Mental (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"mental" |"mentally"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: "mental" not "mental speculat*" not "mental concoction*" not "mental platform*"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1976, Madras:

Acyutānanda: Rādhā, Rukmiṇī, and Kṛṣṇa. So won't Kṛṣṇa feel embarrassed to stand between Rādhā and Rukmiṇī at the same time?

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Why? Why embarrassed? Two sides? One side, Rādhā...

Acyutānanda: Yes. One side, Rādhā, one side, Rukmiṇī.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is that bona fide, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I don't find any fault.

Acyutānanda: It's not rasābhāsa?

Prabhupāda: Huh? Not rasābhāsa. But it is not mentioned in anywhere. This is mental.... They should not have done like that. Several times He requested the gopīs, I think, that "You come to Dvārakā," but they refused.

Acyutānanda: The gopī-candana comes from the lake where they say the gopīs drowned themselves, and that is near Dvārakā. Is that a true story?

Prabhupāda: Maybe they might have gone. (break) ...these houses.

Morning Walk -- February 9, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All over the world. They say that what will happen... One thing that will happen is that if there's any... Of course, this is scientists' explanation. If there is any weakness within the family line—that means bodily weakness, mental weakness, or anything...

Prabhupāda: No, even it is not weakness, it will create weakness, same blood. The different blood will create some incentive, different flow of blood. That is scientific. But who cares for that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nowadays...

Morning Walk -- March 5, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Oh, you have to learn this now?

Hari-śauri: No, I'm just parrotting.

Pusta Kṛṣṇa: So is it that everything we do, are we trying to make some mental adjustment, that "We're taking prasādam..."?

Prabhupāda: Mental adjustment is nonsense. No mental adj... Actual. Mental adjustment is material. You have to follow the orders of superior. There is no question of mental adjustment. (break) You get all your necessities of life from the earth. Now, you get food, you get drinking water, you get shelter, bamboo. These things will... You get cotton. So what is that slogan? Kapara...?

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1976, Mayapura:

Siddha-svarūpa: Part of their culture is basically.... It's deeply steeped in what's called Taoism, and it's.... An important part of that is retaining the semen for mental power. (break)

Prabhupāda: So give them attention, yes, even at the..., as far as possible. Jaya.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It may be possible for Dhṛṣṭadyumna's father to employ himself and myself in that business. Then I can go...

Prabhupāda: Very easily.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...as their sales representative and at the same time be a representative for books...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: No, no. Modern or old, anyone who is a conditioned soul, he has got cheating propensity, four defects. One of them is the cheating propensity.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes. But the mental stage in this age is very strong, mental. They think mentally they have found a solution.

Prabhupāda: That they can do.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: But they...

Prabhupāda: Within mind you can think, "I have become emperor of the world." That you can do. Who can check you? But that is not the actual fact.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is mental concoction. Within mind you can think, "I have become the proprietor of the banks, all the banks." Madman that is. He's a madman.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: They have so many philosophies, but it's all mental.

Prabhupāda: All mental. We say, therefore, don't say "philosophy." We say "mental speculation."

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Jaya.

Prabhupāda: Philosophy means tattva-darśinaḥ. That is described, tattva-darśinaḥ. One has seen the truth, he is philosopher. And who is hovering in the mental concoction platform, he's a rascal. "I think." This is.... Their all European philosophy is...

Morning Walk -- April 17, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He does not know anything but Kṛṣṇa. He knows everything...

Dr. Patel: Surrendering means by mental process if I do through my mind. This is my definition. My mental process in the...

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Dr. Patel: Everything happening is.... By Kṛṣṇa's grace he's surrendering to...

Prabhupāda: Not mental. No mental concoction. Factual. Factual.

Dr. Patel: That is factual. That everything is...

Prabhupāda: No, mental concoction is not factual.

Morning Walk -- April 17, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And you have no responsibility.

Dr. Patel: And that mental process, if you are working, is it a wrong mental process?

Prabhupāda: So here is a greatest wrong. No, no. If your patient comes, that "It is by Kṛṣṇa's wish I have become diseased," then where is your department? You don't...

Dr. Patel: But by Kṛṣṇa's grace I have become a doctor. Both the ways. Why see on one side?

Prabhupāda: Then say that. Why do you say one side?

Morning Walk -- May 15, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: No, no, you can go to hell also. Different thing.... (break) ...jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānu. That is there. If you are suffering from disease, where is enjoyment? Mental discomfort, bodily discomfort. You are taking thrice pills for tranquillity. Is that enjoyment?

