa Dāmodara-could you get him?

Hari-śauri: I already sent somebody for him, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I don't think he's here.

Prabhupāda: He's not here.

Vṛṣākapi: They went to the Library of Congress today, Prabhupāda. They aren't here right now.

Bill Sauer: I think you put it better than I did. We do not destroy matter, we transmute it to energy, that's exactly correct. And it is the..., and in fire you are again transmuting material chemical energy into light. And when our light source goes out...

Dr. Sharma: And it surprising, I'm a scientist, I publish papers, now it is all coming together. It is after a long search which we are doing, the body systems, how to be coordinated. Endocrine systems and the nervous systems (indistinct) and that is coordinated through prāṇāyāma-yoga and the chanting. Basically indirectly is a straightforward...

Bill Sauer: Well, there, fundamentally, there should not be a difference between science and religion, really should not be.

Dr. Sharma: All scientists, all big scientists are the greatest religious people. I am at Berkeley right now. All Nobel Prize winners, they always say that all of our science, we cannot create a single leaf or a single flower, we feel so helpless.

Bill Sauer: You know Calvin?

Dr. Sharma: I was professor at UCLA.

Bill Sauer: Very good. See, he got his Nobel Laureate in explaining how the chemistry of light turns into life. So I passed my manuscript by him to make sure that he didn't run me out of town. So he agreed. He said it was rather novel. But I believe there is a fundamental truth that runs through the whole system, and I've read some of your comments in the magazines, and I think you are fundamentally in agreement.

Dr. Sharma: Prabhupāda, perhaps you can make commentary on this śloka,

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ

tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni

sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

Prabhupāda: The material civilization is the jāgrati for the materialistic person. But those who are spiritually enlightened, they think that these persons are sleeping. They got the opportunity of understanding God, and without understanding God, they are simply busy with the material body and its comfort and working hard day and night, and missing the point. And whereas the materialistic persons, they see these Kṛṣṇa conscious people, Hare Kṛṣṇa people, they are wasting their time by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and they are doing nothing. Just the opposite business. These people are seeing the materialistic persons, they are sleeping, not enlightened to the spiritual life; and these materialistic persons, they are seeing that these people, under some fictitious idea, they are spoiling their life without enjoying material facilities. Just the opposite.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Dr. Sharma: Someday we have to have the faith, and the only thing, as Prabhupāda said, that there is a bottle of honey inside, and being outside, you can see, but unless you taste it, you can't really feel it.

Bill Sauer: Probably the most important... I quoted some people. This is Tierre De Jardin, who was a very religious man in science, was caught right in the two, and I consider this probably the most important quote in the book. De Jardin said "In the mutual reinforcement of these two still-opposed powers...," namely religion and science...

Dr. Sharma: No, I would never agree to that. Religion and science...

Bill Sauer: In the Western civilization it's opposed. He's saying philosophically, he said "In the mutual reinforcement of these two still-opposed powers and the conjunction of reason and mysticism, the human spirit is destined by the very nature of its development to find the uttermost degree of its penetration and the maximum of its vital force." In other words, spirituality and science already have truth.

Vṛṣākapi: Excuse me, one thing is you should address your questions to the authority. This discussion that you are having will get you nowhere. Unless you apply your questions to the authority, then you will never understand anything. So the authority is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta is teaching on that authority. So if you have come here, then you should try to address your questions to His Divine Grace rather than arguing among yourselves, because you will not find any satisfaction in your argument. If you want information, then you must go to the authority.

Guest: Still, the argument was an aspect of the occasion, and it came out of the wisdom that he's here.

Prabhupāda: Acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet. Things which are inconceivable, do not try to understand by argument. Acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet. So our process, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is to take knowledge from the authority. Unless we take knowledge from the authority, however we may go on arguing, we cannot come to the conclusion. The modern scientists, philosophers, they are arguing, but they do not come to the conclusion. If you want to take conclusion... Just like two lawyers are arguing in the court, but the conclusion is given by the authority, the judge. That one has to accept. So we take authority, the Bhagavad-gītā or Kṛṣṇa. He is accepted authority by all the ācāryas, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and in the śāstra also, Vyāsadeva, Nārada, Devala, Asita. So our authority is confirmed. So if we take conclusion from the authority, then we benefit.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Sa-vijñānam.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Do we need some sort of translation?

Devotee: On the inside cover we can have this verse...

Prabhupāda: You can give this verse.

Devotee: Give the verse on the inside. That can be the motto.

Prabhupāda: Is that nice title?

Pradyumna: Scientific.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, sound very...

Rūpānuga: It's a very good title.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So in this journal we can publish from different disciplines of knowledge from any branch of knowledge and principle.

Devotee: Science, philosophy, economics, sociology. For the scholarly, academic community.

Prabhupāda: Yes, socially you can teach how this cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13), how it is scientific. In the society, if there is... Actually we have. Just like why these, maybe so-called scientists, but why the scientists are given so much importance? Because there is a brain. So if you make everyone equal, all śūdras, then who will be the brain? The brain is required. That is brāhmaṇa. So this, not this brain, this brain is śūdra brain for everyone. But when the... But just like here is Dr. Svarūpa Dāmodara, or you are here. So you are not scientists from the very birth. You have been trained up how to become a scientist. Similarly, the birth is there. Whatever you may be, it doesn't matter. But you have to be trained up how to become first-class brain. That is brāhmaṇa. You have to become truthful, you have to become controller of the senses, you have to become fully aware of things, of God, everything, full knowledge, then you become brain. These people give scientists so much importance because there is brain. Brain, in the society, there must be brain.

Interview and Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Did you send copies to all the libraries?

Prabhupāda: No, they were doing everything. They might have sent to America like that.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We saw lots of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, recent books, in that library. Library of Congress has those books.

Prabhupāda: Inside, inside the... Have you got the photograph of inside?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, it's photograph of Bhaktisiddhānta Prabhupāda...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: And... This is not the copy that I wanted. Then Bhaktivinoda. (aside:) That is wrong, I think.

Prabhupāda: So 1944, and it is '76. Thirty-two years?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: How did you get the information?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In the card catalogue. I think Pradyumna found it. Pradyumna, three, four, five of us went there to see the library. Actually we went to discuss that Sūrya-siddhānta and some of the astronomical calculations. We wanted to check in the library, but they didn't have anything. We found some.

Prabhupāda: Found?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I found one Bhāgavata-purāṇa, it was printed in sometime 1901. Their summary of Bhāgavatam, they also described the planetary system, earth first, then... No. Yes, earth, then sun, then moon, like that, in circles.

Prabhupāda: They are... Just see. Their all activities are in Arizona. That's all. That is disclosed yesterday. He has...

Rūpānuga: Exposed.

Interview and Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. This is... Is this style acceptable to Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can do. Where is wrong? Or you can...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: And this is another one that, the similar style, but here with devotees inside. Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja wrote me that...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This is my opinion, that because it is Bhaktivedanta Institute, it should have the picture of the founder, Bhaktivedanta. Especially also because not only children will be instructed, but you'll have adults also I'm presuming. The picture appears to be very young people.

Rūpānuga: I was thinking that to show the devotees dressed in the śikhās and everything may not be so important. That will make us some Indian, Hindu...

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Quite. So we'll take this.

Rūpānuga: We're always preaching to everyone. This is rough sketch, but we can make it very colorful, make nice color, detail.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Also, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja sent me a letter yesterday, asking a little about Bhaktivedanta Institute, what plans, things like that.

Prabhupāda: So, we are going tomorrow. You are also coming?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: To make the sound audible? But there is no harm.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Inside. But this disturbs something to the whole scene, because he has to remove the chain and cross it and then...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Why? There is no need. No need of crossing the chain.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But it can be done inside then?

Prabhupāda: Why not? It can be done.

Hari-śauri: I think they took that from Vṛndāvana. In Vṛndāvana, they blow the conchshells, they come out onto that little balcony and blow.

Rūpānuga: I also wanted to ask a question, Śrīla Prabhupāda, on dancing in the temple room during ārati, especially maṅgala-ārati. Is it not that the devotees should not turn their back while dancing to the Deity?

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Morning Walk -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Jayānanda: See, these are like this, flat plate on the outside, then there's a piece of chain that goes around the inside.

Hari-śauri: Amazing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Think this is strong enough, Hari-śauri?

Hari-śauri: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then he's covered it with canvas. This has rubber tire, and then it's covered by canvas.

Devotee: ...steel.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Pretty big carts. These carts have the same mechanism, they go up and down, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

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

Bali-mardana: We could do that inside.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But those three...

Prabhupāda: Janmāṣṭamī, take Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa procession.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: On carts?

Prabhupāda: No, on siṁhāsana, carried by hand.

Bali-mardana: Palanquin.

Prabhupāda: Palanquin; no, the siṁhāsana as it is. Just like this is siṁhāsana, two big poles down, and tie it with..., cut it with legs and carry, four men or eight men change. Change the soldiers.

Morning Walk -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Rādhāvallabha: They don't even know what is inside the ocean, what to speak of other planets.

Prabhupāda: And if they take photograph of the ocean, what they will understand what is within the ocean? Suppose they have taken photograph of the ocean. Does it mean the full knowledge of ocean?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Only speculation, only speculation.

Prabhupāda: Simply speculation. They are bluffing, "We have taken photograph." Suppose you have taken photograph. Does it mean that you have known everything? Nonsense.

Hari-śauri: They don't even know all the species of life here, so how will they know which one's there?

Gurudāsa: Just like when a photograph of a person is there, it doesn't mean they know what is inside.

Prabhupāda: But they bluff, "We have taken photograph." And what you have known about it? Simply bluff.

Hari-śauri: The whole thing is so childish, it's...

Rādhāvallabha: They tried to find the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean, and their submarine snapped in half and they all died. There's too much pressure. (break)

Prabhupāda: How life is coming by force? And they say there is no soul.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Oh. You can sell in Mauritius.

Bhagavān: Yes. I send books to Mauritius.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone speaks French.

Bhagavān: Did you see the color printing inside? It's also very nice. They have done the same.... This was last year in Paris, when you received Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhagavān: It's a nice picture. Everyone who sees it says how friendly Prabhupāda is.

Hari-śauri: This one is downstairs. George Harrison immediately pointed to it and said, "Oh, that's a wonderful picture."

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is Vaiṣṇava picture. Vaiṣṇava is always humble. (looking at picture) Jagannātha Purī.

Bhagavān: They are distributing these books for no less than ten dollars each.

Jayatīrtha: Ten dollars each? Fifty francs.

Bhagavān: Fifty francs, ten dollars. This is Gaura-Nitai, New Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Baltimore?

Bhagavān: At the farm.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

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

Devotee (1): You can see inside, inside the pod. They have to go yellow on the plant and then we pick them and then put them in sacks for the winter.

Bhagavān: We had a whole field planted of chickpea. They're very expensive here, so it's nice.

Prabhupāda: So you have got immediately some pods?

Devotee (1): And also you have been taking the fresh coriander, dhane.

Prabhupāda: Oh, nice. So, this pod?

Devotee (1): Peas, beans.

Prabhupāda: You have got some?

Devotee (1): Yes, plenty, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Bring all them. (laughter)

Hari-śauri: He supplies us every day. What's this?

Woman devotee: This is lemon spinach.

Devotee (1): A type of sour spinach.

Bhagavān: Tastes like a lemon.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Very good.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: But that you must explain. If you are chanting the name of God, then you must know what do you mean by God.

Moustafa: When I feel, I will get spiritual, my feeling...

Prabhupāda: Spiritual, what do you mean by spiritual?

Moustafa: It means I put everything that is bad and dirty inside and I make it out, all of them.

Prabhupāda: What is inside and what is outside?

Moustafa: Outside? I don't know what is inside.

Prabhupāda: Then you do not know. You do not know outside, inside.

Moustafa: When I do wrong, for example. When I do lie, when I do something, when I see wrong.

Prabhupāda: Wrong, one thing is wrong in my country, and that is right in your country. Just like animal slaughter is wrong according to our Vedic civilization. Unnecessary animal slaughter is forbidden. But in your country or in other Western countries, they kill so many animals. So what is wrong, what is right? Who will decide?

Moustafa: That's the reason I don't kill animals and I don't eat meat. For three years now.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Dharma-nyāya. In India we have seen that you bribe the brāhmaṇas and they'll give decision in your favor. And it is experienced by everyone. In the law court you bribe even the high-court judge, he'll give judgement in your... That is proven. One big judge... Not now, at least fifty years ago or more than that. His business was to take bribe, high-court judge, very learned judge. He was asked. He'll give judgement if you give him ten thousand rupees. So other brother high-court judges, they knew it, so in one case he was just arranging for this and the chief justice called him, that "You immediately resign and go home, otherwise this arrangement you have made, it will be exposed." So he had no other alternative, he immediately resigned, and on some plea like, "My heart is palpitating," so in this way he left the court and then he was never allowed again. And when his friends asked him that why you are doing this? He said, "What can I do? I have got at least ten thousand rupees expenditure per month and I get only four thousand." That was his... He was very able lawyer. By private practice he was earning more, but this practice... And nowadays it has come to, at least in India, anywhere you go, and bribe and you get a favorable decision. (guests arrive) Hare Kṛṣṇa. So we shall be sitting inside or here?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Wherever you like, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: I can like anywhere.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Puffed rice?

