Instrument (Converstions)

Expressions researched:
"instrument" |"instrumental" |"instrumentally" |"instrumentation" |"instruments"

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: No, no. These mantras are also... But Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is specially recommended for this age. And the Vedic mantras, they are also chanted, I told you, with musical, tampura, and they sit down and chant. Nārada Muni, he's chanting always. So chanting through musical instruments, mantras, it is not new introduction. It is from time immemorial.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Mind is instrument. The mind's position is accepting and rejecting. Intellect helps the mind what to reject and what to accept. And that intelligence is of the soul. That ground of intelligence is the soul. First of all bodily concept is gross life, ordinary, like animals, they do not know except the body. Higher than bodily concept of life, the exercise of the mind, mental speculation. That mental speculation is adjusted by intelligence and that intelligence belongs to the soul.

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

Prabhupāda: No. It has size. We cannot measure it.

Dr. Weir: That's what I mean. Therefore the word size is a misconception.

Prabhupāda: But that is not a scientific statement. Because you have no measuring instrument you cannot say it has no size.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, three dimension. It is said, it is estimated that ten... one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair.

Dr. Weir: (laughs) We could do better than that with a micron.

Prabhupāda: Then find out the soul, if you've got instrument.

Room Conversation -- December 11, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: The materialistic person, they have only one experience: this cosmic manifestation. Beyond this they have no other vision. Their senses are imperfect. Just like the astronomers, they have got big, big telescope, many other instruments. They want to see through the eyes how many stars are there, how the planets are moving, and whatever imperfect knowledge they receive, by that little knowledge they advertise themselves as great scientists.

Room Conversation -- December 11, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: And what is the guarantee that the instruments which they're using, they are also perfect? Because that machine, that binocular, is also made by a person who is imperfect. So what is the guarantee that by seeing through binocular or microscope, the conclusion arrived, it is perfect? What is your answer? Your eyes are imperfect, that's a fact. Otherwise, why you are using binocular, microscope? Eyes are imperfect. Originally your eyes are imperfect. Now, eyes or other senses, it doesn't matter. Sense is sense. So you are manufacturing a machine, some instrument, by the same imperfect senses, then what is the guarantee that this machine, this binocular, if you see through the binocular, the knowledge is perfect? What is your answer?

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is not possible by any human being. Because any human being, his senses are imperfect. So how he can teach perfect knowledge? Just like you see the sun like a disc. You have no means to approach the sun. If you say, "We can see the sun by telescope and this and that," that is also made by you. And you are imperfect, your instrument is imperfect. Because that telescope you can say that you are seeing, but that machine is made by you, and you are imperfect. How your machine can be perfect? Therefore your knowledge of the sun is imperfect. So you don't teach about sun unless you have got perfect. That is cheating.

Room Conversation -- June 30, 1972, San Diego:

Prabhupāda: Wire, that is also lying somewhere. Nobody cares. But one gentleman, he collected all these three things and prepared a string instrument. He joined the bamboo with the dry cover of squash and fitted the string and it began to ting, ting, ting. It is called ektara. There is instrument in India it is called ektara. The example is that so many things individually lying useless. But if somebody knows how to combine them, it becomes an instrument, very sweet. Very sweet to hear.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: And we are, Nara-nārāyaṇa has been engaged to make it a nice garden. All vacant land, we are getting nice garden, and the owner of the land, he has given me the best facility. First of all, the land is worth minimum 30,000,000 rupees.

Devotee: Thirty lakhs?

Prabhupāda: Thirty lakhs. But he has given me for fourteen lakhs. And that's also by instrument, in three years, or four years, without any interest...

Interview -- July 5, 1972, New York:

Prabhupāda: If we remain satisfied with this imperfect knowledge, then we remain in darkness. We have to know the sun from the astronomer. They have calculated. They know. In this way knowledge, perfect knowledge, can be attained—when it is received through the perfect knower, not by speculation. That speculation means I shall speculate with limited mind and imperfect senses. So however carefully or expertly I manage with the instruments, they are themselves imperfect. Therefore Vedic sastra says that to understand the divine you must have divine mercy. You must possess. Athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvaya-prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi jānāti tattvaṁ (SB 10.14.29). One can understand the truth by the grace of... So searching after divine means we must search after the grace of the divine.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Cause of all causes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That, the two causes, are not very clear. The material and instrumental.

Prabhupāda: Hmmm?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The two types of causes, the relative...

Prabhupāda: There is only one cause. Only one cause. But they are manifested in two, material and spiritual. Cause is one. But they are manifested in two; one is material, one is spiritual.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So the instrumental is the spiritual?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The instrumental cause...?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Efficient cause. Maybe. Which is actually acting.

Morning Walk -- May 2, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Life equal to matter means the same thing. Just like here you pinch, you feel, but here with a, I mean to say, iron instrument you pinch, you will not feel. Both things are the same, is it not? But here you feel, here you do not feel. So matter means where there is less feeling, and life means where there is acute feeling. That is meaning.

Morning Walk -- May 2, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: This matter... You can understand by the finger. This matter, this nail, is production of this part. This part is life and this part is not life. But it is a production of this life. When you have cut your nails, you don't feel pain. But same instrument you touch your little, half inch down, immediately you feel pain. So therefore although qualitatively... This is also produced of matter, as produced of this part. But where there is feeling, that is spiritual, and where there is no feeling, that is matter. What is Kṛṣṇa consciousness? The human being is the same. But as soon as he feels that "There is Kṛṣṇa," he is spiritualist. As soon as he does not feel, he is materialist. That is the difference. It is the question of feeling.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Kṛṣṇa-Kāntī: As the Kali-yuga advances, the human beings will eat their children too. Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Just like in the last war, they ate stool, their own stool, out of hunger. So when there will be no foodstuff, they will kill their own children. Already they are killing, abortion. Not only abortion, children grows... By surgical instrument, they kill and they take out the child... They are already killing.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Killing means killing, what is that? What he is asking? I do not...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He is asking that they take the pill, birth control pill.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is one kind of killing. But directly killing. They, through some instrument, through the vagina, they kill, cut into pieces and get out. Living children. He is a scientist. That surgeon, he is a scientist, and doing this business.