Rādhāvallabha: They say you have to take the good with the bad.

Prabhupāda: This nonsense enjoyment. Fool's paradise. For keeping the mind in tranquillity he is taking four times pills. For sleeping, he is taking pill. Does he enjoy that?

Rādhāvallabha: By suffering you can get a deeper appreciation...

Garden Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Ah, thank you. This is the disease. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). The rascal, he is bewildered, vimūḍhātmā, on account of false egotism. Just like we are inviting everyone: Please come and learn Bhagavad-gītā. "Huh! Bhagavad-gītā, let us go the sea and swim." Surfer, surfer? They are taking so much trouble. I have not see here; in Hawaii. For hours together, struggling with waves. I've seen it South Africa also. Very fond of this surf sporting. So they are wasting so much time and laboring so hard just to become fish. Yes, they are going to be fish. Because at the time of death they'll think of "How I am jumping in the water, surfing." That is natural. Sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ (BG 8.6). Because he has constantly thought over his sporting, naturally he'll think of sporting in the water. So this gross body when finished, his mental, intellectual and false ego will carry him to become a fish, and he'll have full freedom how fish is jumping within the water, going against the waves.

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Mahendra: In the Bhagavad-gītā, you explain that one takes a specific birth due to a specific degree of lust.

Prabhupāda: Yes, mental situation.

Candanācārya: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you once said that if someone is not attracted to chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, that he is being punished by Yamarāja.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Āpana karama bhuñjāye śamana kahaye locana dāsa.

Dānavīr: Śrīla Prabhupāda, sometimes when we're preaching to people that we don't eat meat, fish or egg, they say,"Why not eggs? They're not actually living. It's just a, it hasn't been fertilized."

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

Prabhupāda: So dehāntara-prāptir, to accept another body, that is inevitable. Now, what kind of body you'll accept... You'll not accept. You'll be forced to accept, according to your work, karmaṇā daiva-netrena (SB 3.31.1), by superior arrangement. After death, after giving up this body... Generally, at the time of death, your mental condition will carry you to a similar body. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). This is the general, but it is under superior arrangement. So we are changing this body continually, cycle of birth and death. That is material world. Therefore it is said that according to the body, the standard of happiness, distress, is there. So that will come automatically by nature's law. Therefore there is no need of endeavoring improving or subduing this kind of bodily comforts. That you cannot change; it is all destiny. You try for self-realization. What you are?

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

Rāmeśvara: It's combined with some other verse. "The stage of perfection is called trance, or samādhi, when one's mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This is characterized by one's ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks that there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position one is never shaken even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact."

Prabhupāda: That is translation?

Conversation in Airport and Car -- June 21, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Hitachi, yes. This is a church?

Kīrtanānanda: No, this is an institution, state institution for old people or mental home. I forget. "Western State School." (break)

Prabhupāda: ...Hayagrīva.

Kīrtanānanda: I think he's in Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Kīrtanānanda: I'm trying to get him to bring his boy to New Vrindaban. He's down there with those meat-eaters.

Room Conversation and Reading from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1 and 12 -- June 25, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Let us go there. (break)

Devotee (1): ...trying to retire here in one year when he's through with his duties as a director of a mental hospital.

Prabhupāda: Which community?

Devotee (1): He plans to come here to retire in one year.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Yes, everyone should retire and join us.

Devotees: Jaya.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I have seen it. And by force. So he has been trained up eating meat, and I say, "Don't eat meat." So therefore that is troublesome. And if he's serious, he must accept the order. That is tapasya. Tapasya means in diet, in practice, in behavior, in dealing, and so on, so on. Everything there is tapasya. That is all described. Mental tapasya, bodily tapasya, and what is called? Word? Just like vāco-vegam, this is tapasya. You cannot talk nonsense. You want to talk something nonsense, but according to... So they don't talk nonsense. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvar... If you talk, you must talk about Kṛṣṇa. That is tapasya. "Śāstra has ordered me not to talk loosely anything, only talk of Kṛṣṇa." So if he does that, that is tapasya. Tapasya in the matter of words. Tapasya in connection with body. Tapasya in connection with mind. Vāco-vegaṁ krodha-vegam. One has become angry and he wants to express it by beating or something doing very..., but tapasya will restrict him. "No, don't do it."