Nava-yauvana: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Bring it, let me see. I think today is cooler, so I don't require to lie down outside.

Hari-śauri: Sleep inside?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Pradyumna: It's coming to pūrṇimā.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Moon is the cooling effect. Desert will make a cooling effect. (laughter) Just see. At least I shall not believe that this is desert and rock. I'm not so fool. The desert and rock is giving so nice brilliant shining, everyone is feeling comfortable. Just see. We have to believe it.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Because Kṛṣṇa is missing. They don't accept Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: No, they should have at least common sense. But they have no common sense. Kṛṣṇa is far away from here, for these rascals, but at least they should have common sense. And that also they have not. Even they have not common sense.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: ...given to the modern scientist one proposal, egg proposal. You explain.

Hari-śauri: That if the scientist are so expert then they should be able to back up their claim of life coming from chemicals. Then why can't they produce an egg which will give life? They can take some chemicals and make the white, and take some little coloring to make it yellow inside, and wrap it up in some modern synthetic casing, and then put it in an incubator and let it produce life.

Prabhupāda: What is the difficulty? These rascals, it is proposed that life comes from chemicals. So take a small egg and analyze, find out the chemicals, same chemicals combine together, and bring life. Why? What is the answer? He's for the modern scientists. (laughter) He represents them.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: And the scientists will sit on the eggs?

Prabhupāda: Scientist may not be. They're putting the incubator, producing so many chickens. So why the egg is taken from the chicken? Why not manufacture and produce hundreds and thousands of chickens, chemical? First of all, begin with chicken then with other.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is... That is another bogus. The atmosphere is the same everywhere. Little more. Just like... (break)... say in the sun planet there is living entity, there is fire. So what do you mean by atmosphere if even in fire there is life? Dahati pāvakaḥ. Bhagavad-gītā. Nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ. Pāvakaḥ means fire. Does not burn the soul. So where there is fire only, he develops fiery body. Not that by the fire it is finished. Nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ. Where there is gas, air, nainam... Find out this verse. Acchedyo' yam adāhyo' yam.

Hari-śauri: Gītā?

Prabhupāda: Bhagavad-gītā, yes. You do not read even. You should have reference immediately.

Parivrājakācārya: Even here on the earth, even ice in the South Pole of the earth, they find much life inside the ice.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Here inside the ice there are life.

Parivrājakācārya: They are very surprised. They said how is this happening.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Life is everywhere. This bogus theory there is no life, the atmosphere is different, it is bogus, simply bogus. Because spirit soul is never affected by any material atmosphere. That is the distinction between matter and spirit. It has nothing to do with this material atmosphere. They don't have knowledge, they are baffled. And those who have no knowledge, they are accepting.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: That is, everyone will read, but he's not in that position of President. Money, there are many merchants that make more money than Nixon. That is not the criterion. That position. So it is like that. So what is Mr. Ali's...? Any question?

Ali: Sorry, I can't...

Atreya Ṛṣi: Would you be more comfortable inside, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No, I am quite all right. If you want to go, I shall go.

Atreya Ṛṣi: If we have more people, if more people come, then we'll go inside. If they come.

Hari-śauri: Prabhupāda was wondering if you had any questions.

Ali: All right. I was thinking about the material platform that you mentioned last night, and I could not figure out how vast this platform is, what does it consist of, how do we define this platform. Is nature materialism? I mean, there are many things which are obvious, such as money, greed, etc. But how about nature, love?

Prabhupāda: We have got three platforms, generally. Material platform divided into two-gross and subtle, and there is spiritual platform. The body is material platform, divided into two, gross and subtle. And then if you are fortunate enough to come to the spiritual platform, then your life is successful. So the karmīs generally... Just like we see in the city, they are all busy, working very hard. They are on the gross material platform. And then next class, just like scientist, poet, philosopher, they are in the subtle platform. And above them, there are persons who are simply interested in spiritual understanding. They are on the spiritual platform. So according to the platform, there are thoughts and activities also. Your question is what is about these so many things. So first of all you have to understand in which platform he is situated. Then his activities are ascertained. If you are in the material platform, doing some business, making some profit, and if you bring there question—"What is this, use of material profit, this body is temporary, why I am..."—then your material activities will be diminished.(?) So we have to understand first of all what is our actual objective. And then if we stand in that platform, then our life is successful.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: That is your choice. Just like when you go to the market there are so many shops. Now it is your choice from which shop you have to purchase. First of all, you must know what is your need. If you want gold and if you go to the cigarette shop, "Give me gold," then what benefit you'll get? He'll give you a cigarette and he'll cheat you, "Here is gold."

Atreya Ṛṣi: Śrīla Prabhupāda, is it possible to sit inside? There are seven, eight people.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Atreya Ṛṣi: You can continue the discussion inside. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...a small child, he does not know what is the meaning of bowing down. But he's doing it. This is association. But he's getting benefit. Not that because he does not know, he's not getting benefit. He's getting benefit. (pause) You can put this light on that side, anywhere, or down, keep it down. (speaks in Hindi to guests)

Atreya Ṛṣi: Mr. Sharma is a devotee. He's a wonderful person. He's taken to spiritual life and is very serious about it. Mr. Sahani is also very serious, he's...

Prabhupāda: No, every Indian is a devotee. This is the privilege of taking birth in India. There is... Naturally he's devotee, and if he takes little education, take advantage of the Vedic instructions, then his life is successful. In the śāstra it is said even the demigods, they desire to take birth in India because this facility is there in India. This facility, the land is so sanctified that anyone who takes the body from this land, he's born sanctified. Now, if he further takes advantage of the Vedic knowledge, then his life becomes successful. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission is that anyone who has taken birth in India, make his life successful, and then preach this knowledge to the outside world.

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Śrīla Prabhupāda, maybe we could show that movie now?

Prabhupāda: Eh? Yes. Which side you'll show? This side.

Dayānanda: I want to show it (indistinct), Prabhupāda, then everyone can sit here on the inside so you can see.

Prabhupāda: All right. That's nice. What is that? Again?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes. (movie dialogue—break) Would you like to see another, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes, why not?

Harikeśa: "As Brilliant As the Sun"? This film is really first class. (some discussion while setting up film) (break)

Prabhupāda: This is due to American boy's cooperation.

Mr. Sahani: Yes, very nice. A great achievement.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Due to Śrīla Prabhupāda's mercy.

Prabhupāda: And now we are trying Middle East with the cooperation of Iranians.

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Āpani ācari prabhu jīvera śikṣāya. That is the way. (child chanting in background) Just see how he's chanting, this boy, his son, he's chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is not joke. (all chant japa) That building is costly, but we have left that building, we have come here. And this is costlier? Nature's way of... In the room, to make us comfortable you have to run on the fan? Here we are, don't require any fan. So what is the advantage?

Hari-śauri: Well, if it rains, then we'll go back inside.

Prabhupāda: And if your electricity fails, you'll go to hell. (laughter) This is no argument. That is obstinate rascal's argument. That one, they were eating yogurt. Everyone said, "Oh, very first-class, nice yogurt." Everyone was saying. So there was the obstinate rascal, he has to find out some fault. He said, "Yes, it is very nice, but if we keep it three days it will be bad." He's not thinking of the present, but he has to criticize it, that if you keep it three days it will become bad. That is all right, but what you are tasting now, talking of that. When there will be rain, you'll have to go in the room—this is no argument. This is obstinate rascaldom. We're talking of this. If accident and this and that, then in everywhere that will... That I've already replied, if there is electricity failure, then it is...

Hari-śauri: But we have to plan for the future.

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Hari-śauri: But variety is the spice of life.

Prabhupāda: Variety, there are qualities of varieties. Just like we enjoy varieties prasādam, and there is variety in the brothel also. Two qualities of variety. Variety is good, that's all right.

Hari-śauri: Well, sometimes we want to sit in a garden like this and sometimes we like to be inside, and other times we like to go out to the movies.

Prabhupāda: I don't go out. We do not go to the movies or to the restaurant. It is different taste. Therefore it is calculated three kinds of men-sāttvika, rājasika, tāmasika-their tendencies are different.

Nava-yauvana: Karmīs can't understand why a devotee doesn't want to go to the cinema.

Prabhupāda: So many things—they do not smoke, they do not drink, they do not go to cinema.

Hari-śauri: We're as good as dead. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Arrival Conversation -- August 13, 1976, Bombay:

Harikeśa: This one has two keys, Hari-śauri. They say "one" and "two." This is not it. This is the key for the inside. This is not this key.

Hari-śauri: It's this one. They all fell off the hoop.

Harikeśa: Oh, do you have the key to these two almirahs?

Hari-śauri: There's some keys that we didn't know where they fit.

Prabhupāda: So, how are you?

Girirāja: Fine.

Prabhupāda: Everything is going?

Girirāja: Yes, very nicely.

Prabhupāda: And the lift is... Oh! Thank you. Lift is not available.

Hari-śauri: They're all here now, Śrīla Prabhupāda. There was one key that dropped off the hoop. There's one, two, and the small cash box inside.

Harikeśa: This is the cash box key. For this box.

Hari-śauri: What are these keys? This, this...

Prabhupāda: Oh, how he can know?

Harikeśa: He had one key I think for one of these.

Prabhupāda: Keep in the bag everything.

Press Interview at Muthilal Rao's House -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So you are intelligent man, you see what is that anti-Indian. We are spreading Indian culture, and this is anti-Indian. How foolish they are. Just see. We are spreading Bhagavad-gītā as it is, and it is anti-Indian. Do you think like that?

Interviewer (5): What if somebody is using this as a cover-up?

Prabhupāda: Huh? But if you have no eyes to see inside, you see the cover only. What can I do? (laughter) If you are so blind, what can I do?

Interviewer (5): What has the (indistinct) doing about solving world problems...

Prabhupāda: Every problem can be solved by Bhagavad-gītā. Every problem can be solved by Bhagavad-gītā. You put any problem and there is answer.

Interviewer (5): How this movement has helped in solving any specific issue, any special problem?

Prabhupāda: We think the real problem is they do not know what they are.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Why not take the Victoria Memorial? What is, they are doing?

Jayapatākā: I have never gone inside. I heard it is simply old English armor and some swords.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I have seen.

Gargamuni: And the marble is turning black.

Prabhupāda: Because they don't...

Gargamuni: They don't clean it.

Jayapatākā: How they can afford to maintain such a building?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa will maintain. We can utilize it properly.

Jayapatākā: And we'll have British pūjārīs. For the glory of Queen Victoria.

Prabhupāda: Victoria. Let them send. Tell them that we shall bring. Victoria has... Let them send to worship Victoria with prasādam of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. That is real Victoria Memorial.

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Saurabha: The best. And also the facilities. Now, in the floor we start tiling, the basement floor... Under the Deities there we have a basement. So there we have started the flooring, tiling, and now we have decided on all the other parts of the building, for the stone. So they promised, they guaranteed, that at the end of this year the building—that means the guesthouse—will be completed. And of course, that includes the temple. The only thing which will definitely go on is the marble work, the carving. That is a very big job. But that we can always continue. That is mainly outside work, finishing. So that we get the inside ready for the opening.

Prabhupāda: ISKCON Juhu? That is sufficient address?

Saurabha: Well, this was hand-delivered. It would be nice if... I think now it is sufficient. Many letters come like that now.

Prabhupāda: No, we are famous now, Juhu.

Saurabha: But your official letters, the name of the street is called A. B. Nyer Road. I never knew that. I thought it was the road in the back.

Prabhupāda: No, they said Gandhi, Juhu Road?

Saurabha: No. Now on the latest letter that I got from the government it was written A. B. Nyer Road. Maybe it was an old letter, I don't know. When we submitted the new plans for the gurukula building, there was a letter I had to sign about the work, that we have given to the architect, an official letter so that we can get the permission. And it was written that the plot was on the A. B. Nyer Road, our land. So I inquired, and they said, "Yes, that's the name of that road."

Prabhupāda: Is there any signboard, A. B. Nyer Road?

Saurabha: No.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: No, that is another. In Guntur, yes.

Prabhā Viṣṇu: I didn't see.

Prabhupāda: Visakhapatnam, there is one of my Godbrothers, Purī Mahārāja. Did you go there?

Prabhā Viṣṇu: No. But we saw some books which they published and they had your picture in the front actually. Just on the inside page your picture was there.

Prabhupāda: In Guntur you received order from?

Prabhā Viṣṇu: The State Regional Library. It's the most prestigious library in Andhra Pradesh. They took a complete order for all the books.

Gargamuni: Caitanya-caritāmṛta and Bhāgavatam.

Prabhā Viṣṇu: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Standing order.

Morning Walk -- August 23, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: That is a fact. Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā. That is the verdict of Bhāgavata also. Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. Kṛpaṇā na iha tṛpyanti. One or two child, children, they are not satisfied. They want to produce more and invite distress more. Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. But they are practicing in a different way. And Bhāgavata recommends brahmacārī. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. You know this gentleman? (pause)

yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tucchaṁ

kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham

tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ

kaṇḍūtivan manasijaṁ viṣaheta dhīraḥ

(SB 7.9.45)

Instead of begetting more and more children by sex it is better... Better means dhīraḥ. And tolerate the itching sensation. This is recommended. But the itching sensation is so strong nobody can stop. We shall go inside? No.

Mahāṁsa: Yes, we can walk from here.