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: All fools' paradise. That's all. Why do they send their children to school? Why not let them grow by chance? Is there any excuse if I say, "By chance I have violated this rule?" Is that the cause of excuse?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That's because of my ignorance.

Prabhupāda: That is chance. That is chance. Because I am ignorant, therefore there is chance.

Paramahaṁsa: It would be just as stupid as saying a beautiful instrument like a car was made by chance.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. That is the most regrettable condition, that these rascals are getting recognition; talking all foolish, and they are getting recognition.

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: Just like I was speaking that the measurement of the living entity is such and such. So how God has become so small? Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān. This is... This we can simply imagine: one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. I don't think any scientist can have any measuring instrument.

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Krishna Tiwari: Well, they don't know probably, at this moment. But I don't..., I..., we have trouble, at least I have trouble, in understanding whether anybody else knows about soul. According to you...

Prabhupāda: Now, so far we are laymen, we have no instrument to measure. We simply hear from the śāstra and we try to perceive, that's all. But there is something. That measurement very, may be very, very small, but there is the substance. That is our point.

Krishna Tiwari: Right. But, I mean, with due respect to śāstras, after all, in my opinion śāstras are written by very intelligent people, and how so ever intelligent they would have been five thousand years ago, they could not have...

Room Conversation -- September 1, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: That there is no brain behind this creation. How foolish they are. There is no brain in this artistic work. And how wonderfully, because it is automatically coming, artist. Anything, you take flower. So, without brain how this thing can happen? But these rascals they do not understand. They say nature. What is this nature? Nature is an instrument, but the brain is God. Just like you paint a flower with the brush. The brush is not the creator of that painting, you are creating. Similarly, it appears that it is happening naturally. Nature is only brush, but the brain is God.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, Dr. Suneson -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: The instrument which he is using for speculation, that instrument itself is imperfect.

Professor: Well, normally our knowledge will be imperfect in some way or...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Professor: Normally our knowledge is imperfect in one way or another.

Prabhupāda: How it is perfect?

Morning Walk -- December 2, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes. Prāpti-siddhi. Now we are flying by aeroplane. A yogi can fly without any instrument. As Durvāsā Muni, he went even Vaikuṇṭha-loka. Not Vaikuṇṭha-loka. Within this planet, there is one planet where, Śvetadvīpa, Lord Viṣṇu lives. He went there and saw Lord Viṣṇu personally to request him to save him. He refused, "No, I cannot. You go to Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, beg pardon of him. If he pardons, then you will be saved." So to a devotee, innocent devotee, he had to fall down on his lotus feet, "Please save me." So what is the power of yogi?

Morning Walk -- December 2, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: He is destined to live in that body for a certain years. So you may change whatever you like.

Karandhara: The heart is just an instrument in the machine.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is a place.

Bali Mardana: Now it's very clear. (break)

Prabhupāda: Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). There is superior overlooking. That is Kṛṣṇa, anumantā, upadraṣṭā. Upadraṣṭā anumantā.

Morning Walk -- December 6, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: They are speaking of "transcendental," but testing by mundane.

Karandhara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Transcendental perfection is tested by mundane instruments.

Hṛdayānanda: Boy, that's contradiction.

Morning Walk -- December 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: As soon as there is dense cloud and pours water, finished, all blazing fire finished. That is guru. And Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, soṁsāra-biṣānale dibāniśi hiyā jvale: "My heart is burning by the fire of this material existence." Juḍāite nā kainu upāya: "I did not make any arrangement for getting out of this fire." Golokero prema-dhana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana: "Now this hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana is coming from Goloka, from the spiritual world. I did not takes care of it." He is lamenting. So this is the fire extinguish instrument. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in this age, and the fire will be extinguished. (break) ...prema-dhana hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, rati nā janmilo kene tāya.

Morning Walk -- December 16, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: But it stops. Your body is moving. But when it stops, you cannot make just the way it is going on.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They also say, "That is also by nature."

Prabhupāda: What is that nature? Nature means an instrument. Instrument, there must be one player. Nature is instrument. Just like this is an instrument. It is not recording by itself. When you push the button, then it works. You cannot say that "It is working by nature."

Morning Walk -- December 16, 1973, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: No. By the father impregnating the mother, that is natural, naturally.

Prabhupāda: Why naturally? If father does not pregna... There are so many now "bachelor-daddies." Nothing can be took natural. Nature is an instrument.

Karandhara: Well, they say that some say that nothing was actually ever created, so there is no need for...

Prabhupāda: Everything is created. That is rascaldom. He is speaking. He is created by his father, the rascal who is talking like that. You were created by your father.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. You see under certain condition. That's all. So how you believe in such seeing power? Therefore we have to see through the eyes of a person who has perfect vision. That is wanted. Why do you use microscope, telescope, binocular? Why do you use if your eyes are perfect? Why do you use? If you are so confident that your eyes are perfect, why do you use these instruments? And how it is guaranteed that your instrument is also right? Because it is manufactured by your imperfect senses. So this is the position.

Morning Walk -- December 31, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So people have no brain to understand even. "This is not hundred dollars. Give me cash, hundred dollars." Then everything, solution will be... There will be no inflation. Because I know that paying you a piece of paper, I can cheat you, therefore I am printing notes, to cheat so many people. Therefore inflation. But when there will be no possibility to cheat you, then there will be no inflation. Here I have got the opportunity, because I know that pushing forward a piece of paper, I can cheat so many people. So there must be inflation. Is it not? This is not psychological? If I know that I can cheat you by this instrument, so why shall I not increase that? That is inflation.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 15, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: Mind, that is also matter, material.

