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Merely (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Journalists -- August 18, 1971, London:

Journalist (1): Do you think that you can help large numbers of people in this country understand that...

Prabhupāda: I can help everyone provided he takes my help. If you refuse my help, how can I help you?

Journalist (1): No, I'm merely suggesting that you would...

Prabhupāda: Yes, What is our...? I am helping. I am asking people to become God conscious. But if you refuse to become God conscious how can I help you?

Journalist (1): But to become God conscious do you think they have to become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: No, you become devotee of God. If you don't accept Kṛṣṇa, then... You have got some idea of God? Or not?

Journalist (1): You could accept the idea of God in another manner than your church?

Prabhupāda: Suppose... We are giving Kṛṣṇa, presenting Kṛṣṇa, as God, and we are giving God's name, address, place, everything. Yes. (laughter) Don't laugh. It is serious. If you refuse to accept Kṛṣṇa as God, then you present your God. Give me His the address, name and occupation. Can you give me?

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

Dr. Weir: That merely means, you might say, if you're going to be very thorough and precise, that the, it could be explained in greater detail, but it's easier to do it with a master. But you can go to a foreign language by reading a book, although it's much easier if you're...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like here is the medicine, diabetic. So I have accepted this medicine through a bona fide doctor. Although it is meant for diabetes, I have not accepted this medicine, neither it is advised that this medicine should be accepted by a bona fide physician. So I cannot see properly whether it is good for me. But when the physician, qualified physician, says, "Yes, it is bona fide. You can use it in this way." That is right.

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

Dr. Weir: (indistinct) they might say you're not taking advantage of it now, you're merely going back to what has always been the cream of any form of sensation, and that's music. Beethoven(?) time, the old idea of the music of the spheres. Music is the food of love. I mean it's, to my mind it's the most wonderful sound.

Śyāmasundara: In Revelations, I don't remember the exact verse, "Strike the (indistinct)."

Mensa Member: The only spiritual sensation for many people, it's from music.

Śyāmasundara: Silence is defined in Bhagavad-gītā as speaking about Kṛṣṇa, or hearing Kṛṣṇa's name, that is silence.

Dr. Weir: Well, if you're silent you can hear things, but if you're making noise, you know, the message doesn't come through, and if somebody else is making a noise you've got an excuse for not getting the message. I think a lot of people again are afraid of getting the message. So with the noise they can say, "Of course I didn't hear it so you mustn't blame me." Now that sort of cheating, I think, is a very bad one. That's not what I call positive cheating. That cheating yourself which is even more dangerous than, if you cheat the other chap, if he's clever enough he can avoid the effect of it, but if you cheat yourself, you know you might try and boost yourself up by your own bootstraps. (indistinct) you can't get out of it.

Śyāmasundara: ...spread this philosophy as much as possible in this age because it's been lost by so much noise (indistinct) our message is getting through though.

Dr. Weir: The fact that it can be heard sometime even above the noise...

Prabhupāda: One noise makes liberation. One noise makes bondage. Noise must be there.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Śyāmasundara: That's another consideration. He merely wants to define the word "law." You're using the word "natural law." He wants to understand what does the concept mean, "law."

Devotee (1): This is an example. It's just an example.

Krishna Tiwari: Okay, I agree, but so long we understand that government is not some body from up...

Śyāmasundara: In Russia it is.

Krishna Tiwari: In Russia it is, and I don't care for it.

Prabhupāda: That you don't care for it... The point is you are under nature's law. There must be somebody who is controlling nature's law.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: No. I have got some objection. You cannot begin any scientific statement with the word "perhaps." (W. laughs) We don't accept. You must be assured, you must be assured.

Mr. Wadell: I am merely saying... I do not wish to be presumptuous, if you understand me.

Prabhupāda: Well as soon as you say, "perhaps," "maybe," that is not... This has no meaning. Because it is not certain. You have no clear idea.

Mr. Wadell: But are there not things about which in the mortal life one can have no clear idea?

Prabhupāda: But if there is clear idea, why they should not take it? Why they should speculate "perhaps," "maybe"?

Mr. Wadell: But there are many things about which I cannot have any clear idea. I cannot...

Prabhupāda: No, you cannot have but if you get clear idea, why you do not take it.