Prabhupāda: Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. Unless one diverts attention to Kṛṣṇa consciousness it is not possible. One must have some business, engagement. Just like in New York as soon as there was electric failure for four hours, so many women became pregnant. Because he has no business in the darkness. But if he was trained up to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, one could utilize the time for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. But they have not such training. Nobody has such training. So how they will utilize the time? Come on, let us have... Although he knows...

Indian devotee: Especially Prabhupāda, when there is a famine, where there is no more food... They had big famine...

Prabhupāda: Food, that is punishment. It is not the... Famine is punishment from the side of nature. She'll not supply to the rākṣasas. That is a punishment. Otherwise, there is no question of population. You may have as many... Just like the birds and beasts. They do not care for... They have got enough food. But they do not violate the laws of the nature.

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You can fix up a little fan, then this labor can be saved.

Caraṇāravindam: You would like electric fan or hand pulled. Hand pulled?

Prabhupāda: No no, electric. A small table fan. Just like in the railway carriage. Let them fix up. Small ceiling fan.

Hari-śauri: You can get very small ones that fasten on the front of motor cars on the inside for fanning the driver. Just a small unit.

Caraṇāravindam: I was wanting to, in the future, build you a very beautiful construction here.

Prabhupāda: No, it is all right.

Caraṇāravindam: You like this. I thought you would also...

Prabhupāda: This is made simple. It is very nice. Rather, you can... No, it is all right. There is no space. In India, on the roof, we allow to grow squash.

Caraṇāravindam: You would like some growing?

Prabhupāda: Very small.

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So it is very pleasing spot. You have done nice. I'm feeling nice.

Hari-śauri: Your pleasure is our pleasure.

Caraṇāravindam: It is your mercy. It is ecstasy to come in here and do something on the garden for you. Very good. I want to see lotuses growing. Then I will be happy. Nice lotuses. When I can pick a lotus and give to you, then it is nice. Then it is finished. Lilies, lotus, nice bushes, very happy inside. This grass has just been laid and I think after two weeks it will be very first class.

Prabhupāda: Nobody should walk.

Caraṇāravindam: No. I have still this section here to finish of nice turf. And then watering twice a day.

Prabhupāda: And due to this fountain it will be very nice, green always.

Caraṇāravindam: And I will sprinkle it with gobar water. Gobar mixed with water and sprinkle. That will be good for...

Prabhupāda: Is there any good painter here?

Hari-śauri: Artist? Who is here?

Prabhupāda: Artist?

Caraṇāravindam: Devotee?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: If he wanted he could have practiced lucratively. But he gave up.

Akṣayānanda: Yes, very good.

Prabhupāda: And he had many students. (pause) (indistinct) He dropped in the fountain?

Akṣayānanda: No, he's going on the outside.

Hari-śauri: He swims around sometimes inside.

Prabhupāda: They like it. But they make sound. (break) So if actually I am serious to serve Kṛṣṇa I must begin immediately.

Hari-śauri: So that means utilizing whatever you already know.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's right. Because there is no guarantee. Suppose you are learning some art to serve Kṛṣṇa. In the meantime if death takes place...

Hari-śauri: Then no service.

Prabhupāda: Then if you could not learn the art, at the same time you miss Kṛṣṇa's service. So that is not our principle. We want to serve Kṛṣṇa, svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya. Whatever work you already expert, you do that. Just like he is doing. Whatever he knows, he is giving service. He's not going for sewing cloth. Because he does not know that. Why should he waste time? He knows this art, let him do. That is service. Whatever you know, Kṛṣṇa can accept any service. Kṛṣṇa is not one-sided. Because He is everything, so he can accept every service, anything. That is stated, svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya. Whatever you know, you try to please Kṛṣṇa, or Kṛṣṇa's representative. The same thing. Ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ, svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya. Whatever you know, saṁsiddhiḥ, the perfection is, hari-toṣaṇam. So we... Whatever we already know. If he's a medical man, whatever little medical knowledge he has got, he can utilize it by serving. Why he should go to Āyur-vedic? That is not.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Caraṇāravindam: They sit there eating them.

Prabhupāda: Because they do not get anything they make mischief. They're very mischievous. If they do not get any eatables they will cause mischief.

Caraṇāravindam: They sometimes come if a new shoot in the banana. The inside shoot, they break and take that. They seem to enjoy. I've seen them. They break it and eat it.

Hari-śauri: Do monkeys have any use? (laughs)

Prabhupāda: They have only use, their fat is very good medicine for burns. Some portion is burned, monkey fat is very good medicine. The Chinese eat their brains.

Caraṇāravindam: The Japanese also do that. They drink it. They drink it through straws.

Prabhupāda: Monkey brain?

Caraṇāravindam: Yes. They cut the skull off a live monkey. They cut the skull off like egg and drink the brain through straw. I read in magazine how they do this. It's very common practice now.

Prabhupāda: Where they get this monkeys?

Caraṇāravindam: The monkey's alive and as you drink its brain it dies. They think this is also sport to them. Big horrible demons.

Morning Walk -- October 2, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...up and down. If we keep the temple clean, then our heart will be cleansed. This is the process. (break) ...should be engaged in flower business, in dress business, light and interesting to them. They should not be given any heavy work. Cooking, helping cooking, cutting the vegetables. (break) ...woman should be engaged in something. That is wanted. (break) And to paint these panels also.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, outside. So it will be painted. These decorations. Oh, the panels here?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Haṁsadūta: You mean the panels. Yes, inside and outside.

Prabhupāda: There are so many pictures. And what is that boy?

Hari-śauri: Viṣṇu Das.

Prabhupāda: He can do every panel in three days.

Haṁsadūta: I've written him that Prabhupāda suggested he might come and do it.

Prabhupāda: He knows the art, how to do it. (break) ...unique, American. What is this American? I could not reach. (?) (break) ...conditioner, to keep the air conditioner. There was (indistinct).

Haṁsadūta: In some temples which are built like this with a courtyard, they put a screen over the top so that the birds don't come in. Can we do that or is that because...

Prabhupāda: No, monkeys.

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Devotee: No, it's not a desert but that's the way this rear portion has been landscaped, you know.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Devotee: It's made to look like a desert but it's actually very lush and it looks a lot bigger than two acres.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) ...these things are (indistinct), you can keep cows. Eh?

Devotee: I'm not sure if we can keep cows in there because it's inside of the city and sometimes they don't allow the cow within a certain zoning. And now the only problem we might run into with this is that it's not zoned right now for a church or a temple but...

Prabhupāda: Don't say "temple."

Devotee: Excuse me.

Prabhupāda: You say "community project."

Devotee: Community project?

Prabhupāda: Community project.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sa... Remembering the holy names of the Lord.

Mahāṁśa: This stone is the boundary on this side.

Prabhupāda: This stone.

Mahāṁśa: This stone.

Devotee (4): The tree's coming inside our land.

Mahāṁśa: No, tree goes in. Other land is here. It goes all the way to that rock over there, Prabhupāda, that rock over there. We are almost at one corner of the land. And the land goes very far to that side.

Prabhupāda: Who possesses that land?

Mahāṁśa: This is all our land. This is the village people's land here. And then it goes from behind this tree, it goes all the way to the water. There's a little portion that juts out from here. It goes all the way to the water.

Jagadīśa: Our land.

Mahāṁśa: Yes, our land. We can go this way and...

Devotee (4): Should ISKCON devotees live in each of these little villages?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Yes, surrounding the temple.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: They'll come to da...? No.

Devotee (5): We went to the villages there to announce about our program.

Devotee (4): Hampi. We were in Hampi, Karnataka State, and big rocks like this were there and the people over the years constructed literally hundreds of small temples, some big. Some they cut directly into the rocks and then put in the mūrti there.

Mahāṁśa: There is one Nṛsiṁha temple over here which is very unusual. It is inside of... There is a big rock, and it is right inside the rock and if someone wants to have darśana, he has to crawl inside to see it. The rock goes like this and he has to actually crawl in to see the Deity. Seems to be very, very old. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...on our?

Mahāṁśa: Yes. This is all ours, all this.

Devotee (4): The government is making propaganda for hard work, so they should come and with hard work they can make nice temple from these rocks.

Prabhupāda: You show the example. They will see. (break) ...like it, eh? These boys?

Devotee (4): Oh, yes, very much.

Prabhupāda: Do you like it?

Boy (1): Yes, sir.

Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So you'll keep, come in charge. So do this also immediately. And the next is that Bhogilal wants to come here. So bring him immediately. What is the difficulty of that house?

Mahāṁśa: All the plastering inside is finished now.

Prabhupāda: Everything, whatever is finished...

Mahāṁśa: Painting has to be done.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Mahāṁśa: The toilets are working, all the connections are finished, and only thing is the painting has to be done today.

Prabhupāda: So painting also can be... Without painting, we can go there. What is the wrong problem?

Mahāṁśa: It looks a little shabby. If we wait for one more day it will look much better.

Prabhupāda: So one more day we shall wait, but tomorrow we must go there.

Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Mahāṁśa: No need of painting.

Prabhupāda: No. Why there is use? We can manage there. Bhogilal may come, and he may be given here or wherever possible.

Mahāṁśa: I'll ask the carpenter to try and fix those doors by this evening in Bhogilal Patel's room. The inside doors are already finished. Only those curved doors take time. So I'll...

Prabhupāda: So you have made, cut fashion?

Mahāṁśa: Pardon?

Prabhupāda: Fashionable?

Mahāṁśa: Yes, it looks a little nice.

Prabhupāda: All right. So that room, if it is done, it is all right. If not, this room and that room. That's all. Better bring him. He'll be very useful.

Mahāṁśa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Purchase one canopy instead of renting. We shall have to continue this program.

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

Prabhupāda: ...to make dāl puri, dāl baḍi. Do they make? Inside it is dāl. (break)

Life Member: When I come here for one day, I wish to stay here for three days, five days, seven days, I mean, always extend it for awhile. It is never on the set day. Whenever I come for a day, I stay two days. If I come for three days I stay about five days. (break)

Prabhupāda: Dāl can be replaced with boiled potato.

Life Member: Boiled potatoes, yes, they are made. That is puri or paraṭā? Paraṭā is better. Ālu paraṭā.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Make Punjabi paraṭā.

Life Member: You will like that.

Prabhupāda: All right. And another thing, and sabji, dry potato with hing. What vegetables other? There is cauliflower. There is no eggplant? Beguna? I require little.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There is no difference. And if he makes such distinction, then how he's paṇḍita? Then he's not paṇḍita. But it is etiquette, mātā svasā duhitā vā. One should not very closely sit down even with mother, sister, and daughter. That restriction is there. But that does not mean that one should not see even a woman. So we are following that principle. Never mind, man or woman, she can offer her respect, but not very near. That restriction must be there. (break) We have support from very high circle. Scholar, priest, even father, mother, parent. Many old gentlemen come to congratulate me, "Swamiji, it is our great fortune that you have come to this country." In Los Angeles they have been very nice. Many parents used to come. (Hindi)

Indian man: Now Girirāja is going about with this school work.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But the building is not yet sanctioned. You have seen inside temple?

Indian man: Yes. I come here once a week. (break)

Prabhupāda: This is... Of course, I gave him the idea. But Saurab's design. He's Dutch. He's Dutch boy. The Vṛndāvana is also his.

Room Conversation -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No separately. It is there in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Guest (3): But that way, your volumes are dealing with each chapter of Gītā?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Each śloka. Each chapter.

Guest (2): No, no. Not inside the book. Different volumes. Like eighteen chapters, but eighteen volumes.

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No. It's in one book. Twelve hundred pages.

Guest (3): And the interpretation is by you yourself?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not interpretation. I am explaining as it is. You can read one.

Guest (3): Have you tried to compare with Gītā written by Gyaneshvara, or by Vinoba Bhave or by somebody else?

Prabhupāda: According to Bhagavad-gītā, if you don't follow the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, you may be very learned scholar, whatever you write, it is lost. We follow that principle. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). Find out this Fourth Chapter.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Letter to Russian -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ask Yaśodānandana, Yaśomatī-nandana, immediately. You ask him for my brāhmaṇa... Yes. So very steadily do everything. Opposition will come. We have to face.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So I'll arrange for your idlis, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Idlis and if dosa... Dosa?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. There's two types of dosas. One is masalā; one is sada. Masalā has got potatoes inside.

Prabhupāda: Potatoes?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, inside. What they do is... Inside it's like...

Prabhupāda: Which one is better?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Sada is without.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Sada? Or I'll get masalā if there are no onions in it. Sometimes they put onions.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: If there's no onions, I'll get one masalā also. Okay.

Prabhupāda: (japa) Except in few provinces, everyone eats onion, all over the world. And garlic. In Western countries I think onion and garlic, cent percent they eat.

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, tin house will be...

Gurudāsa: Not so good. Straw is the best.

Prabhupāda: That is best, but fire protection-wise...

Gurudāsa: Well, one thing I was thinking we can put shamiyanas on the outside of it or the inside. I looked at the other camps, and most of the big ācāryas, etc., they have straw houses.

Prabhupāda: Straw.

Gurudāsa: Therefore I thought if they have, then you should have.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That's all right. But one gentleman wants to give us a house.

Gurudāsa: Kapoor?

Prabhupāda: Ha, ha. Have you seen that?

Gurudāsa: No. Not yet. I've been too busy. To get to any place you have to walk. But the first thing I did, I got a...

