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MacMillan (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- February 1, 1968, Los Angeles:

Interviewer: Were there any followers before you came to this country?

Prabhupāda: No. In this country, of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, there was none. It is the first time. I have introduced. But in India it is very, very old, since the advent of Kṛṣṇa, and at least since last five thousand years. So Kṛṣṇa is very popular in India. In every home, Kṛṣṇa is worshiped, and there are many millions of temples of Kṛṣṇa in India and followers also. Followers means almost all Hindus are followers of Kṛṣṇa. They read this Bhagavad-gītā. So I have recently published Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. It is published by Macmillan Company, and this book is very nicely being received. It is being reviewed by several papers. I have got many others books. They are being gradually introduced. Perhaps you have seen in our counter. We have got books, magazines, calendar, and other literatures. So it is a very scientific movement. It is not a sentiment, bogus hoax. Anyone who wants to understand this movement philosophically, scientifically, they will be very much satisfied with this. The idea is that any religious movement without philosophical basis, it is simply sentiment or fanaticism. And philosophy without idea of God is simply mental speculation. Therefore religious principles combined with philosophy, that is perfect. So the younger section become attracted to this movement because we are giving some religious principle based on philosophy.

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: Very soon we shall have our own publication. Macmillan Company. (pause) What is your report?

Devotee: I had a rough day today.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee: I didn't get any new members today. I went all over... I went over to McGill, and not very many teachers, professors there know about the temple, especially the chemistry professors. I don't think chemistry professors go too well with Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: No. Every... You have to convince them that chemistry or philosophy or anything, without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is all useless. Svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya saṁsiddhiṁ labhate param.

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: We have many books already published. One, first, is Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. This is published by Macmillan and Company. You can have any number of these books from our temple. And the next book is Teachings of Lord Caitanya. That is also available from our temple. And the next book, in three parts, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So if somebody... These are the, I mean to say, covering of the books. So if somebody carefully reads these books, Kṛṣṇa consciousness science will be understood very easily by him. Besides these books, we have got our monthly magazine, Back to Godhead. So if the students... It is not very costly. The monthly magazine is only 35 cents per copy and the subscription four dollars yearly. And this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, it is only $2.95.

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

Prabhupāda: Translated and commented.

Reporter: Translations and comments.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Similarly, I have translated this book also. This is being published by Macmillan company, one of the biggest publisher of your country. Yes. I have published this book...

Reporter: Were you referring to this book when you meant, when you said residents of the moon, do you mean people that go there to live or that are...

Prabhupāda: They are there already. In every planet there are living entities, residents.

Reporter: And this is written in this book.

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

Journalist: Macmillan is publishing this one.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Macmillan is publishing.

Journalist: Now when you... Do you go to this institute for a certain period of time?

Prabhupāda: There is no fixed period. No. But, say, for me, I was trained, my father was of this line...

Journalist: Oh, your father...

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. My father trained me from childhood, yes. And then I met my spiritual master in 1922, and I was initiated in... On the whole there was a background, because as I told you, 80, 90 percent people are Kṛṣṇa conscious by family-wise. You see? So we were trained up from the beginning of our life. Officially, of course, I accepted my spiritual master in 1933. Since then, I had some background, and since I met, I developed this idea. Yes.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Oh, Hrishikesh. Hrishikesh is also one of the pilgrimage. And there is similarly Kurukṣetra near Delhi. Still that place is there. And that is a place of pilgrimage from the Vedic times. In the Vedas also it is stated, kuru-kṣetre dharmam yajayet. If you want to function in a religious ceremony, just go to Kurukṣetra. So it is a place of pilgrimage. Now the name is there. The adjective dharma-kṣetra, it is from Vedic age. Then the Pāṇḍavas and the Kauravas, they are historical persons. The history is there, Mahābhārata. Then where is the question of interpreting Kurukṣetra as "this body," and the Pāṇḍavas as "the senses"? Where do you get this opportunity to interpret? So these things are going on. But we object, "Why should you interpret in that way when the facts are there?" That means Bhagavad-gītā is very popular book. One has got his own philosophy. He wants to prove it through Bhagavad-gītā. This is going on. There are so many interpretations, 664. Everyone thinks that "I can interpret in my own way." Why? Why this should be? We say, "No. You cannot interpret." Then what is the authority of Bhagavad-gītā? The author of Bhagavad-gītā did not leave it for being interpreted by a third-class man. He is Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord. He said everything clearly. Why an ordinary man should interpret His word? That is our objection. Therefore we present Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. The MacMillan Company wanted to shorten.

Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:

Hayagrīva: I would like to see that in going over mine. I'll have to go over it chapter by chapter. But I will compare the version I have with that version, and... I know the translations themselves, they were somewhat changed in Bhagavad-gītā As It Is as it came out in Macmillan. Did you like those translations?

Prabhupāda: Whichever is better, you think. That's all. You can follow this Macmillan.

Hayagrīva: That was the second... They're good. I think they're very good.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can follow that translation. Simply synonyms he can add, transliterations.

Hayagrīva: And we have all the purports. We can include everything. Nothing will be deleted. Everything will be in there.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- July 29, 1971, Gainesville:

Prabhupāda: My book is authority.

Interviewer: Yes, I know.

Prabhupāda: Macmillan's publishes every year fifty thousand. (stage directions going on in background) You can inquire from your side any reading matter from Bhagavad-gītā original. That will be nice. Then I can explain.

Interviewer: All right. (aside to associate:) You're going to cue me, right? (addressing audience:) Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as confirmed by all the Vedic scriptures and by the great sages in disciplic succession. He has a body made of eternity, bliss and all knowledge. God has infinite forms and expansions, but of all His forms, His original form, His transcendental form, is as a cowherd boy, a form which He reveals only to His most confidential devotees.

Room Conversation with Mayor -- November 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: They never reply.

Devotee (2): It's such a big company, they...

Prabhupāda: I do not know what kind of big company, and their publication we do not get in India. Why? (indistinct) We cannot get in Macmillan Company. Sometimes somebody inquires, the reply, "They..., we have not published this book, this, here." They have no information.

Devotee (1): We can show that one copy of that letter, and what can they do to us?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

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

Prabhupāda: I have no personal presentation. I am speaking only what Kṛṣṇa... Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Here is the book, you see. This book, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, which we are presenting, and publisher is Macmillan Company, and every year they are printing at least fifty thousand copies. This is for our fifth edition. They are printing this book since 1968. '68, '69, '70, '71, that, I think, I know they have, they are fifth edition, and people are reading it, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Our..., we don't change. Kṛṣṇa says, "I am the Supreme," and we are saying Kṛṣṇa is the same, Supreme. Even I do not understand what is Kṛṣṇa, I am simply presenting what is written in the Bhagavad-gītā. mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya: (BG 7.7) "There is no superior element above Me." So we say, "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme. There is no other Supreme." Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65).

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. And the editors must be very expedient. Besides that, I think this Kṛṣṇa Book, smaller edition, that will have very soon another reprint.

Karandhara: At least ten million we will print in the Kṛṣṇa Book pocket size.

Prabhupāda: And Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Macmillan Company's. They have taken. And they are also printing yearly fifty thousand or more than that. At least in Western countries there is no such thought of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is completely... That professor, what is his name?

Karandhara: Dimmock?

Prabhupāda: Dimmock. He has given very good appreciation. And gradually it will be printed in other languages. German, French, Spanish, Denmark, Holland...

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Devotee (2): When I first..., in New York.

Prabhupāda: Now this Macmillan's report is that ours selling more. Therefore, they have advanced to take up this enlarged edition. Otherwise, they are business. In the beginning they refused. They said, "No, no, we cannot publish so big volume. We can... If you minimize..." Therefore, we minimized it to four hundred pages.

Śyāmasundara: They made a study. They know what's going... They want all of your books. In the contract for Topmost Yoga and Easy Journey they have the option to take your next big book.