Garden Conversation with Mahadeva's Mother and Jesuit Priest -- July 25, 1973, London:

Jesuit Priest: Oh, I agree. Certainly our, the great, in the western church, all the translations of the Gospels and the Old and New Testament is done by, for the most part, by men who were saints, and, in other words, it wasn't merely their knowledge of the language, but their incredible closeness to God, in everyone of them, Garems(?) and Augustine and all the great men...

Revatīnandana: The most recent translation accepted by the Church of England, in England, was done by Oxford scholars. Saintly men? I know some of them. I don't think they're actually saintly men.

Jesuit Priest: Well, I wouldn't know anything about that.

Revatīnandana: Well, it's the modern... It's accepted by the Church of England and most other Protestant churches in England. It's the new English Bible.

Jesuit Priest: Yes.

Revatīnandana: And it's recommended by all these churches for their followers to read. And it's translated by scholars, Oxford scholars.

Jesuit Priest: Yes. I see. I take your point, that you can have a translation which is purely academic and a translation which is not merely academic, but has a, sort of a spiritual experience behind it.

Revatīnandana: Um-huh.

Jesuit Priest: In fact, I can say, by... I'm a Catholic priest, and by and large, I think our men, who are to, doing the translations are pretty, like, good chaps anyhow.

Revatīnandana: Hmh. So if, if the translators and the knowledge are adequate, then why is it, as Mrs. Christie just pointed out that so many young people are interested instead in false religious experience of LSD?

Jesuit Priest: Well, I wouldn't know. Because, I would say, because there's some kind of inadequacy in their lives. There's something missing, and that, the thing which is missing, is what we in the Catholic Church call the life of grace, the supernatural. Somehow, something's gone wrong somewhere. And so, they, lots of the young people today...

Prabhupāda: That, that I was trying to explain, that nobody can understand God and God's conception, being sinful.

Jesuit Priest: There's a vacuum created, and so they'd rather take it up in...

Mother: It's very extraordinary, though, that every boy that I have spoken to here...

Prabhupāda: Yes. So that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpam... (BG 7.28).

Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: So that means people have become so dull in spite of so-called education.

Dr. Inger: That is true.

Prabhupāda: That's, that's my point.

Dr. Inger: Oh yes. Education is merely book knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Mūḍhā.

Dr. Inger: ...of substance given, read, prepared.

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Dr. Inger: They don't go to the basic.

Prabhupāda: Śrama eva hi kevalam. That is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as simply wasting time. That's all.

Room Conversation -- September 18, 1973, Bombay:

Guest (1): Merely knowing it won't...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guest (1): Merely knowing won't do also?

Prabhupāda: No, if you know, you'll act. But if you do not know, how you'll act? In the darkness? But even if you know simply... That Kṛṣṇa says, janma karma me divyam. Find out.

Devotee: Janma karma...

Prabhupāda: Fourth Chapter. Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ. Tattvataḥ, if you can understand, then your business is done. Then tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). Then, after giving up this body, you are not going to accept any more this material body. My problem is acceptance of this material body. That is my problem. Because these pains and pleasure, feeling of pains and pleasure, is due to my this body. Therefore Buddha philosophy is nirvāṇa, "Make this body zero." That is his philosophy. Nirvāṇa. Because people are bothered due to these pains and pleasures. Here everything is painful. But we take something pain, as pleasure.

Room Conversation with Indian Guest -- October 4, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I've got... I made...

Guest (1): And another can be a lower form. But both of them are true. For me, even in the lower poetry's true, the higher is true. But it is a question of gradation merely, where the man has reached to.

Prabhupāda: Well, everything is true, but higher true, or lower true?

Guest (1): Both are true.

Prabhupāda: Both are true, but both are not the same thing. Then why higher and lower?

Guest (1): Because of his evolutionary stage.

Prabhupāda: That's all. Then higher must be taken as higher, lower must be taken as lower. Just like a child's mental condition and his father's mental condition, they are not the same thing.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Ah. Then you can make a sketch. (break) ...plan.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One thing you should know, Prabhupāda. The hotels in that area are being sold. ("Hotel" in India may mean merely a restaurant. Publisher's note.)

Prabhupāda: Let them be sold. Our hotel does not depend on them. We are always independent.

Guru dāsa: Why are they being sold? For lack of people coming?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whatever the people may be doing, they...

Prabhupāda: Two hotels?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Two. King's Hotel, and Horizons.

