Mayapur (Conversations 1976)

Expressions researched:
"mayapur" |"mayapura"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 3, 1976, Nellore:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a nice temple in Nabadwip that does that, the Govinda temple in Nabadwip. When I was going to purchase the land in Māyāpur, the Mr. Das, the lawyer, and I, we would take our meals at this temple. Every day he would purchase. He would give a little.

Prabhupāda: Yes, still there are.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They had arrangement like this. At least a hundred people were taking, respectable people.

Prabhupāda: Acchā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a very big temple, that temple. Of course, I don't know how bona fide the persons who speak at night are, but every night there are speakers, and many people coming. It's a very good temple. I was very impressed by it. Nice rooms for people to stay upstairs, very active, always being cleansed by people.

Prabhupāda: That is temple.

Morning Walk -- January 12, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "First you prove that I'm guilty." But I said...

Prabhupāda: But this is your charge. You say that "I have not done it." Present him and you say in writing that "I have never done it. Now I shall do it." Otherwise we shall have to do the needful. (break) ...go to Māyāpur. He is ready to go to Māyāpur?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He is ready to go to Māyāpur but not right away. But he'll join you in Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Huh? No, he has to go with me.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Okay.

Prabhupāda: (break) That Bengali gentleman?

Dr. Patel: Bhaṭṭācārya. I don't know him. He is staying here?

Morning Walk -- January 13, 1976, Calcutta:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Original position.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Ah. (break) Manipuri.

Jayapatāka: Many Manipuri people are coming to Māyāpur now. Many. They wear a special type of uniform, the women, one pinkish dress.

Prabhupāda: For seeing our temple?

Jayapatāka: They are going everywhere. The Bengalis are going mainly to our temple. But they've come so far, they see everywhere, naturally. But also our temple without fail. (break) The Nabadwip Commissioner came and he was so impressed. Now he is thinking.... He is trying to.... He is a little bit greedy that so many things are going in Māyāpur. He is trying to think how he can include Māyāpur within Nabadwip municipality.

Morning Walk -- January 13, 1976, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Which Śāstrījī?

Jayapatāka: That you preached to last year at the festival time. There were seven śāstrīs, four of which came to Māyāpur, three of which blooped. One is still left. He is very eager to become initiated. He is very hard working and sincere.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What does he do there?

Jayapatāka: He is teaching Sanskrit to the devotees.

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Jayapatāka: He is teaching the meter, how to chant them, to all the Western devotees and to the...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who's here?

Morning Walk -- January 13, 1976, Calcutta:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who's here?

Jayapatāka: I never had time to go. Bhāvananda knows. (break) ...the Bengali language also. We have one copy at Māyāpur. If we have a festival here in Calcutta with a Bengali film, many people can appreciate it. Of course, English they also.... That first paṇḍāl, we didn't have any movie then.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Jayapatāka: Those first paṇḍāls we never had a cinema.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Jayapatāka: Only kīrtana. (end)

Morning Walk -- January 15, 1976, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Also from the pictures we see that the residents of Nabadwip and Māyāpur seemed to have long hair, the householders.

Prabhupāda: Then why this statement is there, lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam? If it is approved, why Bhāgavata criticizing?

Harikeśa: Was long hair a sign of beauty in those days?

Prabhupāda: It was not meant for everyone.

Harikeśa: Kṣatriyas.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (break) ...stairs first?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One good one and three useless ones.

Prabhupāda: So why did you accept it?

Jayapatāka: I was in Māyāpur. I told them, "Don't accept bad." They called up, said, "These are no good. We won't accept." Then from Calcutta someone said, "You accept."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: These are the two oxen.

Prabhupāda: Whenever somebody wants to give, you don't accept immediately. Tell them first of all, "Let us see."

Jayapatāka: (break) ...room for cutting the grass and for weld. Pump room and grass-cutting room.

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. The arch will.... That's all right. Then don't require. Then it is all right. Don't require. (break) It will be colder in Bengal. Māghi, Māgha-māsa. Who has done this mischief, "Māyāpur"?

Jayapatāka: Someone put mud over "Māyāpur." This is our land, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Jayapatāka: This is our land here.

Prabhupāda: Which one?

Jayapatāka: This, with the wheat. We have a tube well there. We irrigate these lands. There are six and sixty, twelve bigas... (break) ...last year's harvest. We haven't had to purchase any wheat this year.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) This is nonsense.

Bhavānanda: "...our Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was born at Śrī Māyāpur, destined to remove the dark clouds which had overshadowed true religious thinking by traveling alone on foot throughout the length and breadth of India. Preaching His gospel of love, He brought about a religious upheaval which put an end to all religious conflicts and suicidal vissiferous(?) tendencies. The benign influence of His love philosophy made the whole of India a spiritually united cultural domain. Soul-enrapturing kīrtana music was organized from one end of the country to another. A neo-humanism based on love regarded as the highest objective of human existence held sway.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: He does not mention his name. He says... All right, go. His sannyāsī name is... All right. Then?

Bhavānanda: "All the desires for future work of Śrīla Prabhupāda Sarasvatī Ṭhākura used to come to the present ācāryadeva as an impulse first, which he translated into action at once. In spite of a hundred hindrances from so-called religionists with a vision of a future worldwide mission, Śrīla Prabhupāda established Śrī Caitanya Maṭha at Śrī Māyāpur, the birthplace of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, on the Phālguna Pūrṇimā day, the seventh March, 1918, which was a red-letter day in the history of theistic religious revival in this age. He started a countrywide movement to carry the message of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to every door. In a hectic manner within a couple of years he preached Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism throughout India and sent disciples to England, Germany, and other parts of Europe and Burma to preach the message of Śrī Caitanya and establish sixty-four branches under the name of Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭha throughout India and abroad, and a vast literature flowed through his versatile pen.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: And what is Rādhākamal Mukherjee?

Bhavānanda: " 'He has been a prolific writer and commentator and has traveled and discoursed widely in different parts of India. His profound illuminative discourses have everywhere created a genuine interest in Vaiṣṇava philosophy and in the dynamic religious movement he represents.' There may not be any doubt among the well-informed people that the Śrī Caitanya Maṭha, with its branches, Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭhas, throughout India and abroad, have been propagating the greatest religion, which, from a realistic point of view, has helped to build up a true civilization. Today, due to the activities of Śrī Caitanya Maṭha, a spiritual thirst has been created, especially among the deep-thinking and educated people of the world, for people from all over the world are coming to this institution to learn and follow the great religion of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and to understand the practical Indian way of life. Today the headquarter extends over a mile, with beautiful temples, yet standing in an atmosphere of absorbing silence of meditation and worship, surrounded on all sides by emerald green paddy fields and the Ganges flowing hard by, far from the madding crowd's strife and strain. 'Māyāpur is now an enchanted place, the abode of peace. The atmosphere of the place is charming. The chanting of the holy name of Hari all day and night takes one to a celestial place.' "

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: Yes, they have to. They've all been here. They all know it. They come with different personalities, different friends... In Krishnanagar, we are like the cinema in terms of entertainment. As soon as any man, any official, government official, his friends come from Calcutta, immediately they get in one of the government jeeps and they drive out here and come to see the ISKCON Maṭha, Māyāpur Chandrodaya Mandir. Immediately. So many men, they come all the time with their friends from Calcutta. Same thing in Navadvīpa. They come for an evening's...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- January 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. Tā'ra madhye jīhwā ati, lobhamoy sudurmati, tā'ke jetā kaṭhina saṁsāre, kṛṣṇa baṛo doyāmoy, koribāre jihwā jay, swa-prasād. So prasādam should be so nice that he'll (be) conquered. He'll not go to the restaurant; they will come to Māyāpur. I have seen in Japan. Who is? You were... Where you were staying, that place?

Sudāmā: Which place, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No, no, far away from the city.

Sudāmā: Oh, yes, yes. Takal, outside of Tokyo, we had our temple.

Prabhupāda: So there were hotels?

Sudāmā: Yes. Yes. One bird restaurant.

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Hṛdayānanda: ...absorbed in thinking that, for example, in this material world a sunset is very nice or something is very nice. But if, for example, in Māyāpur is a devotee free to, for example, enjoy the, all the scenery without...

Prabhupāda: Do you think Māyāpur is material world?

Hṛdayānanda: No.

Prabhupāda: Then? Why you are asking?

Hṛdayānanda: That is what I was thinking, that this is...

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: So why not make a small booklet of all these, thin paper, so that we can send.

Rādhāvallabha: We need very much also a permanent display building in Māyāpur. This exhibit cost almost four thousand dollars.

Prabhupāda: Yes, have immediately.

Rādhāvallabha: Jaya.

Prabhupāda: Immediately ask them to construct a house.

Ghanaśyāma: Make it like a museum.

Prabhupāda: Who is here from Māyāpur, in-charge? Nobody is here?

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

Prabhupāda: You know, if Kṛṣṇa is virāḍ-rūpa, so big mouth, so big belly, that, whatever you give, that is not sufficient. So here we are spreading Kṛṣṇa's mouth very widespread. Here is the plan for Māyāpur temple. This is the.... This is only residential quarter. Real temple is not yet constructed. It will occupy 350 acres of land. So you are the pillars of this construction work. We are doing all your construction work on your contribution. So go on preaching and distributing books. If we get the.... We are.... Books are.... As your pushing on the sale is very nice, then the customers are also there. These are American Express? No, no.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Barclay's Bank.

Prabhupāda: Now everyone is issuing these traveler's check.

Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What they say? What is the quarrel? (break) ...nice, South Indian. Oh, very nice. How many seats are there?

Devotee (4): Say about four(?) seats. Prabhupāda, four devotees went from Hyderabad, going through Orissa and coming to Māyāpur for the festival.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Devotee (4): Going about five, six months, they have traveled all over.

Prabhupāda: Many people assembled on the way?

Devotee (4): Yes, because they were stopping in every village and distributing literature, giving away prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Hm. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (pause) Hm. It is dirty.

Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, yes. (pause) Therefore our mission is to bring Māyāpur everywhere.