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Cow's milk...

Hari-śauri: They say. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Cow's milk means buffalo with water.

Gurudāsa: With a little bit of the newspaper inside also.

Prabhupāda: Acchā.

Gurudāsa: For to put, to make it look like cream, they put newspaper also.

Hari-śauri: Make it thick. They grind paper. You have to strain it before you drink it.

Gurudāsa: But I... We tasted it. We came to the conjoint opinion that it was passable.

Prabhupāda: Less newspaper. (laughter) So why such milk should be taken, with newspaper?

Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, in the Muslim countries, the Muslims, they feed the cows fish, dried fish. And the Hindus will not take the local milk there.

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Gurudāsa: No. No. In the morning the air is cold, but the water is warm, warmer than the air, very nice.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The earlier you take bath, it is warm.

Dr. Patel: Once you dip inside. Otherwise it is chilly.

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Gurudāsa: It's very nice. The tap water also. Either in the river or in the tap, it's warmer. You must come and try it.

Dr. Patel: You bring me water from... (Prabhupāda chuckles) I don't mind coming. Whereas returning it will be difficult for me. You people will be returning after ten, fifteen days. I must come after two, three (indistinct)... Traffic will be so heavy that I may not get even...

Gurudāsa: No, you can come and go as you like and you can be our guest. Because people are coming but not going, it was easy to go out. Everyone was coming, but no one was going. You can go out easy. We have a nice tent for you, warm water in the morning.

Dr. Patel: Is there sufficient number of trains to the Mela?

Gurudāsa: We're putting extra trains.

Prabhupāda: From the Mela the train starting?

Gurudāsa: Yes. Some going.

Prabhupāda: There is some temporary station.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Acchā. (laughs)

Rāmeśvara: Filling the whole sky and all directions.

Prabhupāda: Very good. So encourage them.

Rāmeśvara: This is inside one of the exhibits. This is part of the wall and this is a scene of the phalanxes at Kurukṣetra, and then behind them and above, there is this painting, and it is like a curve. In the middle will be Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna on the chariot.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (laughs) Very nice. People will so much appreciate it. Yes. They've never seen. From artistic point of view, it should be rewarded by government. And they are prosecuting us. This... What injustice... So many young men, they're exhibiting their talents in this art, and they are trying to harass us. What is this government? Put this matter before this government, that "Just see, your lordships, we are presenting culture, religion, knowledge, philosophy, art, and they are trying to condemn us. Do you think it is all right?" Simply ask. "It was never known in this country. And it is worthy. We are the first-class nation in the world, and we are still giving something more of our talent. Instead of encouraging government help, we have to suffer this harassment. Do you think it is justice?" Just put before him.

Arrival of BBT Manager -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Rāmeśvara: This is a picture of the side of the building. This truck holds 20,000 copies of Bhagavad-gītā. It's being unloaded into the warehouse.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Rāmeśvara: These are pictures of the inside as we are beginning to fill it up with books.

Prabhupāda: It is not yet filled up.

Rāmeśvara: It will be, very soon. This is part of it. We just moved in as I was leaving for India, so I had them shoot these pictures very quickly.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Rāmeśvara: And the former warehouse... We now need more space for the dioramas. We're going to start manufacturing them for all the temples. So we're going to use the former warehouse, that you once visited, for Bharadrāja. He needs that much space because he's going to be making the dolls, then making a mold. Then once you have the mold, you can mass produce.

Prabhupāda: So that we can show in every center.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: That's right. This is the history of your religion. You kill Jesus Christ; you deprive him.

Hari-śauri: There's still that point that when a person comes, he's coming voluntarily. We have no chance to deprive him of sleep or food, because he's living outside. He's not living inside.

Rāmeśvara: They say that when a man comes to join us, immediately we take away all his money and all his possessions, so in this way we are depriving him of his property.

Prabhupāda: That is individual surrender. We have not rendered that way. He surrendered individually.

Hari-śauri: When Christ preached, he told them to "Give up your work; give up your family; give up everything. Don't try to earn a livelihood. Don't worry about where your food will come from. Don't worry where your cloth will come from." He said that in his instructions to his disciples. I think it's in the Acts according to St. Matthew.

Jagadīśa: His disciples simply...

Hari-śauri: He gave the example that "The birds, they do not try to make a living, but God is feeding them. So do you not think God will help feed if you go out and do His work?" That is what he said to them. (indistinct) And they say they are Christians, but actually the real Christianity is what we are practicing.

Rāmeśvara: And also Dr. Harvey Cox of Harvard, he quoted one section of the Bible where Jesus was preaching and his mother did not like it, and his father, and they came to get him away. They thought he was gone crazy, that he was preaching so much about God. So they came to his place where he had gathered many people. They wanted to deprogram him. And Jesus said, "You're not my mother. You're not my father. My real father is in heaven, and my real relatives are those who believe in God."

Prabhupāda: Where is that?

Rāmeśvara: That's right in the Bible.

Prabhupāda: (break) Because there are many fanatics.

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

Prabhupāda: And "You do not know what is good. It is good. We have given up these bad habits, sinful life. It is not... But you have no idea that these are good. You have idea, but out of your definite malice you cannot appreciate. You are spending millions of dollars for giving up this LSD, and our power is so strong, as soon as one comes, he gives up. But you are so rascal, you do not appreciate. That means you are rascal. Our power is there; our reaction is there for good. That's a fact. But you cannot understand. You are so rascal; you are so fallen down. The same, like the hog. He does not know what is the..., how nice is halavā. You give him halavā; he'll not take it. He will take stool. That is his misfortune. It cannot say that halavā is bad, but he cannot appreciate because he's hog. He'll prefer to eat stool. We are giving up these nonsense, nasty things. You cannot appreciate. 'Oh, they are giving up meat-eating? It is brainwashing.' You are so low, hog life." Tell them like that. "As the hog cannot appreciate what is the value of nice halavā, similarly you cannot appreciate. Your brain has to be washed. Please come inside. We shall wash it." Is it not?

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: How rascal they have been educated. Mūḍha.

Rāmeśvara: And the only problem was he had the wrong brain.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Rāmeśvara: They took the brain from a known criminal and put it inside the dead man. So when he came back to life he was a demon. That's their only problem, they say. If they'd only taken a brain from a dead body who was a good man, then everything would have been all right.

Prabhupāda: Why do you not take the brain of scientist and make another scientist? Why you should, they should regret "That this scientist is dead"?

Rāmeśvara: That's their goal. That is their goal.

Prabhupāda: Goal that may be, but what they have done? That is the first thing.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: Very nice.

Prabhupāda: Yellowish or greenish?

Gargamuni: No. They're pinkish inside, pink color. Yellow skin but pink inside and very sweet.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Karmuja. (?) And some sweet scent also.

Gargamuni: Yes. They're very nice. We ate so many of them. (Hari-śauri preaching to someone in background:)

Hari-śauri: Because He's the Supreme Person. You're worshiping Indira Gandhi or in America they're worshiping Nixon or Ford. In Britain they're worshiping someone else. Everyone is worshiping someone who is better than he is. You may go to work and worship your boss because he'll give you a better pay check.

Prabhupāda: That is preaching. (chuckling with devotees)

Gargamuni: I read in the paper. They're having elections in March.

Prabhupāda: Karachi?

Gargamuni: No, here, here in India.

Room Conversation with Sannyasis -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: This is a very good one, from the University of Helsinki. That's right near the Russian border, in Finland. He's a professor of Indian studies, the Department of Asian and African Studies, Professor extraordinarious, Penti Alto. "The Bhagavad-gītā is no doubt the most important and the best known work in the whole of Indian literature. The magnificence of its spiritual concepts and the sublimity of its thinking have secured a great popularity everywhere. It has been edited and commented countless times. The meaning of the text, at least in its main lines, is obvious and clear. The justification of a new interpretation is there, for in my opinion, dependent on the message conveyed by the commentary. The translator and commentator, Swami Bhaktivedanta, represents the Gauḍīya-Vaiṣṇava school, and thus interprets the message of the Gītā 'from the inside.' For example, Shankara in Canto Two"—he means Chapter Two—"verse twelve, interprets the plurality of the being enumerated to be only conventional. And according to the Māyāvādīns, the individuals after liberation merge into the impersonal Brahman. Swami Bhaktivedanta states that Kṛṣṇa here authoritatively emphasizes the eternity of the individuality."

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

Satsvarūpa: "The transcendental form of God can be immediately experienced by a person who is duly prepared, as it is told in Chapter Eleven. Just these two points are, I think, the reason for the interest in the Gītā among persons with a searching spirit. Swami Bhaktivedanta's translation and commentary do deliver this message very convincingly indeed."

Rāmeśvara: Jaya!

Prabhupāda: He is a big professor.

Room Conversation with Film Producer about Krsna Lila -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: You say like that.

Guest (2): No, no. We are presenting. I am presenting this way. That is superpower.

Guest (1): When Madhu-maṅgala, when he was thinking that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is a general man and was for these ladies only, then he saw that viśvarūpa of Śrī Kṛṣṇa on the screen, all the universes inside Śrī Kṛṣṇa...

Guest (2): All the universes moving about.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Guest (2): We have taken that aspect, that He's a superpower.

Guest (1): When he is thinking He's man, He's not the man. He's the superman.

Guest (2): Also we have seen that...

Guest (1): And all the universes inside revolving.

Guest (2): That is our message. Kṛṣṇa is not ordinary. Superpower.

Prabhupāda: He's the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Guest (2): He's the supreme power.

Guest (1): We have produced this. Also we have produced things last ten years. Last, even Orissa, this līlā, Śrī Kṛṣṇa līlā, is very famous from the very ancient years.

Guest (2): Not from the sex. That aspect... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...fourth, Thirty-fifth Chapter, when Parīkṣit Mahārāja was inquiring from Śukadeva Gosvāmī that Kṛṣṇa came to establish religious principles...

Hari-śauri: I just read that.

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Huh? Why you are trying for? Simply make a show? You are thinking already, but you do not know. Your world is your father, mother, and two sisters, that's all. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tridhātuke svā-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu. That is your world. A little family, a little community, that is your world. We do not think in that way. We include even the animals, trees, plants-brothers. That is our philosophy. We feel. When you cut a tree unnecessarily, we feel. This is our feeling. Unless there is absolute necessity, we do not wish to kill even a tree, what to speak of animals. When in our Bombay the coconut trees were being cut, I was feeling actually: "Why unnecessarily the coconut trees...?" You cannot give anyone life, so how, what is living, you can kill? It may be tree or animal or plant. You cannot give him life. So you have to suffer for this.

Gargamuni: Can we go inside?

Satsvarūpa: He said it was open in the morning.

Gargamuni: See if we can go inside. (break)

Prabhupāda: I was going to purchase ticket, Māgha Melā. He said "No, you don't go. That's it."

Bhāgavata: Then there is a lake over here and there is animals, birds, different types of birds.

Prabhupāda: Oh, zoological.

Bhāgavata: Yes, zoological. All types. And on this side they have the lions, tigers, bears... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...the forest and see actually. (laughter) Hare Kṛṣṇa. In Africa they're open.

Bhāgavata: Yes, in that national park in Nairobi.

Prabhupāda: The dog also knows that he's in the cage.

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Oh. They are bigger?

Bhāgavata: Little different species. Different color. (lion growls)

Satsvarūpa: Don't tease him.

Prabhupāda: No, don't tease him. After all, they are lion. Hm, they are bigger, very big. Here there is cubs?

Bhāgavata: Inside there are cubs.

Prabhupāda: So, we shall go this way or return?

Bhāgavata: No. This way there is more, if you like.

Prabhupāda: There is more... (break) ...then attacking themselves.

Hari-śauri: Not cannibals.

Bhāgavata: This way you will see birds, many different types of birds.

Hari-śauri: They turned one of the stately homes in England into a lion reserve. You can drive through, and the lions come and jump on your car.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Jumping on the car?

Hari-śauri: Yeah. Sometimes they do.

Evening Conversation -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Our things on the veranda can be kept inside. Because they are here, somebody may... So many men are coming and going.

Satsvarūpa: "All the members of the council were either great sages or brāhmaṇas of the first order. They did not accept any salary, nor had they any necessity for such salaries. The state would get the best advice without expenditure. They were themselves sama-darśī, equal to everyone, both man and animals. They would not advise the king to give protection to the man and instruct him to kill the poor animals. Such council members were not fools or representatives to compose a fool's paradise. They were all self-realized souls, and they knew perfectly well how all living beings in the state would be happy both in this life and the next. They were not concerned with the hedonistic philosophy of 'Eat, drink, be merry and enjoy.' They were philosophers in the real sense, and they knew well what is the mission of human life. Under all these obligations, the advisory council of the king would give correct directions, and the king or executive head, being himself a qualified devotee of the Lord, would scrutinizingly follow them for the welfare of the state. The state in the days of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira or Mahārāja Parīkṣit was a welfare state in the real sense of the term, because no one was unhappy in that state, be he man or animal. Mahārāja Parīkṣit was an ideal king for the welfare state of the world."(text 1, Ch. 16, First Canto Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Continues to read text two and purport with no comment from Śrīla Prabhupāda) Text 3:

ājahārāśva-medhāṁs trīn

gaṅgāyāṁ bhūri-dakṣiṇān

śāradvataṁ guruṁ kṛtvā

devā yatrākṣi-gocarāḥ

Translation: "Mahārāja Parīkṣit, after having selected Kṛpācārya for guidance as his spiritual master, performed three horse sacrifices on the banks of the Ganges. These were executed with sufficient rewards for the attendants. And at these sacrifices, even the common man could see demigods." Purport: "It appears from this verse that interplanetary travel by the denizens of higher planets is easy. In many statements in Bhāgavatam we have observed that the demigods from heaven used to visit this earth to attend sacrifices performed by influential kings and emperors. Herein also we find that during the time of the horse sacrifice ceremony of Mahārāja Parīkṣit, the demigods from other planets were visible even for the common man due to the sacrificial ceremony. The demigods are not generally visible to common men as the Lord is not visible. But as the Lord also by His causeless mercy descends to be visible to the common man..."