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

Prabhupāda: This is published by Macmillan. It is eleven hundred pages. They printed in July fifty thousand copies. That is finished. Now they are going to print second edition. Since 1968 they are publishing our Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, and every year they are getting one edition. From the beginning... I think this is the fifth or sixth edition and their business manager, trades manager's report is that this Bhagavad-gītā is increasing sale, others' dwindling, because it is presented as it is. We present Kṛṣṇa as Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says, "I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead." We present Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Kṛṣṇa says, "You surrender unto Me." We teach people, "You surrender to Kṛṣṇa." Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65).

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

Prabhupāda: Gītā Press also tried to preach Gītā since forty, forty years. But Bhagavad-gītā was, published by Gītā Press, was not in the Western countries. And we published this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is in 1968. It is now all over the world. And the Macmillan Company, the biggest publisher of the world, they are taking interest. Not only this book. For this book they are taking gradually all our books. So our point is: present Kṛṣṇa as it is. That is real Indian culture. Don't present Kṛṣṇa adulterated. Your country will be glorified. The whole world will accept that India has got something to give. You are simply now beggar. So I have come to this country not to beg, but to give. That is my mission. And they are feeling, "Yes, we are getting something substantial."

Room Conversation with Kenneth Keating, U.S. Ambassador to India -- October 14, 1972, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mrs. Keating: Oh, fine, fine. Yes.

Śyāmasundara: Today we received a telegram. Macmillan Company has just agreed to print Prabhupāda's Bhagavad-gītā.

Ambassador: Oh, really!

Śyāmasundara: Thirty-five thousand copies.

Ambassador: Oh!

Mrs. Keating: Oh, that's marvellous. It's a very good...

Ambassador: I used to be the attorney for the Macmillan Company.

Room Conversation with Kenneth Keating, U.S. Ambassador to India -- October 14, 1972, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: That is my Press address.

Śyāmasundara: This was received today.

Ambassador: "Macmillan enthusiastic. Commitment letter sent to you. 30,000 paper, 10,000 hard."

Śyāmasundara: Forty thousand.

Mrs. Keating: Excellent.

Ambassador: Forty thousand.

Mrs. Keating: Forty thousand. That's wonderful.

Ambassador: That's great.

Mrs. Keating: Really, and it's a fine company.

Room Conversation with Kenneth Keating, U.S. Ambassador to India -- October 14, 1972, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Yes, fine.

Mrs. Keating: It's very good.

Śyāmasundara: Ambassador Keating was the attorney for Macmillan.

Prabhupāda: Oh!

Ambassador: Yes.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Ambassador: So I... Very nice to see you.

Prabhupāda: Thank you.

Ambassador: And I appreciate your calling.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Accepting. Accepting. No. This is Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.

Dr. Kapoor: This also, I haven't seen yet.

Prabhupāda: Oh. This is Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. This is being published by MacMillan Co. They printed in the last half month of August, fifty thousand. That is now finished, now going to second edition.

Dr. Kapoor: Ah. Kṛṣṇa is working wonders.

Prabhupāda: So, what is this?

Devotee: Trilogy is not at this place. I think we have it here.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 26, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: What right he has got to say that here it is not to Kṛṣṇa? This is going on. So if we interpret in that nonsense way then we shall not be able to understand Bhagavad-gītā. We shall miss this point. Science does not mean that you have to change according to your whims. Two plus two equal to four. You cannot make it five or three. That is not possible. Then it is not science. No longer the scientific value of this two plus two remains. We follow that principle, and that is the only principle. So if you're actually serious about Bhagavad-gītā, I do not know what is your commentary. I request you, "Try to follow the instruction of Kṛṣṇa. Don't interpret in your own way. Then it will be (indistinct)." Everyone has got (indistinct) all over the world. Therefore we are selling this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is very nicely. Our publisher's MacMillan Co. and their trades managers report is that our Bhagavad-gītā is increasing daily, sales, other decreasing. That is the report, and in October they published 50,000 copies, it is already finished. Now they have to plan it for the second edition. People are very much now, eager to read Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. So, imitating us, somebody's, another (chuckles) man, he said "Bhagavad-gītā As It Was." (laughs with everyone) Like that. So that will not harm our cause.