Prabhupāda: Are for sale, or they have been sold?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are selling. The owners are selling.

Prabhupāda: So...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say... I spoke with one hotel man, and he says the price of petrol is now three rupees, twenty-five paise per liter.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Petrol now costs three rupees twenty-five per liter. That means about three or four times what it was previously. So people are not so much inclined; since they have their business in the city, if they stay in Juhu...

Prabhupāda: That is one of the reasons.

Room Conversation -- March 20, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Then, then you have to go, public should go. Those who are interested Hindus and Vaiṣṇavas, they should go to the court and prove in the court that it is not nuisance, essential.

Guest: No, they are three things. Number one is a nuisance. Now, the nuisance is always to be proved. Really, merely by saying, two people or five people that the bhajanas, and the kīrtanas are a nuisance because...

Prabhupāda: No, no. People now, people are drunkards, meat-eaters. They may, even they show, that is not authority. Authority is the śāstras.

Guest: So therefore... You see, the authors of the śāstras... śāstra big authors who are good so-called leaders and same, those who have faith in the śāstras, but the government which is so-called secular or pro-muslim and the pro-communist...

Prabhupāda: No, no, they, they may be secular, but they cannot neglect your one śāstra.

Room Conversation -- March 20, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no, they, they may be secular, but they cannot neglect your one śāstra.

Guest: Therefore they are neglecting it. They should not neglect it. They should not...

Prabhupāda: So that is to be decided by the court.

Guest: Therefore... I'm coming on that. What I say on the prima facie, the nuisance is not there. Number two ground, about that traffic objection, it is always a practice in Bombay, if there is objection, of traffic department, in that arranged, in that party which has agreed, in the person or the body which has made the proposal for the temple, is to be called, and they are to stand on the side and find how the traffic is going. There is an example about this near here, this bandstand at Chowpatti. One of my relations, he wanted to have a theater there. The position was not granted by the traffic department. But in that way the traffic department had, before deciding the issue, had to call those people who had purchased the plot for a theater purpose and convince them that this traffic will be a block and will be a bottleneck and it will be difficult for the police to control it. And theater, at every time, every three hours, you have particular four thousand or five thousand or two thousand people entering in the theater and going out also. Here the same problem is not there. Therefore the police or the traffic department has been biased and deliberately, for their own ulterior motive, they have taken this type of position, without involving us. If I am guilty, I must be told that I am a guilty man. They should prove in my presence. So no chance was given to me. Nothing was, I was not invited at the spot where the traffic was a bottleneck problem for the future. Without any justification, merely one sentence that "It could be." And if you will read their letter, they have not committed that certainly it will be a traffic problem. They said, "may be." If you see the reading, wording of their letter, they said, "It may be a traffic problem." They were not positive in their statement by saying that "This will be a traffic problem." This "shall be," or this "will" word, is not mentioned. It "may be." That means the option is equally open: "May not be," also. That's only (indistinct) has been taken without any basis of policy.

Prabhupāda: That is your second item.

Room Conversation with Mr. Deshimaru -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Analogy is, means where there is no spiritual sensation, that is matter. (French)

Karandhara: It's just merely meant to be an illustration, not that you're supposed to compare everything all the way around. The body is also material; the nail is also material. The point is that that which is not sensed spiritually by the true identity of the soul, that which is experienced outwardly by the material body and the senses, that is matter. But the basic element, or the basic consciousness is spiritual, and that's eternal. Whereas the sensation from outward, like what I see today and taste today, that is temporary, but the taster, the seer, he is eternal, the self. (French)

Prabhupāda: As soon as that spirit soul will be off from this body, this part of the body also will be without any sensation. Therefore the distinction of sensation and no sensation is due to the presence of the spirit soul. (French)

Yogeśvara: He says the important thing is the basic principles. If you accept the basic principle, for example that the soul has a form, then we can discuss many many things afterwards.

Prabhupāda: Yes, soul has a form.

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: So that's all right. Then why do you say that you do not know God? You know God is light.

American Man: Because for me, God is merely a word. How can you explain God with a word?

Yogeśvara: I think you've been defeated.

American Man: No, no, I don't think I've been defeated.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

American Man: And I'm not warring. I'm not making war with you. I simply want to understand...

Prabhupāda: No, no, you... You fix up one thing. You say, "God is light." That word light is God? Or that...