Prabhupāda: This is the real answer. They want to see.

Nanda-kumāra: Would you like this pillow, Śrīla Prabhupāda, behind your back?

Satsvarūpa: It is very weak argument to say, "Something doesn't exist because I don't see it."

Prabhupāda: It is childish.

Satsvarūpa: But they can say, "Neither is it a proof that it does exist."

Prabhupāda: How you can prove? You can hear only. There are many things which is beyond your sense perception. The example which I often give, that "Who is your father?" What is proof? The proof is the hearing from mother. That's all. You cannot have any other proof.

Room Conversation -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: It goes around. Do you have that photograph? I'll show you.

Prabhupāda: So where is that photograph? Find out.

Gargamuni: I gave you one small photograph of the building.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Find out. I kept it in that, inside that booklet.

Hari-śauri: Which booklet?

Prabhupāda: Gargamuni has printed?

Hari-śauri: I don't even know where that book... Someone took that booklet away.

Gargamuni: I have another photo I can show. If you get my bag... (end)

Room Conversation -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So the guru is the representative of God. That's all right. Then what is your misunderstanding?

Pṛthu-putra: So then after I had some other things. For example, when I went to Egypt, in these pyramids one day I had some kind of contact on the subtle plane with persons who were supposed to live inside of the pyramids, and they gave me some kind of instructions.

Prabhupāda: Inside of the pyramid?

Pṛthu-putra: Yes. That was (wasn't) in the dream. But people, they were quite clear.

Prabhupāda: These are just like we know gold and we know mountain...

Pṛthu-putra: Yes.

Prabhupāda: ...and sometimes we mix together and we see golden mountain. So in dream we see like that. We have got hundreds and thousands of experiences in our this life and past life. They are all stocked there, and they can sometimes get like a bubbles. You have seen the bubbles come out? It is like that. We should not give much importance to these things. But it is a fact that bona fide spiritual master is bona fide representative of Kṛṣṇa. That's a fact. So there is no question of subtle or gross. It is a fact. That's all right.

Room Conversation -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Simply follow this. Give them prasādam and let them chant. That is preaching. And if they're educated, let them read books. Then gradually, he'll automatically come. (break)

Pṛthu-putra: ...sheik. And they say that when the sheik is teaching them the spiritual understanding from Koran, they can have..., he's like the link between God and themself, and they can have direct contact with God from inside. So... And they say what Muhammad said, that was no prophet after him. So they always asking from which prophet we are following. So one day I told Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And he accept it more or less because I explained to this person... He was a professor in Cairo University. He was a Sufist himself, so he was much more open than the regular Muslim. And I explained to him that Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared according to the time and circumstances to preach love of God. And he understood it, but he just didn't know Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So he said, "Then it's very nice. I can try to take knowledge of your philosophy," and he took the Gītā. He has the Gītā with him. So whenever I come back, he tell me, I always can go and give some discourses in the University, in his class. So I gave some discourses in universities, but sometimes I had to use some tricks. Like for example, once I gave a discourse in psychology department, explaining to them how the yoga system can bring you to different state of consciousness. And when I hint to Kṛṣṇa consciousness they were a little bit wondering what it is. Because unfortunately, due to their political situation, always in war with Israel and all these things, they're little bit...

Prabhupāda: Still war going on?

Pṛthu-putra: Yes.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: It is a salesman's trick. That is allowed everywhere. If I can sell more books by some trick, I must take that. That is salesman's trick.

Hari-śauri: All the big department stores, they have Santa Claus.

Gargamuni: They bring their own Santa Claus, and they give away small gifts just to encourage the people to buy big gifts. It's a big racket they have inside the department stores.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In fact, Rūpānuga Prabhu abandoned completely the idea of this Santa Claus in Washington while we were having our meeting. Stayed about a few days. And then he had this telephone call from distance, from outside saying that "Tomorrow I'll shoot you. I'll kill you," things like that. They get this telephone call in the temple from outsiders, "If you come like that, in Santa Claus, we'll give you a bullet," like that. So Rūpānuga completely abandoned this idea. So he said, "Tell what we are, be honest, and do as we have been doing." And in fact, devotees are doing, and they got more the next morning, got more books sold just going as Hare Kṛṣṇa, in Hare Kṛṣṇa dress, instead of going as Santa Claus. So I think...

Prabhupāda: So now it is stopped.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Saṅkīrtana is there.

Yogeśvara: There is once a week a party going out.

Prabhupāda: No, not going out. I mean to say in the temple.

Yogeśvara: Inside the temple. Oh, yes. Inside the temple regular programs are there.

Prabhupāda: So why outside? There is no sufficient men? But when I was there I saw so many men.

Yogeśvara: Wherever you go, thousands of people will follow.

Hari-śauri: They were not all from the farm. They were from everywhere.

Prabhupāda: Then not many devotees are there in the farm?

Yogeśvara: There are maybe thirty-five devotees traveling, saṅkīrtana devotees, and then...

Prabhupāda: Centering that farm?

Yogeśvara: Centered at the farm. They come back maybe once every two months. And then there are about eighty devotees at the farm, of which forty are children. Of those children, twenty or twenty-two are Gurukula children. The others are too small.

Prabhupāda: So nobody is engaged in production, fruit, flowers, grains, milk?

Yogeśvara: There are not many full-time devotees doing production, maybe four full time.

Prabhupāda: And why part time?

Yogeśvara: Part time, everyone is trying to do an hour a day.

Prabhupāda: So what they do, others?

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Cruel they must be. They're eating meat, rākṣasas.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She was describing that one time they were all looking at this x-ray of one of the patients who had had severe pain. And inside the x-ray they saw that during the operation they had left the scissors and scalpel in the man's body. And all the doctors were standing there laughing, as if it was a big joke. They thought it was a big joke. For a long time the patient had had much pain in the side, and he did not know why. Then they took x-ray, and they found a scissors and a scalpel left inside, and the doctors thought it was a big joke.

Prabhupāda: Then again operated.

Morning Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Recent publication?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't... I'm not... I don't think that actually the BBT did this binding. This is done by someone else, but somehow I managed... It was in my office, so I brought it with me. But it's very nice to get the small pocket-size book but with a hard cover. For traveling it's very handy. On the back it gives mention inside of..., what the binding is.

Prabhupāda: Where it is done?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In USA. "Permabound" it's called.

Hari-śauri: That's like that plastic cover-type stuff.

Prabhupāda: It is half-bound.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Morning Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wonderful book, Nectar of Devotion.

Prabhupāda: Every book is... Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Nectar of Devotion. Whichever he will read, he will become Kṛṣṇa conscious. (break) And then Kṛṣṇa, then Bhāgavata, then Caitanya-caritāmṛta, simply development.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This book is now very nice because there are many fine illustrations inside, more than there used to be. They've added. The Teachings of Lord Caitanya, I was thinking in particular. I have a copy of that, and there are many color illustrations inside now. Wonderful book, the summary of all of Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's introduction gives a whole... It's like all of the pastimes of Lord Caitanya condensed into a few pages.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is there in the Teaching of Lord Caitanya.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, teachings of Lord Caitanya. This is... You remember that...

Prabhupāda: Near Bombay.

Evening Darsana -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Former paisa, when sixty-four paisa was one rupee. Now hundred equal to one. The purchasing power of money was big. Now thirty percent has gone up, but people's income has not gone up so much. Thirty percent, thirty times. Formerly gold was priced twenty rupees per tolā. Now it is six hundred rupees. So thirty times. But people have not increased their income thirty times. My father was earning two hundred fifty to three hundred per month. So we were middle class. So now thirty times of three hundred means nine thousand. So which middle-class man has increased so much? Middle class man now, if he's earning one thousand rupees he's considered very well-to-do. But what is that one thousand rupees? Nothing. My father had from one business, one hundred rupees, from another business sixty rupees, and we had a house rented, eighty rupees. Eighty rupees, sixty rupees and hundred rupees. How much? Two hundred forty, plus something more. Utmost, three hundred. And in our house four, five guests was always present. It didn't matter. Besides that, he was inviting some Vaiṣṇava, some sādhu. He married four daughters, and we were eating very sumptuously, daily two and half kg milk. Two annas per kg. Very nice milk. This man was coming from outside Calcutta. So we were so many children. We would stand, "Give some phāo:" Two half kg's milk and half kg phāo. He wouldn't mind.

Indian: Half kg, three, phāo?

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Because we are so many children, little, little, little. Kṛṣṇa was asking for phāo. That is the system in India. You purchase something from some vendor and ask little more phāo. He'll give. That is included in the price. (Bengali) Phāo? Especially children, they'll ask," Phāo dā." They'll give gladly. (Bengali) Ask them to come inside. (Bengali) Come inside. (Bengali) (end)

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They have captured our books?

Devotee: In Argentina. Argentina is a different mode, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Very, very...

Prabhupāda: Why? Argentina is a Communist country?

Devotee: No. They're like a Third World country, Third World. There's a lot of Communists inside the country.

Prabhupāda: Third World? What is that?

Hari-śauri: Third World. They refer to the Arab republics, like that. They call them the Third World.

Devotee: They don't participate with the Communist countries, and they also don't participate up there, United...

Prabhupāda: Third World? We have no place there? We want Fourth World? Or what is that? (laughter)

Tripurāri: I think there is more animal slaughter in Argentina than anywhere in the world.

Prabhupāda: Most sinful.

Arrival of Devotees -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This is the combination of American money and Indian culture. This is the result. In every field of our activities, this will prove wonderful, American money and Indian culture. Andha-paṅgu-nyāya. Therefore Kṛṣṇa sent me to America. "Go America." Generally people come to Western country means London. But I never thought of that. I thought, "I shall go to New York," from the very beginning.

Rādhā-vallabha: Īśopaniṣad also. "Over one million copies in print" at the top.

Rāmeśvara: It has new color pictures on the inside, the different selections.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There are no such handsome books anywhere else in the world, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Rāmeśvara: This is called a "teaser." All paperback books in America have this kind of teaser to attract the reader to find out more.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The back cover is very good also, the heading.

Rāmeśvara: It says, "Eighteen age-old secrets of inner peace and fulfillment." These are the popular themes in America. Everyone is wanting this. Now we're telling people that "This chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa...," we are describing it using the language of the modern psychologists, that "This will give you inner fulfillment. It will enable you to handle more stress and the pressures of daily life. If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, you get a stronger sense of your real identity. You feel more in control of your life." By using scientific descriptions, everyone appreciates it.

Prabhupāda: Recent printing, how many?

Rāmeśvara: This printing was 300,000, and that brought it over one million copies.

Prabhupāda: All together.

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Six rupees. And a small mṛdaṅga I gave to my youngest son-three rupees. (laughter) So it is long..., not long ago, say about forty years ago. So it was, smaller, three rupees, and bigger, ten to twelve rupees, like that. So what about your purchasing house?

Bali-mardana: Oh, yes. You are purchasing. I am only the agent. Here is the...

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Bali-mardana: From outside it looks very good. From the inside, it needs a lot of work. That is...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bali-mardana: It is... And the..., three minutes from the center of the city, and right across the street... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...earning and cow protection. You must do it. The other day I was explaining that not from economic point of view, even the cows do not supply milk, still, they should be protected.

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Devotee (1): And honey with the hive in it.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa has given so much nice thing in Australia, and they are doing killing business? Just see how much fallen.

Bhāgavata: The hive of the bee is still inside. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: They can eat so many nice things.

Trivikrama: Now you must get appetite, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: This is their civilization. They have got so nice thing to eat, but they are making business by killing. How much insane. Killing is done by the uncivilized men when they are hungry. But when there are so many things to eat, why they should kill? And that is not for themselves. For others.

Room Conversation -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no, apart from that. Actual name is Bhaktivedanta Swami Marga, but you have made Bhaktivedanta. Why?

Indian man: Swami is omitted.

Prabhupāda: Swami is omitted. That is a mistake on your part.

Dhanañjaya: Everyone, too, is remarking how beautiful the painting is inside. These Rajasthani artists, they are going on with the painting on the upper portion of the temple, the darśana-maṇḍapa. And everyone is remarking how gorgeous the arrangement is.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is gorgeous.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Even the vyāsāsana is very beautiful. The most beautiful I have ever seen anywhere in the movement.

Prabhupāda: They come to see the painting.