Devotee: They're saying that the mind or the brain is the source of man's consciousness.

Prabhupāda: No. Brain is the instrument for expressing consciousness. Otherwise, when the man is dead, why the brain does not work? Do you follow?

Devotee: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Why the brain work stops?

Devotee: The soul leaves the body.

Room Conversation -- February 6, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So I have seen this instrument. Destiny is very strong. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). Therefore śāstra says that you try for that thing which was not possible in many other lives. In each life everyone gets father, mother, son, and the father's duty to son, son, that is going on. When you take birth as demigod-Indra, Candra, Varuṇa—or as human being or as animal the care-taking business is there. Even the small ant during rainy season, when there is so much flood, they take the eggs on the head—you have seen the red ant?—and finding out some place. The care-taking is there.

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I do not know how (indistinct) making plans. I am sometimes myself puzzled. (laughter)

Dr. Kapoor: Yes, because you are just an instrument (laughter).

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Kapoor: You are just an instrument, you see.

Prabhupāda: Just like Kavirāja Gosvāmī also writes that I do not know how things are coming, but with my hand is getting written. It is something like that.

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

Prabhupāda: We have no such distinction. So to the mass of people, we chant this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. But when there are learned scholars, elevated person, then we present about our philosophy. And we have got so many writings. Both ways: the mass and the class, or the scholars. We are prepared to meet everyone. Our mission is to make everyone, no distinction, that "This class should be given preference, and that should be neglected." No. We have got instrument to awaken everyone. By chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, we can enthuse thousands and thousands of men to join us. And those who are advanced in philosophy and religious system, we have got these books. So we do not neglect anyone. We approach everyone.

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: No, speaking, what is that speaking machine? If I speak, then it will speak. (laughter) That is nonsense. This speaking machine will speak when I speak, when the life speaks. Otherwise it has no speaking power. Then what is the use of your machine if there is no life?

Robert Gouiran: But that doesn't tell me what is life.

Prabhupāda: Now, life means... Just like you say that speaking-machine is an instrument. It has no life. But when a living man speaks, the machine speaks.

Yogeśvara: It is a study of the symptoms.

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: That is... We are speaking, that you cannot do anything. Even in spite of your so-called health (indistinct) or old, you cannot stop it.

Robert Gouiran: So you don't think that somebody could be an instrument to help other?

Prabhupāda: What is that instrument if this instrument is blunt or what is the use of that instrument? Simply possessing one instrument is sufficient? It must work, but if it does not work? You cannot stop death, you cannot stop birth, you cannot stop old age, you cannot stop disease.

Morning Walk -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: There are millions of earth-like planets floating in the sky. So one is lost. What is God's loss? It is your loss, that you are finished. Is that very good invention, to finish yourself? You are being finished. And now you have invented instrument to be finished. So you'll be finished. Wait for that. Why you are anxious to invent something to finish yourself? Is that very good intelligence? You'll be finished. That's a fact. So why you have invented machine to finish yourself quickly and you want to take credit? That means he proves he's a nonsense. He's a nonsense.

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

Prabhupāda: Why you are sticking to human being although it is imperfect? Why you are sticking to human being? (German) You are accepting this human being is not perfect, and still, why you are sticking to this imperfect life? Now, in what way you like this human form of body? What is the purpose? (German)

Vedavyāsa: So he says his body is just an instrument of communication, and through this body he can communicate with other people.

Prabhupāda: So this is also possible by the birds and beasts. They also talk: "Kichu, kichu, kichu, kichu." (German)

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

Dr. P. J. Saher: Not only to the Absolute Truth, but to communicate together. Think of the smiling of a child, its first communication between man. It's not only the body as instrument for the eternal truth but under, among us.

Prabhupāda: So that you have to learn, how with this body you can utilize your energy to understand the Absolute Truth and reestablish your relationship with the Absolute Truth.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Our position is—I have already explained—that we are all imperfect. Therefore we have to take knowledge from the perfect. So God is perfect, or Kṛṣṇa is perfect, so we have to receive knowledge from Him. Then our knowledge is perfect. And so long we shall speculate, that is not perfect because you are speculating with imperfect instruments, what is the use? If I want to cut this table, I must have proper instrument. If I want to cut this table with this book, "Let me cut this," how it will be possible? You must know that for cutting this table it requires this instrument.

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

Prabhupāda: That is called realization. Yes. First of all you receive the sound, then apply your instruments, and when you find it, it is correct—that is the realization. So our process is to receive knowledge from the perfect. That's all. We are not perfect. But the knowledge we are getting, that is perfect. So according to that perfect direction, if we mold our life, then we are successful. Otherwise you go on experimenting, speculating. Ciraṁ vicinvan. Ciram, you understand, "perpetually," vicinvan, "thinking." Ciraṁ vicinvan.

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

Professor: Can one perceive by their own senses what is that...?

Prabhupāda: No, you have to see through the eyes of the śāstra, but God has given you the instrument by which you can make an experiment. Yes. The same thing, as it is stated... Find out that verse from Bhagavad-gītā, dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). (break) This is the statement. Now you make experiment. You have got physical laboratory.

