Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa means I am praying not only to the Lord, but to the energy also. This is natural. Just like a man and woman. In whole world there is combination of male and female, either... Any society, human society, or bird society or dog society or animal society. Why this male and female? Why? Female is the energy, energy of the male. Why a man takes, marries a woman and takes responsibility...? Of course, in your country they marry as a matter of joke, immediately divorce after week or after seven days. But marriage means to take full responsibility of a woman. That is real marriage, Vedic marriage. We, when I get married our boys and girls, the boy takes this vow that "I take responsibility of your maintenance throughout your whole life," and the girl promises that "I desire to serve you throughout my whole life." So the woman, the female, is the energy. When a man comes at home, he sees that everything is nicely decorated, my wife is well-dressed and foodstuff is nicely prepared, he becomes encouraged. He can work more nicely. Therefore woman is the energy. The woman gives the energy and he can work. Wherefrom this idea came? The idea came because it is originally here, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Everything is coming from the Supreme; otherwise where do you get this idea? Sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. Without being in the origin? Bījo 'haṁ sarva-bhūtānām (Bg 7.10), Kṛṣṇa says that "I am the root of everything." So if this energy, male and female combination, is a necessity, so wherefrom this necessity came into existence unless it is there in the origin? Therefore it is to be understood that the Absolute has energy. He has got different energies. By His energies He is acting, and that is confirmed in the Vedic sūtra, parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). The Supreme Absolute Truth has multi-energies. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate, multi-energies. And svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca, and by His energies he's working in such a nice way that it appears that it is being automatically done.
Maintenance (Conversations)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. Wherefrom the idea came to the human society unless it is there in the Absolute? How the idea comes? Therefore that law and order is Viṣṇu. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). The idea of law and order came from Viṣṇu. How nicely explained. Janmādy asya. In two words, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Janma means creation, and ādi, ādi means first janma, then sthiti. Sthiti means staying, maintenance. And then dissolution. So three things. Yataḥ, from where these three things are happening. That means this world is being created from that source, it is being maintained by that source, and when it is annihilated it rests in that energy, the whole energy.
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That means the social structure is very bad. Otherwise, natural procedure is that everyone should be self-independent. But why state has to give them help? That's not good. You may be... Just like a son may be very rich man's son, but if the father provides him only, then he's a useless son. Is it not? If the father has to provide him money for his maintenance, then that son is useless son. That is not a good certificate. Although you may be very much proud that "I am maintaining my so many sons," why you should maintain? Let them be self-supported.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Devotee (4): Yeah, that possibility is there.
Prabhupāda: The brain goes bad, then it is very difficult to bring it into...
Pratyatoṣa: Well, they have maintenance men on the spot all the time. It's very reliable.
Prabhupāda: But I moving from one place to another.
Pratyatoṣa: Well, they have... This Honeywell system is being combined into a nationwide network so that these computers are available in every major city in the United States right now, and they're going to be eventually all tied together. We can actually communicate with other temples through the system.
Prabhupāda: If somebody pays $700 at a time, then?
Pratyatoṣa: Well, that's for purchasing it. Then you have to maintain it yourself or else you have to hire somebody else to maintain it for you. But you could just lease it for about $85 a month, and the maintenance and paper and paper tape and supplies...
Prabhupāda: You have to purchase for $700, then you have to pay maintenance service.
Pratyatoṣa: Yeah, unless you can maintain yourself. I don't think they're too difficult to maintain. Teletype terminals are very reliable.
Prabhupāda: No, no, that's all right. Maintenance is different. Either you maintain yourself or pay that.
Pratyatoṣa: Correct.
Prabhupāda: No, I, I... We are believer in God. You see. So we know God is the original father. He is supplying maintenance for everyone. So there is no question of increasing population. If there is increase of population, God has enough resources to feed them. It is not the question of increasing population. But what is the question of demonic civilization.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Because they're better looking, good looking, intelligent, powerful. Similarly, just like this controller or director of this rain department is Indra. This thundering, it is under his direction this thundering is going on. He throws the thunderbolts and cracks the mountain, and then we get chunks. That is his business. As in government there are different departments, similarly, God has got different departments, and the in-charge of that department is demigod. Creation, that's Brahma; sustenance or maintenance, Himself, Viṣṇu; and dissolution, Lord Siva.
Prabhupāda: Just like all the men, they are spending two thousand rupees for maintenance. They must work. And if they go with the books to any gentleman, they'll take. Māyā-sukhāya udvahato vimūḍhān. (break) Americans are giving so much service, knowledge. Arrange everything. They are giving already; simply they should be distributed through us-powdered milk, grains. People will feel so much obliged, "Oh, these American people are giving us knowledge and food." Practically they'll see how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious—by our aratika, by our kīrtana, by our behavior, by our character.
Prabhupāda: (Hindi), because whatever that Māyāpur.... You have been in Nava, Navadvīpa?
Sumati Morarjee: Yes, yes, I have been to Navadvīpa, Māyāpur, Śāntipura, then that Katwa, all those places I have visited.
Prabhupāda: So, Māyāpur we are constructing a big temple. And Vṛndāvana also. So, for maintenance of the temple perpetually, I want to purchase some property in Los Angeles, because here, Los Angeles, property gets nice income.
Sumati Morarjee: Is it?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Sumati Morarjee: How?
Prabhupāda: Los Angeles.
Sumati Morarjee: Good income?