Devotee (5): Jaya.

Prabhupāda: This is the greatest peace movement, to bring peace to the suffering humanity.

Haṁsadūta: If a devotee thinks that he likes, for example, Vṛndāvana more than he likes Māyāpur, is that a wrong thinking, or is that his personal...?

Prabhupāda: There is no difference. Gauḍa-maṇḍala-bhūmi, yebā jāne cintāmaṇi.

Haṁsadūta: Just like some devotees, they worship Rāma, and some worship Kṛṣṇa. It is like that?

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The scientists are getting smashed to bits by your statements, Śrīla Prabhupāda. This destroys their whole theory. Orbs, round spheres. I think that this Māyāpur building, we must build a big planetarium in it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That, that I am going to do, Vedic planetarium.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, boy. You're going to bring a lot of.... A lot of scientists will come here just to dispute this.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Wonderful attraction.

Prabhupāda: World people will come to see the way the planetary systems...

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: How they'll do it? They do not know how to preach, neither they are trained up. That means it is his disqualification. He could not train them how to preach. Even Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He was training Haridāsa Ṭhākura, Nityānanda, "Go there. Preach there. Do that." My Guru Mahārāja was doing that. But he has no power. He cannot do it. He simply talks that he is a very confidential devotee. That's all. He cannot preach. Otherwise Prabhupāda developed this Māyāpur, and he could not do anything. That means he has no power.

Jayapatākā: He should have developed that place.

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

Reporter (2): Would you tell us something about the Vedic city which is being constructed in Māyāpur?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He wants to know something about the Vedic city which is being constructed in Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Yes, not Vedic city. Vedic planetarium. How you got this information?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He had come to our temple earlier. He's already published one article in yesterday's paper.

Reporter (1): Which paper?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This morning I have got.

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

Reporter (5): For spreading the movement in India.

Prabhupāda: We have got. We have already planned.

Devotee: That has been seen in Māyāpur. That has been...In Bombay there's a very big temple, we are building, with a center. In (indistinct), Vṛndāvana,...

Prabhupāda: My point is that what I am speaking, it is not unknown to India, but they are so misfortunate that they don't take it. That is the difficulty. So so unfortunate they have become that they don't take it. What shall I speak in India? The same thing.

Reporter (2): So that is all the more reason why your work is needed.

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

Prabhupāda: It takes.... Just like if the dirty things are very fixed up, it takes little more time. Otherwise it takes little time.

Reporter (2): Swamiji, I believe you'll be having certain industries for export also in Māyāpur. May I know if they will be manned by disciples, and if so, do you think that they would be in a much better position to look after these big gośālās and other things than, say, other, people would be?

Prabhupāda: If you follow Bhagavad-gītā, then everything will be followed very nicely. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam (BG 18.44). And go-rakṣya, this is recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā. So if you follow Bhagavad-gītā, then naturally go-rakṣya will be there. And if you read Bhagavad-gītā for some political reason, then slaughterhouse go on. That's all. Instead of go-rakṣya, go-killing.

Room Conversation -- April 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Jagat-guru: Also, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you have seen on our altar, Gaura-Nitāi? We have large Gaura-Nitāi and two small, three actually, three small sets of Gaura-Nitāi Deities. The ones on the far left, just under Lord Nityānanda's feet, They are going also to South Africa. They came originally from East Africa. I mentioned it when I first came to Māyāpur(?). So we will be taking them. We have a very nice siṁhāsana built for Them, finished tomorrow, and we'll be displaying Them at all our programs, preaching programs.

Prabhupāda: Do the needful. That's all.

Devotees: (offer obeisances) Jaya.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They're very enthusiastic to preach.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1976, Bombay:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Where is that at, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Where is that?

Prabhupāda: Māyāpur.

Dr. Patel: That is on holy day, no?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Dr. Patel: And one on the day you were in London.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: I was told.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have applied to the government for land, twenty-five acres land.

Dr. Patel: Very big. But is that land available to us?

Prabhupāda: Yes, available. And we have asked government to give us 350 acres of land in Māyāpur to construct Vedic planetarium, 350 feet high. It will require eight crores of rupees minimum. I shall exhibit there all the planetary system, bhurloka, Goloka...

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Hari-śauri: We're learning.

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

Hari-śauri: (laughs) It's like you said in Māyāpur. It's a little artificial for us. It's very.... It's not...

Prabhupāda: Cleanliness unknown to the Western people.

Hari-śauri: That's a fact.

Prabhupāda: Śaucam. Satya-śaucābhyām. Śaucam means cleanliness. The Western people, they do not know what is cleanliness. And therefore brāhmaṇa's another name is śuci, always clean. Three times' bathing, three times' changing cloth. It doesn't matter, loin cloth, but cloth must be changed.

Morning Walk -- April 24, 1976, Melbourne:

Guru-kṛpā: Are they going to start on Māyāpur building this year?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guru-kṛpā: That is beginning?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Collect and spend. Collect and spend for Kṛṣṇa, that is nice. I am therefore asking them to print books. I have got so much in the Book Fund. Print books. Let there be books stocked and no money stocked. (break) ...upaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje.

Guru-kṛpā: Prabhupāda, we just got here.... Now we've just gotten one farm, two hundred acres. We're purchasing this next week. For eleven thousand dollars, two hundred acres.

Prabhupāda: Very cheap.

Morning Walk -- April 24, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: That New Orleans, our farm? It was nice.

Guru-kṛpā: Māyāpur is the best farm.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And it will be still better when our plan is made.

Guru-kṛpā: We want to set the example this year by also giving a big donation to Māyāpur and also building here.

Prabhupāda: At the same time you see that it is not misspent. That is another defect, that our spending is not very frugal and spend like anything. There must be.... But in India they want to cheat you, and you are very expert, being cheated.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It is our karma. (laughter)

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guru-kṛpā: It should come here?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The construction in Māyāpur...

Guru-kṛpā: It's just that I don't have...

Prabhupāda: You have paid?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: From Rādhā-Dāmodara party?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were doing that, previous to the Māyāpur festival.

Prabhupāda: Yes are also promised (indistinct) you have to continue. There is no temple. Must be constructed.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He'll be free pretty soon.

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

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

Prabhupāda: Which one?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The one while we were there.

Prabhupāda: Uhuḥ.

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

Prabhupāda: They are completing.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Mm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So sufficient funds have to be sent for completing Bombay in 10 months' time and for those 2 buildings in Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Bombay, the slab is late, temple. Latest letter?

Hari-śauri: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Very nice. And the tower (indistinct). I think it will be finished earlier.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Any more news on the attempt of the government to take it back?

Prabhupāda: The government, I know it will be unable to take. They can not acquire temple, there is no such law. And even they acquire we shall say, alright take it. (indistinct) ...and the Hindus will... (indistinct) ...neglect, all right we will do it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A book should be written about the Bombay...

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1976, Honolulu:

Hari-śauri: In Māyāpur you gave that Bengali proverb, "A madman, what he cannot say? A goat, what he cannot eat?"

Prabhupāda: Yes. (chuckles) (break) They are afraid. Stop disease, stop old age, stop birth, stop death. (break) ...the major problems, and you call yourself.... (break)

Devotee (1): ...the most important thing. Why should we...

Prabhupāda: Ah. That proves that you are a rascal number one. These are not important things. Why do you keep memory of so many dead men in statues? It is not important thing. He has died, died. That's all.

Room Conversation -- Honolulu, May 20, 1976 :

Prabhupāda: So, the same picture, that Jesus Christ is carrying his cross, and falling. (indistinct) and you go enjoy. (long pause) In Māyāpur you have seen Yoga-pīṭha, Caitanya Mahāprabhu birthplace? Yoga-pīṭha.

Devotee (2): Yes.

Prabhupāda: That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu...

Devotee (2): Oh.

Prabhupāda: ...and two sides, his two wives. Not that Caitanya Mahāprabhu is worshiped as a sannyāsī.

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

Prabhupāda: I'll have to .... If you want to give some money, you transfer to the Bank of America, account number 1606.

Rāmeśvara: The Māyāpur-Vṛndāvana Trust Fund? Oh.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And let me know that "I've transferred so much money."

Devotee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Then I will do it.

Jagannātha: The Deity pūjā has been improving in Vṛndāvana. Right now Nitāi is the head pūjārī there.

Prabhupāda: Then it's all right?

Morning Walk -- June 7, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: In the Fifth Canto, you've quoted from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura that the most sacred place in the whole universe is Śrī Māyāpur-dhāma.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: In all the universe.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In each universe there is a Vṛndāvana and a Māyāpur. That means in each universe there's a planet earth like this planet?

Prabhupāda: Yes. There are so many planets. Each universe full of planets. Koṭiṣu vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam. There are millions of universes, and in each universe there are millions of planets. Koṭiṣu vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam. (end)

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

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Hṛdayānanda: Prabhupāda was lecturing on that in Māyāpur.

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Hṛdayānanda: In Māyāpur you were lecturing on the prayers.

Rāmeśvara: So that volume is coming today.

Prabhupāda: (break)....culture and civilization is being introduced by Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement for the benefit of the whole human society. The modern civilization is not civilization. Mūḍhā nābhijānāti; mām eva param avyayam. Ninety-nine percent or ninety-nine point nine percent people do not believe in the transmigration of the soul. Is it not?

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

Prabhupāda: No, why harder? You can make softer. Metal...

Kīrtanānanda: Gold is softer still. It will be much more brilliant in brass than bronze.

Bharadvāja: Generally...

Prabhupāda: Brass, just like our Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities in Māyāpur, how dazzling. Here also, in Boston.

Bharadvāja: I think Kṛṣṇa is German silver.

Prabhupāda: No. Maybe.

Bharadvāja: Not so much brass casting going on in this country, mostly bronze casting.

Prabhupāda: Bronze, but it will not be polished. We want polished.

Bharadvāja: I have to investigate it.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Devotee (1): It's, Ambarīṣa's uncle, Henry Ford II, he is building, along with many different companies, a million dollar project.