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: One has become angry and he wants to express it by beating or something doing very..., but tapasya will restrict him. "No, don't do it." "I want to kill you." Tapasya will restrict. Vāco-vegaṁ krodha-vegaṁ manasa-vegam udara-vegam. "I am sexually inclined, but I cannot do it. This is not the time." That is tapasya. I am restricted. In this way, tapasya in every way, bodily, mental, words, practice, dealing. So these have to be learned. That is called tapasya. And that is human life. Tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1). If you want to make progress in spiritual life and you are human life, human being, you must act according to the sastric injunctions. That is called tapasya. Brahma, before creation he had to undergo tapasya. Is it not stated? Yes. So tapasya is essential. You cannot avoid. Yes.

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

Hari-śauri: Says, "Religion: 1. monastic condition, being a monk or a nun, enter into a monastic order; 2. practice of sacred rites; 3. one of the prevalent systems of faith and worship, i.e. Christian, Muhammadan, etc.; 4. human recognition of superhuman controlling power and especially of a personal God entitled to obedience, effect of such recognition on conduct and mental attitude."

Prabhupāda: This is religion. Personal conception of God.

Hari-śauri: And then "5. action that one is bound to do."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everything is there. Any one of them you take. That's good idea, but special conception of personal God, huh? What is that?

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

Prabhupāda: That's all, clear. What are the other items?

Hari-śauri: Then, "the effect of such recognition on conduct and mental attitude." And then "action that one is bound to do."

Prabhupāda: One is bound to do. Dharmena hina paśubhiḥ samana. If he does not do, then he's animal. It must be done. There is no question of optional. If you are human being, you must be religious, you must recognize the supreme controller. Otherwise, you are animal. What is the other interpretations? Beginning one?

Hari-śauri: "Monastic condition, being a monk or a nun."

Prabhupāda: Just like every religion has got some condition, monastic, is it not?

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

Devotee (4): Śrīla Prabhupāda, no matter what material body you have, by material nature given you, one of the most predominating features of material life is pain. I want to address myself to this question, because in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we frequently face this problem. We have the pain of, for example, if you do tapasya, that's a pain to deprive your body of sense gratification. If you don't have sleep, you have to force yourself. If you have sickness, mental disturbances, so many things, then there's the other kind of pain.

Prabhupāda: That is being explained, that we don't want to stop sleeping, but minimize it. That is being already explained. We don't say complete negation. No. Yuktāhāra-vihārasya. Simply sleep as little as possible. Not that to take, just like in the Western countries, they take sleeping as enjoyment. Is it not?

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

Prabhupāda: If they are after knowledge, they should accept.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There is one, some sort of a mental satisfaction. When we work something we thought that by doing this I'll be able to come to a conclusion. But by the same research, by the same result, I found that what I thought was wrong, so from that, that satisfaction is there, so that must be true. Something like that.

Prabhupāda: Here is one, that Sukla, he is also favorable.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, he's a very nice man. I never saw any Indian like that.

Devotee (2): He's favorable, but he won't come to the temple.

Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter. But he has got sympathy.

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: I gather what you are driving at is that bodily food is different than, mental, reading, intellectual food, spiritual food, it all comes into the body and we take it all information, ideas, this is the kind...

Prabhupāda: Not ideas, that is a fact. Fact that you driver, you must have your food. Otherwise you will die.

Interviewer: I'm looking at you, that's taking in a certain kind of information.

Prabhupāda: You cannot drive the car without food.

Interview with Trans-India Magazine -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, as my child's body being finished, I have entered into the boy's body; my boy's body being finished, I have entered young man's body. Similarly, when this body will be finished, I shall enter another body, new body. That will be given to me by nature according to the mental condition at the time of my death. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). This is the law of nature. So people are not educated in the law of nature. They are educated in animalistic life. As the dog is thinking "I am dog," and barking, similarly, if a person thinks "I am Indian" or "I am American," so there's not much difference between the dog and the man. The man must think otherwise, that "I am not this body," then the civilization, human civilization, begins. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. Unfortunately, there is no education. This education was little there. Even in India that is now becoming finished on account of this Western influence.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Hari-śauri: "...and especially of a personal God entitled to obedience, and effect of such recognition on the conduct of mental attitude."