Morning Walk -- February 21, 1975, Caracas:

Prabhupāda: That's all. You cannot produce petrol. Just like gold is already there, manufactured by God. You can make only different types of ornaments, that's all. Everything. This metal covering of this body, you have not produced this metal. They are like the carpenter. The carpenter has not produced the wood nor the metal instrument nor himself, but he is working. This body is also not produced by him. That is also made by Kṛṣṇa. His intelligence is also made by Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is giving the body. Kṛṣṇa is giving the intelligence. Kṛṣṇa is giving the wood. Kṛṣṇa is giving the instrument. Now, if you produce some furniture, to whom it will belong? To the carpenter or to the supplier of everything? Who will enjoy it? Who will enjoy it? If the carpenter claims that "I have done it," that is foolishness. You have done it as a worker, and you have been supplied with everything, your intelligence, your food, your instrument, your ingredient. Therefore the supplier should be the proprietor, not the carpenter. That is real philosophy.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- March 1, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: The so-called scientist will put some bombastic word, "this, that..." What is that explanation? Nobody can understand. It will be understood by them only. They will put some language in such a way that it is to be understood by them. Unless they explain, nobody will understand. They say it is automatically being done, nature. That's not the fact. Nature is an instrument. Just like this wonderful machine, computer. But still, there is operator. But they have no common sense even, that where is the machine that is working without any operator? Where is that machine within their experience? How they suggest that the nature is doing automatically? Nature is wonderful machine, but the operator is Kṛṣṇa. That is real knowledge. Because the machine is working wonderfully, there is no operator? Where is that experience? Have you got any experience, Dr. Wolf, like that?

Dr. Wolf: No, sir, I don't.

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: Just like in your country there is enough stock of petrol. But you have not created it. So who has created? Your creative power is to drill and get the stock. So much creative power you have got. But you cannot create petrol. Then the Americans would not have come here to beg petrol. That is the difference. You can create something by the ingredients given by God. You can create this table. Because wood is given by God, the instrument is given by God, and the intelligence given by God, the hand is given by God, so in this way you create the table. Then whose property it will be, your property or God's property? Whose property? If I give you wood, instrument, your salary, and you create something, the ultimately the thing created, to whom it should belong? To you or to me?

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes, nature is instrumental, just like jail is instrument. But the proprietor of the jail, conductor of the jail, is government. Jail is not acting independently. By the government's direction. Similarly, the nature is working by the direction of God. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). That is stated. Nature is not independent. Just like the nature is that this lump of matter will lie down here, but if God desires, it can fly on the sky. That is God's will. Nature is not independent. Then it would have remained here. Just like Lord Rāmacandra collected stones, and it was floating. According to law of gravitation, how it can float?

Morning Walk -- May 11, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Oh, seagull. They are doing the same business, and after his much advancement of civilization, he is doing the same business. The tiger is also eating flesh and blood, and human being—a scientific slaughterhouse. The same business, but they have got scientific instrument how to cut the throat quickly. This is the advance, advancement of civilization. The dog and cat they are having sex on the open street, and now they are talking of homosex in the school, colleges for education. This is their position. They do not know even what is the standard of human civilization.

Morning Walk -- May 18, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Motor buses were floating. Is that law of gravity? Air, different adjustment of air. If Kṛṣṇa desires, simply by air this whole city will be devastated. The other day we saw so many trees fell from (New?) Kurukṣetra. All trees and houses will be smashed within half an hour if some hurricane is sent. Poking nose in the affairs of God. They'll simply try to prove that there is no God. This is their attempt. And they say "nature." What is this nature? Nature is an instrument, machine. The authority is God, Kṛṣṇa. So I have given the right name, fourth-class men, not even third class. All fourth class. Śūdra. Śūdra and less than śūdra. This is the whole pack of population at the present moment. First-class man, his definition is there: śama, dama, tapa, śaucam, titikṣā, ārjavam, jñāna, vijñāna, āstikyam. That is first-class.

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

Director: As a public servant that you reform society as your life. To carry out the instrument of...

Prabhupāda: So kindly cooperate with us. This is... Try to learn the philosophy, and you will be surprised how nice philosophy it is.

Director: I'm quite sure.

Morning Walk -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Huh? Man craft?

Indian guest: Unmanned craft.

Prabhupāda: What is that man craft?

Harikeśa: Just one ship without any people inside.

Indian guest: With instruments in there.

Prabhupāda: That they did in respect of moon also.

Indian guest: In the beginning, yeah.

Prabhupāda: Then why it is failure?

Room Conversation with the Mayor of Evanston -- July 4, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Technology means he has to serve under somebody. This industry, that is also the same thing. Hundreds and thousands of men are working. They are fourth-class men. And śūdra. Just like formerly in Indian village... Still there are. They are self-supported. Suppose there is a blacksmith. If you require some black iron instrument, you go there and he will prepare immediately. Say, an oil crusher, extracting oil. So weaver, self-supported. Now these things have been taken in larger scale. That is called industry. But actually these things are meant for the śūdras, fourth-class men. So the problem is that if we keep men fourth-class or increase only fourth-class men, so these things are automatic, the resultant action. Therefore, in the western countries especially, everywhere, all over the world, the attempt should be how to create first-class, second-class. At least these two classes required: good politicians, administrators, and good advisors. So this program we are placing before the world. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So I would suggest that in your country you are resourceful. You can take up this movement very seriously.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: Therefore they are fools. When a man's lusty desire is very strong, he commits, what is called, rape, and he becomes complicated in criminal activities. Kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ. Why one is forced to do that? The cause is lusty desires, anger, greediness. So we are thinking we are master of this material world, but actually you are servant of these desires, kāma, krodha, lobha, mohaḥ. And that is māyā. He is acting as servant, but he's thinking, "I am master." That is māyā, which is not the fact. Just like yesterday we were discussing that the women, they are acting as instrument of men, and they are thinking, "We have equal rights." A man is utilizing her for his own purpose, and she is thinking "I am equal."

Morning Walk -- September 13, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This is called hog life, how to maintain this body. Kaṣṭan kāmān. Kāmān means necessities of life. Very, with great difficulty... (break) ...kāmān. Life can be easily maintained by agriculture and cow protection. No. They will start big, big mills, factories, motor tires, cars, instruments. Kaṣṭan kāmān. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is called ugra-karma, fierce... (aside) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Fierceful activities.

Morning Walk -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Cyavana: Because they are anxious for some...