Prabhupāda: Why not at Māyāpur? Huh?

Devotee (1): Ambarīṣa? I was explaining the Renaissance Project, and, ah, to try to attract people back to the city, they are building a million dollar project. Prabhupāda said: "Why not Māyāpur?"

Ambarīṣa: Jaya.

Prabhupāda: Lake here dried up or what?

Hari-śauri: Looks like it.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...attracting men to the city.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: (indistinct).

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: I've been visiting your buses, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and managing the book distribution with the buses. It's going very nicely. Ever since Māyāpur all the boys have doubled their collection and distribution. And as soon as all the debts from New York temple are paid, then more and more books can go. We'll try to do everything. (break) The men are just like the army. The van leaders, bus leaders. So everything is very efficient, clean, and very high-powered. (break) ...just two years ago, when we left India, that you wanted an army of sannyāsīs and brahmacārīs always traveling, distributing books.

Prabhupāda: (looking at plaque) Commissioners?

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: What price they want for this island?

Mādhavānanda: Very large amount.

Rakṣaṇa: We can have a Māyāpur complex and a Detroit complex.

Mādhavānanda: I don't know exactly. (break)

Satsvarūpa: ...Sundays ago, one Indian man asked after the Sunday lecture why does Kṛṣṇa like a peacock feather, or why does Kṛṣṇa have a peacock feather? So Mādhavānanda answered, "Because He likes it." And the man said, "This is not an answer. There has to be some reason." So then I said, "You cannot question why Kṛṣṇa likes something. He's a person." But he wasn't satisfied.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Mādhavānanda: Yes, I was thinking.

Rakṣaṇa: Rādhāvallabha can set up like Māyāpur. They're all waterproofed and everything else there.

Prabhupāda: Give them one big room.

Mādhavānanda: I was thinking to ask Bharadvāja to come, because he...

Prabhupāda: He's busy there, but somebody may go there and learn from Bharadvāja how to make dolls and prepare it here. One room. There are so many big, big rooms.

Mādhavānanda: Yes, I was thinking.

Prabhupāda: Make diorama. People will come to see.

Morning Walk -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Devotee (1): I don't remember. I think he was. He used to work with George Harrison.... Harrison was their name. He was very rich. Their family does construction work for big government officials in Iran, and they are building one big naval base in Iran.

Prabhupāda: Why not to take our work in Māyāpur? (break)

Devotee (1): ...letter, Śrīla Prabhupāda. He never returned it. (break)

Satsvarūpa: ...half of what he says isn't true. I would doubt that all these claims are even true. He says things and then they turn out not to be true.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: He came on my bus for a week.

Satsvarūpa: He's nice, but I don't think he has all that aristocratic background that he claims.

Devotee (1):...by the results. What a man can do?

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: You also like? So finance this project. (laughter) Vedic planetarium.

Ambarīṣa: Where will this be?

Prabhupāda: Māyāpur. My idea is to attract people of the whole world to Māyāpur. So we are just trying to acquire three hundred fifty acres of land from the government. It is going on under consideration. Some men are against and some are in favor. But those who are against, they have counted ninety?

Hari-śauri: Ninety against, two thousand for.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In Māyāpur itself.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: German people still hate England. They do not like to speak in English; that I have seen. In the bank they know English, but they won't speak it. English everyone knows. The Kaiser was against. They said that Kaiser is the grandson of Queen Victoria, from daughter's side. And King George from the son's side—Edward's seventh son. They were cousin brothers. So this Kaiser, when he was young boy, went to paternal uncle's house, when he was a young boy. So there was some playing, cut with a knife. So royal family, so many doctors came. So the boy was saying, "Why you are trying to cure it? Let the English blood go away." So from the childhood he was so inimical, that "I have got some English blood in my body, my mother is English, father German, so let the English blood go away." I do not know if that is fact, I heard it. (laughs) Maybe. It is joking also and serious. In our childhood in school, a book was there, "England's Work in India." One Mr. M. Ghosh, he wrote this book just to flatter the Englishmen. This, that "white man's burden." And it was the impression in those days: just to become like Englishmen, that is civilization. The Parsees in Bombay, they were the first-class flatterer, imitation, how to become like English lords, barons. This Tata factory was started by such ambition. They wanted to be English baron, lord, industrialist. In Calcutta also. Where our temple is, that is called saheb quarter. In our childhood we used to say saheb quarter. Saheb quarter means European neighborhood. They say our temple is saheb mandira in Māyāpur. And in Vṛndāvana aṇgrejī mandira. The same impression. To become saheb, that was great prestigious. Yes.

Garden Conversation -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Kīrtanānanda: We tried to this spring to grow it, but we can't get the seed to sprout.

Prabhupāda: You can get it from Māyāpur?

Kīrtanānanda: We got seed, but it won't sprout.

Prabhupāda: Oh, due to the climate.

Kīrtanānanda: We don't know. It is a very hard seed.

Devotee (4): Śrīla Prabhupāda, perhaps the material scientists could help us make the seed sprout.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Prabhupada Inspects New BTG -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Kīrtanānanda: Who is this reporter?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Jagannātha Suta. This was in Māyāpur. (continues reading) "But in America people are very much afraid of the central government"—this is the reporter—"because they think that wherever there is a strong government there will always be tyranny."

Prabhupāda: "If the leaders are properly trained, there cannot be tyranny."

Reporter: "But one of the premises of the American system of government is that if a leader has too much power, he will inevitably become corrupt."

Prabhupāda: "You have to train him in such a way that he cannot become corrupt."

Room Conversation -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: ...pilot for 747, paying him a large sum of money. And here is airplane, everything complete with a pilot. Create (indistinct) by your scientific brain. Rascal. You are so proud of your scientific...

Hari-śauri: In Māyāpur, you said that the mosquito's body is so perfect that although with one slap it's finished, still it has a syringe so strong that it immediately upon landing on the skin it can penetrate and extract blood.

Prabhupāda: Immediately, just see. And if you allow one second, he'll fill the whole body up by sucking the...Just see what is that nozzle and how quickly they can... There is no intelligence? The mosquito has better intelligence than any human being about his business. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja said sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā deha-yogena dehinām. That particular body, he is destined to enjoy a certain amount of sense gratification according to his body.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: At Māyāpur?

Prabhupāda: Oh, you were present?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. There was always...

Hari-śauri: That leaflet that he put out that we saw, he put one leaflet advertising that...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Apart from that leaflet... Let him do whatever nonsense... But actually, on the birthday of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, there was the greatest crowd in our temple.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes, there was a constant... It was just always packed.

Pradyumna: Every year, before, last year, year before, year before, Caitanya Math, only, not...

Prabhupāda: Nobody goes.

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

Prabhupāda: Because you will ask them not to eat meat, and that they cannot do. What are these? Crows?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: At our Māyāpur Candrodaya Mandira, though, lakhs of people are coming.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, it is by the common people, ordinary people.

Prabhupāda: Because they are godless, they are uncommon. Educated Bengalis, they are spoiled.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. My feeling was they do not want to stop eating meat.

Prabhupāda: That is the only...

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

Prabhupāda: But here is grammar. Harināmāmṛta, all examples, words are harināmāmṛta. Yes, these are the list of, apart from European, America. "Cc" means Caitanya-caritāmṛta, "SB" means Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, standing order.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In addition to other works also. This is within the last few months. They just started after our Māyāpur festival.

Devotee (3): In Europe, Śrīla Prabhupāda, there's a very nice Hungarian boy, he's a translator. He doesn't know English expertly, but I kept talking to him, he was working on translating.

Prabhupāda: How he'll translate?

Devotee (3): He's a Hungarian and he knows Russian also.

Prabhupāda: If he does not know English, how he can translate?

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

Prabhupāda: ...and it is a fact, he did not fix it. I wanted both of you to take various detailed photographs of that Capitol.

Yadubara: The Capitol Building. For what purpose, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: We shall have picture, planetarium in Māyāpur. (aside:) That's better. (break) ...spiritual world, material world, and so on, so on. Planetary..., succession of the planetary systems, everything. A building like that.

Yadubara: That would be a separate building from the temple?

Prabhupāda: Yes. We are acquiring 350 acres of land for life for constructing a small township...

Yadubara: I think we...

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Rūpānuga: So Ravīndra-svarūpa Prabhu is going to be the editor, you approved in Māyāpur. We were thinking if you could give us some idea for a title. Because we were thinking so far is that we would have a subtitle, like we have "Back to Godhead" then we have "the Magazine of the Hare Kṛṣṇa Movement." So we would have the subtitle, "Bhaktivedanta Institute" or "Journal of the Bhaktivedanta Institute," but maybe you would like to have a title of the journal. So we wanted to know if you had some hint.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can title, entitle, Sa-vijñāna.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Sa-vijñāna?

Devotees: Oh.

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

Rāmeśvara: This is the oldest airport.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kennedy, La Guardia, and there's one just across the river, Newark. It's in New Jersey, but it's considered part of the Port Authority.

Prabhupāda: I hear, Māyāpur Project? You have not been sending money?

Rāmeśvara: Not yet.

Prabhupāda: They want money. Gargamuni has written.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, they've been calling for money regularly, but we have not been able to send them any.

Rāmeśvara: I met with Gurukṛpā Swami, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and he has just transferred from the Japanese collections 125,000 dollars. He is writing one letter.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) not all at a time. Management is not very good. So...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Little by little.

Prabhupāda: One lakh will be sufficient.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And then they spray on the paint. He finishes a painting in two or three days. Big murals. (laughs) He's expert. He's known as the human camera. He can copy any picture onto a wall. His name is Viṣṇu dāsa.

Prabhupāda: So why does he not go to Māyāpur-candrodaya...? (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, he's meant to go, after he finishes the temple. You already told him to go last time.

Rāmeśvara: We knew you would say that, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were talking this morning how as soon as you see these murals, you'll say he should go to Māyāpur. He paints very quickly. We could actually send him with that spray gun.

Prabhupāda: Electric spray?