Prabhupāda: This is religion. This is religion. So this religion is applicable to everyone, any human being. Why do you bring Christian or Hindu or Muslim, or...? Everyone has to accept that. That is real religion. And this is not religion, "We believe there is no soul of the animal." That is not religion. That is most unscientific. That is not religion. Religion means scientific understanding of the supreme controller. So now if you accept the supreme controller, then if you violate something, you must be punished. Immediately you have to accept.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Mike Robinson: I see. Can you explain to me, then, perhaps finally, just some of the stages you go through in this spiritual life. Sort of, from somebody being a new devotee to Hare Kṛṣṇa, what are the mental or the spiritual stages you go through?

Prabhupāda: As they follow the principles, they realize that "Yes, I am advancing," Otherwise, why they should stick? They are also educated, they are young men, and they are coming from respectable family. They are not dull-headed dogs. So why they are sticking to this principle unless they feel, "Yes, I am making progress"? Just like you are hungry, and if you are given some foodstuff, you eat the.... With every morsel of food you feel, "Yes, my hunger is satisfied. I am feeling strength, I must go on till I am fully satisfied." It is like that. It doesn't require certificate from others. He'll feel himself, "Yes."

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Well, starting, just like when there is a seed sown, the starting is there. Now it grows a tree and there is fruit, there is flowers. The fruit is green now. When it is yellow mango and ripe, you can take. The beginning is when you sow the seed. Just like child. The father puts the seed within the womb of the mother. The body begins from that moment, grows and grows. When it is fully grown up it comes out and acts and then walks. So beginning is there. You can begin at any moment. But it is spiritual, it does not take so much time. You should remember spiritual. Just like speed, there are different kinds of speed. Mental speed and physical speed. Physical speed, you have got a very good nice airplane.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

And mental speed, you can immediately, within a second, go to London. And spiritual speed, still more. Kṛṣṇa says tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma mām eti (BG 4.9), as soon as you give up the body you immediately go to Kṛṣṇa. That is spiritual speed. Immediately. Not that so many miles, oh, Kṛṣṇaloka is far, far above this material sky, then spiritual sky. No. The spiritual speed is so high that tyaktvā dehaṁ, as soon as you give up this body, immediately. You can compare material speed and mental speed. Although you haven't got spiritual idea, still, we can at least imagine what is that spiritual speed. The mental speed is so rapid that by the speedy airplane I'll have to take four hours, you can reach there in four seconds by mental speed. That is with our experience. Then we can imagine how speedy is spiritual. It is actually known by education. It is a science. It is not sentiment. And everything is there.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Dreams is mental, subtle platform. Your gross body is not working, but your subtle mind is working. That's all. It is material.

Ali: The master is usually on a totally different level. It is quite obvious, from the actions, the talks, the understanding and the experience. How close does one student usually, how close does he get to the master? How closely does he understand the master? Or he could interrelate himself to the master?

Hari-śauri: He's asking how intimate does the connection become between the master and the disciples.

Prabhupāda: Simply by association.

Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Happiness, suppose if you can get a nice palatable dish for eating, you'll be happy. But the dog also, if he can get some good eating, he'll be happy. So where is the difference between dog's happiness and your happiness?

Indian man: Happiness should be combined with mental peace.

Prabhupāda: What is that mental peace?

Indian man: To rest in yourself only. Don't run after worldly things.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But that is not possible for the animal. Therefore to remain happy within yourself, that is a prerogative of the human being. But we are not trying for that purpose. We are trying to be happy by eating, by sleeping, by sex or by defense. This is our platform of happiness.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And they say, the cow's urine, they are forcing to eat. (laughter) (Bengali) ...that they are forcing the devotees to drink cow's urine. (laughter) These are the charges: brainwash, mind control, forcing cow's urine to drink. (laughter) How clever they are to find out some fictitious faults.

Haṁsadūta: You see, you see they have, they put these 2 boys in a mental institution. Yes. When they can't... This is what happens in these countries. When they can't find any legal point, they can put the person into a mental institution to be examined. The premise is that if we find that a person is drinking cow's urine, we may think he must be crazy, because we have never heard of such a thing. So in this way they can...

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: Yeah, they commit them...

Devotee (2): Forcibly they just put them into a mental institution where they're observed.

Hari-śauri: Where they... That observation, so-called observation means that they give them all kinds of drugs which make them very dopey and then they influence them to try to become normal again, what they think is normal. Sometimes they give them electric shocks which ...