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Divided? They are also already divided. But the culture diminished. Because the center of culture was India, Delhi. So as the power diminished, the maintenance of the culture diminished, and by contact with other types of aboriginal, they learned eating meat and gradually degraded. And they discovered different kinds of religion because... Just like at the present moment Christians are protesting why there should not be abortion.
Prabhupāda: Eh? Nature? That means you have taken from somebody. You have not created. You have stolen. Thief you are. And we say: "Yes, you have taken from the nature, but every property of nature, that belongs to Kṛṣṇa." Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Īśāvāsyam, it is all God's creation. And that is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Yes... If one does not perform yajña, he's a thief. Yajña means acknowledging that things have been taken from Kṛṣṇa. And we must satisfy Kṛṣṇa. "Kṛṣṇa, You have given so many things for our maintenance." This much acknowledgement Kṛṣṇa wants. That's all. Otherwise, what He can expect from you? What you are in His presence? Prasāda. Prasāda means acknowledging: "Kṛṣṇa, You have given us this foodstuff.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Recently I went to a lecture called "The origin of life." It was given by a well-known biochemist whose name is Professor Stanley Miller. He was talking about the origin of life.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So what is origin of life?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: He said that there are twenty amino acids, twenty of them which are necessary for the maintenance of life, the living entities. So he was discussing how these amino acids are formed before the dawn of creation, and he had so many theories, all nonsense.
Prabhupāda: So did you not protest?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. Then there was... After his lecture... It was a one hour long seminar, and there was question and answer. So they invited questions. Nobody asked.
Prabhupāda: Very good.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Then I asked, "Supposing I give you the chemical materials, say, the molecules likes amino acids and the big molecules like DNA and RNA..." These are the molecules, which they think necessary for the maintenance of life. "Supposing I give you all these chemical compounds, then do you think that you will be able to put life into it. If you get all the chemical materials necessary, but will you be able to put life into it?" Then he said, "I do not know."
Prabhupāda: Then why you are talking nonsense? (laughter) Then? People did not laugh?
Prabhupāda: Matter is not permanent. Matter is changing. Ṣaḍ-vikāra. Six kinds of changes, matter. Birth, then growing... Matter grows also. Just like the body has grown. It was very small, pea-like body in the beginning, and it grows. So birth, growth, maintenance for some time, then by-product. There are some by-products. And then dwindling, then finished. This is matter. But life has no such change. When the life is within the matter, it appears that it is taking birth or death. Life will come.
Prabhupāda: Yes, the difference is eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. God is the maintainer, the supplier of all necessities of the so many persons. That is God.
Mr. Wadell: Yes, I accept that.
Prabhupāda: This is the difference. We are maintained, and He is maintainer. That is difference. Otherwise, God is also person, I am also person. One is maintainer and others, the plural number, they are maintained. In the Christian religion also, the same idea is: "God give us our daily bread," maintenance. So that is the difference. He is the bread supplier, and we are bread eater. That's all.
Mr. Wadell: He doesn't supply his bread to everybody unless...
Prabhupāda: Everybody, yes, everybody. Beginning...
Mr. Wadell: People die, do they not?
Prabhupāda: But if, under certain circumstances, you are obliged to eat meat, eat the flesh of some lower animals. Don't kill cows. It is the greatest sin. And so long one will be sinful, he'll not be able to understand what is God. But human being, main business is to understand God and to love Him. But if he remains sinful, neither he can understand God, and what to, what is the question of loving Him. Therefore at least from the human society, this cruel maintenance of slaughterhouses must be stopped.
Prabhupāda: Purport.
Haṁsadūta: Purport: "This is the duty of everyone to mold his life in such a way that he will not forget Kṛṣṇa in any circumstance. Everyone has to work for maintenance of his body and soul together, and Kṛṣṇa recommends herein that one should work for Him. Everyone has to eat something to live. Therefore he should accept the remnants of foodstuffs offered to Kṛṣṇa. Any civilized man has to perform some religious..."
Prabhupāda: "You give Me." "Whatever you eat, you give Me," Kṛṣṇa says.
Haṁsadūta: "Any civilized man has to perform some religious ritualistic ceremonies. Therefore Kṛṣṇa recommends..."
Haṁsadūta: This is vaidikī.
Haṁsadūta: "...Do it for Me."
Prabhupāda: So, in this way, as soon as we understand or become convinced that I am not this body, then spiritual education begins. (If) I am different, then the next question will be, then what for I am working? Naturally at the present moment we are working for this body, maintenance of the body. For eating, sleeping, having facility for sex life or sense gratification and to protect this body from being harmed. This is our business. But if I am not this body, then, I am spirit soul, then the next question will be, what I am doing for the spirit soul? When actually I am working for this body because I, spirit soul, is within this body.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: No. According to our present calculated, about 180 mounds. So there should be 120 mounds excess of grain. Instead of excess, they want ten thousand rupees for maintenance. This is... This management is going on. These things were not discussed in GBC? So what kind of discussion was there? Simply talking? No practical? And the estimate of budget was presented for ten thousand rupees per month. And... And when it was scrutinizingly studied, immediately it came down to six thousand.
Prabhupāda: Now, etad yonīni, all kinds of species or forms of life, or whatever you see, they are simply combination of this para-prakṛti and aparā-prakṛti. But both the prakṛtis coming from Kṛṣṇa, janmādyasya yataḥ, He is the actual, actual cause of everything.
Mr. Sar: Ahaṁ kṛtsnasya jagataḥ prabhavaḥ...