American Man: I do not say God is light.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you said that.

Room Conversation with Bishop Kelly -- June 29, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: "Birds of the same feather." (laughter)

Bishop Kelly: Oh, yes. Your Grace, there is one thing I wish to ask you. Do you believe in some sort of universal but inherent deficiency in human nature, in other words, that man irrespective of his environment, irrespective of where he comes from, that he has, he is prone to evil? In the Catholic church we call that original sin. Original sin is an inherited deficiency in which man is turned away from God rather than turned towards God, and that he holds within himself a seed of failure in..., spiritually, and also a seed of unreliability so that the very makeup of man demands the enlightening touch and the helping hand of God so that he may overcome his inherent and abiding deficiency. So we hold that that is the nature of things, that man... It's not just a good thing or an advisable thing that man reaches out to and for God, but it is a necessary thing, that God not merely is there to improve upon what you might say would be a natural goodness of man, but man has a natural deficiency he needs God to overcome. And as he overcomes, of course, he progresses further and he is enriched by God. But we hold that very clearly.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is stated in one of the Vedic literature, that:

nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema sādhya kabhu naya
śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya
(Cc. madhya 22.107)

The inherent principle is eternally a fact, his obedience to God. But artificially he has covered it, artificially. The God consciousness is there in everyone, but by so-called material advancement, he has forgotten. He has his obedience to God, natural. Even the aborigines in the forest, they also submit to the manifestation of God's different energies. As soon as there is some lightning and there is thunderbolt, they immediately... They offer obeisances. As soon as they see a big sea, ocean, they offer obeisances. So that is inherent. But due to the material association it is covered.

Room Conversation with Bishop Kelly -- June 29, 1974, Melbourne:

Bishop Kelly: Yes, well, I accept that every man must open himself out to God. And as we say, well, God speaks to the open mind of a generous man and the open recesses of his own heart through His grace. But surely outside of man... See, my difficulty is, you know, that God can speak to me... Let us put it this way. Some God-fearing people and God-dedicated people have done some very strange things. Now, my (indistinct) is, if God speaks to me in the innermost recesses of my heart and He tells me on a certain matter to do this, and He speaks to somebody over here on the same matter, and He tells him to do something different, so straightaway I must ask the question. There must be some way, independent from me and from my fellow man, in which God can make His will known, can reveal Himself in so far to guarantee that I am not merely taking a subjective interpretation of what God is making known to me, and I end up with not really a valid alternative, but I may end up with an opposition or a contradiction. And my big fear there is, if it is a contradiction, well, somebody is going to lose out. Now I wouldn't be quite sure whether it was to be myself or the other person. But if that is so... So I always feel... The Christian religion, of course, feels it very keenly that it is true that God moves the individual soul in a way that is particular to each soul, his own action—we call it His action of grace which is an offering of God's guidance and God's truth, God's riches or God's life—but over and above the individual movements by which he touches and uplifts and enables the individual person, to His outside of that, something which we would say, relatively speaking, in which He is objective, in which God makes known His will as a whole plane and philosophy of life. Now, in the Hare Kṛṣṇa would you have something of that equivalent? You would have sacred writings. I know that. But would you have anything that would sort of correspond to a living interpretive voice or a living interpretation of the will of God irrespective of what God says to me as an individual in the recesses of my heart and soul. I don't know whether I spoke too much there or whether I am clear.

Prabhupāda: I don't think there is individual instruction. There is individual instruction, but that is subordinate. The general instruction is that one should be fully surrendered to God. That is general instruction. Now, if one is fully surrendered, then in a particular case and particular circumstances, God gives him instruction what to do. So because in this material world, circumstances are different, so that is not very extraordinary. According to circumstances, he gives him. But general instruction is there, and they are recorded in the scripture. That general instruction must be followed, that one cannot say that "God is dictating through me something to do even against the general instruction." That is not possible. That is not possible. The general instruction must be followed.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Reporter -- March 9, 1975, London:

Reporter: And is the correct way of living merely a way of doing, actually, a sort of higher state of consciousness where you're experiencing something different to...

Prabhupāda: Experience, why? If we live in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, why shall we experience differently? There is no question of.

Reporter: You're not experiencing differently.

Prabhupāda: No. Just like we are teaching these boys how to live, Kṛṣṇa conscious. Then... (to devotees:) What is our program, just explain. What is our program in the temple from the early in the morning.