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They call us sāhebs. It says "What urges the sāhebs and memasāhebs." That's how they refer to us.

Prabhupāda: Our Māyāpur temple is known as sāheb mandira. In Vṛndāvana, English, iṁrejī.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Gopāla told me that the guesthouse is doing better. He said that only that eleven rooms right now are occupied by nonpaying guests, and out of the overall forty-four rooms, only four rooms are occupied by devotees. The devotees have been shifted elsewhere. And Guṇārṇava has been managing.

Prabhupāda: That Toṣaṇa Kṛṣṇa boy was in Vṛndāvana?

Hari-śauri: Stoka Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Note down in the account book. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...presents us as a bona fide Vaiṣṇava, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Vaiṣṇava cult. Says that the ISKCON center, the Māyāpur..., "ISKCON plans to build in Māyāpur a world center for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It will comprise an enormous..."

Prabhupāda: This news has been very much advertised.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When will we begin?

Prabhupāda: As soon as we get the land.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The land is coming along?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Comments on Bhagavad-gita Play -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes, nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They also have a performance to show you of Satish Chandra Ghosh's play. Satish Chandra Ghosh, remember that play that we received in Māyāpur, that Nitāi had translated? "Lust and Envy," you gave it to Madhudviṣa, myself and Sudāmā, and you were saying "Just think how to perform this."

Prabhupāda: Satish Chandra?

Sudāmā: Ghosh. He's a playwriter. In Māyāpur we received two scenes from the entire translated in Vṛndāvana—in January when we were there together.

Prabhupāda: Satish Chandra or Girish Chandra?

Devotees: Girish Chandra.

Comments on Bhagavad-gita Play -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: So how'll you show the incomplete?

Sudāmā: In Māyāpur you were interested to see the first..., or see the scene of the enemies-anger, lust, greed, envy—so we have worked on it.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Kali, Kali-yuga.

Sudāmā: Yes, Kali. So as the scenes come we are planning to work on them in that succession.

Prabhupāda: You have already worked?

Sudāmā: Yes, on the first two scenes.

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

Rāmeśvara: (break) ...came here, Bhāradvāja and myself went to Salt Lake City to visit the church of the Mormons. The Mormon religion is a branch of Christianity, and they own the whole city of Salt Lake City. It's the capital of Utaḥ, one of the United States states. So they control the whole city, and it is planned with the temple in the center of the city. Like our Māyāpur plan. And all around the streets are named after the temple. It is well planned. And in the temple square they have a visitor center, and it costs hundreds of millions of dollars, with dioramas and movies. They even have a little planetarium. It's all for recruiting people to join their religion. So we went there to study how they did it. Actually, it's all based on a crazy philosophy. They say that after Jesus Christ was crucified in Israel, he rose, and then the next stop he came to America.

Prabhupāda: Next...?

Evening Darsana -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Vṛndāvana, Bombay.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bombay also.

Prabhupāda: And Māy... You have been in Māyāpur also?

Mr. Kallman: No, we haven't ever been to Māyāpur. We keep...

Prabhupāda: Mm, Māyāpur also.

Mrs. Kallman: How is the school in Vṛndāvana? The school?

Prabhupāda: That is still, building is going on.

Mrs. Kallman: Have they started?

Prabhupāda: After the building is finished.

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just like they'll find an empty bottle, and if they return the bottle to the shop, they'll get a deposit, ten or fifteen cents for a bottle deposit.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In Māyāpur we've seen the little children coming looking for prasādam left over in the rubbish outside.

Rāmeśvara: This is one of the big problems in the world today. They don't know how to dispose of all the paper and garbage that they go through. They are selling so many goods, and then they have to throw away the packages. They don't know how to get rid of the garbage. They try to throw it in the ocean sometimes.

Prabhupāda: And for manufacturing the paper they are cutting so many trees and committing sinful life.

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

Bali-mardana: Who? Mr. Coleman?

Hari-śauri: Coleman.

Prabhupāda: So we are immediately depositing for our Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur scheme. So Kṛṣṇa sends money. We do not bother what will happen tomorrow. But we are very nicely maintained by Kṛṣṇa's grace. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And Kṛṣṇa says teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham. Find out this verse.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Calcutta, all aristocratic buildings, they are made according to English pattern, London pattern. Just like our temple, it is made London pattern. It was designed by one high-court judge. (pause) The land acquisition at Māyāpur, no news?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No news. (break) ...who are building the Ratha-yātrā carts and who help in the temple construction? (break)

Prabhupāda: Ah, this is so cold. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Unbearable (break) ...too cold then we can go in our bus to Florida for preaching. In the winter you go to Florida, eighty-five, ninety degrees.

Prabhupāda: Florida. And in summer?

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: And the body also lasts. Good quality.

Devotee: You see them ten years old, still running. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...telling you that the Māyāpur time, the Rāma-navamī comes in April, Gaura-pūrṇimā is in March, it will take a total of six weeks. This year our saṅkīrtana book distribution was set back severely on account of the over-long duration of the festival and all of the devotees and GBC men wanted that it should be about three weeks.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So the problem is that Gopāla Kṛṣṇa is saying that he wants all of the devotees to stay there for the opening of the Bombay temple.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Rāmeśvara: The following year, Gaura-pūrṇimā festival there can be a pandal program in Bombay. Then they can visit it the next year. The main point is we don't have to be there for the opening.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: As you recall perhaps, in Māyāpur, we discussed that we would like to go in Vṛndāvana first and end the festival in Māyāpur on Gaura-pūrṇimā.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That way we'll get the cooler weather and we'll get the best preaching in America.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...so dismantled and constructed this building. When I was ten years before, they were dismantled. Very nice building. Just to change the fashion, they spend so much. (break) ...walking generally this. (break) ...producing company?

Devotee: Yes, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. MGM.

Prabhupāda: And this is Rockefeller Center?

Morning Walk -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Bali-mardana: Jaipur.

Prabhupāda: Jaipur, yes.

Bali-mardana: We should bring some to Māyāpur and live there...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Bali-mardana: ...and train others.

Prabhupāda: (break) Just like New Vrindaban they have a dozen brahmacārīs.

Kīrtanānanda: They have an expert teacher, Gopīnātha.

Prabhupāda: Also Los Angeles. (break) ...and big, big city like Calcutta, Bombay, there are many, many more pigeons. Why they are so small?

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they had..., you know that little portable movie screen, you may have seen, it comes in an attache case.

Hari-śauri: Like Gargamuni's, he showed you in Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we had three of these set up, and many people were sitting in chairs watching the different movies.

Bali-mardana: It was amazing that one little generator was supplying all the power. This one little gasoline generator was supplying the power for all the sound and the various electricity things.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, there was no electrical hook-up; we did that with a gas generator.

Prabhupāda: Oh. And there was no sound, cutcutcutcutcut.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: You can send one, this cutting, to Mr. Bhajaj, "Fifth Avenue, Where East Meets West." Very good.

Hari-śauri: Send one to Māyāpur as well?

Prabhupāda: Huh? You can send to many place, but this title is very nice. This is the point, this is the point. East, as I say always, the lame man meets the blind man. Together they do wonderful. And different they cannot do anything. He is blind, he is lame. But they join together, Indian culture and American money, they will save the whole world. Here is the... Money required. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You want to hear what they wrote? Should I read to you what they said?

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

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

Jayatīrtha: Ten dollars each? Fifty francs.

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

Prabhupāda: Baltimore?

Bhagavān: At the farm.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Jayatīrtha: They are similar to the ones in Baltimore. I saw that picture. One boy from Baltimore just came here, Śrutadeva.

Bhagavān: We have done this like in the English, with the explanation on this side.

Jayatīrtha: C'est magnifique. (laughter)

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

Prabhupāda: Oh, Vṛndāvana, if you come there, stay for some time.

George Harrison: Yes, well, ah, this December...

Prabhupāda: We have got very nice houses, both in Bombay and Vṛndāvana. And Māyāpur also. Wherever you like. You will not be very uncomfortable.

George Harrison: I was going to go to Bombay for a wedding. Some friends are getting married.

Prabhupāda: When?

George Harrison: December the fifth, I think.

Prabhupāda: Very nice season in Bombay. Best time.

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

Prabhupāda: Papaya is very good, yes.

George Harrison: I still have...

Prabhupāda: Give him, give him, give him. No, that is the different. Oh, all right. We are just attempting a big planetarium in Māyāpur. We have asked government to acquire land, 350 acres. That is negotiation going on. We shall give a Vedic planetarium.

George Harrison: Is that the one you were talking about? With all the...

Prabhupāda: In the Fifth Canto.

Gurudāsa: The planetarium will be 350 feet high and show the cosmology of the spiritual world.

Prabhupāda: The construction will be like your Washington capital, like that.

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

George Harrison: How is that school in Texas, you know, with all the children?

Gurudāsa: Gurukula.

Jayatīrtha: They have six schools now, other than that. This place in France, they have a school there, this farm, and in Dallas, Los Angeles, Pennsylvania, Māyāpur.

Hari-śauri: Vṛndāvana Gurukula also was started.

George Harrison: There's all kinds of strange things written in those newspapers, Dallas, strange things. Particularly about the little children's school.

Hari-śauri: It's because they don't bother to find out before they write things.

Gurudāsa: Just like they said that the children sleep in the basement. That's because it was in the hot summer. Everyone goes to the basement in the summer in Dallas.

Mukunda: The kids don't feel any difficulty at all sleeping on the floor. Children are naturally austere. It's just after you get to a certain age that conditioning affects you.

Devotee: They say they live without furniture. (laughter)

Gurudāsa: They're prejudiced about those things.

Jayatīrtha: They have to eat with their hands. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: You have got the last copy of Seventh Canto?

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Harikeśa: Nandarāṇī's making khicuḍi with the peas and okra.

Prabhupāda: Okra could be done separately. Let her do independently.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: She's doing both. She first mixed it, now she's also making separate.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Anyway, let her do it. She was cooking for me in Māyāpur.