Prabhupāda: Ah. Prabhavaḥ pralayas tathā. But prabhavaḥ, prabhavaḥ, as Brahmā, creation, as Viṣṇu, maintenance, as Śiva, dissolution.
Mr. Sar: Destroyer.
Prabhupāda: But Kṛṣṇa is the original cause of Brahmā, Viṣṇu... Aham ādir hi devānāṁ (Bg 10.2). Aham ādir hi devānāṁ.
Dr. Patel: So He is, in a way, all the three.
Mr. Sar: He's all the three. Yes, He's all the three.
Prabhupāda: Guṇa... Yes. So if the four divisions work nicely, then it is healthy society. Otherwise it is not. If different parts of your body work nicely, then you are healthy.
Dr. Patel: Each section of the society has to, I mean, work as a...
Prabhupāda: For the maintenance.
Dr. Patel: ...part of the whole.
Prabhupāda: Whole, yes. That doesn't matter whether you are śūdra or brāhmaṇa. Your aim should be how to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then it is perfect.
- ya imaṁ puruṣaṁ sākṣād
- ātma-prabhavam īśvaram
- na bhajanty abhijānanti
- sthānād bhraṣṭāḥ patanty adhaḥ
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (break) There you see the Sarasvatī. Sarasvatī, she asks anybody, "Do you know Kṛṣṇa?" He will say, "No, I do not know..." "The Supreme Personality of Godhead." (laughter) She... That is preaching. And she'll collect some money and bring it to me. From the very childhood. (break) ...evāsam āgre. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. "And when everything will be finished, I'll stay." That is Kṛṣṇa. Janmādyasya yataḥ. The Vedānta-sūtra says that "He is the cause of creation, maintenance and annihilation." Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Maheśvara. (break) One who takes shelter of that birth, who is not interested in this distress and happiness, he also becomes of this Mad-bhāva. That verse?
Prabhupāda: But in your Bible you say, "O Father." Relation is father and son. Why do you say in the Bible "O Father, give us our daily bread"? So that you make relation with God as father.
Priest: But...
Prabhupāda: But not anything, but father. As the father gives the maintenance, bread, so you go to God in that relationship, "Father, give us our daily bread." Just like the child asks the father, "Father, give me something to eat." So this is clear relationship father and son.
French Man: No, it's a very complicated system, the system for all these things in the (indistinct) of this country. There are two main conceptions—the Oriental conception of the Orthodox Church and the Western...
Prabhupāda: No, we are not talking of any particular church. We are just trying to understand the word relation. If you go to particular church, then another will give another church, another will give another church. But we are trying to understand the word relationship. So in the Bible it is clearly said, "O Father," so the relation is father and son.
Prabhupāda: You say no, but any man will understand that. You may have your own opinion, that is a different thing.
Priest: But we have to have the opinion which we experience.
Prabhupāda: What is that experience? You ask, "Father, give us our daily bread," and that is experience. God is giving everyone maintenance. That is our actual relationship. In the Vedas also it is said, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). That is the God. God is also a person as you are person, I am person, but He is the chief person. Nityo nityānām, the chief, the Supreme. In the dictionary it is said Supreme Being. We are all beings, and He is Supreme Being. How He is supreme? Eka, that one; God is one. Bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. He supplies the necessities of everyone's life. That is very good experience, we are getting everything from God. And the Christians also pray, "Give us our daily bread." So I don't find any difference between the statement in the Vedas and the Bible. God is the Supreme Person, and you make relationship with Him any way—as master and servant, as friend and friend, as father and son, or as husband and wife. So somehow or other we are related with God, this way or that way. The husband also maintains the wife.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So that is our point, that if we understand, every one of us realize that we are all servant of God or sons of God, that everything belongs to God, so we can use our father's property for our maintenance as much as we require, not more than that, so if we think like that, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and there will be no more war, everything peaceful.
Prabhupāda: Just like atomic energy, big energy, but it is done by a scientist, not that the ingredients automatically mix together and become an atomic... No. That is not possible. Big, big brain, scientist, they are dealing. Similarly this big energy-creation, maintenance, and destruction of nature—that nature is called Durgā. Durgā. Duḥ. Duḥ means difficult, and gā means going or to understand. To understand the laws of material nature is very difficult. That is called Durgā. Or Durgā means... Durgā means this is like a fort. We are kept within this, and the superintendent is Durgā.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Just like this coconut. God has given us this coconut fruit to enjoy or to live upon it. But I cannot create this coconut. It is not possible. Therefore, for my maintenance He has sent this coconut. So He is maintainer; I am maintained, although He is being; I am also being. He is maintainer being; I am maintained being. This is the right conclusion. No scientist... He can talk so many things about this coconut, but unfortunately he cannot manufacture this coconut. That is not possible.
Prabhupāda: That you discuss, how these sources, how their maintenance should be... But BBT is already declared. It is meant for two purposes. Now you find out how the sources. That is business of GBC.
Prabhupāda: Then why you are giving free service? Anyone, all of my disciples, they are qualified. Their service is worth more than any thousands of... Yes. So why you are maintaining Karandhara? All of them, they are giving free service. But they are all worthy to take salary, two thousand, three thousand, five thousand...
Atreya Ṛṣi: Karandhara is only, what he's getting is only enough for his maintenance.
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Atreya Ṛṣi: We are being maintained.
Prabhupāda: No, no. Maintenance... Here, everyone can earn money and maintain him, but here this expense should be sacrifice. The essential is service.
Haṁsadūta: It's his service...
Prabhupāda: Service, yes.