Haṁsadūta: Rising at 3:30, take bath, then go to the temple for kīrtana and lecture. Then chant our rounds, take breakfast, and then do duties.

Reporter: What time do you take breakfast?

Haṁsadūta: 8:00, 8:30. So before taking breakfast, we are already awake four hours. Most people sleep till eight.

Reporter: And then through the day?

Haṁsadūta: Through the day we're engaged. Some people are typing; some people are painting; some people are preaching; some people are printing books. We do everything, because this society is complete. As Kṛṣṇa says, "Whatever you do as work, whatever you eat, whatever you give away, everything should be done as an offering unto Me. By this principle of work you are freed from all sinful reaction and you come to Me." So the goal of life, or the goal of this society, or human society, should be to go back home, back to Godhead, back to Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: We are going to have the next body. That's a fact. So Bhagavad-gītā says that how you can have the next body.

Conversation with the GBC -- March 27, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Well, if every temple cannot contribute, I shall manage from the BBT fund. That is not a problem.

Atreya Ṛṣi: You want...? I am using that merely as a...

Prabhupāda: And if you can pay, it is all right. If there is deficit, BBT will pay. You don't bother.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes. But in this Gurukula project, Śrīla Prabhupāda, temples are having difficulty in paying their debts to BBT already. I don't think they will respond, respond. On one hand, BBT, Ramesvara Prabhu is recommending that we reduce the cost of books, and on the other hand, it's being recommended that the tax for Gurukula be collected.

Prabhupāda: No, no, cost of book... Cost of books?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Not cost. Price of books.

Jayatīrtha: Yes, price of...

Prabhupāda: Cost of selling price.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Reporter: Do you feel also that if someone read the Bhagava...? I can't pronounce it...

Rāmeśvara: Bhagavad-gītā.

Reporter: ...Bhagavad-gītā and other books, that a person merely by reading these could attain knowledge of Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Why not?

Reporter: Would that person have to have contact with you and learn from you also?

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is explained, there is no difficulty. But if there is difficulty to understand, then we have to approach a person who has understood Bhagavad-gītā. Otherwise the language is very plain, there is no difficulty. Unfortunately they bring their own interpretation and spoil the whole thing.

Reporter: Ah...?

Prabhupāda: Otherwise where is the difficulty? Just like the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā it is said,

dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre
samavetā yuyutsavaḥ
māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāś caiva
kim akurvata sañjaya
(BG 1.1)

The beginning of Bhagavad-gītā is the battlefield, and the battlefield is called Kurukṣetra. So Kurukṣetra is still there in India, but these so-called learned scholars, politicians, they're squeezing out some meaning out of Kurukṣetra. What is the necessity? Kurukṣetra is a place where actually, historically the battle took place.

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

Prabhupāda: Go on.

Nalinīkaṇṭha: Canto Seven, Chapter Six, text 2.

yathā hi puruṣasyeha
viṣṇoḥ pādopasarpanam
yad eṣa sarva-bhūtānāṁ
priya ātmeśvaraḥ suhṛt

"The human form of life affords one a chance to return home, back to Godhead. Therefore every living entity, especially in the human form of life, must engage in devotional service to the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu. This devotional service is natural because Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the most beloved, the master of the soul, and the well-wisher of all other living beings." Purport: "The Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā, Chapter Five, verse 29,

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
sarva-loka-maheśvaram
suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām
jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati
(BG 5.29)

'The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries.' Simply by understanding these three facts—that the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, is the proprietor of the entire creation, that He is the best well-wishing friend of all living entities, and that He is the supreme enjoyer of everything—one becomes peaceful and happy. For this transcendental happiness, the living entity has wandered throughout the universe in different forms of life and different planetary systems, but because he has forgotten his intimate relationship with Viṣṇu, he has merely suffered, life after life. Therefore, the educational system in the human form of life should be so perfect that one will understand his intimate relationship with God, or Viṣṇu. Every living entity has an intimate relationship with God. One should therefore glorify the Lord in the adoration of śānta-rasa or revive his eternal relationship with Viṣṇu as a servant in dāsya-rasa, a friend in sakhya-rasa, a parent in vātsalya-rasa or a conjugal lover in mādhurya-rasa. All these relationships are on the platform of love. Viṣṇu is the center of love for everyone, and therefore the duty of everyone is to engage in the loving service of the Lord. As stated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the Bhāgavatam, Third Canto, Twenty-fifth Chapter, thirty-eighth verse: yesām ahaṁ priya ātmā sutaś ca sakhā guruḥ suhṛdo daivam iṣṭam. 'In any form of life, we are related with Viṣṇu, who is the most beloved, the Supersoul, son, friend and guru.' Our eternal relationship with God can be revived in the human form of life, and that should be the goal of education. Indeed, that is the perfection of life and the perfection of education."