Room Conversation -- February 28, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Devotee (1): If Macmillan publishes Bhagavad-gītā in English is there any difficulty for us to publish by another company (indistinct)?

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Devotee (1): The professor, head of the department of Sanskrit at the University of Indonesia... About 9:30, I made appointment and if we could influence her also then we will have some facility to preach in the university. (indistinct) ...Hindi (indistinct) very nicely, tomorrow morning. They want us to arrive at 7:30 in their temple and many people will come and it will be very nice. They'll bring the vyāsāsana all the way there.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Prabhupāda: Two thousand pieces, and the collection is about eight thousand dollars, no, eight hundred dollars. Eight hundred dollars. So they're very anxiously taking our books. A new literature. They have no such idea, what is God, what is bhakti. How they can be explained. Our Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, publisher MacMillan, within one year... Last August they, the first edition. And... Not yet August. By this time, they have finished two editions and the third edition is in the press. That will be available in July.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Edition of a very number...,

Prabhupāda: Fifty thousand.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Fifteen thousand.

Prabhupāda: Fifty. Five, zero.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: From Śrī Kṛṣṇa. You can open the Fourth, Fourth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.

Professor: Yes.

Yogeśvara: This is our Bhagavad-gītā, published by MacMillan Company.

Prabhupāda: You open the Fourth Chapter.

Professor: Do you think that your mission is successful?

Prabhupāda: That is to be judged by you.

Professor: Oh! That's interesting.

Yogeśvara: This is the verse here?

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Professor: As It Is.

Prabhupāda: Without interpretation. And, according to the trades manager of MacMillan Company, our book is topmost selling.

Professor: I see.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Than all other editions. Their report is. They, they print at a time fifty thousand copies. So three or four times they have already printed.

Professor: Really?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Since last August, within one year.

Professor: Wow. That's a great success.

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.

Ambassador: Yes, this one, yes.

Prabhupāda: This is published by Macmillan Company. We are selling about more than one lakh copies per year through Macmillan Company. Yes. Similarly, we are selling our other books. Bring...

Ambassador: The complete set I have seen. And also the other...

Prabhupāda: That is not yet complete. Bhāgavatam will be finished in sixty volumes.

Ambassador: Oh, sixty.

Prabhupāda: We have published only six volumes. Our manuscript is ready, but it requires great amount of money to publish.

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: Ah, ah?

Haṁsadūta: Catalog? I think we must have left that in London.

Prabhupāda: They are also distributing our books, Macmillan Company. People are... Now there will be a big meeting on the 12th, September, how to organize. Because this kind of literature was there, there was none before this. The bhakti cult, this was never presented to the western countries.

Ambassador: Yes, yes. Mostly it was Vivekananda's explanation.

Prabhupāda: Vivekananda did not know anything about bhakti.

Ambassador: No, I mean he just, literally, it's not bhakti at all. Yes, it is...

Room Conversation with Banker -- September 21, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So before leaving India, you can become a member. We have got many books, twenty books like that. This is published by MacMillan Company of New York.

Banker: Oh, this one is. Some of them are printed in New York.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Some of these are. This one is the most popular. It is printed by MacMillan (indistinct) publishing house. They went through already three editions just in the first year. The sales manager at MacMillan reported that while all the other editions of Bhagavad-gītā are declining in sales, ours was increasing. So there is a good a interest there. So many I think there are so many English Bhagavad...

Prabhupāda: 645.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1973, New Delhi:

Brahmānanda: You're kidding!

Prabhupāda: And the latest report is that Bhagavad-gītā is selling fifteen thousand copies per month in London. Who told me? Thirty-thousand copies sold in two months.

Śyāmasundara: It was MacMillan's biggest selling book in England.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That also you can inform her. And present her one copy.

Śyāmasundara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. One copy of Bhāgavata.

Śyāmasundara: I gave her one copy of...

Prabhupāda: Who arranged this meeting?