Prabhupāda: No, no. The dog also allows the nipple to be sucked by the cubs. That is family maintenance. So what credit do you get by family maintenance? Why do you specially claim any benefit by maintain...? That is being done by the cats and dogs. Do you think that the animals do not take care of their children? Then if you take, then what is the difference between him and yourself? You are also the cats and dogs. Your main business is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. If you forget that—you remain cats and dogs—then you'll become again cats and dogs. Punar muṣiko bhava: "Again become a mouse." The mouse was given the chance to elevate gradually to a tiger, and when he became tiger, he wanted to devour the saintly person.
Prabhupāda: Good things, does it require...? That is propaganda. You have got some false thing, you have to make propaganda to prove it, that it is real.
Devotee: That is the proof it is false.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And this man has taken money for... And he cannot supply even maintenance for his wife and girl. You have seen Mālatī?
Devotee: Yes Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Not properly dressed. And this poor girl is not properly dressed. And he's thinking he'll (indistinct).
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: His head is in the clouds.
Prabhupāda: Yes, the more they enjoy, the more they become entangled. (pause) Does it snow here?
Amogha: No. In the mountains.
Prabhupāda: Mountains. (pause) ...it is said that sun is the source of everything within this universe. Maintenance of all living entities. The source within the universe is the sun. Therefore this Gāyatrī mantra is worshiping the sun, oṁ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ tat savitur vareṇyaṁ bhargo devasya dhīmahi.
Gaṇeśa: Does that mean that Vivasvān is more powerful than Lord Brahmā?
Prabhupāda: No. Vivasvān was begotten by Brahmā.
Amogha: Some Kali-yuga swans.
Prabhupāda: Sweetness? That is false sweetness. Just like sexual intercourse. This is sweet, but aftereffect is very poisonous. Either illicit or legal, the aftereffect is very... You have to take care of the children, the child is diseased, go to the doctor and this, that, so many, maintenance... And illicit—then this charge of rape case and so many other things. So both of them, in the beginning it is very happy, but at the end it is very distressing. That is material happiness. Everyone knows it, that it is distasteful. But still, he does that. Tṛpyanti neha kṛpanāḥ bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ (SB 7.9.45). Therefore this kṛpanāḥ... Kṛpanāḥ means miser or foolish person.
Bali-mardana: No, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Then how they will come to know? (break) ...Kṛṣṇa wants, immediately this land, by earthquake, can go down, immediately, within a second. So in the Vedic literature nature is accepted. But the creation, maintenance, destruction, that is in the hand of God, not nature. (break)
Bali-mardana: ...used to say that they can control the weather. They used to make big propaganda, "We are now going to control."
Prabhupāda: There are so many things. It is one of the items. Yes, that is one of the... Do you kill your own son? Why? Because you love him.
Dr. Judah: Would you explain the other side of it, the fact that, of course, the Bhagavad-gītā was, has its setting on a battlefield in which Kṛṣṇa enjoins Arjuna to go out and fight his kinsmen because it is his duty as a kṣatriya.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because in the material world, for the maintenance of equilibrium of the society, sometimes killing is necessary. Just like fight, war. When the enemy has come to your country, you cannot sit idly; you must fight. But that does not mean that you are allowed to kill everyone as you like. That is a special circumstances when fighting must be there.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And one of the things I see about the unique feature of all the diets that they have in common is that the devotees more or less stop taking the prasādam which is offered to the Deity.
Prabhupāda: This is not good. (break)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It seems to me that one of the important aspects of bhakti-yoga is to depend upon Kṛṣṇa for one's maintenance.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So whatever is offered to the Deity, one should accept.
Prabhupāda: The prasādam is not suitable?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well it is standard prasādam. Capatis, rice, dahl, subji, fruits.
Prabhupāda: So why they do not like?
Prabhupāda: If the home is not peaceful, always disturbed in mind, and one has to adopt twice in a week divorce, then how there can be peace? This is not freedom, this is disturbance. Freedom does not mean disturbance of peace. Freedom means that maintenance of peace.
Sandy Nixon: I've got a good question. How can we get a God conscious leader in this country?
Prabhupāda: You come and live with us. You'll get God. Just like so many boys...
Sandy Nixon: As a president in this country.
Prabhupāda: So the first necessity is how to eat and how to cover. That you have to provide. That is not difficult. You can do it. And then you become peaceful, no anxiety for your maintenance. And then cultivate this spiritual knowledge the same way. Have a temple there. Have... Go on chanting, offering prasādam. You have got your food grains. Don't be dependent on anyone else. Become self-independent.
Dr. Patel: Here we are talking about the divyā part of the...
Prabhupāda: Because, no, He was questioned...
Dr. Patel: ...of the life. I talk of the maintenance of the body. To maintain the body Karl Marx put up this theory and, I mean, spoiled the whole thing—whole society and social set-up.
Prabhupāda: (Hindi to a passerby) Everyone is manufacturing; that is my point. Either Karl Marx or this one or that one, everyone is manufacturing. No one is taking the instruction. And our mission is "Take instruction of Kṛṣṇa." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We don't manufacture like nonsense. What you'll manufacture? You are imperfect, your senses are imperfect...
Dr. Patel: There is, sir, one matter in Ayurvedas, svayāmbu cikitsā, wherein people are drinking their own urine, because urine is not only water and waste products but there are certain broken, I mean what you call important articles, of body maintainence.
Prabhupāda: So those.... You are advising your patients to go and drink...?