Prabhupāda: Because God has created cyclone, therefore He is perfect because you are to be killed, blown away with your all paraphernalia, with your all scientific laboratory and instrument. Go. Go to hell. That is perfection.

Cyavana: They are eager to find a solution. Therefore they are forced to speculate because they have no other way...

Morning Walk -- October 7, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: That's all right, but if... Sex urge... But as soon as you become old, you have got the sex urge, but you cannot enjoy. Why? You have got the instrument, you have got the body, and still, if you go to a young woman, then she will kick on your face: "Rascal, you have come to enjoy?" (laughter) Why? Why the young man kicks on your face? And you pay. Although you pay, still she kicks. So where is your sex enjoyment? Ayur gatiḥ kiṁ yuvatī nārī: "When your age is finished, what is the use of keeping one young woman?" You cannot enjoy. She will enjoy with others, and you will have to pay for that. This is going on.

Morning Walk -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: Bartering. So there is no need of money. Similarly, you go to another shop. You get. So you produce your food, and in exchange, in barter, you get all things, other things. Somebody is producing something, somebody is producing something. But it can be done. Suppose I am a blacksmith. You want some work from me. So you say that "I'll make this instrument for me." So I say, "You give me one kg paddy." So you give me one kg, I prepare you, so your necessity is fulfilled. Now I have got so much paddy. Now, I may go to purchase something else because I am blacksmith, so grains will be used for my eating, and for, say for ghee, I take the same grain somewhere.

Room Conversation with Reporter of The Star -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: (break) You have done good because you are waiting for somebody's decision. So the decision-maker can change. Otherwise so many people are working so hard day and night; he is not getting even sufficient food. And another man, without working, he is getting so much money. How it is possible? Hm? So God is not an instrument of your whims. He is fully independent. That is God. Agatan gatan patiyase.(?) By His different energy He can..., does something which is impossible to be done. Take for example myself. I went to United States, unknown country, without any friend, without any hope, simply on theory (chuckles) that "I shall go and preach there," and with this expectation also, that "As soon as I shall ask them to give up all these habits, they will ask me to go away." (laughs) So in the face of so many odds and uncertainty, I went there, simply depending on my spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa, with this hope only, that "If they desire, everything can be done. But otherwise there is no hope. I am going there, hopeless, just to make an experiment. My other Godbrothers, they failed. All right, Guru Mahārāja asked me. In the beginning I did not do. Let me do it in this old age." So it became surprisingly success.

Morning Walk -- October 19, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: Huh? What is that economical progressing? So that means busy fool. Fool, they do not know how to satisfy the economic problem. That is recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā, annād bhavanti bhūtāni: (BG 3.14) You grow food grains. Then all economic question... But why you are not producing food grains? Why you are producing iron stools and instruments and motor and tire and collecting petrol far away from Arabia? That is... Kṛṣṇa never says that "You do all this nonsense." He said, "Grow food grains." Why don't you do that? That means fools. After all, you have to eat. So you are not busy in growing your food, but you are busy in producing tire tubes, motor cars, stools and instruments. Then how you will get your food? Where is your economic? First economic is, first necessity, you must eat.

Morning Walk -- October 21, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: How can you bring life force? Have you brought? Then how you can question this? If you have brought life otherwise, then you can question. As you cannot bring life otherwise, you have to accept this. This is the proof. Not only that: because the soul is there, therefore I am talking with you. I am replying your inquiries. And when the soul is not there, even the tongue is there, even the ear is there, I cannot hear you, I cannot reply you. (break) ...instrument is there by which I talk, why he cannot talk?

Morning Walk -- November 1, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: Just like so many things are being manufactured within my body. I haven't got to directly work for it. So similarly, the God's gigantic... Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate. He has nothing to do. Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate. Na tat-samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate. Nobody is found equal to Him or greater than Him. We are... He is God, and we are subordinate because we have many equals, but He has no equal. He is unlimited; we are limited. Parāsya śaktir vivdhaiva śrūyate. He has got multi-energies. The energies are working. Just like here there are so many instruments within this box, but you just push one button and it works. You just push one button; the whole thing is working. So similarly, the God has made this body so perfect that whatever is required, it is being manufactured. Nobody can explain.

Morning Walk -- December 11, 1975, Vrndavana:

Harikeśa: We know there's no life on the sun because we can look at a fire here and we see there's no life.

Prabhupāda: But you are blind. You have no eyes to see.

Harikeśa: Well we have our instruments and we look through...

Prabhupāda: So what is the use of it? Anything made by rascal, is that perfect?

Harikeśa: Well it's better than some mythological book!

Prabhupāda: No, book also, you write book and you want to believe, others your book. That is also book. Why do you write scientific book?

Morning Walk -- December 14, 1975, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: This is śūdra. If anyone depends on the master's mercy, he's a śūdra. Here in New Delhi, these big, big buildings, big, big officers, as soon as the government will fail, they will be street dogs, that's all. Now they are plundering, by official instrument. Now when the government will be finished, they will be street dog. That's all. This is your civilization. Immediately if all of a sudden there is attack in New Delhi, all the people will starve. There is no food at all, and they'll die.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: No, they do not know what is nature. Nature is an instrument, and there must be an operator. So that they do not know, the operator. Just like a child is thinking the motorcar is going automatically. He does not know there is a driver. The child sees that the airplane is flying. They think it is automatically going. And there is a pilot, he does not know. Similarly, these rascals, they are studying nature, but nature is an instrument only. It is being operated by Kṛṣṇa. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). They have practical experience that without operator a machine cannot work. In the huge machine, how it is working unless there is operator? That they do not know.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Dayānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, it seems that in youth the desire to enjoy is so much stronger than in old age.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Dayānanda: It seems that in youth it is, the desire to enjoy is stronger than in old age.