Harikeśa: I heard you like it very much.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The more you become eager to know God, God will reveal Himself. From our side, we should not be stereotyped. People in different sects of religion, they say, "We believe." But they do not want to go further than they believe. That is very difficult. You must be dynamic and progressive, then you will have. I have talked with many sects, especially Christian priests. They will say "We believe," no more further than that. So knowledge is not like that. Knowledge must be progressive.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: You believe that it is desert and rock and giving so nice shining, cooling effect? In Vedic literature, there is always comparison, analogy, with moon, moon-faced, candra-mukhi. There are so many. The best thing is compared with the moon. We have named Māyāpur-candra. Māyāpur-candrodaya Mandira. Do you mean that a desert is coming out from Māyāpur? You have got rock candy?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Give me little.

Jñānagamya: Prabhupāda, your temples are the real spaceships. We can go to the other planets and to Kṛṣṇaloka from your temples.

Prabhupāda: Yes, therefore I've given you Easy Journey to Other Planets. It is from India?

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, would you like us to... We have, this temple has some dakṣiṇā for you. How would you like me to do it? Today is Thursday. Would you like it in what form? Would you like us to invest it for you here, or give you the cash?

Prabhupāda: If you give me the interest, eighteen percent, I'll utilize it for Māyāpur-Vṛndāvana.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: I shall... Yes, that's fine.

Prabhupāda: No, purchase one small book, like passbook. So you become my banker, I deposit with you. You receive it and send the interest, that's all. I make you banker. That's all. There is no botheration. You become banker, you send the interest. Now how you are utilizing, you know, I don't bother. But if I get the interest, then I think it is all right. What is it? Is it all right? Simple? So just purchase one small passbook. And... You have got that passbook? Or you...?

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes, he was sick. He was half dead.

Hari-śauri: What about those people when we went back to where you used to live? When we came back from Māyāpur and we went out that night to, what they called? Your old friend's house?

Prabhupāda: Oh, Mulliks.

Hari-śauri: Mulliks.

Prabhupāda: They are just like my younger brothers. Their elder brothers were contemporaries. They are all died.

Hari-śauri: Finished.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes, but practically that is now their income. The more one gets the worshiping term longer, he gets more income. (laughs) The Deity has got very, very good income. All the temples in India... Just like I am trying to make some fund for Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur. Even no contribution comes, it will go on. The sevā-pūjā will not stop for want of money. So there will be no want of money. Still, I must make some provision, by the income the sevā-pūjā will go on. Contribution may come or not. That provision should be made. Now in Vṛndāvana Akṣayānanda is collecting in so many ways. Suppose nobody collects. That does not mean this temple will be closed. It must go on. So I am trying to make some provision from that bank interest. At least five to ten thousand rupees so that the Deity worship will not be stopped. That is the system in all Indian temples. It must go on, nitya-sevā. It must go on. These big, big temple in Vṛndāvana, they have got such arrangement.

Room Conversation -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Everything is all right?

Devotee (1): Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda

Prabhupāda: Let him dance (?). Wherefrom you are coming?

Acyutānanda: From Calcutta, Māyāpur, Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: My health is not well.

Acyutānanda: Yes, I have heard. We brought you some medicine from your sister.

Prabhupāda: Oh, oh!

Acyutānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes I wrote her.

Acyutānanda: Yes. We have that with us.

Room Conversation -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Acyutānanda: Three days in a row of front page news articles.

Prabhupāda: What is they have published?

Acyutānanda: Very good. Many ministers are also coming to Māyāpur. Very...

Prabhupāda: Here also the chief minister, many have come to see me.

Devotee: Yesterday.

Acyutānanda: Yes, he is OK. (indistinct background conversation)

Prabhupāda: Gradually they will appreciate. Everyone, all over the world.

Acyutānanda: This was on the front page of the Ananda Bazar, five lakhs circulation.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Room Conversation -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: You directly do that. You (indistinct) the idea. (indistinct)

Acyutānanda: And Bhavananda invited the C.P.I. (Communist Party of India) members to come to Māyāpur and see for themselves.

Prabhupāda: Ah!

Acyutānanda: This article invites them.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: These members are now in Delhi so we can send it to them.

Acyutānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Room Conversation -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: What is this?

Acyutānanda: That's an income tax form. I pasted these on the back.

Prabhupāda: That C.P.I. member, what does he say?

Acyutānanda: Well apparently they're a little bit envious because Māyāpur is becoming very popular amongst the local people. We get five thousand people now for the prasādam. And even the Congress leaders, they come here and eat with the people. They said, "This is wonderful."

Prabhupāda: Where is that?

Acyutānanda: At Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Room Conversation -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Acyutānanda: Yes.

Jayapatāka: Show that other article that... This is the actual article against us.

Acyutānanda: Also this came in the Statesman, the pro-vice-chancellor of Calcutta University came to Māyāpur, he wants to affiliate Māyāpur with the Calcutta University. This came in the Statesman. And a few days ago the vice-chancellor...

Prabhupāda: It is not yet finished?

Jayapatāka: That's the old picture.

Acyutānanda: No, this picture's six months old.

Jayapatāka: It's more than half.

Acyutānanda: It's more than that.

Jayapatāka: (indistinct) We've received ten lakhs so far. The building total was twenty lakhs.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

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

Jayapatākā: Favorable reply. He said, "This is a good project. It will help the district." He only said that they should maybe get three hundred acres instead of 350 or like that. He reduced something. Then that went back again to the Commissioner, who was a Christian. He's the one I mentioned. He wrote bad report. Then when Choudhuri got it, he wrote a very good report. He wrote a very good report. He said that there's no question of Hindu or Muslim. Just like in Bangkok they have that one big Viṣṇu Temple. Or the Taj Mahal. This is no longer any type of religious. This is for all mankind. Similarly this Māyāpur will be a monument for the whole mankind.

Prabhupāda: For the whole world.

Jayapatākā: For the whole world. So in this way he gave a very good, very good statement. Then that went to the Chief Secretary again, who had to give it to the Chief Minister. So the Chief Minister he does not have a good opinion. He did not have a good opinion of our society.

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

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, could you give darśana over here later? They're all been waiting for your darśana.

Gargamuni: Hey, wait a minute. We're talking about Māyāpur. We're talking about Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Is there...? Is there there necessity?

Gargamuni: There's no necessary.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. But we had you down on schedule for a lecture. So I said that you're not lecturing, but they just wanted to have a look at you. Later we can...

Prabhupāda: Tomorrow I shall.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Tomorrow. Okay.

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

Gargamuni: There is now in Māyāpur... The talk is, there's... Some special advisors to the Prime Minister are in Māyāpur now investigating to make sure.

Jayapatākā: Some of the local people that were working with me, getting petitions, they came and told me that some people from Delhi or outside were inquiring about us, about Bhavānanda Goswami, about Jayapatākā, about this project, about how the devotees are dealing with the public, whether we are doing any anti-Indian work. All sorts of questions they are asking. So it's very important that we keep very up and up right now. All the time. But otherwise the government, they are happy with our work. And so far, Mr. Choudhuri said, other people have indicated that they have found no bad report about our society, although they are looking so hard. Therefore they are passing.

Gargamuni: The State government is very favorable. But the doubt, of course, is coming from the central government because they don't know us. But the state government, they are very favorable. Everyone we've met within the State, they like us very much. They like the Society, they like your work, and, of course, they like your books.

Jayapatākā: The local police intelligence officer in Krishnagar, when I went to see him, he told me, (Bengali). Like that, he told me. "Definitely I make you an Indian citizen." So they are favorable. I don't know how much they can do, but locally they are favorable.

Gargamuni: Now on the weekend we have tours of the building. Many groups of people come. Fifty in a group sometimes come and visit.

Prabhupāda: Tourists.

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

Prabhupāda: Do you think it is?

Jayapatākā: No, it's not necessary to personally see him. You might write... When you come to Māyāpur we'll write him invitation that he can come and see and visit you there. That was better. Mr. Choudhuri said that "Your Guru Mahārāja, he has got also the Vaiṣṇava pride not to see the politicians." He said, "This is a good stand. I respect this very much." Actually he mentioned once to Abhirāma confidentially that "If this project comes through, then you'll be requiring some liaison officer because there will be so many government things. At that time I can work for you as your permanent advisor and go to Delhi and here and there and do all the work." I think he wants a job.

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

Gargamuni: He came on the last ekādaśī. Just last ekādaśī, what, ten days ago? Seven days he came for the ekādaśī to Māyāpur just to see.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Gargamuni: Tarun Kanti Ghosh. He took prasādam, he took the ekādaśī and he liked it very much.

Jayapatākā: I just saw him also just before Janmāṣṭamī, and he was still very favorable then. We talked for about an hour and a half. He introduced me to all the M.L.A's of the twenty-four paraganās.

Prabhupāda: Tarun Kanti?

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

Prabhupāda: They have no power.

Jayapatākā: They are the ones who have raised up that first petition, that Surendra dāsa, I think, and others. They are behind that. They themselves were in the market trying to get petition against, but no one would sign for them. We made a little of political..., because in Māyāpur now we have got seventy per cent of the people are...

Prabhupāda: In our favor.

Jayapatākā: In our favor strongly. And only a minority are actively opposed, one percent even. And thirty per cent are in doubt. So, so much so that even I saw recently the M.L.A. who was previously against us. And when I saw him I invited him for Janmāṣṭamī, and he said what about our program for a bridge? I said, "Oh, yes, I discussed with Śrīla Prabhupāda, and he suggested having a floating bridge to Navadvīpa. That will be very short. Very easily done with least expense." He said, "Anyway, next time you come to Navadvīpa you can discuss with me. I am ready to help you in all ways." So he has turned his mind around.

Prabhupāda: Who?

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

Jayapatākā: Also, if you wrote a letter to Brahmananda Reddy and that Mr. Mehta, the deputy or whatever, minister, regarding these questions coming in the Rāja-sabhā about Māyāpur and Vṛndāvana, "Actually these two centers are my ... I am founder-ācārya of these centers, and the people working there are not independent of me. I have asked them to come for assisting me." Then, if a letter like that is written to them and send me one copy, that will help immigration also, I think.