Dr. Patel: No, I don't say. But that is not so bad, because it contains those hormones.... (Prabhupāda breaks in laughing) It does contain the hormones, I mean it has been analyzed like that, scientifically. It is not to be joked about.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: (break) Cleansing.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Cleaning, pūjārīs, cooking.
Saurabha: Cleaning is very big job to maintain, especially with exhibitions that...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Maintenance.
Jayapatāka: We can get a lot of people, village people, to come and live without pay and do the cleaning, but they won't be productive. I mean, they'll have to be supported by the temple. They'll just be cleaning all day.
Prabhupāda: Supporting is no problem. To everyone we can give place and food. There is no problem.
Hṛdayānanda: They must do.
Prabhupāda: Then you don't allow. Don't allow that. Don't allow.
Guru-kṛpā: That's good.
Hṛdayānanda: Maintenance is much more simple, easier, less expensive for them on a farm.
Prabhupāda: If they do not follow the rules and regulations, then what is the use?
Hṛdayānanda: We were thinking that unless someone is a preacher, he has no real business in the city. Let him go have a peaceful life out on the farm.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So he has offered seat.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? In the Bhāgavatam it says that although Lord Viṣṇu is the controller of everything, He is particularly in charge with the mode of goodness, and He is associated with maintenance. So is it that in order to maintain something in this material world also, there has to be the touch of the mode of goodness?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
- tadā rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ
- kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye
- ceta etair anāviddhaṁ
- sthitaṁ sattve prasīdati
- (SB 1.2.19)
When the heart is cleansed of the dirty things, rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ, the modes of rajaḥ and tamaḥ, ignorance and passion, then he is situated in the sattva-guṇa. There are three guṇas. If you become released from the tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa, naturally you are situated in the sattva-guṇa.
Mr. Dixon: ...are used within your congre..., within the people that live in...
Prabhupāda: Yes. I make a Book Trust. That is my will, that from all the collection of the books fifty percent for reprinting and fifty percent for expanding these temples, these buildings. In this way.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We really don't require very much for our maintenance. As you can see, we live a very simple life.
Prabhupāda: Just like these boys, they are practiced to sit down. We have kept two chairs for the visitors. (laughter) We don't require. We can lie down on the floor. We can use only one or two cloths, that's all, throughout the whole year. We have no demands, only bare necessities. We don't smoke, don't drink. There is no expenditure. Don't go to cinema, don't read newspaper or ordinary magazines, nothing. We have got reading matter. Practically we are noncooperating.
Rāmeśvara: The actual project, without considering how much the devotees live on, forty thousand dollars.
Prabhupāda: Never mind.
Rāmeśvara: That's the budget for the project, not counting the devotee maintenance.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: More than that.
Prabhupāda: Never mind. You can you can raise that four times price.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we don't mind the cost?
Prabhupāda: No.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...in the age of Kali-yuga, difficulties will increase. That's a fact. Very, very difficult. We have passed only five thousand years, and there is balance of 427,000, hundreds of years, thousands. (break) ...only go back to home, back to Godhead. (break) ...has therefore advised that "Don't be engaged in all this nonsense activities, economic development. Simply become Kṛṣṇa conscious." (break) ...promises that "For such persons who are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, I'll take charge for their maintenance directly." Yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (BG 9.22). (break) ...envious of one another. They see that "These people, they do not do anything, and living so comfortably."
Hari-śauri: I used to work on them, same thing. I was working where they pour the metal into ingots, into casings, and then when it solidifies they take a chunk of iron out, it's still white hot, and then they put it in ovens. And then after a while, when they need them, they take them out with big cranes and they put them on a series of rollers, and then it goes through a mill, what they call a mill. It's like a big mangling machine, and it crushes the steel ingot into plates, big plates. Then it goes along and it's cut and sent out. It cools down on big banks and it's sent out. So my job was, I was doing maintenance fitting on all those machines. On the rollers and on the cranes and on the big mills, like that. It was terrible. We used to work from two o'clock in the afternoon until ten o'clock at night, one shift, then from ten until six, and then from six until two.
Prabhupāda: Eight hours. Without any recreation?
Hari-śauri: Well, one break, for lunch. It was just indescribable. There's so much heat and fumes, and always covered in oil and grease, crawling around on your hands and knees to fix some machine.
Jagadīśa: All for the advantage of some wealthy man.
Prabhupāda: And after this hard labor, his only recreation is wine. Did you drink?
Prabhupāda: Money they must make; otherwise, why they should come? But what is the objection? Just like in the marketplace, still, in India, the system is, the marketplace, anyone can go and sell his goods, and when he's selling, the proprietor takes some contribution. Not that he has to take permission. He's selling there, that's all right, "Give me some..., a little contribution." The king has the right to tax for maintenance.
Devotee (3): Śrīla Prabhupāda, when we take that which is not our quota, by using, wasting a lot of clean water, how is that perfect and complete, oṁ pūrṇam? How are things still perfectly complete even when we're wasting and destroying it?
Prabhupāda: Why you should waste? Wasting is not allowed. (break) ...our car?
Prabhupāda: There are different kinds of visa. Immigration visa. Suppose if anyone wants to migrate in America, our society here, we give guarantee. I think there will be no...
Kīrtanānanda: No difficulty. We can try.
Prabhupāda: Our society is here, and we give this man our guarantee for maintenance. So what is the objection? By law there is no objection. And if the immigration department allows, "Yes, you can come and live," then where will be...? Immigration means that here government should be satisfied that this man is coming, he will have no difficulty, government gives permit.