Prabhupāda: That is foolishness. An old man is still stronger, but instruments are finished. He cannot enjoy. But the desire is there. You don't think that old man has got less desire than the young man. He has got the desire, but his instrument is finished.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Hṛdayānanda: So much frustration.

Prabhupāda: Not. He cannot use the instruments for enjoyment.

Hṛdayānanda: So he's frustrated.

Prabhupāda: Frustrated? Everyone. Whether young or not, everyone is frustrated. He says that the desire in old man... It is expected because he has gone through the gṛhastha life. Gṛhastha life is a concession for sex life. That's all. It is not needed. But those who are unable to avoid it—"All right, have for some time. Then become sannyāsī." This is the process. It is not needed.

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

Prabhupāda: Well, that is.... It is.... It is known to everyone. Kṛṣṇa says, annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). Anna. Anna means food grains, eatables. You must produce sufficient food grains. Why you are producing tire tube instead of food grains? And just entering your Delhi from Vṛndāvana, a big Goodyear factory, very big factory. You are producing tire tube, then iron, Goodyear and this and that. Where is food grain? And both sides, the field is vacant. Nobody is going to grow food grain. Then why you'll not starve? It is your fault. You are producing tire tube and iron instrument. You are neglecting agriculture. Then why you shall not suffer for want of food grain? And you are pleading, "Indians are starving." Well, why shall not starve if they do not follow Bhagavad-gītā? They are thinking, "By increasing industry in America..." They have got industry, at the same time food grains also. But you are taking to industry without taking care of growing food grains.

Morning Walk -- March 26, 1976, Delhi:

Dr. Kapoor: Final measure, the smallest fraction of anything, is soul.

Prabhupāda: One ten-thousandth part of the top of the hair.

Dr. Kapoor: Sir, even that has been measured by measuring instrument. I think it is.... You can describe it. But it is smaller part, infinite smallest part of an atom.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it has been measured out. How the measurement is stated? It doesn't.... When the statement is there about the measurement of the soul, it was done. Otherwise how it is described in the śāstra?

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes. And this is negation. Just like one man is diseased. He is also eating, he is also sleeping, but that is not healthy eating, sleeping. He has to get relief from this eating, lying down on the bed and eating by some instrument. This nonsense eating, sleeping should be stopped. And when he's healthy, he eats also, sleeps also. That is different. That is different eating, sleeping, but they do not.... He is suffering from disease. He thinks, "Again eating? Make it zero. Make it zero." This is Māyāvādī. He has no taste what is the other eating. He wants to make it zero because here the eating is so botheration, "Oh, let me commit suicide. Make it zero." So that is Buddha philosophy.

Room Conversation -- May 1, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: So with this instrument he's manipulating this machine, as exactly the pilot, with so many electronics, machine, he's working the flying of the plane. Where is the difficulty to understand? And this is, body is a machine. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhū.... Bhrāmayan, wandering. The aeroplane is wandering. This machine is wandering. It is also going. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ. Sometimes up, sometimes down. Huh? Find out this. (devotees look for verse) Same aeroplane, going up and down. Two wings, this hand, like this.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Yes, it was.... The Chinese people were coming, taking knowledge from.... Everyone was coming. So now argument that "If you are.... You are following the nature's way. Nature supply water. That is a fact. Here is cloud. Nature will supply. Now, if you want to surpass nature, then you produce in the factory, without water, food grains. Then we shall understand that you can surpass. As you are producing instruments and so many other motorcars and this, that, so many, in the factory, that's all right. In the factory you produce food grains without water. Then you have surpassed nature."

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

Prabhupāda: No, what a fool they are. Try to expose these fools. But people have lost their reason, brain, everything. Even if we expose, they cannot understand. Still they will stick.

Bahulāśva: What is their hope?

Prabhupāda: Hope, last hope is to kill them (makes loud sound with hand or instrument).

Devotee: Chopping off their...

Prabhupāda: Kalki-avatāra. No more teacher, saintly. With sword, cut. Finish. Wholesale massacre. Being killed by God, they get salvation.

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

Richard: Okay. The brain, the mind, interprets the senses...

Prabhupāda: Well, the brain, mind, they are instruments.

Richard: Okay, they interpret the senses. Right. Okay.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they are instruments.

Richard: Now if the...

Prabhupāda: Suppose if you see with your eyes, and then you see with microscope, then you see with telescope, different processes. Yes. But you see with your spiritual eyes, that is perfect.

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

Richard: Okay, this is a, let me explain very briefly. Here is a girl in New Jersey, near New York, whose brain has died through a traffic accident. Her body is still alive. Her body is still alive, but her brain is dead, she cannot get up, speak, move.

Prabhupāda: This is already explained, the brain is an instrument. The instrument is not working, but that is not death.

Richard: Right, her soul is still alive, is that correct?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Any scientist here who can answer why Sunday first and Monday second?

Janāhlāda: I'm not a scientist, but I always thought that the ancients thought that the sun was first because without telescopes or without light-measuring instruments it was bigger and it looked closer.

Prabhupāda: That's a fact. Sunday is first, and Monday-moon is beyond sun. If they accept that nobody can approach sun, then how they can approach moon? In calculation, eighteen thousand miles per hour, and if the moon is situated 95,000,000 miles, then how they can go in four days? These are my questions. They have not been answered. It takes at least seven months.

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

Prabhupāda: Go, you have got... You have seen... Go to all the planets. Where can you go? Why you make attempt for sending... (indistinct). At night we see millions of planet. Go there. This is material, there is no question of spiritual world. Go there. If you've got any machine. Why you attempt? Go, as you go from here to London, go there. We can see there is... Why there is attempt? That means your instrument is also insufficient. And you are very proud of your having instrument. Where is that instrument, go with that instrument. Imperfect. Everything is imperfect.

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

Hari-śauri: Can the seed extract anything without the spirit soul being present there?