Gargamuni: Also another investigation, we're always asked, "Where is your headquarters?"

Jayapatākā: And then "Our headquarters is in India."

Gargamuni: It must be always stated, "Our headquarters are India." If we say "foreign," that means we are controlled by foreign. We must publish everywhere that our head...

Prabhupāda: No, we have mentioned headquarters Bombay?

Jayapatākā: We just said offices.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Akṣayānanda: Prabhupāda would come to Māyāpur.

Jayapatākā: And when is your program for coming to Māyāpur? All the devotees are offering their obeisances to you. Bhavānanda Goswami, he is following very strictly the cāturmāsya this year. He doesn't eat anything before sunrise.

Gargamuni: The weather there is very nice because the monsoon is mild. It is very nice, cool weather.

Prabhupāda: I have got a bad impression, Bengal during rainy season.

Gargamuni: Yes, right.

Prabhupāda: Is it not? No, it was not rainy season. This season. Otherwise any season in Bengal, they are very good.

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

Prabhupāda: And they are not giving citizenship?

Jayapatākā: Myself? What happened was I applied last September. So now it's nearly one year, so they had sent my application from Māyāpur to Calcutta, Writer's Building. Again back. Again Writer's Building, then to Delhi. Then Delhi sent again back. I went, and I asked the secretary, and I found out that they had sent again back from Delhi, again back to Māyāpur and then re-investigated me. At that time they brought in some local people, and one investigator, he said that "This Jayapatākā Swami, we have heard that he is a very bad person. He beats the people." They said, "No, We never heard such thing." "No, no. We have heard that he is very bad." In this way by negative they are testing. They came and told me that for two hours police is drilling three different people from Navadvīpa and Māyāpur. In this way no one said a bad...

Prabhupāda: No, if you are a famous man, then they'll do.

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

Prabhupāda: Then what other?

Jayapatākā: There were some other lighter matters. When I was traveling in my preaching, then last time in Māyāpur, when that Haridaspur, when they offered, you mentioned to me that you liked that we develop these holy spots. So just as a matter of convenience, whenever I was near any holy spot that you mentioned in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta I would go and just visit the place. So in my tours, one place I went to was very nice, and that sevaite, he spontaneously, when I showed him all your work, he offered me that he would like to give the temple to you. That temple is much, much more developed than Haridaspur. That's the temple of Maheśa Paṇḍita.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: But because of Māyāpur, I have not taken them very seriously, because we already have huge affair in Māyāpur. But if you like, we can see.

Prabhupāda: No, kāca dhun kāca kaphe (?): "If some property is offered, we should take it." That is the... And washed cloth. Kācā dhun kācā kapha (?). If somebody offers you very nicely washed cloth, you should use it. And some property, you must use it. They are... You can utilize this property by inhabiting the persons, if they are inclined to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are rotting outside Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They may come to live. We are for everyone. So he... Where does he reside, this gentleman?

Gargamuni: In Calcutta. His businesses are there. He's a wealthy man, very nice man.

Prabhupāda: Where does he live?

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Saurabha: For the abhiṣeka ceremony, that lasted about an hour, up till one o'clock, and everyone remained. There were thousands of people. They were just everywhere around.

Prabhupāda: I will give you one śālagrāma-śilā. So as it is being worshiped in Māyāpur, it should be worshiped in Bombay also.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: You want to start it now or in the new temple?

Prabhupāda: No, now. Śālagrāma-śilā. It is not difficult. You have seen śālagrāma-śilā?

Saurabha: I have seen.

Prabhupāda: So you'll take it and...

Saurabha: I'm going back tomorrow night.

Prabhupāda: So you can take it. So what other news?

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Oh, it is by ring.

Saurabha: Yes, we make rings out of concrete and then we... With a rod we keep holes in it and then we just put them on top and it's... Because for Māyāpur, we get into Māyāpur we trying it out if that is possible to do that there, because there are so many domes. This system is very practical because you can cast at site, and then with a crane you bring it up and then it's fixed. Because this short ring, to make a tower on top of a building is very troublesome.

Prabhupāda: This ring, concrete ring?

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Otherwise we have no problem.

Hari-śauri: By the time they've finished all their investigations, they'll... Eventually they'll have to let us come. At least maybe in Calcutta it will be easier. In Calcutta, with the authorities there, if we get this... If we start building Māyāpur, then they'll be a lot more lenient than they've been before.

Prabhupāda: That is already...

Hari-śauri: Yes. They've taken the best area.

Prabhupāda: I think this leg swelling is gone.

Room Conversation About Blitz News Clipping -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: We are trying to elevate the demoralized human society to God consciousness.

Pradyumna: Then, "John Erdman, a U.S. citizen who sails under the label of (sic:) Jayapak Swami and is in charge of the flourishing Māyāpur complex of the Society, recently had discussions with his chums to set up an In God We Trust Party in India also." Then, heading: "Bigger Than Defunct British Empire." "In a recent communication with Gargamuni Swami, alias Gregory M. Scharf, who looks after West Bengal, the chief from headquarters says, "Now we have become more than the British Empire"

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is your quote.

Prabhupāda: And what is British Empire? British Empire could not occupy the whole world. We are occupying the whole world.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: It is in West Bengal?

Jayapatākā: West Bengal. That's in Nadia district. Just before Pulasi, south of Pulasi. And when we came there and I saw the police in the afternoon, we told them we were going to have a function. So they said that they would send a few policemen. They said that "We will send some policemen for keeping the order." But that night so many people came the space could only hold four thousand. But another two, three thousand people came, and they were turned away because of insufficient space. So they were standing on the wall and on the rooftops all around, and all you could see were people's heads, just like an ocean. The policemen, after it was over... When I chanted, I chanted, "Everyone please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." And I chanted the full mantra three times. They chanted so loud that even two, three blocks away people thought that the heavens were shouting. It was like a thunder...

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: Yes. That's a good movie because it simply shows how you are doing so many books.

Gargamuni: We also showed that to that Atul Krishna Goswami. He came to Māyāpur. When he saw that he was so..., that movie, they had never seen such a thing, the process of printing the books.

Prabhupāda: He has good idea about...

Gargamuni: Oh, yes.

Jayapatākā: He has translated Caitanya-caritāmṛta in Hindi, they say.

Prabhupāda: He presented me one.

Jayapatākā: Many people ask that if the Gītār Gān could be put in Hindi.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-'bhirāmāt. And prescription is so sweet it pleases the ear and the heart. That is stated in the Bhāgavata. Bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-'bhirāmāt. It is medicine for this material disease. At the same time it is so pleasing to the ear and the heart. This is the very word. Bhavauṣadhāc chrotra. Śrotra means aural. Śrotra-manaḥ, and mind. Mano 'bhirāmāt. Abhirāma, pleasing.

Jayapatākā: After rainy season you'll be coming to Māyāpur then?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatākā: We'll write when the weather improves. We'll write when the rains cease.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (end)

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Maṇihāra: "ISKCON has generated many community farms like New Vrindaban, providing the ideal atmosphere of a busy, yet peaceful village, fully devoted to spiritual progress. Swami Prabhupāda has also established the first Kṛṣṇa conscious gurukula in the West, a primary school in Dallas, Texas, for one hundred boys and girls between the ages of five and fifteen. Soon after its success, many such gurukulas have sprung up all over the world. Aside from teaching reading, writing, mathematics, geography, etc., the gurukula teaches the child how to cultivate God consciousness. Once a year members of ISKCON journey to the Society's international headquarters at Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, ninety miles north of Calcutta, and the birthplace of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. It is the site of a ten crore rupees international Vedic village comprised of community farming projects, high-class gurukula school, free medicinal facilities, and handloom weaving center. An institute of Vedic studies is proposed to be established at this site. Other major ISKCON centers in India are in Vṛndāvana, Bombay, and Kurukṣetra, the site of a three-crore rupee international Sanskrit university. This project will be sponsored by Alfred Ford, a nephew of Henry Ford. This will be the cultural..."

Prabhupāda: Nephew, nephew of Ford, that's a fact. Alfred is from the daughter's side. So the present Mr. Ford, his nephew, certainly, because daughter's side. His mother is the daughter, granddaughter of Henry Ford. Alfred's mother is the granddaughter of Henry Ford. Therefore the present Ford is the maternal uncle of Alfred.

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

Prabhupāda: Twelve lakhs. So by selling my books. And I have sent him more than four lakhs, five lakhs from foreign countries. This is my fault. Similarly, in Bombay we are spending every month seven lakhs regularly. That is coming from foreign countries. And they are thinking that I'm taking bribe and acting as C.I.A. And C.I.A. have become Vaiṣṇavas with long śikhā and giving up all facilities of life and they are dancing with the C.I.A. People have no common sense that C.I.A. agent could stay in a nice hotel and enjoy life. Why so much vairāgya? Even my Godbrothers said that American government has given me two crores of rupees. Now we are planning to have a temple in Māyāpur where... What is, what is the economic estimates, where we shall spend how much money monthly?

Meeting With Member of Parliament, Mr. Krishna Modi -- August 31, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Vṛndāvana and Navadvīpa.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And Māyāpur, Vṛndāvana.

Krishna Modi: Yes, that because this is in India. Whenever they like, they will see it.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So when can they organize this tour? How soon can it be organized?

Krishna Modi: I'll ask them. I have an idea about that only. Because yesterday Mr. Brahmānanda already told me that "Why not you people also stand up and say something about that." Why not you strengthen my hands. Because they press and press and they want something that I should say something. So if you people stand and then you say that "No no no no, this is not the thing and we have seen it and this and this and that and that." And they will be... That is his idea.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But the only people who are pressing charges are the Communists.

Krishna Modi: But they will do. That is their duty.

Prabhupāda: They are atheists.

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: At least we're not wasting our lives now.

Caraṇāravindam: Yes.