Kīrtanānanda: Should be like that, anyway.
Nandarāṇī: Yes, we have explained to some of them the concepts in "Who is Crazy?" and Īśopaniṣad is a good book for them.
Prabhupāda: So your daughter is good assistant in the matter of cooking?
Nandarāṇī: Yes, they are both very good in cooking. And they clean the altar and they do some maintenance of the altar and the temple room, and they cook and sew, and I give them class in the morning, Bhagavad-gītā in English.
Prabhupāda: Yes, teach them personally. That Aniruddha is always chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Nandarāṇī: They are?
Gargamuni: ...to keep it going we took a minimum amount of ten thousand a month. We were getting ten thousand a month. But to finish the building we require more, more per month, because ten thousand is just the most minimum amount just to keep it going.
Prabhupāda: So you are collecting?
Gargamuni: Yes, but that is going for maintenance. I give twenty thousand a month now.
Prabhupāda: Maintenance, twenty thousand?
Gargamuni: Well, that includes agriculture, the gurukula, everything. It includes everything.
Jayapatākā: Actual maintenance, about eight or ten thousand. Other things, landscaping and other things...
Gargamuni: Landscaping... We built you a very wonderful park, very nice park. We've also put a walkway around the ghāṭa with stairs.
Prabhupāda: Now, what is the position of our big project?
Prabhupāda: Anyway, what is the investigation?
Jayapatākā: They are being investigated for income tax.
Gargamuni: For income tax. The government is making it so that no one can give any donation. They don't want any more donation. They want everything to come to the government. So it's not easy to get money locally. We are getting enough to do maintenance, but it is not like it was, say, two or three years ago, when you could get 25,000 fifteen thousand, especially in Calcutta, where the income tax, every day they are raiding the houses.
Jayapatākā: Even if people give, a life, patron member, 2,222, if they are not so big, they want to give in installment and even though they'll give at one time with postdated... They want different receipt because if they give one lump sum, then it makes it seem that they are very rich. Although they'll give you at one time, they want small, small receipt so that the income tax won't think, "Oh, they are are giving so much donation? They must be very rich. They must have hidden wealth which we can capture from them by investigation." So in this way they are very much pressurized. Sometimes they prefer to give money without receipt.
Prabhupāda: Soon the whole, our program is going on.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Varṇāśramācāra-vatā. The varṇa and āśrama I've already explained. Just like for maintenance of the whole body there are different parts: the brain, the arm, the belly, and the leg. Similarly, varṇāśrama means the head—brāhmaṇa; the arms—kṣatriya; the belly—vaiśya; and the leg—śūdra. So by nature these divisions are there.
Akṣayānanda: For eating?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Akṣayānanda: Then clothing is more? Clothing is more? Maintenance?
Prabhupāda: No, everything. Hundred rupees per head. You do not require to collect. I shall pay five thousand.
Harikeśa: There should be a budget here.
Prabhupāda: Budget is there. Hundred rupees per head. Fifty men if you keep, it is five thousand.
Prabhupāda: Six hundred rupees. So take another four hundred rupees, make one thousand. It should not go more than five hundred to one thousand. You spend.
Harikeśa: But milk, when you cook down milk to make a sweet...
Prabhupāda: I have taken from six hundred to one thousand. All the maintenance.
Akṣayānanda: I will take every item with Viśvambhara, every single item.
Prabhupāda: You don't believe me?
Akṣayānanda: I can't understand. My intelligence is not great enough to understand it. I believe you, but I have to do it. That's all.
Prabhupāda: And the government also will like that, that foreign students...
Bhagatji: If they can understand the language and they...
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, Hindi is essential. It is not difficult. The same principle as Sanskrit. Reading and writing, that's all.
Jagadīśa: So far as the financial situation, I've discussed with Bhagatji and it seems that the best idea is to open a separate gurukula maintenance account with co-signers Bhagatji and Rūpa-vilāsa, so that... Because there's so much...
Prabhupāda: So then some of them, they are getting money.
Jagadīśa: Yes, the parents are sending money.
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Prabhupāda: You are following? Go on.
Devotee (3): "...and free him from material contamination. So-called renunciation for the purpose of maintenance is never approved by the Lord, nor by any religious scripture. After all, one has to maintain one's body and soul together by some work. Work should not be given up capriciously, without purification of materialistic propensities.
Indian man: But that we have been working for twenty years in Ahmedabad. Everybody is very happy there, and they're actually making money out of it. The fertilizer that is there is about four times what is normally achieved. So good maintenance are required for any...
Prabhupāda: (sneezes loud) I have no objection, but I've got experience. In Māyāpur it is failure.
Indian man (2): Sometimes we get a defective machine. I purchased one for my girl's house. I've got a number of about 30. But one was rejected but...
Indian man: Either defective machine or defective maintenance.
Prabhupāda: Maybe. But the difficulty is there. (sneezes) (pause)
Indian man: (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) ...31st to go for Bhuvaneśvara. Then come to Kumbha-mela.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Or you can stay here and go to Kumbha-mela straight?
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes, Pālikā. (break) ...business, that requires so many other things. But if you take to agriculture you can do it immediately. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya. That... We are going to do that. Kṛṣi... This is beginning, family life, maintenance, body and soul together. This is the beginning. Business is there when there is excess. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam (BG 18.44). First of all you take care of the cows and engage yourself in agricultural products.