Śyāmasundara: Well, we did. We just went.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I am presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is.

Dr. Kapoor: Huh.

Prabhupāda: So that Bhagavad-gītā as it is published by MacMillan Company.

Dr. Kapoor: I haven't read it through, but I saw the publication.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So they are having every year one edition.

Dr. Kapoor: Hmm. I see. Wonderful.

Prabhupāda: Yes, for the last, it has begun from 1968, it is still going on, every year, they publish and they send me royalty $2,000.

Dr. Kapoor: Good.

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So why don't you get the manuscript and let us have an Indian edition. I told Rūpānuga that the difficulty is that the enlarged edition when we are attempting to publish, MacMillan says that "We are publishing your book, why not we, we publish." If we publish, then we save our investment to publish. That has not been decided, so therefore I advised my secretary in New York that MacMillan's permission or no permission, you should immediately print. If they print it is all right, otherwise print ourself.

Dr. Kapoor: Haven't you given the copyright to them?

Prabhupāda: No, copyright is mine.

Dr. Kapoor: Oh.

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, copyright is mine.

Dr. Kapoor: Oh.

Guest (5): Can you get, get it, published in India.

Prabhupāda: In India, yes. No, by publisher, especially publisher like MacMillan you save so much time and investment also. We are not for profit. We want to see the publication in the market, so in that sense we save so much trouble, but they always look after their business profit.

Dr. Kapoor: Naturally.

Prabhupāda: In the beginning also I requested them to publish the whole, but they said, "No, it will be very big, it will be costly. You reduce it to 400 pages." So that 1100 pages were reduced to 400 pages. Now when people are demanding this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, people are coming. When our saṅkīrtana party goes in the street many gentlemen comes and demands "Have you got Bhaktivedanta's Bhagavad-gītā As It Is?"

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, they demand it. In every center it is going on very nicely. Then we have many customer requested the enlarged edition. So, so everything is ready. Now this controversy, whether MacMillan will publish or we shall publish.

Dr. Kapoor: There is no doubt that you will be saving a lot of trouble (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: And they have got good organization.

Dr. Kapoor: Good organization they have got.

Prabhupāda: All over the world.

Dr. Kapoor: They'll sell more. They'll sell more.

Prabhupāda: Actually because it was published by MacMillan Company, it has become widely circulated, people are demanding.

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

Bhagavān: Sanskrit, which Prabhupāda translates himself and gives the explanation and purport. Every night Śrīla Prabhupāda dictates into a dictaphone, and his secretaries type and edit. And then we have a press in New York which composes and prints.

O'Grady: It's a very nice edition, that Macmillan edition. Very nicely done.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they have fifth edition within two years. Five editions.

O'Grady: Five editions in two years.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And each time they print fifty thousand books.

O'Grady: This new printing.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. In London about few months ago we got report they sold thirty thousand copies in two months.

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

Prabhupāda: After this death... There are many deaths in many bodies, but after this death, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), he does not enter again into the material body. In his original spiritual body he goes back to home, back to Godhead. So this is sum and substance of our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, and we have got many Vedic literatures about it, especially the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So we have published Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. The publisher is Messrs. MacMillan and Company, and we are selling. It has already gone fifth edition. And each edition they have published fifty-thousand copies and this is the preliminary study book, to understand God. And then, when one is passed of this knowledge, then he can be given the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which we have published like this, sixty volumes, all original verses from Bhāgavatam, and explained. Then... This is graduate study. Then after this there is post-graduate study, this Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

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

Dhanañjaya: "In this translation the western reader has the unique opportunity of seeing how a Kṛṣṇa devotee interprets his own texts. It is the Vedic exegetical tradition, justly famous, in action. (reads rest of foreword of MacMillan edition of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is)" This is stated by Professor Edward C. Dimock, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilization, University of Chicago. Please take this.

Cardinal Pignedoli: Thank you. It will be a source also for unprofessionals, also to give true interpretation yes, by devotees.

Prabhupāda: The trades manager of Messrs. MacMillan Company, he has reported that this book is selling increasing, and other editions, they are decreasing.