Prabhupāda: In the lunatic asylum.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Jagadīśa: "...is not actually religious but is an exploitative brain-washing technique. In the past and even today the leaders of the Hare Kṛṣṇa faith, as we understand, have been abducted, assaulted, and subjected to mental and physical abuse. We also understand that there are widespread pressures being applied to convince the media and the government that religious freedom should not include the choice to live by the tenets of the Hare Kṛṣṇa Hindu scriptures. We strongly feel all these developments to be objectionable to all freedom-loving people of this great country. We will appreciate if you please look into this matter and take the needed steps to halt such religious suppression. Signed, V.J. Pandhi, Corporation Secretary and Member of the Board of Directors."

Prabhupāda: V.J.?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with C.I.D. Chief -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He comes regularly.

CID Chief: I was longing to come, so today I came. It's my great fortune that...

Prabhupāda: No... That. Even as CID officer, you can note. This is my business. I am working hard, producing these books, selling, and the telegram you see, and bringing that money here. So if you thing that I am still faulty, then what can I do?

CID Chief: From the beginning I have made it clear that I come here to get some mental peace.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We have Chinese Bhagavad-gītā. Actually Trivikrama Swami has just come. He's been preaching in Taiwan. (breaks) (end)

Evening Darsana -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Jagadīśa: (reading letter) "Enclosed please find a clipping showing a press interview with California Governor Jerry Brown, who is a potential presidential candidate in the next election, asking the Hare Kṛṣṇa followers to help humanize conditions in the state mental institutes. He recognized that what is needed is for religious leaders to come in and to give these patients new life. And he recognized us as religious leaders. This is a great credit for us, and we immediately called the five biggest state institutes and got permission to visit their patients. We sent fifty devotees with gift-wrapped 'Krishnas' presents of prasāda, Bhagavad-gītās and Kṛṣṇa books, calendars, records, and so on. And all of the doctors were so appreciative that they invited us back to show movies, put on plays, and continue helping their patients."

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Aiye.

Evening Darsana -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hundreds there are. But what we have got to do with them?

Guest (1): They're addicted with those things. And also some of our own Transcendental Meditation and so forth, all these things are creating some mental confusion and lack of certain clarity which is...

Prabhupāda: But we must have eyes to see. What they have got, position? All these, they go and come. But here it is entering into the core of the heart of the younger generation. They are becoming mad after it. One should have eyes to see. And therefore the authorities are afraid that "Younger generation, if they..." Here is one book by Professor Stillson Judah. He's a great, learned scholar. After five years study on this movement he has written this book, Hare Krishna and Counterculture. He has given his verdict that "This movement will stay."

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: Then it says, "Other things need to be done. We have to get supportive comments from professionals and authorities in areas of religion, education, mental health and physical health, law, and sociology. Statements by experts and professionals carry a lot of weight."

Prabhupāda: That is in our side.

Rāmeśvara: "Ask your contact to comment or express his opinion of such things as that this is not a matter of religion; that there is resulting mental and physical harm; the right of self-determination means the right to have a free mind; destruction of the family unit..."

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: In 1971 many papers astonished how one Indian is controlling so many white men. There, our paper became surprised. They cannot control even one white man.

Dr. Patel: This type of mental, sort of makeup, has been created after the industrial revolution, because...

Prabhupāda: These German people have accused that "The old man is sitting in Los Angeles and he has engaged all these young boys and getting money from them." The German propaganda. They're thinking that way, that I have some mind control power, I engaged these young men and they're getting money and I am enjoying.

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Unconditional. That is surrender. If we read Bhagavad-gītā in that way, then sthito 'smi, then sthita prajñā. And if you make cut short... Arjuna said, sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye yan māṁ vadasi keśava (BG 10.14). "Keśava, whatever You have said, I accept it in total." That is surrender. No cut short.

Guest (12) (Indian man): Fulfills all requirements, mental requirements.

Prabhupāda: I'll request Bajaji. You are, yourself, your wife and your sister, and our Śrīman Nārāyaṇaji, all, you are all very intelligent. You take this Bhagavad-gītā preaching seriously. That is my request. Not cut short (Hindi). No cut short. Sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye (BG 10.14). What is that verse?

Hari-śauri: Sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye yan māṁ vadasi keśava (BG 10.14).

Prabhupāda: Ah. "Whatever you are saying," yan māṁ vadasi keśava, "I accept them." No cut short. No mutilation. Then?

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

Prabhupāda: Ah. Why you are imposing your so-called goodness to others and spending so much money? Why you are doing?

Rāmeśvara: It is not physical. It is just mental.