Prabhupāda: Huh? You have done already upasannān. So is Kṛṣṇa unable to maintain you? Why should you go to this blind man? So we go not for our maintenance. We want to engage his hard-earned money to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
Prabhupāda: Puṁsaḥ striyā mithunī-bhāvam etat. This is the basic principle of... A man and woman is married; the purpose is sex. Now, when he's married, ataḥ gṛha-kṣetra-sutāpta-vittair. "Then where shall I enjoy sex? I must have very nice apartment, gṛha. Then I must maintain myself, kṣetra." Formerly agriculture was the source of maintenance. Ataḥ gṛha-kṣetra. "Then I get some children, suta, then some friends." Ataḥ gṛha-kṣetra-suta apta vitta. "Then money." In this way, janasya moho 'yam ahaṁ mameti: (SB 5.5.8) "He increases this paraphernalia, and he becomes entangled:" Ahaṁ mam... "I am the proprietor; I am the father; I am this; I am that." And one day, nature's law comes, gives him a slap: "Get out!" Finished.
Prabhupāda: How you can expect good wishes from such persons? Very precarious condition. Your son, you take care. Now, as soon as you make a committee to take care of your son, then everything is finished. Is it not? The committee members will finish the son and the son's maintenance and everything. But that is going on. Formerly there was one monarch. He was acting according to the Vedic instruction. So he was responsible. And if there are many votes, by vote a government, a combination of plunderers, what they will take care of the people? It is impossible. Otherwise why there was need of dragging down Nixon? He was elected, wrong elected. Wrong must be. The people are wrong. They do not know who is the right man. Any rascal makes some intrigue, and he gets vote. And then they detect, "Oh, he's the wrong man." Again another is taken. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). And what is the guarantee that another man is right? Because the process is wrong.
Prabhupāda: So you keep account in such a way that whatever income it is, it is spent for books. Print some... You also do there. Whatever income you get, you spend for promotion. This principle should be followed. All businessmen are doing that. Whatever income is there, it is spent for maintenance establishment. That's all.
Prabhupāda: Where?
Gargamuni: In Bombay. I saw while we were driving in a taxi downtown. It's a new hotel, and they had that red stone. It's the first time I saw it in Bombay.
Prabhupāda: Hm. The red stone is very durable.
Gargamuni: But the building... Whatever building we build would require much maintenance due to the fact that it's near the ocean. Like I've noticed fans. They rust when they're near the ocean. So they probably would have to painted once a year. We'd have to paint at least once a year, paint everything.
Prabhupāda: Anything made of iron will corrode.
Gargamuni: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Therefore this reinforced concrete is not good.
Gargamuni: No. Unless it is, we put marble over it. Then it's all right.
Prabhupāda: Even bricks.
Prabhupāda: Just like in Kṛṣṇa's time there were cities like Mathurā, Dvārakā. They were cities, big, big city. And when Kṛṣṇa came, they were decorating, they were receiving. So that kind of city will continue, but not this hellish city-slaughterhouse, brothel and big, big tin car, and so on, accident.
Hari-śauri: Skyscrapers.
Prabhupāda: We have no objection to this, provided there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Unfortunately these things cover more time for their maintenance, and they forget Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That should be stopped. The main business is development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Rāmeśvara: And you also mentioned not so much these ugra-karmic jobs.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.
Rāmeśvara: Industry. Now hundreds of thousands of people have their jobs in this way. So...
Prabhupāda: And why part time?
Yogeśvara: Part time, everyone is trying to do an hour a day.
Prabhupāda: So what they do, others?
Yogeśvara: Well, from the other forty devotees left there is the staff of pūjārīs, press, temple maintenance. So not so many are left for doing full-time work on the land.
Prabhupāda: You are not getting new devotees to join?
Yogeśvara: In Paris.
Prabhupāda: Yes. From Paris or here... In Paris... From Paris you can bring in the farm.
Rādhā-vallabha: This system of the money, I stopped that in Los Angeles. It was becoming prevalent that whenever they wanted to do some extra service, they would want money. So I told them if they want money they can't do it in service to you. It has to be something else. Otherwise the whole thing is spoiled.
Prabhupāda: No money.
Rādhā-vallabha: All right. I'll enforce that strictly. The only money is for rent and some small maintenance, eating. That's all.
Prabhupāda: And if we have got our own place, no rent even.
Rādhā-vallabha: In some cases we do. The rents mostly are to Māyāpur fund.
Prabhupāda: And to... If there is no our place, then we'll pay rent.
Rādhā-vallabha: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Otherwise you must accommodate him in our place.
Prabhupāda: Why two?
Gargamuni: Panihati is very near to...
Prabhupāda: No, no, Panihati he can take, but why Calcutta?
Gargamuni: Because for maintenance sake, Panihati and Calcutta is the same place for collecting funds.
Prabhupāda: Why?
Gargamuni: It's a factory area...
Satsvarūpa: GBC men wishing to send men to preach in Ātreya Ṛṣi's Mid-East zone should first consult with him.
Prabhupāda: Very good.
Satsvarūpa: The GBC man must be responsible and implement in their zone Śrīla Prabhupāda's maintenance fund—there was some neglect.
Prabhupāda: So what is my maintenance? Two cāpāṭis, that's all. (laughter)
Rāmeśvara: This is a special fund, Prabhupāda, for paying for any travel plane fare for the whole group that travels with you.
Prabhupāda: All right.
Prabhupāda: Some contribution.