Prabhupāda: My granddaughter, she came to see me in Māyāpur. So I was remembering just the other day she was child and walking, catching my hand. Now she is mother of two children. (Someone comes by) Who is he?

Hari-śauri: He's the carpenter.

Caraṇāravindam: Very good fellow.

Prabhupāda: Carpenter. So it is nice. When there is rain I can lie down here. When it is raining, to lie down in a cottage like this is very pleasing. At least in this country. Tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-raining, not very forcibly.

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Very small.

Caraṇāravindam: I plan to grow mālatī up this side.

Prabhupāda: You grow, on the thatched roof they grow squash.

Hari-śauri: I think they were doing that in Māyāpur. There was one big plant growing on the...

Prabhupāda: So that the family can get one squash, that is sufficient for family. Vegetable. People used to live formerly without any worries. Everything was so easily available, at least foodstuffs. They had no anxiety.

Caraṇāravindam: Little effort, just basic, a little work and...

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No no, that is understood.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. "He complimented ISKCON, for disseminating the Vedic culture. West Bengal government officials have praised our agricultural efforts. The principle officer of agriculture of Nadia District in West Bengal said that our Māyāpur farm is receiving attention of nearby farmers, and this farm is acting as a demonstration for them. So the statement that foreign devotees are running ISKCON in India is misleading. Point five, Blitz: Big business in Spiritual Sky. Boss of West Bengal is Gregory M. Scharf. ISKCON: In Māyāpur our devotees make handloom saris, dhotīs, and gāmchās. All over the world our devotees wear the traditional Indian dress of dhotīs, kurtās, and saris. It is our spiritual master's desire that all our devotees overseas only wear clothes made by our devotees in Māyāpur. Spiritual Sky sales and services was formed just to send our Māyāpur handloom and other necessities only to our centers overseas. In return our overseas centers send Māyāpur donations.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Thank you. You can go and play. You cannot understand.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Go and play. "In London, George Harrison donated a big castle which is now called Bhaktivedanta Manor. We have purchased many buildings and converted them to temples from the sale of our books. What is wrong if a portion of Bhaktivedanta Book Trust sales are transferred to India for construction of temples? Fifty percent of Bhaktivedanta Book Trust income is spent for further publishing and the other fifty percent is spent to build temples all over the world. In fact, Blitz should appreciate this because Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda's books are bringing valuable overseas currency into the country without any cost to the Indian public. Point seven. Blitz: In Bombay they have put up a temple with a barbed fence around it. ISKCON There is no barbed wire around the temple. We invite Blitz to show us the barbed wire." There's no barbed wire. "Point eight. Blitz: Already rupees twelve lakhs have been spent on an unfinished temple in Vṛndāvana. ISKCON: Blitz does not know that the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple in Vṛndāvana was completed and officially inaugurated by Dr. Chenna Reddy, governor of U.P., in April, 1975." They are saying the temple is still being made. "Point nine. Blitz: Their major center seems to be in Orissa, the land of princes and paupers. They have built a center close to an atomic energy commission complex. ISKCON: How foolish. Our major center is not in Orissa, but in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur in West Bengal. Māyāpur is the birthplace of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, an incarnation of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. We are coming in Lord Caitanya's disciplic succession and therefore we want to develop Māyāpur and make this an international center.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Caraṇāravindam: A big snake may come and eat him. (break)

Hari-śauri: They eat off fat banana leaves in Māyāpur all the time.

Prabhupāda: Very good. Common man in Bengal, Orissa, they'll take on banana leaves all vegetable preparations. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when he was invited by Sarvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, he was taking on banana leaves.

Caraṇāravindam: I have some bitter gourd. I'm going to dry it and we can plant the seeds, karelā.

Prabhupāda: Karelā it is also...

Caraṇāravindam: Wonderful sabji.

Hari-śauri: Paṭola?

Prabhupāda: Paṭola also.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You give me lunch in banana leaves. Give me.

Hari-śauri: We were doing that in Māyāpur. I remember last time.

Prabhupāda: Because there are so many banana leaves. You can utilize it. One leaf is sufficient for four plates at least.

Caraṇāravindam: Actually I must confess, generally most days I use a bit of banana leaf to take some of your remnants on. Take a bit on a banana leaf, and then take from there. It is very handy. Actually the monkeys they come and also they eat this leaf. They often come and tear off a piece of leaf and sit on this eating them. Monkey.

Prabhupāda: That is destructive. They do not know.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: If you all don't mind, just for five minutes, we would like to read the selected extracts from some leading scholars about this movement. We're not reading the views of Western scholars. These books are being used in five thousand universities, including Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, but some of the leading Indian scholars. So you also get an understanding of the Indian appreciation of Prabhupāda's activities. This for example, is a letter from Mr. Ghosh, District and Summon Judge in West Bengal: "I'm highly impressed at the sincerity and devotion of the disciples of the International Society of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. A visit to the Māyāpur Chandrodaya Mandir, West Bengal, sublimes the mind from all harsh talk and disturbing influences." Then...

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Stop now. Don't divert attention.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Stop now. Don't divert attention.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is a letter from Śrī Ambarish Sarkar, General Secretary of the Nadia District Congress Committee. "I had an opportunity to visit the Śrī Māyāpur Chandrodaya Mandir on the 12th August, 1975. It is absolutely a religious institution. Jayapātāka Swami has devoted all of his efforts and endeavors to organize and propound the sacred name of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. I'm impressed by his charming manner and strength. Although it is a religious institution, this organization has performed many social services. Many poor and destitute families have had an opportunity to work and at the same time they have become worshipers of Lord Śrī Caitanya. To engage these workers, so many industrial centers have already been started, such as handloom cloth, printing, etc. I wish this organization, with its help of the local people, all success."

Prabhupāda: We're not only chanting, we are giving them work. We are trying to become self-sufficient, the same idea of Gandhi's village organization, so they may not come out from the village. They'll be satisfied, village economics. That we are doing.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I think some car has come?

Akṣayānanda: Maybe that's Bhīma, I'll check.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Hari-śauri: Maybe you could do it from Bengal, from Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Hari-śauri: Do the villages there.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: Because...

Haṁsadūta: Here the weather is already getting cold.

Hari-śauri: Yeah.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Brainwash? No, it is heart wash. (laughter) We can send this, "It is not brainwash," that "it is heartwash." Of course brain and heart practically same.

Haṁsadūta: Mm. (pause)

Prabhupāda: Our temple, where many people come. Our Māyāpur temple, Hyderabad temple, it is not only in Europe or America, in India in our temples, south India.

Haṁsadūta: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: It is genuine religious cult. You have to send all these people. Now note down and do all these things and send it. I can suggest. (noise in background)

Haṁsadūta: It is disturbing.

Prabhupāda: There is some commotion all over there. (break) ...our child is lost altogether...

Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Bhagatji: Hindi class there should be. In Vṛndāvana they will...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Do that, Hindi.

Bhagatji: In Māyāpur there should be Bengali class. And Hindi and Bengali, two language are very close.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not any other language. Hindi is essential, must be compulsory, Hindi. That is state language.

Jagadīśa: For the Western children also?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, everyone.

Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So he can go.

Pradyumna: He's very intelligent, but he's just had a bad...

Prabhupāda: So he was in Māyāpur?

Yaśodānandana: Yes, he was in Māyāpur before. He knows Bengali. He can speak Bengali.

Prabhupāda: So he can go with the Māyāpur preaching party as well.

Yaśodānandana: We could send him with Bhavānanda Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that will be nice. He knows Bengali. Let him go to Bengal and keep him under Bhavānanda.

Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Rūpa-vilāsa: Bhavānanda told me he did not want to see that boy again.

Pradyumna: In Māyāpur he had some girl...

Jagadīśa: In my opinion, the best thing is to make an example and beat him.

Prabhupāda: Yes, send him to farm, work in the field. If he does not work, beat him. Mūrkhasya laktausadhiḥ. (?)(Hindi conversation)

Yaśodānandana: He was just in Hyderabad for that ceremony there, and he caused such disruption in the whole temple that I don't think they'd want him there.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. And by force trying to give him meat. So now, if educated men of your country, they come forward, understand this philosophy, then combined effort... My philosophy is that American and Indian, American money and Indian culture, combine together; the whole world will be changed. That is my philosophy. It is coming to some extent... (break)

Jagadīśa: "...International Society for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The two should cooperate. The blind man should carry his lame companion, and the lame man should give guidance to his blind friend. In this way both will benefit. Similarly, the wealthier Western countries should assist the materially exploited East, and the East, particularly India, should help the spiritually blind West to understand scientifically the actual higher purpose of human life. To offer India's transcendental science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness to the West, Prabhupāda sailed from Bombay to New York City in 1965. After a year of great personal struggle, he established the first center of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. In the next few years he attracted hundreds of sincere disciples and opened centers in dozens of American and European cities. He also established gurukula schools and farming communities based on the ancient Indian patterns. In 1970 Prabhupāda returned to India and with the assistance of many Indian gentleman and some of his disciples, he established ISKCON centers in Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Madras, and the rural holy spots of Vṛndāvana, Lord Kṛṣṇa's place, and Māyāpur, West Bengal, the birth place of Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: We have applied for 350 acres of land from the government. The process is going on. If we get, then we shall spend crores of rupees for... The description is...

Jagadīśa: "Within the next ten years, according to ISKCON plans, the Māyāpur project will extend to a complete Vedic city with fifty thousand inhabitants, its own university, airport, and stadium. It will also claim the world's largest planetarium with 410 foot high Temple of Understanding..." (break) ...civilization.

Dr. Kneupper: It sounds like a beautiful project. That is near Bombay, now?

Prabhupāda: No, that is near Calcutta.

Dr. Kneupper: Calcutta.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, the enquiry is finished. Now government is considering to give that land. (indistinct) that land. There were many others, land offers in Hyderabad, but I wanted to start this institution in the, on the birth site of Lord Caitanya. Otherwise we have got better land. We have asked government for 350 acres but we have already bought in Hyderabad, 600 acres. Here also we can get immediately 500, 600 acres, like that. We have already got another plot of land, 100 acres in Ahmedabad. So there are so many lands available but I wanted to start this project in Māyāpur, the birthsite of Lord Caitanya. Therefore we are (indistinct). If they say no, then we shall attempt it somewhere else.