Prabhupāda: Well, physical, mental... That's right. You are so intelligent that you make distinction between physical and mental. They're all manifestation(?). You are so intelligent. Without mental, is there any physical? Then why you engage psychologist? There may be physical madman. Why you take him at psychologist? Why? Now you're discriminating mental and physical. If mental has nothing to do with physical, then why you employ psychologist to cure a madman from physical violence? You are so fool. Without mental pain, there is no physical pain. Without mental derangement, there is no physical disturbance.

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

Prabhupāda: There may be physical madman. Why you take him at psychologist? Why? Now you're discriminating mental and physical. If mental has nothing to do with physical, then why you employ psychologist to cure a madman from physical violence? You are so fool. Without mental pain, there is no physical pain. Without mental derangement, there is no physical disturbance. Who commits suicide? Who commits murder unless he's mentally deranged? You are very intelligent, that you want to make differentiation between physical and mental. There is differentiation. But cure physically.(?) Naturally they'll become sound. Otherwise why so many psychologists, psychiatrists, are employed in your country?

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

Prabhupāda: Our business is sai vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). First of all is mentality. Man-manā mad-bhakto. Mental cure, then physically devotee. "Always think of Me." This is the cure, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto. Beginning: always think of Kṛṣṇa. This is the treatment. It is proved. Mentally he'll be cured. And then physically after. Nice (indistinct). They do not know how things are happening. (japa) Thinking, feeling, willing. First of all thinking, then feeling, then willing, then working. (break) ...and spending for military strength. They are not performing yajña, so how there will be rainfall? There will be warfare, devastation. Most rubbish civilization, modern misleading, soul-killing. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31).

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

Prabhupāda: "Hare Kṛṣṇa." Svalpam apy asya dharmasya. Any way, if something is done in this connection, it becomes an asset.

Rāmeśvara: Now, this Governor of California, he invited us to assist him for helping the conditions in these mental retarded hospitals. So that is like mundane charity, in one sense. So is it all right for our men to take some time? Because the end result will be that we will become appreciated.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, you do. Wherever we get opportunity, we shall chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all.

Rāmeśvara: We can teach them to chant.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is our medicine.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: In Russia they do that. When they don't like someone, they put him in a mental home.

Rāmeśvara: That was that whole article I brought from page one of L.A. Times, that how they have made this legal. And now they have got tax exemption. So now it's going to increase. For the next year it's going to increase, because they're going to get a lot of money from the families as tax write-offs.

Prabhupāda: Tax invention? What is that?

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Jayapatākā: What is the cure?

Prabhupāda: No cure. He must die. No cure. These hospitals are there, mental. They keep in the mental hospital. But ultimately there is no cure.

Jayapatākā: I read one... In a purport you said that hari-nāma can even cure insane people.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Hari-nāma can cure anything. You have kept there. All right.

Jayapatākā: Would you like to take a drive to that... (end)

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: Here's the description of that. "The initial appearance of this luminous being and his questions are the prelude to a moment of startling intensity, during which this luminous being presents to the person a panoramic review of his life. It is obvious that this luminous being can see the individual's whole life and he doesn't need the information," but he is getting the dead man to reflect on his past life. It says that "The remembrance is extraordinarily rapid. Everything appears at once and can be taken in with one mental glance. Yet despite its rapidity, all the..."

Prabhupāda: That is happening in dream also. So many remembrances come together; it becomes topsy-turvied. Therefore we see all of a sudden: "Oh, it is done long, long ago."

Conversation During Massage -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Means if they have got strength, if they have got strength they can attack Russia. I've said that. But they have no moral strength. Drunkard, illicit sex, they have no mental determination, cannot.

Rāmeśvara: They are thinking, "Why should we get involved in fighting miles away..."

Prabhupāda: That is another laziness. For good cause one should.

Rāmeśvara: They are thinking, "What if the people want to be Communist? Why should we interfere?"

Prabhupāda: That means cowardice. They have no conviction that Communism is dangerous, godlessness.

Evening Conversation -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: So bodily, mental, by enemies, so many impediments will come. What can be done? We have to tolerate. That is material world. We cannot expect smooth, very happy. That is not possible. Kṛṣṇa advising Arjuna, what to speak of us. What we are in comparison to Arjuna. He's His personal friend, talking with Him. He said, tāṁs titikṣasva. Kṛṣṇa never said, "I have made some magic. You'll have no failure," like that. Tāṁs titikṣasva. "You just try to tolerate." That's all. He never gave him any tablet. (chuckling) He taught that... So we have to do that. As the modern gurus says that "I'll give you some ash. There will be no trouble," Kṛṣṇa did He so? He said, "No, tolerate." That's all. He could have said, "I'll give you some ash."