Dr. Sharma: Contribution. And there was a real rich life in Indian village. Now, after independence, that life has been really destroyed. Because the grants have been taken away and here, it's really a pain to see such beautiful temples having no maintenance now. Plus this so-called secular education, you know godless education they have introduced, that has further harmed, because the temple-going public has also dwindled in number. And it looks like there has been a systematic plan to undermine our...
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, by this Congress. Their opinion is that India is too much religious; they spoiled.
Prabhupāda: The brāhmaṇas, they, from your Rajasthan, the other day, I got before. Twenty thousand brāhmaṇas have come here in Bombay to serve as tea-walla.
Dr. Sharma: Tea-walla. That is correct.
Prabhupāda: So who is caring for the... Because there is no maintenance, there is no education, so how the brāhmaṇas are being maintained?
Dr. Sharma: These, the Rajasthani brāhmaṇas were not that, you know, strong brāhmaṇas as you see in south. In the south the brāhmaṇas are very Vaiṣṇavas, very staunch, and they were veda-paṭhīs. They had the whole aural...
Prabhupāda: No. Veda... Because the brāhmaṇas, they should be veda-paṭhī, at the same time, the public also must know the importance of Vedas. So if you prepare the public that it is useless, then how these brāhmaṇas can be maintained?
Prabhupāda: 4) Regarding Christ coming again, for the time being, you follow his instructions. Then if he comes it will be all right. Regarding the position of our movement if Christ were to come again, that we shall see when he comes. 'The end of the world' means that the world will be devastated. Just like you have a body and it will be finished, similarly the whole world body will be devastated. Creation, maintenance and annihilation. Naśa in Sanskrit means devastated. 5) There is no difference between a pure Christian and a sincere devotee of Kṛṣṇa. 6) Everything is accurately described in the Bhāgavata Mahāpurāṇa. Love of God means God's mercy.
Prabhupāda: They will not have to seek employment, they are not interested in politics, and they will not touch one paisa locally for their maintenance. Rather, they will bring money. Therefore we request that the government of India should grant permission for at least one hundred of our men. 2) Locally we are being troubled by the municipal corporation. The local councilor is trying to take over ten feet..."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was reading the life sketch of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. He always maintained a government service job, and still...
Prabhupāda: He gave so much service to Kṛṣṇa. From his family maintenance... He could have renounced, but he said that the family has to be maintained. So he... Markaṭa-vairāgya. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was against giving sannyāsa. He didn't like these bābājīs. They were markaṭa-vairāgya, superficially... Markaṭa-vairāgya means monkey.
Prabhupāda: That means you have to change.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, we have a change. One man is expert. He knows how to run. The other men, they simply watch the gauges to see that... Because the gauges indicate that's everything's okay. If anything ever goes wrong, then they call that man. He's a maintenance man. He's very good.
Prabhupāda: So where do they supply oil?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oil? There are companies that sell you oil. I don't know what the rate is.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't know. I hope so.
Prabhupāda: They are being made from marble powder?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They're very strong. It says, "We have maintained, through your never-ending kindness, for two years or more financially in terms of our daily operational requirements and household support. Now I'm looking for ways of relieving Bhaktivedanta Book Trust of the burden at once. Deity making, the saṁsāra trailer, and other such enterprises will provide means for our maintenance and research expenditures..."
Prabhupāda: Oh, very good.
Prabhupāda: Purport.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Purport. This material world is a manifestation of the three modes goodness, passion and ignorance, and the Supreme Lord, for the creation, maintenance and destruction of the material world, accepts three predominating forms as Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śaṅkara (Śiva). As Viṣṇu He enters into every body materially created.
Prabhupāda: ...to deliver to the banks?
Girirāja: We have the copy of that letter with their stamp that they received it.
Prabhupāda: So what is that copy? What you have written?
Girirāja: Well, we wrote two letters, because the fixed deposits are in the name of ISKCON Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Temple Maintenance. So we said that "We are holding the following fixed deposits in your Vṛndāvana branch," and then we gave the list of the numbers and the amount and when it is due, and we said, "Please arrange to transfer these to your main branch in New Delhi." And then another letter for those in the name of ISKCON Vṛndāvana-Māyāpur Trust.
Prabhupāda: Girirāja?
Girirāja: Yes.
Prabhupāda: News from Bombay? (break)
Girirāja: ...activities are going on. Haridāsa promised that he would, you know, maintain the collections for maintenance. So he's doing that with the help of one or two other boys. And I asked about the attendance at the morning and evening programs, and they wrote back that the attendance at the morning program is very good, maṅgala-ārati and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And it's fair attendance in the evening.
Prabhupāda: So, what salary they gave?
Dayānanda: Little over a thousand dollars in a month, about 1,200 dollars.
Prabhupāda: Hm. So how you are spending that money?
Dayānanda: Now I live in my own apartment, I'm giving fifty percent to the ISKCON Tehran projects, and fifty percent I keep for maintenance.
Prabhupāda: So there is no scarcity? Eh?
Dayānanda: No, there's no scarcity, Śrīla Prabhupāda. In my spare time I am working in the restaurant, helping to manage the restaurant.
Prabhupāda: It is a big company?
Prabhupāda: What...? The... In the Punjab National Bank, fixed deposits in the name of?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fixed deposits are in the name of... Five lakhs are in the name of Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Temple Maintenance account, and five lakhs, sixty thousand in the name of Māyāpur-Vṛndāvana Trust.
Prabhupāda: Oh. So where they will kept?
| Page Title: | Maintenance (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Rishab, JayaNitaiGaura |
| Created: | 22 of May, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=81, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 81 |