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because all these so-called Bhagavad-gītā commentaries written by rascals, that's all. They are all rascals. They cannot understand what is Bhagavad-gītā. The MacMillan Company's trade manager has admitted that while others Bhagavad-gītā is selling less, this is increasing. (pause)

Yogeśvara: So I prepared one argument this morning.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Yogeśvara: There's a theory of the psychologists that—in some ways it's similar to our idea—that people are conditioned, that according to their environment, according to their upbringing, according to their parentage and so on, they have a kind of way of acting and thinking. So their argument is that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is just another kind of conditioning, that you leave one kind of conditioning, a material conditioning, but then you also enter into another kind of conditioning when you live in the temple.

Room Conversation -- June 28, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Formerly we were paying two rupees. Two rupees, and if it is this name, at most, three rupees. Now the things have increased twice. Forty years ago that black Bhāgavata was bound only for two rupees. This is very nice one. In the U.S.A the binding cost is very, very... Just like Macmillan Company. Bhagavad-gītā, hardbound, they charge ten dollars, ninety-five. And softbound, softbound, they charge four dollars. Six dollar difference on account of binding. So they have charged one dollar, seventy-five cents, and in America they charge six dollars. So all the fathers clapped for long.

Devotee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: They appreciated.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 27, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What is the position of Bhagavad-gītā? Macmillan, you are not taking supply, so they have stopped?

Jayatīrtha: We've informed them that the..., we want to make the..., because they no longer have it in print, that the abridged edition, we want to break the contract.

Prabhupāda: No, that is already, they have permitted. Anyway, you can...

Jayatīrtha: But as far as the other one is concerned we have a stock on hand.

Prabhupāda: What they are doing?

Brahmānanda: They're picking the papers.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Jayādvaita: He wrote that original introduction for your first Bhagavad-gītā published by Macmillan.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Bhakta Gene: Well, this raises a question in my mind, Your Grace. Within Christianity there has been a history of mysticism from 100 A.D. to the present. Now there have been some prominent mystics, a few prominent mystics, and a great many not so prominent. Now how do you classify these men, these Christian mystics, Protestant as well as Catholic?

Prabhupāda: It is some yogic mysticism. It has nothing to do with spiritual life. They want to see some miracles, generally, ordinary public. So this mystic power, show some miracles and make them astonished. That's all. It has nothing to do with spiritual life.

Bhakta Gene: Perhaps you misunderstood me. I was referring to truly devotional mystics, such as St. John of the Cross, St. Francis of Assisi.

Prabhupāda: If there is devotional service, where is the need of mysticism? There is no need. God is my master, I am His servant. Where there is necessity of this nonsense mysticism?

Arrival Comments in Car to Temple -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: I think, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You kept it then.

Prabhupāda: It was given for publishing Bhagavad-gītā, but I think Macmillan took it. So I spent it for...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then you put him in charge to sell all the Teachings of Lord Caitanya, I remember. (Prabhupāda laughs)

Jayānanda: (indistinct) Didn't sell too many books, though.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I thought he was the best, most appropriate person to drive you.

Prabhupāda: He was chanting and driving. Very good boy.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation on 1976 Book Scores -- January 16, 1977, Calcutta:

Rāmeśvara: Yes. Then it lists the Bhāgavatams. We sold 7,000 volume one, First Canto; 46,000 First Canto, volume two; 41,000 First Canto, volume three; 6,000 2.1's; 8,500 5.1's; 8,500 5.2's; 17,000 6.1's; 16,000 6.2's; 16,000 6.3's; 45,000 7.1's, Prahlāda Mahārāja; 15,000 7.2; 16,000 7.3; 16,000 8.1; and 15,000 8.2. Total Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam sales in English last year, 275,000 hard bound volumes. Then Bhagavad-gītā. Macmillan edition, 5,000; the abridged edition, paper bound, 11,000. Then the abridged edition, hardbound... (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Choking.

Page Title:MacMillan (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:28 of Mar, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=40, Let=0
No. of Quotes:40