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: State.

Brahmānanda: ...the state, they put him in a mental hospital. They don't put him in jail but in a mental hospital.

Prabhupāda: And kill him.

Brahmānanda: And they give..., practically kill him. So they're saying now the same thing is happening in America.

Bhavānanda: It's interesting, Śrīla Prabhupāda, though, that the devotees didn't want to mention Kṛṣṇa's name.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Most of the laws that are written, it says that anyone who is of unsound mind, of unsound body, who is addicted to drugs or who may be fooled by artful and designing persons, that this person can be put under conservatorship. That means that someone else takes control of your affairs and tells you, "You must do this." So they put you in a mental hospital, and then they can do this, so-called deprogramming. Now they are making new laws. Just before we came here there was a law in one state, they proposed, where anyone, not just the parents or the family, but anyone who wanted to could get this kind of control over any other person, and the law said, "For any reason whatsoever." This is a... This book is a manual that was prepared by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: They used that as one legal argument. They said that one of our devotees should be put in the mental hospital for his own protection, because otherwise he would go and kill himself. And the court said, "Why is that?" They said, "Well, because in their books it says that if a devotee hears someone blaspheming the spiritual master or Kṛṣṇa, then they have to commit suicide."

Prabhupāda: No, they will argue on so many things.

Ādi-keśava: "Or cut their tongue out." They said, "Either they will cut my tongue out or they will kill themself. So either way, they should be put in a mental hospital."

Prabhupāda: No, or you go away from that place.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: It is condemned. My position is different. Why shall I die? The rascals, they agree to die. We do not agree to die. We want to come to our original position, no more death. This is our motto, because we get information from the Bhagavad-gītā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). I do not die on account of my material body mixed up... "Dust thou art; dust thou beist." This body is made of five elements: earth, water, air, fire, ether. And this is my gross body. The gross body is finished, but my mental, subtle body—mind, intelligence—that is not yet finished. That is carrying me to another body. Just like we have got practical experience. I am sitting here, you are sitting here. Mind carries me to New York, and I am now dreaming or thinking I am sitting in that room and talking with somebody.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No. "But you do not know. We get this information, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānu... (BG 13.9). Eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne (BG 2.20). Therefore we are trying for that. But you are so dull, in spite of having so many... Therefore the resultant action is you are producing hippies at the end. And how you can be satisfied anymore? They are disgusted with this eating, sleeping, mating business. Now you'll have only hippies." They're disgusted with this system of education, because it is not education at all. This is keeping them in ignorance. "Dog is lying on the street, and a man is lying on the hundred second floor. What is the result? Result is sleeping. Is that improvement? The dog is sleeping very peacefully; you are sleeping-'Oh, there is tiger! Tiger! Tiger! Save me! Save me.' Will that skyscraper building help you in your mental agitation?

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

Rāmeśvara: I have also gotten different letters from the state government of California, the mental hospitals that we're visiting. These are official letters on their letterhead. This one... I'll read the best one. "Dear friends, it is a great pleasure to thank you all for the extraordinary party you gave for Residence 32. The clients on 32 loved your chanting and enjoyed clapping along with you. This simple activity allowed them to take part in the fun and warm spirit. Everyone really liked the tempura-like cauliflower," the pakorās, "that you brought. It was a very tasty and special treat. We at Fairview," a very famous state hospital, "we at Fairview were so impressed with the way that you related to the clients on the residence..."

Prabhupāda: So these are the recommendation how we wash brain.

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Why? The only fault is there is no God. Āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ (BG 7.15). So one... That is the basic fault. Everyone is trying: "There is no God. Science." This is the basic principle. So the whole human society is suffering on account of these fools and rascals. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is para-upakāra, how to bring them in peaceful condition, in normal mental condition, and make this life successful by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. So we have to do it very carefully. It is para-upakāra. So always remember this fact, that they are..., the whole world is being controlled by āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ, atheist class of men, and people are suffering everywhere. But Kṛṣṇa also descends when such condition prevailing. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati (BG 4.7).

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And anyone who is vidvān, then that will be honored everywhere.

vidvatāṁ ca nṛpatyāṁ ca

naiva tulyaṁ kadācana

sva-deśe pūjyate rājan

vidvān sarvatra pūjyate

Sarvatra means everywhere, without any condition. Just see how she is suffering now mental agony.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Her son has started growing a beard now also, to hide. He had to... He has grown a beard now.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why?