Morning Conversation -- April 23, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He has given very good reasoning.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everything is reasonable. But so were your reasons. Just like when you met with the reporter from Los Angeles Times, I remember last year... When this question comes up they, inside they are laughing. When they hear our opinion they think it is a joke. They cannot conceive that the whole thing could be a hoax. We were discussing that actually, that the nation is more dear to most people than their family is, because one will get divorced from his family, but who will give up citizenship? Very rarely does anyone give up his citizenship. But people divorce again and again. So to... The nation is something very strong, that affection, and nation, in America, means this moon shot, all of these things, the truthfulness of the leaders. So this is too shocking. Probably the American people could not swallow it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (indistinct) Lie.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. Why no other newspaper carried the story?

Prabhupāda: It is only because I disbelieved, he disagreed. (referring to Puruṣottama?) He disagreed with me from that moment. He thought me foolish that I do not believe scientific research.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Mr. Dwivedi: And round about the whole year from the mountain water flows back, water drizzles over a banyan tree and then inside into the mountain...

Prabhupāda: It is waterfall.

Mr. Dwivedi: Waterfall. The waterfall is different. This water drizzles from the mountain. Waterfall is five miles away, so I do not count it. They say 150 feet or so, waterfall.

Prabhupāda: How far it is, waterfall?

Mr. Dwivedi: Waterfall is about four or five miles away from our buildings.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nothing.

Mr. Dwivedi: But this is...

Prabhupāda: Very good atmosphere.

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

Prabhupāda: Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says, or somebody, some authority says, that "In a place whether, where there is no friend, no temple and no river, don't go there."

Mr. Dwivedi: Ah, yes, yes, Mahārāja. That is in Śukravetti. That is in Śukravetti. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) "Nadī, friend and temple."

Mr. Dwivedi: (Hindi) ...that is also shaving our colony, beautiful temple inside the waters.

Prabhupāda: Our Indian touring means...

Kārttikeya: River and temple.

Prabhupāda: River and temple. That's all. All our holy places are on the bank of the Ganges, Yamunā, temple.

Kārttikeya: Except Bombay. Bombay has no river.

Prabhupāda: Bombay is big river, this... (laughter)

Mr. Dwivedi: Has got father of rivers.

Prabhupāda: And the temple is there, Umā devī.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Mr. Dwivedi: And inside the temple itself there is little pond, so deep, and we may take any quantity out of it. The water, only that much quantity is there.

Prabhupāda: Good place.

Mr. Dwivedi: So this is a mile's, hardly, less than a mile's distance from our colony. And the river it is perennial river. We have to just cross it, and it gives good passage, particularly during this season. All seasons practically we go and go over the mountain and the temple. Then, on the roadside itself near our colony, there is a water temple. We call it Jagamandir(?). That is also a beautiful temple. It's like the (indistinct) type. And one story of that temple is always in the water. Even in the summer, when Your Holiness will go there, Your Holiness will find. And that is Kṛṣṇa's temple.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Evening Darsana -- May 9, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Bhakta means he must be a servant, sakha or father or conjugal lover. They are bhaktas. There are five rasas. So a bhakta is situated in one of them: śānta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya... That is Vṛndāvana atmosphere. So bhakta means either of them. Arjuna sākhye. By friendship Arjuna became perfect, by making Kṛṣṇa as friend. Hanumān dāsye. Vajrāṅgajī, Hanumān, he, by serving Lord Rāmacandra, the order... He was not even human being, animal, (indistinct), not very intelligent, but by giving service constantly, he worshiped with love. So as soon as you become a bhakta, you must be related with Kṛṣṇa with some rasa, in some particular position. That is bhakta. So the point is that without becoming a bhakta, nobody can understand bhakta. A politician cannot understand. They simply make their artificial attempt to understand. They'll never understand. It is locked. Just like a bottle of honey. I give you, "Here is a bottle of honey," and if you, "Oh, it is honey. Let me lick up the bottle," so will you get the taste? So similarly, they are licking up the bottle, not inside. Rahasyam uttamam. They have no information. They are licking up bottle: "I am reading Bhagavad-gītā." This is the position. For this reason our country has fallen so much. But it can be revived again. The things are already there. Bhagavad-gītā is there. Kṛṣṇa is there. The instruction is there. If you take it, then it will immediately change the face of the whole world, immediately, without difficulty. But we are so stubborn, doggish, that we don't. We manufacture. This is the... (Hindi) ...yesterday. We are standing against the stubborn, doggish mentality. We have got no difficulty, at the same time, very, very difficult task. No difficulty—if you accept Bhagavad-gītā as it is, no difficulty. But you don't accept—there is great difficulty. In the foreign countries they are not stubborn, doggish. They accept what we say in the Bhagavad-gītā. Therefore these young men, they have very easily become devotees.

Short Dissertations -- May 24-25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There actually... What about latrine?

Guest (3): Latrine is behind there. You put one inside, Swamiji's latrine.

Guest (2): (Hindi)

Guest (3): That was closed by Madana Mohana Goswami.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He closed off that latrine.

Prabhupāda: That is backside. (Hindi conversation)

Guest (3): I don't want to talk with the tape recorder. I come to honor my Swamiji and my elder brother...

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Conversations with Kirtana Groups -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: How they are living? As soon as you walk, they go within the sand.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Recently they also found out that there are some, called bacteria. They live in a very unusual circumstances. They can survive to 150 degrees. And sometimes they live inside ammonia, ammonia solution, without water. They can survive.

Prabhupāda: Not without water. There is water, but not as much. Just like on the land there is water, but in the sea there are so much water. So there is life; there is life. We don't say that in the land there is no water. Everywhere is there different. So this evolution, jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi, it has developed the same way. The first life comes out... Then everywhere there is life. The transportation from higher planet to lower planet, water.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Water?

Prabhupāda: The rainfall. With the rainfall, those who are fallen souls, they are coming down. Then takes shelter within the atom. Then again grows.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: There's gold on the ceiling.

Prabhupāda: All very aristocratic, very aristocratic. What is aristocracy, that is displayed there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Those people, they always used to look from the outside in, but they were never allowed to come in. The people from that neighborhood, they used to stare within, wondering what is inside there. Now, since we have come, we have opened our gates and doors and said, "Please come." Oh, they're very much happy to come in and see us there.

Prabhupāda: They're grave. They behave very nicely.

Rāmeśvara: Tourists.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's two boat docks underneath for boats to come, underneath the house. They're 80 foot long, two boat docks, to come in their boats right into the house.

Prabhupāda: The boats were sold by cheating our... Who was in charge of that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Er... Govardhana dāsa.

Prabhupāda: No, GBC?

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...come directly, brāhmaṇas sometimes brahmacārī, gṛhastha. That will impress. (break) ...hodgepodge. Respect is no. Ideals become a leader. He'll do. He'll do. There must be some strong men. Tilaka always must be there. That is our great standard. Kaṇṭhī-mālā. Every fifteen days you should be cleansed. (break) (indistinct) Don't be in all this (indistinct). Go on very nicely. Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhu Nityānanda, Śrī Advaita Gadādhara Śrīvāsa... (break)

Gargamuni: Well, we only printed two Oriya books. Both were printed in Calcutta so far, because there's one Oriya printer there. Gaura-Govinda Mahārāja is investigating completely the... We went around investigating the presses in Cuttack and Bhuvaneśvara, if we might get some cheaper or easier price. It appears that some things we can do cheaper there, like the inside part, but cover cannot do cheaper there.

Prabhupāda: Cover you can get there, cover.

Gargamuni: In Bombay we might be able to do cover much cheaper and then the inside cheaper in Orissa. That we have...

Prabhupāda: Better quality also.

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

Prabhupāda: So let them issue later on, and you can make.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Sometime we are preparing, called, a brochure for this lecture series. We'll make it color. So I already have the outline in Boston. So we're titling, "Announcing a Worldwide Lecture Series on the Origin of Life in the Matter, sponsored by Bhaktivedanta Institute for Higher Studies and Founder-Ācārya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda." And we have some colored pictures inside and a little also, synopsis of the theme, the topics. We said, "Chemical Evolution-A Molecular Fairy Tale," and we have about three or four lines describing what the lecture should be about and what is the main theme of the talk. And we also have photographs of four or five of us who are going to speak and a little background of the candidate. So we wanted to make it very official.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: And also making it nice-looking.

Prabhupāda: And print very well.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. So that will be useful for making engagements. That we will do before we come here. And it's already outlined.

Prabhupāda: Very nice. So money is ready there?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, money is ready there. Svarūpa Dāmodara hasn't heard yet about Ambarīṣa's offer.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I haven't heard about this?

Prabhupāda: For starting our museum.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We gave a lecture in Gainesville, Florida. It was last year. So Amarendra made a nice poster about our lecture. I don't exactly remember, "Frankenstein or Einstein," describing a little about our talk, that life cannot come from matter. And he made a nice poster all over the campuses.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Many people came?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, some came in the temple. We also gave university, in the physics class, called "Physics for Skeptics," the title of the class. It was very interesting.

Prabhupāda: Now it is clearing. You can go inside.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One basement is there where the restaurant is. You saw that. And kitchen. Then, below that, I was going to take you to the boiler room, but you didn't want to come. That's another basement, sub-basement. That boiler... (end)

Morning Conversation -- June 23, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But he gets up at four o'clock every morning. He only eats fruits and milk.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He only eats fruits and milk, nothing else. Cāpāṭi and all he doesn't eat. And he boasts that "I gave up sex life." And he reads the Gītā every day. And, of course, he doesn't practice it, but... In some public speeches he has said that we should revive our Indian culture which has been lost.

Prabhupāda: There is little hope.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Of course, these politicians are little worried that if they make something very strict, like if they make it Hindu or something, then they will lose votes from the Christians and the Muslims.

Prabhupāda: That is their difficulty.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So they will...

Prabhupāda: No, that is not possible. But there must be some ideas.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. (pause)

Prabhupāda: Now let us go inside. (end)

Conversation: 'How to Secure Brahmacaris' -- June 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (indistinct-bad tape) Others, that we are purchasing, one. Otherwise, the idea was (indistinct-bad tape).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is four buildings, joined together.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Perfectly utilizes that land. Inside, you want flower gardens.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In addition to providing flowers for the Deity, will people who visit the temple walk there, or it will be closed to them?

Prabhupāda: They can walk. This flower garden... Why not? Footpaths.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There can be a footpath.

Prabhupāda: But in the middle there must be very nice flower garden.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: 'Cause sometime visitors, sometimes it may be noisy and disturbing to the students if visitors start to walk within the...

Prabhupāda: No, you can take them to walk.

Conversation -- June 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very symmetrical. Very... Actually it goes in my mind a lot now.

Prabhupāda: Jaya Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. Who has got strength like Balarāma? Balarāma, He can do everything by His strength. We are depending on Him, Balarāma. He can please everyone, and He has got immense strength to do anything He likes. Jaya Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. Now these sakhīs, aṣṭa-sakhī, there is no instance we have displayed. Why they should be kept inside? Only one man should be under a cloud(?), in an upturned (indistinct).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nice. Nice.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Temple is very attractive. People come in. They walk all the way around, looking at all the paintings, talking about them...

Prabhupāda: This new architecture(?)...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's the most unusual temple in Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: And it is not meant for making money. It is meant for giving service. And that is the difference.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Karach.(?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. And only in the very center are the inhabited lands of Bhū-maṇḍala.

Prabhupāda: The sun is above them?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not above Lokāloka. Inside, within.

Yaśodā-nandana: If this would be on the floor, that means Mount Meru would be 84,000 yojanas. Then, above Mount Meru, 16,000 yojanas above, is the sun. But then, so that the rays of the would not penetrate in that land all around, this great mountain, Lokāloka, extends all the way up to Svarga. So it is like a big, big cup, in which the middle of the cup, or the bottom, there is all of these planets, all of this Bhū-maṇḍala. And past this Lokāloka range of mountains is this Aloka-varṣa, which is described that there is no living being which can go to there. The only occasion where anyone went through there is when Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna went to see the Mahā-Viṣṇu in the spiritual sky. So Kṛṣṇa with His cakra penetrated through all of these regions, and then He went through all of the coverings of the universe who were there. That was the only occasion where anyone went to this land. So this is a general picture of Bhū-maṇḍala.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: To scale.

Prabhupāda: Then the sun... Above the sun there is moon.

Yaśodā-nandana: Yes, and above the sun there is the moon.

Room Conversation during lunchtime -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Delhi.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ah. The heading is "Eleven Krishna Devotees Held for Firing." "Five Indian and six foreign Vaiṣṇava devotees were arrested from Māyāpur maṭha of ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, in Nabadwip last night when shots fired from inside the celebrated temple injured fifteen persons, most of them milkmen. A double-barreled gun was seized from the maṭha, it is reported. Police pickets have been posted since there is considerable tension in the nearby villages. Among those arrested is Swami Bhavānanda, an American in charge of the maṭha. Some time ago he was forced to leave the country after the expiry of his visa, but he returned later. The incident occurred at about 5 p.m. on Friday. Some boys were grazing their cattle on the fields outside the maṭha when some cows strayed into its compound. The cattle were beaten up by the inmates and driven out." It doesn't sound like our devotees. Beat up cows? "Angry milkmen from a nearby village crowded outside the maṭha. Shots were then fired from inside the maṭha, it is reported, injuring fifteen persons, two of them seriously. The police arrived on the scene within an hour. Among the six foreigners arrested are a Romanian, an Italian, and some Americans. The founder of the maṭha, Prabhupāda A.C. Bhaktivedanta, was not present." This is called slanted reporting. I mean, first of all, our devotees don't beat up the cows. We worship the cow. We don't beat cows. I can't take this as very factual account. So many statements here say, "It was reported," "It was reported." This is from a... It was published in Delhi, but it's datelined Calcutta, and the event happened in Māyāpur. So by the time it got to Delhi it seems to have taken a strange shape. I thought you'd want to...