Prabhupāda: Any question about this statement? You can discuss.

Nalinikantha: This chapter is entitled "Prahlāda Instructs His Demoniac Schoolmates." Teaching the children.

Prabhupāda: He was taking opportunity to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness during tiffin hours. When the teachers would go away... During tiffin time, of course, the teachers go away, and Prahlāda Mahārāja immediately will... (aside:) Let him come here. He'd immediately take the opportunity of preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. (greets Indian guests in Bengali) Āsun, come on. (break) ...Kṛṣṇa consciousness even in the classroom. All the school friends were sons of demons, means atheist class of men. So they did not know anything about God, and Prahlāda Mahārāja was taking advantage of the school tiffin hour and preaching. So his first beginning of the teaching was kaumāra ācaret prajño dharmān bhāgavtān iha (SB 7.6.1). From the beginning of life, when we are children, we should learn about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the beginning of his teachings.

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

Prabhupāda: Therefore, next verse?

Nalinīkaṇṭha:

tat-prayāso na kartavyo
yata āyur-vyayaḥ param
na tathā vindate kṣemaṁ
mukunda-caraṇāmbujam

"Endeavors merely for sense gratification or material happiness through economic development are not to be performed, for they result only in a loss of time and energy, with no actual profit. If one's endeavors are directed toward Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one can surely attain the spiritual platform of self-realization. There is no such benefit from engaging oneself in economic development."

Prabhupāda: Yes, now just see how people are being misguided. Throughout the whole world, the education is for economic development. And here it is condemned that one should not waste his time for so-called economic development. Now our preaching is here, and who will accept it? They'll call us all crazy fellows. We are thinking they are crazy, they're wasting time for economic development, and they are thinking of us, that "These people are crazy, they are doing nothing, escaping." Escaping, do they not say like that?

Nalinīkaṇṭha: Yes.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:

tat-prayāso na kartavyo
yata āyur-vyayaḥ param
na tathā vindate kṣemaṁ
mukunda-caraṇāmbujam

Translation: "Endeavors merely for sense gratification or material happiness through economic development are not to be performed, for they result only in a loss of time and energy, with no actual profit. If one's endeavors are directed towards Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one can surely attain the spiritual platform of self-realization. There is no such benefit from engaging oneself in economic development."

Prabhupāda: This is our philosophy, and the whole world is engaged in economic development. So which is better? (laughs) Here it is said tat-prayāso na kartavyo. We see, especially in the Western country, they are very busy for economic development, and unless one is engaged... I think that Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, they questioned that in India, people being fatalist...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They questioned, many people think this is a hindrance to progress.

Prabhupāda: So what is progress? In India still, in so fallen condition, we have got practical experience. If there is some arrangement... Sometimes we arrange Hare Kṛṣṇa festival. Each day not less than twenty thousand, thirty thousand, forty thousand people come. Although these, mostly these foreigners, they are chanting, and we are speaking in English, still, to hear the kīrtana, they come from remote villages. In Calcutta I have seen. That is natural tendency of Indians. Bhārata-bhūmi, anyone who has taken birth in India, naturally Kṛṣṇa conscious. By artificial means, they are being suppressed.

Evening Darsana -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Guest (3): All the religions.

Prabhupāda: No, no, why you think like that? You are not authority.

Guest (4): I merely say that I do. I don't say that I'm right to do so. I don't say why, I simply do.

Prabhupāda: This is due to our limited knowledge. Because I am a person, I have got my limited knowledge. I am thinking of God, "If God is a person, then He has limited knowledge." That means I am bringing God to my level. That is my defect. We say God is all-powerful, almighty, still He cannot become a person. Why do you think that? If He is almighty, He can become person. Then why do you deny it?

Guest (4): I don't.