Guest (1): To hide from people.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Probably not to be identified easily.

Guest (1): Disguise.

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: That's all. You can understand the nature of God by studying the nature of jīva. It does not take much hard... He said, mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke. Manaḥ... Because now... He says, manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). "So why he's struggling? Because he's depending on the mind and the senses. He's not depending upon Me." They are creating mental creation, concoction, and acting sensually. Therefore the normal condition... Just like this finger is part and parcel of my body, so it is the duty of the finger to act according to my desire. I ask the finger, "Please come here. I have some itchy feeling." If it cannot, then it is diseased. Similarly, the duty of the jīva is to serve Kṛṣṇa. If he cannot, then he's diseased. And if you want to continue in diseased condition, that is your obstinacy. Yathecchasi tathā kuru: (BG 18.63) "Whatever you like, you do." Kṛṣṇa says that "Now that I have spoken to you everything, now whatever you like, you do."

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

Prabhupāda: So why you have got this body of all a sudden? Enjoy. You have to accept. You are changing body from monkey to man. So these so-called scientists, they are hovering for some false understanding. Now they should come to welcome this point and accept that living entity is completely different from these eight elements, physical or chemical or mental. This should be propagated. Then they will understand what about this spiritual... Actually the spirit soul is the basis of all activities. Jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate... (BG 7.5). Actually, because the living entity is there, all activities are going on. Who else would have taken care of this garden unless there was a living entity? Not that all of a sudden the bricks have developed to become a fountain. What is this nonsense? Such a rascal scientific theory?

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The mental attitude of the inquirer or the seeker in this bhakti process, you also said, it plays a very important role in understanding this relationship between the jīva, or individual life, ātmā, and Paramātmā, these two relationships. So we proposed that since it is based on psychological interactions, willing, feeling and the thinking, so the attitude should be humble and it should not be arrogant, and it should feel the limitations. Actually we try to bring all the brahminical qualities in order to study this bhakti-yoga in a scientific manner, and we presented like that, briefly, in a scientific community, and it was mildly accepted. They were just thinking that...

Prabhupāda: Therefore in the society there must be qualified brāhmaṇa. The all rascals, śūdras, professors...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Just like in a scientific experiment we have so many conditions...

Room Conversation with Alice Coltrane -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That's right.

Alice Coltrane: I like the mental chanting better. I seem to be more and more enlightened...

Prabhupāda: This is my message.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She says that she likes the mental chanting more than chanting out...

Alice Coltrane: With the mind, you know.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She likes to chant more with the mind.

Prabhupāda: As it is convenient. But chanting with mouth is better. You can hear; others can hear. If you chant within, then you'll remember only. But you chant loudly, others can hear. Others are benefited. (japa)

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's... We're trying to impose some preconceived idea onto this. As soon as that happens, this knowledge is blocked. Because the whole attitude shouldn't be like that. One should come out of service and devotion, not with some mental, materialistic speculations.

Prabhupāda: Did you know that story, the Nārada was going to Vaikuṇṭha? Nārada came back and replied to a cobbler... Cobbler asked him what Nārāyaṇa is doing. "He has taken one elephant and He's drawing through the hole of a needle like this and again taking." The learned brāhmaṇa, he began to laugh. "These are all stories." And the cobbler began to cry, "Oh, Nārāyaṇa, Kṛṣṇa, can..." Nārada inquired, "How do you believe that elephant is being drawn through the hole of needle?" "No, why not? I'm daily seeing by sitting under this banyan tree, and within a fruit there are thousands of seeds. And each seed contains the big tree."

Room Conversations Bangladesh Preaching/Prabhavisnu Articles by Hamsaduta -- August 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Drunkard believes

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The madman in the mental institution, when you go in there, each one of them is speaking so many things.

Prabhupāda: He believes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Would you like the fan on, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Gurukṛpā: You mentioned in one of your books that everyone in this material world is considered mad, and a madman speaks all sorts of things. Whatever they speak is to be considered nonsense, because they're all mad.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Some nice mail today, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break) (end)

Room Conversation -- November 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhavānanda: Prabhupāda was complaining of mental distress this morning also.

Bhakti-cāru: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Bhakti-cāru: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Bhakti-cāru: (Bengali) ...mental distress?

Prabhupāda: Hm, hm.