Prabhupāda: These goyālas are very aggressive.

Śatadhanya: Milkmen means goyālas.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bālāi goyālas.

Prabhupāda: It is not the Muhammadans.

Śatadhanya: Not according to this.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is still not conclusive.

Prabhupāda: No. Police inquiry must be there.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The professors challenge him... What...?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. There was a challenge?

Mr. Myer: Yes, one of his disciples was recently caught. He had lot of vibhūti inside, hidden inside his body. So when he lay down they say that lot of vibhūti was coming out. So when they opened the shirt it was just filled with whole thing inside. That is one of his very close disciples, they are... But he is still managing to get away. His argument is that there are two types of people who come to him. One who is spiritually advanced, for them he does not show any miracles. But there are some poor people who do not believe in God unless you show the miracle, so therefore he gives all these mūrtis and... I told, once (indistinct) with him last year. So I was sitting there and suddenly, you see, he just did something and...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Let's see him save himself from death. Let's see him make the miracle that he can save himself from dying. That he cannot do.

Mr. Myer: Whole thing is, in the last four, five years. Once they tried to buy my chairman's car, they want to buy. It is big Chevrolet car he has got.

Prabhupāda: I have heard that he's a big drunkard.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Very good. Make Govinda Restaurant.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: New Delhi will like it. New Delhi people will appreciate a vegetarian restaurant. So I think there's some pleasing news, Śrīla Prabhupāda. This is sent by Bharadvāja Prabhu. It's a letter.

Prabhupāda: Delhi temple is going on nice?

Bhāgavatāśraya: Oh, yes. We are redecorating everything inside. We've painted to about four feet off the ground with some gloss paint and then nice distemper. And I've spent, oh, a lot of money, around two thousand rupees on the whole temple. Temple room, Deity room, kitchens, everything, we're painting it all. And now Bhakti-caitanya Swami, he will have his office there. BBT office will be in Delhi. It is very good arrangement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Maybe I should show you the pictures first. I've brought your glasses. These are the photographs, Śrīla Prabhupāda, of the Deities to be installed in Fiji. He's sending to you for your approval. First, this is Śrī-Śrī-Guru-Gaurāṅga in day dress.

Prabhupāda: First class. Just like life.

Room Conversation about Grhasthas -- July 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I think you know everything spiritual and material.

Prabhupāda: Hm? So my fear is that after training our men so much, if he's lost, that's a great loss. Then future of society becomes very hopeless.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So the principle is that if a householder has outside employment and can pay, then he can live inside our temple buildings.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. What is the wrong?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At least for five or six years now the system has been that no man and woman should live together in the same building as where the Deity is.

Prabhupāda: That is the system. Temple is meant for retired men. Brahmacārī, sannyāsī, vānaprastha.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So then how we can let them live together, man and woman?

Prabhupāda: But if there is no alternative, what can be done?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hm. No, but there is alternative always. There are available rooms and apartments just adjoining the temples.

Prabhupāda: Then it is all right, but he must be connected with temple.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I'll leave this behind also. This is the cover of First Canto, Part Three.

Prabhupāda: The same cover?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Only this picture inside changes. It's the same as the English. Only this changes inside. Explanation, everything, is the same.

Prabhupāda: So you please complete this. Jaya.

(break) Otherwise you just grow cotton and pluck. Problem solved. Get some lamb fur. It is not killing. They grow. Take the, what is called?

Bhakti-caru: Fleece. Wool. Wool? Fleece.

Prabhupāda: Wool, yes. You make some warm cloth. Very easy to live.

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Upendra: She said that they would be soft because there is honey.

Prabhupāda: Oh, there is honey?

Upendra: It's made with honey and brown sugar, molasses. All these are soft sweeteners. And since there's no preservatives...

Prabhupāda: Call the (indistinct). And distribute.

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, the ladies can read at home.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Also, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the cover for First Canto, Part Three, is already printed. I'm going to take 1.3 now, but we've already printed the cover. This is 1.3.

Prabhupāda: This I want. Books are coming.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And 1.3 will be ready before the end of August. The cover is already done. The inside end leaf is done. I just have to send...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the quantity you've printed of these?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Two thousand. Next, from 1.3, we're increasing it to three thousand.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda was hoping you could print in larger quantities.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, there's no need at the moment because we print these by offset. If we need more we can...

Prabhupāda: All right. Whatever manuscript you have ready, print.

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I want to see, whatever manuscript is ready, they should be printed.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Also, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we've come out with Diwali cards this year. These are going to be very, very big. Inside is a message. We are selling hundreds of these. On this BBT will make a very big profit plus the temples will make a profit. We are selling these exclusively to our life members. And on the back is the mahā-mantra. I brought you a package with me. This is another sample.

Yaśomatīnandana: This is going to be very profitable business.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: In the shop it sells for four rupees, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Yaśomatīnandana: We'll sell it for two rupees to our men.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: One-fifty. I've sent you a newsletter to all the temples.

Yaśomatīnandana: We'll sell for two rupees.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We want bulk orders.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How much do they cost?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The BBT cost I'll tell you later.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. You keep...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So this we are showing, as if we are doing the life members a favor. These are just some advanced samples that are printed just to get orders. And plus, anyone who orders more than hundred cards, we will print their name and message inside. And plus, there's a mahā-mantra on the back of every... Hundred cards is the minimum order.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A hundred's nothing. They'll all do that.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So both consulting, you can see.

Yaśomatīnandana: Oh, yes, I can sell. I think this will be very successful.

Prabhupāda: So far the printing is concerned, there is no question. First class. Very nice.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is costing the BBT only...

Prabhupāda: Whatever it costs, I don't mind. You make some profit. That's all.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: At least for few months I can continue. This is first business. Do it. And another point, that formerly the Britishers expanded empire. Now we have got better service. They... You expand the empire of consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is also the same view, but it is spiritual. Kṛṣṇa has given you the ability. Do it enthusiastically with the courage of an Englishman and the heart of a Bengali mother.

Prabhaviṣṇu: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in Bangladesh when we were doing programs, after the programs we'd distribute books, and there was such a great rush for books that we had to stay inside a locked room and sell the books through bars in the window.

Prabhupāda: That's very encouraging.

Prabhaviṣṇu: Everywhere we went the people would...

Prabhupāda: The best thing is that in Bangladesh you get foreign exchange. You print books there. It think it is cheaper there. Never mind for the quality, but you'll get good number of books. The government will be pleased.

Room Conversation With Madhudvisa and others -- August 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Where is the scarcity of money? (laughter)

Śrutakīrti: Also it is a very excellent business for householders in our movement.

Prabhupāda: You American boys, you know how to earn money. Now you have learned how to spend it for Kṛṣṇa. It is wonderful.

Śrutakīrti: It is very nice, because when you burn the candle it only burns on the inside, so you can burn the candle and still keep this attractive...

Prabhupāda: Oh. Outer cover.

Śrutakīrti: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So you keep that permanently.

Prabhupāda: Oh, this is made of..., the outer portion is made of candle? No.

Śrutakīrti: Yes, all wax. Most of it is all just plain white wax, and then you have different color waxes, tanks of different colors so you'll dip it in one tank. You have to do that several times. And then they just get a knife and slit on different angles and twist it.

Prabhupāda: Something artistic, wonderful.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, mint tea is water boiled with some mint leaves, so it gets the essence of the taste of mint in boiled water. Sometimes they add a little honey. I think they must have added a little bit of honey. So it's flavored warm water with honey in it. Probably it would be good for you to take some liquid. One should drink some liquid. You are not performing austerities that you don't have to... (Prabhupāda chuckles) Just like I think it was Dhruva Mahārāja. He did not take anything. We don't want you to do that, Śrīla Prabhupāda. So this is a nice drink. Sometimes in the past I've had it. It has a pleasant taste, and it's soothing on the stomach because it's warm. More or less, it's boiled water with a little flavor and some honey. It will give you little bit of liquid inside, which isn't bad. Not to drink anything, I don't think that would be good.

Prabhupāda: So give.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You must be feeling empty inside, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I covered your body with powders. How do you find the taste?

Prabhupāda: Not bad.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Where is Kīrtanānanda Swami? (Bengali)...New Vrindaban scheme... (Bengali)

Hari-śauri: This is a palace that they're building in our New Vrindaban farm community. This is built by our own men. This is not complete yet, but it's being built, the dome. Kīrtanānanda Swami is in charge. These are the devotees. Everything is being made by our men. They learned how to cast concrete, how to make these pillars, archways. This marble laying is all done by our men. They came here and learned, and they have a marble shop. This is the kīrtana hall inside. This is on the walls. Here's the floor. This is onyx and marble together. This is pressed concrete, sculptured. This is a support piece, little decorative. This is a guesthouse that was built by the devotees. This is another new building they're building now, and this is present installation and silos for storing cow fodder. You want to sit up, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: I can sit down for some...

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So the place is cleansed or not?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. Place is... They are still putting the electrical wires. But otherwise, we have decorated the inside with curtains, so everything will be nice also. We're cleaning the other hall for serving the prasādam.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And all of the guesthouse rooms, Śrīla Prabhupāda, have been vacated for the scientists. The whole guesthouse is ready to receive them, and all the rooms have been cleansed freshly. It's ready for them. Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja is here, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Do you know about the conference?

Kīrtanānanda: About what?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: About the conference.

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So cooperate. You have heard what the arrangement?

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Catur-vidha-śrī-bhagavat-prasāda-svādv-anna-tṛptān hari-bhakta-saṅghān, kṛtvaiva tṛptiṁ bhajataḥ sadaiva **. This is also bhajana, to be satisfied that others are taking first-class prasādam.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bhuṅkte bhojayate caiva ṣaḍ-vidhaṁ prīti-lakṣaṇam.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. We want to treat them very nicely outside the conference, like giving nice prasādam. (break) ...yes. So we have specifically arranged for this nice prasādam.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Inside you're not going to be nice to them? (laughter)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Inside we are going to say very strongly about our philosophy and science. So anybody who's going to oppose that, we're going to duel them. Also we'll show some films, our Hare Kṛṣṇa films, just after the conference. The evening, I have some entertainment program. That program is for showing our films and our activities, ISKCON activities throughout the world. So I have brought all the slides from Los Angeles that we have from our BBT department, and also I have all the films ready. Also they can attend maṅgala-ārati, and in the evening they can also attend the sandhyā-ārati. And also some of them want just to see our temple, Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. They have heard that the architect is very nice, and it's very nicely decorated. So some of them already heard about it, so they just want to see how the temple is here. Overall, our idea is also to make them devotees.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is wanted. So go and arrange. That's all.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)

Room Conversation -- October 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Svarūpa Dāmodara says, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that even if the hall is not simply for the Bhaktivedanta Institute, that the Gurukula here requires to have at least one big auditorium with seats. And also if you remember, the upstairs was going to be living quarters for women. Right now the women are living on the inside part of the guesthouse, and they're very noisy with all the children there. So perhaps it's a good idea to go ahead with that building anyway. He says that the Bhaktivedanta Gurukula could use that hall in any case.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It can be a multipurpose hall. It doesn't have to be just for Gurukula or Bhaktivedanta Institute. It can also be cultural...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Cultural or wedding... We could rent it for wedding ceremonies, things like that also.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. It's already a cultural center. Just like the Gītā Conference is coming next month, I was told? They would like to hold here. Something like that, we can always get some engagements. Also we can get some...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What do you think, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No, whatever you think is approved.

Room Conversation -- October 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And he was being treated as tuberculosis.

Ādi-keśava: Sometimes they make the operations, and they leave the knife in, and they sew the knife up inside after they make an operation. Or the scissors. They take some clamps and they sew them inside the wound. And then the man says, "Oh, I have a pain in my side." And they say, "Oh, new disease," and they make another operation and take out the clamps or the knife.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Sometimes they only depend on machines, these medical doctors. That's why he's mentioning about x-ray. Through these machines you cannot tell the correct diagnosis.

Prabhupāda: I have got many experiences in my family life. One servant, Kashiram.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Kashiram.

Prabhupāda: Yes his name was Kashiram. So he was howling, howling. So we took him to the hospital, and so many student doctors surrounded. They diagnosed something, strangulation or something like that.

Room Conversation -- October 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So that bus, they have stopped?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. But that bus is no big... There's no benefit particularly of that Airbus. I mean there's no real benefit. It's not any better than a 707 or 727. It's bigger inside, but the seats are not bigger. It doesn't really affect you. The seats are just as close together as on any other plane.

Bhakti-caru: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Miśri-jala.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda is saying something, Bhakti-caru.

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Train or plane. But first we should agree on the idea, though. I think the point of that there's no real advantage to waiting here... Our feeling is that there's more advantage to being in Māyāpur at this time. We can certainly go by plane. I think we can arrange some small wheelchair that will go up to the seat. It's possible to arrange.

Brahmānanda: Seat right at the door.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What we'll do is we'll purchase two extra seats so that Prabhupāda can have three seats.

Brahmānanda: And right by the door so they can just bring it in the door and... Take the seats right on the door.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That can be done. We can try to get the front row.