Prabhupāda: Then there is no question, you see.

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

Prabhupāda: No, 1893.

Interviewer: Ninety-three, I see. Since then there has been a lot of interest in this country in Indian philosophy. Recent gurus have come, they have talked about meditation. My own view is that all of these things have influenced the American people, but in a kind of intellectual fad, a kind of fashion. And it seems to me that your intention and aim is not merely to cater to the mind, cater to reason, cater to the intellect, but to effect a kind of transformation of man himself. Is this why you have introduced a whole way of living, a whole way of life, is it? Am I right in suggesting that?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is a different platform of life—a spiritual. Generally people are on the material platform, in the bodily concept of life, and the whole world is going on with that wrong conception of life. Actually, as soon as we think that we are this body, we are immediately on the platform of animal life. So in the Bhāgavata it is stated, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). Anyone who is thinking, identifying himself with this body, and similarly with other references, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ. In relation with body, we think of family, community, nationality. In this way our civilization is dog civilization. That is not human civilization. Human civilization begins when one understands that he is not this body. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54).

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...parāyanaḥ sudurlabhaḥ praśāntātmā koṭiṣv api mahā-mune. "O great sage, out of many millions of materially liberated people who are free from ignorance, and out of many millions of siddhas who have merely attained perfection, there's hardly one pure devotee of Nārāyaṇa. Only such a devotee is actually completely satisfied and peaceful."

Prabhupāda: This is devotee. It is not so easy. But we are giving chance to everyone to come to that position. This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But otherwise it is very, very... Muktānām. It begins from the mukta, liberated. Liberated means no more material anxiety.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That stage is little far for us.

Prabhupāda: But if you follow the vow...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The principles...

Prabhupāda: ...then it will be possible.

Room Conversation with Film Producer about Krsna Lila -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: How can I give my blessing? It is... I protest, rather. I protest, rather. You should not present this.

Guest (1): No, this is about the activities of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: No, no, you said Jayadeva's.

Guest (1): We have taken some rasa, merely some songs of Jayadeva.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That is also dealing with the gopīs. Dehi pada-palavam udaram. So these things are not ordinary things. You should understand that. If you make, propagate, then the people... I have seen one book one rascal Bhaṭṭācārya has written. And the United Nation or something like that supported, gave him, them money. And in the cover of the book he has given a picture of Rādhārāṇī sitting naked. This is going on.

Guest (1): No, sir, the pictures you were having, this rasa līlā, this is also these very things. We have seen those pictures.

Prabhupāda: No, but... No, that's all right. That picture is in the book. That book is... We are translating Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And what...

Guest (1): No, even in mandir there is a big photograph of Rādhā, Hari Gopāla(?) rasa-līlā.

Prabhupāda: That is not presented in that way. So we do not say... But these warnings that... It is... We must understand it is very confidential thing. It is not for ordinary men. If we present as ordinary thing, that is distortion. Our... I have got stricture that we don't present...

Guest (2): (showing picture?) This is our... Here. You made this. This is...

Prabhupāda: This is Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. That's all right. But generally, gopīs, rasa-līlā and gopīs, vastra-haraṇa-līlā...

Guest (2): No, no. Vastra-haraṇa is not...

Guest (1): All is concentrated—the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa līlā.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Why don't you present...? Kṛṣṇa has so many līlās. Just like... Where is our Kṛṣṇa book? You have got?

Hari-śauri: I can get a copy.

Room Conversation about Harijanas -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Read that whole thing.

Bhakti-caru: "As the nation observes this week the death anniversary of Dr. Amritsar, it behooves our news research to face a challenge 'for the plight of this downtrodden community.' " (break) "The story of the vast quantity of harijana in this ancient and illustrious land is a miserable story of shame and sorrow. Harassment and humiliation, operation and separation, poverty and pity. The harijana problems is not merely a social or religious or economic or political one. It is a complex problem involving many factors. It is, however, the most baffling national problem, posing a great challenge to the leaders, rulers and people of India."

Prabhupāda: On the whole—you read this article—why not say that "We can lead you to the highest perfection of cultural, social, religion." It will be...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You want us to write a letter to the editor?

Prabhupāda: Not editor. The person who is the leader. Means the harijana movement. They are feeling frustration. Now we can give them the light.

Page Title:Merely (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:26 of Feb, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=27, Let=0
No. of Quotes:27