Prabhupāda: No. Seed is instrumental. Just like you have to do something, you require an instrument. Actually, according to the desire of the living entity, he's given instrument, bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). Yantra. You require something, you require a particular yantra or machine. So seed is practically the machine, and the living entity is using it to satisfy his desires.

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

Prabhupāda: No, chemical is there in the earth. According to the seed it is exacted. Just like a chemist will analyze or they separate the ingredient, so much this percentage, so much that percentage, so much that. Everything is there. Similarly within the earth, everything is there. The seed is the instrument and the living entity is the exactor—what is that? Exactor?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. He's executor.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, we are carried away by the laws of nature. However you may improve your technological science, you are under the laws of material nature. That you cannot change. But if you revive your spiritual life, then you can change. Otherwise it is not possible. If you keep yourself under the laws of material nature, then you have to be carried away by the laws of material nature, however expert you may be in technological understanding. Because, after all, you are an instrument in the hands of material nature.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Chance is their instrument of explanation.

Prabhupāda: Just see how they are befooling persons. The law is cause and effect. Nothing is chance. There is cause, and there is effect. It is saying the same thing, that "This girl has produced a child by chance." It is not possible. Any sane man knows that she had connection with man, either legally or illegally. It is not chance. So there can... Nothing can happen as chance. That is imperfect knowledge.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No, believe or not believe, these are facts, that physical senses are not absolute.

Ali: That's exactly what I mean. It's so obvious.

Prabhupāda: Physical senses not absolute; it is the spiritual senses that acts through the physical instrument and utilize it.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes. First of all, you must have spiritual understanding, then spiritual study. If you have no spiritual understanding, then why spiritual study? All these scientists, they are trying to understand the spirit soul by material, on material platform. Therefore they are being misled. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā, to distinguish between matter and spirit it is negatively described: nainaṁ chindanti śāstrāṇi. Find out. The spirit soul is there which cannot be cut into pieces by any instrument.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Ah, nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ. Pāvakaḥ means fire. It is never burned into the fire. It is never cut into pieces with instrument or any weapon. So if you study these two points, anything you take, it can be cut into pieces, within our physical experience. And anything within our physical experience, it can be burned. Even the iron, so hot, it can be burned and liquified by proper temperature. Even stone, it can be burned, it can be liquified. The glass, glass is nothing but liquidified stone, everyone knows it. Purīfied by chemicals, that's all.

Room Conversation -- September 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: No, we were useless. You were never useless.

Prabhupāda: No, your assistance was required. How you can be useless? We're all useless. But combined together, now we have become a stringed instrument. This is very good example. Separately... Just like the same logic, andha-khañja. Separately, andha is useless, and khañja is useless. Blind and lame. They cannot do anything. But combined together, they become useful.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Interviewer: Sir, in the modern technological...

Prabhupāda: Modern, we are not talking of modern or... We're talking...

Interviewer: In this age, how has the, you know, instrument of production because of this tractor, mechanization of agriculture.

Prabhupāda: So that is your interpretation. But we are trying to present Bhagavad-gītā as it is. That is our mission. That you produce food grains sufficiently and give protection to the cows so that food grains and milk will give you all benefits of economic question. You'll be satisfied. That's all. Not only that, I have practically seen that by God's arrangement there are so much land on this planet that you can produce ten times food stuff of the whole population. But they are not doing that. They are utilizing land...

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Indian man: She is also quite expert in cooking. (Hindi) He plays very good harmonium.

Indian man (2): All musical instruments.

Prabhupāda: No, we don't want to introduce harmonium.

Indian man: No, I know. That is what he's teaching at the moment. He's doing it out of force.

Prabhupāda: The other musical instrument, if he plays his attention will be diverted in musical instrument, not to chanting. "We have to see melody, whether it is going on nicely." But that is not good. Our concentration should be hearing Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is... That is bhakti. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, simply this karatāla, khola, that's all. In those days... Of course, there was no harmonium, but many stringed instruments were there. Sitar, esarāja, but these things were not used. Sometimes we do use to attract, but it is not required.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I had one... When I was doing medical business I had one very nice customer. He was my patron also, one Muhammadan doctor, Sriraja Uttina.(?) He was very kind to me. He was just like a father to me. So his system was that in his pharmacy, patent medicine, drugs, medicine, surgical instruments, like that different headings. So suppose, at the sales time, sells some patent medicine. So he has got a box. So he puts the price in the patent medicine. And if he sells some surgical, he puts the price in the surgical pot. In this way, when they want to purchase again, so he would consult his pot, whether there is money. Then he'll allow to purchase. Otherwise not. So he told me, "This is my account. This is my account. When they want to purchase, they consign us something. I shall allow them to purchase so much as I have got in the box."

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: If you remain in the subtle stage, that is ghostly life. That is ghost. And you make troublesome.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. Because you can't...

Prabhupāda: ...enjoy the senses, material senses. You have the desire, but you have no instrument.

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Like monkeys, yes. Markaṭa-vairāgya. (break) And they are living very rich. And if you make big, big cities without industry, cities cannot be maintained. You'll require so many instruments, machine. That means you require (indistinct). If you require food, there is no need of industry.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Satsvarūpa: We have instruments, calculations.

Prabhupāda: That is also imperfect, because you have prepared. You are rascal; your instrument is rascal. How a rascal can manufacture something perfect? How it is possible? Hm? Anything we attempt to get, knowledge, is imperfect. Only perfect knowledge is when you get it through the perfect person. The same example: you cannot make experiment or speculation who is your father. The only right information—from your mother, that's all. Finish. Otherwise, everything speculation.

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

Prabhupāda: That is our basic principle of knowledge, that every one of us is defective. So you cannot give us complete knowledge. It is not possible. We must receive knowledge from the perfect without defects.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So we were bringing that and answering, not answering directly, but saying that whatever we see, whatever we find by experimental science, by these instruments, we see something, but how do we know that... Our matter of receiving knowledge is by itself defective.