Haṁsadūta: Whatever they do when they have to transport someone in emergency... They must have an arrangement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, they do. They take the seats out and put your stretcher on. But we don't want that. There's no question of that.

Prabhupāda: It goes direct?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. Delhi-Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Then arrange for that.

Room Conversation -- October 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Very good news. Now can see. This material body may remain or not remain. This movement will push on.(?) That is wanted. Where is such thing throughout the whole world? Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There aren't, except in our temples. He says, "By Kṛṣṇa's grace the most wonderful Janmāṣṭamī celebration was held at the big farm āśrama in South Africa. The celebration included the opening of a new temple and prasādam facility, two new life membership cottages and three overnight guest rooms, initiation of four new devotees and two brāhmaṇa initiations, a play, a massive prasādam distribution, go-pūjā, a transcendental treasure hunt for the children, ecstatic chanting by all, and distribution of books, records, posters and tapes. We enclose pictures of the various events, as well as newspaper articles. The newspapers were all one-hundred-percent favorable, and one even had a four-page article on ISKCON. The Gujarati ladies from Durban and Pietermaritzburg all came early to help cook puris and halavā. They cooked about one quarter ton of halavā (Prabhupāda chuckles) and over eight thousand puris, all of which were distributed. At least fifteen thousand people attended the two-day festival, and all of the most important big Indian businessmen and millionaires attended. Two days before the event, a large marquee, able to hold twenty-five hundred people, was erected, and the initiations and the play were held inside. The play especially was most successful, as the top Indian stage and lighting men in South Africa were giving us technical assistance. It was so nice that even some of the ladies were in tears during the performance. The go-pūjā was also a massively popular event, as none of the local people had ever seen such a thing before. In fact, many people came up to the devotees and were saying things like, 'We left India thirty years ago, and I never saw anything like this before.' So far, the Indian community..." (break)

Bhavānanda: And the other one is that Ādi-keśava Mahārāja, he has a friend in Delhi named Chandi Das. He's a big yogi, I think?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, he's from America.

Bhavānanda: He has quite a bit of money. And so Ādi-keśava called him up, and he had a kavirāja in the Rāmānuja-sampradāya. And Chandi Das went to see his kavirāja, and his kavirāja had just gotten finished mixing makara-dhvaja medicine. He'd been preparing it for the past ten days. And Śatadhanya Mahārāja and Ādi-keśava were just now going over to see this kavirāja. That Chandi Das has purchased seven tolās of the medicine for Your Divine Grace as a gift. They are going over to pick it up.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Just see. Kṛṣṇa arranges. Just see.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Vrindavan De: Yes. That can be... But I was feeling most uneasy in the air-conditioned chair car, because the outside climate was very cold, and inside was very cold the whole night.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So Toofan would be better? Kalka Mail is better.

Vrindavan De: Calcutta from Delhi.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So?

Vrindavan De: Then where should I stay in the night? It leaves at eight o'clock in the morning to Calcutta.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Stay at our temple.

Vrindavan De: Toofan is better I think.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If available.

Vrindavan De: As this Mail from here, Mathurā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So where to get the...? I don't want to get the tickets from Mathurā. I want to get the tickets from Delhi. That is my point. I will arrange to purchase a ticket from Delhi.

Vrindavan De: But where can I stay in the night?

Prabhupāda: Or you can go by plane. We shall pay.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. To be popular and profitable, they're approaching it on a very businesslike basis. And also the other point is that they're afraid that... In Bombay they've made this hall, such a beautiful hall. So they don't want it to lie vacant or empty, and they just can't think of what can be done inside that hall every single day of the year. It's a fact that hall should be used every day of the year.

Bhavānanda: By us.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: By us. But since they feel that there's not going to be any constant use from our side, they're thinking that it doesn't make sense to have built and spent so much money on such a good hall and not utilize it daily, which from the business point of view is a fact. But that means that you're going to have to invite all kinds of semi... It's not even Kṛṣṇa conscious. I wanted to say semi-Kṛṣṇa conscious, but they're going to have to invite different theater people, entertaining people.

Bhavānanda: So the Kṛṣṇa conscious solution is to utilize the hall every night for our own purposes. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is unlimited. There's so many dramas, so many lectures, so many symposiums.

Prabhupāda: No, suppose you construct some house and rent out. Then they can do as they like. So similarly, if that hall is made, constructed for making some money, then the money will not come if we don't rent out to the cinema actors, actresses. It is just like... What is called? Village house. Hm? The hall is called? When one pays, marriage ceremony... For making some money you have made.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What is the report?

Akṣayānanda: They have just... Śrī Nārāyaṇajī and Rāma-Kṛṣṇa Bajajī have just left. I just saw them off. They are very happy. All the members of the committee, of their committee, they made a prayer that Your Divine Grace would have long life and good health. And regarding their meeting, I simply put their... They had the loudspeaker outside. I just put it inside so no passerby can hear, and they just did their business and left. They had no problems.

Prabhupāda: What resolution they passed?

Akṣayānanda: I do not know. (Prabhupāda laughs) I could not attend it, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I had to go... Next door we had some work with one bābājī. We had given him money last year, and I had to get that money back for his land. They're given a security.

Prabhupāda: Money?

Akṣayānanda: Yes. We were using his land for a sewer, water waste. So we had given him two thousand rupees' security. We were going to buy that land. You remember once Your Divine Grace came to see it. We were going to put all that waste water and make a garden and all this. So now we have connected with the municipal sewer line, so there's no need for that land, and that problem is solved. So we took the money back that we had given as a security. I have been there for the last two or three hours, so I was unable to come.

Prabhupāda: They have returned the money.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Why?

Gaura-govinda: We heard that this year that new body... Jagannātha has a new body, so it was heard that that was not proper time. These pāṇḍās and some people were interested with this business purpose. They did so, and also these pāṇḍās were doing some nonsense inside the temple, so Jagannātha was very much displeased, so it took so much time.

Prabhupāda: The pāṇḍās untimely changed the body?

Gaura-govinda: Untimely they changed.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Pañca-draviḍa: These paṇḍitas, Śrīla Prabhupāda... Five years ago I got permission to go into the temple and they let me in the gates, only the paṇḍitas blocked the door. They would not let us in. But we were allowed inside the temple gates and everything. It was only the one paṇḍita came and stopped us. (break)

Prabhupāda: Management is in the hands of government?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is the management in the hand of the government?

Gaura-govinda: Yes, government. One administrator is there. He's governmental power.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That means the government is being paid off by the pāṇḍās.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: This is Orissa government.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Anantadeva said the government administrator also wants money. They're all in it together.

Gaura-govinda: That Sadasiva Ratha Sharma, the president of... (break)

Pañca-draviḍa: The biggest paṇḍitas are all known meat-eaters also.

Gaura-govinda: Ah, yes!

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They eat meat.

Gaura-govinda: Meat, fish, everything.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think, Prabhupāda, you mentioned in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta that.

Gaura-govinda: Many also take all sorts of intoxication and they also go to the prostitute. Everything they do.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How can they serve the Deity? Śrīla Prabhupāda, does Lord Jagannātha reside there any more?

Prabhupāda: That is the proof, that it was not in order this year.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What was proof, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: That ratha-cakra broken.

Room Conversation -- November 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So finishing?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Construction?

Girirāja: Well, the building was not finished. I think that... I mean the inside of the temple and the theater and the restaurant and lobby of the guesthouse and many of the guestrooms will be ready, but the marble work on the domes was very behind schedule. So when I was there only about ten or fifteen percent of the marble on the three big domes was up, and the... Of course, the three domes at the entrance were almost ready. So the three main domes could be finished by the time of the opening, but there will be marble work that has to go on after the opening.

Prabhupāda: It will never be finished. When the date is being fixed?

Girirāja: Well, we fixed it for January lst and begin the ceremonies on December 29th, which is Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī's Disappearance Day.

Room Conversation -- November 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In this condition.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, what we have to do is carry on with this medicine, medical treatment, and let the kavirāja come. Then, when he comes from Calcutta, he'll review everything that's happened and he'll see what your condition is like. And if he feels that the liver and kidney have been cleared up a little bit, then he'll begin to give medicine for giving you strength. And we will make him stay here until you get sufficient strength. And if you do get sufficient strength, which means his medicine is working, then he can take you to Māyāpur. And after some days, if he gives you medicine for strength and you don't get any strength, then there's no reason to leave Vṛndāvana. He may go back, but we will stay here. I think that should be our course of action. We certainly... I've looked just now with Upendra, and pretty much, you've increased by about double what you drink and you've increased by about double the amount of urine. But that's not going to give you strength very much. And the kavirāja has also said that he's not giving any medicine for giving strength at this time. Mostly he's giving medicine which should help the kidney and liver. I can't see inside your body to know if your kidney and liver are better. That he has to say. And if he says that it is getting better, then he can give the medicine for giving strength. And that's something that we can notice. Once he gives the medicine for strength, we'll be able to see if you're actually getting strength. After five or six days, if you're not getting any strength, then we'll know that the medicine is not effective. If it is effective, then we can go with him. You'll have more strength and we can go to Māyāpur. He can take us there and we'll carry on. And if for some reason it's not effective, then we have to trust simply in kṛṣṇa-nāma. That we're doing anyway, but that's... We'll have to do exclusively at that point.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Get on...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Does that sound right, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: There is no alternative.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. There's no alternative. There's no question of going to any more kavirājas. This is the last one. He's the best we've found, and if his medicine doesn't work, then let us simply depend on Kṛṣṇa.

Bhavānanda: That was fifty and clear, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Fifty and clear.

Prabhupāda: Bhavānanda, you are not feeling well?

Bhavānanda: No, now I'm feeling better, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Room Conversation -- November 7, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Not so good. I am passing stool.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We'll bring that to his notice. Now that he's here, all of these things can be adjusted. Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he explains that because of the fact that you have not eaten for so many months, all of your inside has become dried up and shriveled, and therefore you cannot expect that you'll be healed very quickly. He says it will take time, but it can be done. As far as your passing stool, you are passing so little stool that it's not very significant.

Śatadhanya: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you passed stool once this afternoon and then in the early morning, previous morning, you passed stool. So actually today has not been a lot of stool at all, and it was very small amount.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So he was explaining that because everything is so dried up and shriveled inside, now we have to make your body used to taking in foods again and giving off the natural secretions and other juices that are necessary. It takes time. He feels that it's certainly possible, and we certainly hope it is possible.

Prabhupāda: Turn me.

Room Conversation -- November 7, 1977, Vrndavana:

Jayapatākā: Then we can have it completed by the five-hundredth-year anniversary of Lord Caitanya...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatākā: ...which is in eight years.

Prabhupāda: Do it. That is...

Jayapatākā: And the architect at Māyāpur, he said that the temple that's inside the big temple, that could be opened up to the public within three years by having just some type of false ceiling, and then the upper stories, work can go on. That means within three years people could start visiting the temple and using it, which will also be a big inspiration to the public. And then the upstairs and complete outside would be completed.

Prabhupāda: Do like that. That is very good idea. And different name, you can purchase.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust?

Jayapatākā: Each of the..., like gośāla, handloom, these can be separately formed into societies, which would be easier for bookkeeping and management anyway, and each of those societies can purchase the land on which their handloom or gośāla, whatever is, they can purchase that land in that name.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, not from that point of view. What is the use of lying down here?

Jayapatāka: The kavirāja said...

Prabhupāda: Kavirāja may say...

Jayapatāka: ...that even that your body is going to, is got a life of six to ten years but he said even a healthy cow, if it's kept locked up inside of a room, then it will deteriorate.

Prabhupāda: And therefore I say, (laughs) don't keep me locked up. You do your duty as I have trained you and let me be free and if money required, he'll come and take and go back again as he is coming to take book.

Jayapatāka: What?

Prabhupāda: They have got experience Indian, you can go village to village and, arrangement as you may, but it is trouble taken, and I am no longer, you manage. If I live, I can come again. I shall be very glad.

Devotee: Previously it was mentioned that there was some risk in travelling.

Prabhupāda: What is that risk? Nowadays there is no risk. What is the risk? Mm?

Devotee: Well from the medical point of view it's something with the organs or something, I don't know exactly but it's been considered.

Prabhupāda: This is my proposal and...

Jayapatāka: That would be after you gained some strength, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes. If I (have) free air and free movement why sunshine (?) and I can come back again in a year.

Jayapatāka: You will be translating while you're travelling?

Prabhupāda: No, yes and no.

Room Conversation -- November 13-14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bon Mahārāja: In and out, both are superexcellent. Inside, in Mahārāja's translation, and outside, your publication, printing, makeup, everything superexcellent. That is first attraction, when you take the book in your hand you feel that is something very nicely done. I don't think in India we can have this type of printing. You get them printed now in Los Angeles?

Jayādvaita: They're printed in Tennessee.

Bon Mahārāja: Tennessee. And the pictures are printed separately, then the pictures are sent to the publisher in pages.

Bon Mahārāja: Last time they told me in New York... Your press was in New York, and they were shifting it to Los Angeles. About two hundred brahmacārīs were working there and they told me.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now it's in Los Angeles.

Bon Mahārāja: Los Angeles. Well, it is all Mahāprabhu's will, and Prabhupāda is our...

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Los Angeles is godown... (Bengali) Howrah Station. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I have a picture of it, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I have a picture of that BBT godown.

Prabhupāda: Show him.

Devotee: It's about two blocks long and about one block high.