Dr. Kneupper: In Calcutta also there is a project?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Room Conversation -- November 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In India.

Surabhi: No, Washington, D.C. That's in America. They invited one of our devotees there to discuss this Māyāpur and all this social type of... Dharmādhyakṣa. He's writing for that Back to Godhead magazine. He worked with Gurudāsa together.

Prabhupāda: His article, one is there?

Hari-śauri: Yes, "Simple Living High Thinking." You saw that.

Prabhupāda: So he met him.

Surabhi: Not Carter. He met the government officials who were representing the United States Government at that exhibition, and they were very favorable. They were one of the most favorable, he said, the United states.

Evening Darsana -- December 3, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Bechel (?). So we want so many men to live there nicely, to eat sumptuously, and preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I have seen while coming from Vṛndāvana to Delhi, hundreds and thousands of young men. They are going to the factories on cycle, coming from distant place, at least twenty miles, twenty-five miles, and it takes two hours to reach the factory or more than that. And there he works hard eight hours and then again goes back, two hours, three hours, on cycle. I do not know what kind of rest he takes. This is life. And if we request these young men that "You come here. You live here comfortably. You eat here sumptuously and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa," they will not. Just see how unfortunate they are. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). This is Kali-yuga. All bad men, unfortunate and disturbed. This is the position. They will work so hard, they'll catch daily passenger trains, Calcutta, Bombay, I have seen. They are actually hanging, and some of them are falling down, lost life, and coming from hundred miles away. But still, if you ask him that "You come here. Live with us. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." Even with your family you can come." We are doing that at Māyāpur. He will not.

Evening Darsana -- December 3, 1976, Hyderabad:

Vāsughoṣa: Yes, we were told like that, that they would take their twenty rupees pay and then they would go and spend ten rupees and on alcohol, drinking, toddy. (break) I was in... Last time at the festival in Māyāpur I was riding from Māyāpur to Calcutta. And so one man was saying that "Oh, fish, 80 paisa a kg. How much are potatoes?" I asked. So even their hard-earned money, so much more they spend just to eat meat, to enjoy their senses. It doesn't make sense in any way.

Prabhupāda: And that also, they cannot live on meat. They must have vegetable also. Without vegetable, simple meat-eating will not help them. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Hindi) Jaya.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes, poor, hungry, come. We can give you food. We are giving, already. Show the pictures. You have not seen the pictures of Māyāpur, how two thousand, three thousand people we are giving. That is included. Bhāgavata-sevā includes that. You do not require to do it separately. It is already there. Just like if you pour water on the root, the watering the leaf is included. But if you water the leaf, then that tree will dry. And that is not complete. But if you pour water on the root of the tree, it is complete. Why don't you give this reason? This is natural. If you give food to the stomach, the service of the other parts of the body is included. But if you give food to the eyes, it is spoiled only. The food is spoiled, the eyes are spoiled, and nobody is satisfied. Why don't you give this reason?

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

Prabhupāda: Date rasa? Oh, yes. Why not? Very good.

Mahāṁśa: This thing?

Prabhupāda: Date rasa. That is good.

Mahāṁśa: Nīra.(?) This is not date like Māyāpur. This is a different kind of tree. They make toddy out of this.

Prabhupāda: No, that date rasa, if you keep, it becomes toddy.

Mahāṁśa: So early morning that is...

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Mahāṁśa: ...good to take. (break) Hare Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Yes. So we can do it tomorrow.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: They do that in Māyāpur.

Mahāṁśa: We can have a maṅgala-ārati in mikes. We can use a microphone for maṅgala-ārati. (end)

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Out of three, two. Out of three, any two will do. That's all.

Mahāṁśa: And amount which will be given from Your Divine Grace will be a loan towards the trust which will be paid back later on.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Māyāpur account you take. Ask them to transfer to this account. And when you want to pay...

Mahāṁśa: Yes, then they transfer

Prabhupāda: That's all. That will be... Do that. So open account.

Haṁsadūta: Also that lakh of rupees which I gave him last year.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is his.

Haṁsadūta: The temple should pay it.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So immediately open account, and whatever minimum you want, I will give you. That's all. And three signatories. Out of three, two. Yes.

Haṁsadūta: Prabhupāda, if were going to have a permanent pandal for visitors, why don't we build some simple kīrtana hall where the people can also take prasādam, something like they built in Māyāpur but not...

Prabhupāda: Do it... Do it gradually. For the time being have a pandal. Yes.

Haṁsadūta: That could be used for kīrtana and prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mahāṁśa: That you told me just now, at that site where we have the permanent temple.

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

Prabhupāda: Actually, I have got so many engagements. Actually, I have got engagement in Bhuvaneśvara...

Dr. Patel: And you are going to Bhuvaneśvara after fifteen days, no?

Prabhupāda: ...Calcutta, in Allahabad, then Māyāpur, then Vṛndāvana, then Bombay.

Dr. Patel: So to make you fit to go round, you must do something. It's very logical.

Guru dāsa: "Penny wise, pound foolish."

Dr. Patel: So let pound be wise for the penny foolish. If you do in right path then you may not break down like (indistinct) getting all this trouble. (break) ...at least for four, five days. We don't want any more. In one day we will find out what to, how to, this will be cured. I don't mean medicine, but even advice, food, this, that, other things. If you get rid of the medicine, well, all medicines are, I mean, synthetics.

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

Prabhupāda: Then let them come first of all. (laughter) There is no "if." There is sufficient place. Come. But nobody's coming. They want to see, "Let these white men come and we see." That's all. "We see the fun." This is going on. They are coming. They are disgusted. But we are not disgusted. That is the difficulty. Therefore I was speaking to this boy, "You are Englishman, you have come." It's a problem now in Māyāpur, here. And the government is after them as soon as three months pass. "Get out, get out, get out, get out." Then how shall I conduct my business? A big, big establishment. This is another problem. But Kṛṣṇa is doing His own business. But practically seeing. This is India's business. Bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra (CC Adi 9.41). Manuṣya-janma, not the cats and dogs, but those who have taken the human form. It is their business. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra (CC Adi 9.41), janma sārthaka-First of all, make your life successful by understanding the philosophy.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: We are offering best facility.

Indian lady: No she is saying, she wants to...

Prabhupāda: Similarly, you have seen our Navadvīpa also?

Indian lady: Māyāpur dekhi.

Prabhupāda: Māyāpur, yes. So we are giving, as far as possible, comfortable life. Because modern man, he cannot go to the forest and live underneath a tree. That is not possible. Therefore by begging, begging, spending blood, we are getting money all over the world and spend it like this. For me, I can live anywhere. And I can collect one or two ruṭi anywhere. It is not for me. It is for you. I have invited. Come here, stay and preach this cult, Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. That I want. People are being cheated all over the world shamelessly.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Here.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Otherwise, there's no reason. On our side it doesn't go out at all.

Prabhupāda: In Vṛndāvana it takes only two minutes to change. Similarly, we have in Māyāpur also.

Indian man: So can I know the reason why you are restraining the use of gobar gas now. I could not understand actual technical difficulty. Is there any difficulty?

Prabhupāda: No, we can utilize the gobar in different way.

Indian man: No, but gobar gas is not good, that's why...

Prabhupāda: No, no, not good. But we have to arrange for this plant, generate gas. So why not direct?

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Indian man: No ash is not the full fertilizer. It is only partial. 10% of the fertilizer becomes ash. The organic matter is burned with great loss to the society and the earth.

Prabhupāda: But in our Māyāpur, that plant, we spent so much, it has not become successful.

Indian man: No that is mechanical fault. Just like electricity now it has failed. Now sir, we should not stop utilizing electricity.

Prabhupāda: No, any machine, that defect will be there.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

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)

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Or you can stay here and go to Kumbha-mela straight?

Prabhupāda: That can be also done. I am waiting for one letter from Gaura-Govinda Swami.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Then from Kumbha-mela you can go to Orissa, from Orissa to Māyāpur. Then you have go to Kodekana.

Prabhupāda: Kodekana, have you been ever? I have to inquire whether it is zigzag.

Indian man: Oh, Kodekana. That is very famous place.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Is it zigzag or is it straight?

Indian man: No, zigzag. In the mountain side.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No that is not good.

Prabhupāda: OK, then it is...

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, why these boys are attracted ? They have not come here to see your industry for materialism. They have come here for spiritual. They have not come to see your cycle and sewing machine. Actually, they have come, Vṛndāvana, Māyāpur. And they are not poverty stricken. We go to Europe being poverty stricken. That Lady Wellington, he (she) challenged one of my Godbrothers, Bhakti Tīrtha Mahārāja, that "You Indian people..." She was very proud, Lady Wellington. Wellington was Iceland. She said that "You Indian people..." Of course, it was friendly talk. "You come to our country, we give you some stamp, degree, and you earn your livelihood in India. What you have come here to teach?" This was the challenge. Actually, that was happening.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. He's of my age. Not less. But he's after three, four wives. His business is to go from one wife's house to another wife's house and each wife's house, expenditure of ten thousand rupees per month. (chuckles) He's a very funny businessman. He has made his wife director and they take money. So to avoid income tax... So, huge expenditure. Each, one house. Income tax cannot say, "Why you are maintaining?" (indistinct) That is not their business. It is comparison. Just like Bhogilal, he's maintaining big, big establishment. So I became his guest for fifteen days. He wanted to stay. I stayed for fifteen days. I first, my requisition was that he you must give me exclusive typewriter for writing my books. So he gave me. And if I would have asked for typewriter he would have given. But I was working with my broken typewriter. I went to our Tīrtha Mahārāja in Māyāpur, that "You give me a room (Śrīla Prabhupāda taps on table) and a typewriter, (tap) and print my books. (tap) Give me some (indistinct) (tap). I join you."