Prabhupāda: Defective, yes.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In my case, the university sponsored me saying that nobody in the United States that can do the job as I do, which is not true.

Prabhupāda: What is that job?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: My job, my work, chemist, the instrument I work. Saying that... Must be written to the Federal Government, to the Labor Department, saying that there's nobody who would be able to do my job in the United States, qualified. Then the second condition is that by being employed myself, then nobody will be displaced. Any U.S. citizen will not be displaced by my employment. So those two conditions. And it has to be written by the university sponsor.

Prabhupāda: So very difficult, that.

Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No... Even Hare Kṛṣṇa people. Nāviviktāsano bhavet, mātrā svasrā duhitrā vā (SB 9.19.17). It is strictly forbidden: "You should not sit alone even with your mother, sister or daughter, what to speak of wife." Balavān indriya-grāmo vidvāṁsam api karṣati: "The senses are so strong, even learned persons, advanced, they also become victimized." Balavān indriya-grāmaḥ. Balavān means very strong. When the... It is forbidden even with mother, sister or..., and daughter. That is the only capturing instrument in the material world. Maithunyam agāra, prison house of sex, this material world. It is a prison house, but locked up by sex. The ordinary prison house, they are locked up by guards, and here the locking process is sex. Maithunyam agāra. The words are selected in Bhāgavata. They are thinking free.

Room Conversation with Scientists, Svarupa Damodara, and Dr. Sharma -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Now in our childhood, when we were ten-years-old boy, my father used to purchase high kilo saraṣera tela, for eight annas. Can these rascals do to that standard? Eight annas, first-class Kanpur mustard oil. Now that oil... Not that quality oil, still, they are being sold thirteen rupees per kilo, instead of three annas.

Dr. Sharma: They were always, even in a small village, there were five or ten good people were to do the kīrtana. You know, they had a knack of one particular instrument, they could get up and all on the Janmāṣṭamī and so many festivals they used to have kīrtana. And all, you know, small village, even nook and corner of the country, bubbling with life, religious life. This is only twenty-five years ago, even thirty years ago it was there. And look now...

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) It is better late than never. (Hindi) We are sending our men from village to village. Not only here, also in the European countries.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He cannot make any comment. These are facts. Two parties there were. One party, to use guru as their instrument for self-aggrandizement, and another party left guru. So both of them are offenders. This Kunja Babu, this Tīrtha Mahārāja's party, he wanted to enjoy senses through guru. And the Bagh Bazaar party, they left.

Conversation with M.P., Shri Sita Ram Singh -- May 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of changing? The same instrument... So our proposal is that unless the limbs are perfect, the end cannot be perfect. So we are presenting, therefore, the limbs of Bhagavad-gītā, perfect, everything. But they are manufacturing their own way. There are so many parties, Ch.D., D.A.C., Ph.D....

Sita Ram Singh: All they have got a party for their own selfish end. Actually though I belong toward the party, but I must (indistinct). Because they have all got their own selfish aims.

GBC Meets with Srila Prabhupada -- May 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Such a nice instrument, (laughter) that it must enter into the mouth. Then it will act. That kind of instrument not required. It must remain three miles off. Our translation must be documents. They are not ordinary... One cannot become unless one is very realized. It is not A-B-C-D translation.

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

Prabhupāda: Just like Birla family, other big, big... If they require some technologists, they can hire. There are so many tech... Technologist means śūdra. And actually they are doing that. They do not train their own sons to become technologist. They pay for that, the śūdras, as servants are... The Englishmen used to say these men, craft and technolo..., "educated laborer." They are laborer and little educated. There are uneducated laborer, just like carpenter. He doesn't require any education. If he knows how to rub on... What is called, that? That instrument? He doesn't require to become M.A., Ph.D. All these laborers are working so nicely. So why they should spend, waste their time in going to school and college? From the very be... As soon as he's ten years old only, let him learn practically how to weave cloth, how to become carpenter, how become other craftsman. And in due course of time he can earn his... How to cultivate land... Why so many big, big universities for inviting everyone? There is no need. Educated means brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya. Brāhmaṇa will give real knowledge, and kṣatriyas will govern. For vaiśyas and śūdras, there is no... It is waste of time.

Bhu-mandala Discussion -- July 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: We say that "You have never gone to moon." They will say, "Yes, we have gone." Now they have mentioned, "It is hoax." So how we can believe them? What is the value of their statement? And they promise future, "Yes, we are trying."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Post-dated check.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So something's wrong with their instrument. When they fly from Los Angeles and their compass...

Prabhupāda: Nothing is wrong. From their estimate it is all right. But there is superior power.

Room Conversation Varnasrama -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Time is wasted in such so-called technology advancement. And the real purpose of life, jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā, that is missing. And when you present that "This is the most important business of life," they say, "It is brainwashing." And they fight to check us, Communists and others, that "It is useless, God consciousness." (break) (long pause) So... Jāniyā śuniyā biṣa khāinu. Because they are missing the aim of life, they are committing suicide. And this varṇāśrama-dharma was planned in such a way that everyone would be spiritually advanced. The weaver will get, the potter will get, the blacksmith will get, the brāhmaṇa is already there, kṣatriya will get—everyone. For them, lower-class men, demigod worship. At least they are accepting there is some higher authority. Among the blacksmith there is viśvakarma-pūjā. One day they will wash all the instruments of blacksmith. Somehow or other, all are cleaned. And with the fruit, with flower, candana, they'll worship.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They worship the instruments? What is that called?

Prabhupāda: Viśvakarma-pūjā.

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The strike instrument invented by modern civilization, so dangerous.

Hari-śauri: Means the government becomes completely controlled by the lowest working class.

Prabhupāda: Naturally. Without hands and legs, how one can function? Therefore Vedic civilization, that everyone is engaged.