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Montreal (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- February 1, 1968, Los Angeles:

Interviewer: I think the first question is kind of basic, is why is everything always taped at all the...

Prabhupāda: Because we have got so many branches, they want to hear me, my singing, my speech, therefore they record it and send it to different branches. We have got thirteen, fourteen branches: one in New York, one in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Buffalo, Boston, Montreal, Vancouver, London, Hamburg. We have got so many branches.

Interview -- February 1, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I am an ordained minister for preaching these missionary activities. So I came here in September, 1965. Then, for one year, I was traveling in many parts of your country. In the beginning I was in Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, and then I went to Philadelphia. Then I came to New York. And in this way I was traveling, not very much. And in 1966, in July 1st, I started my class in New York at 26 Second Avenue. That is my first starting. Then the younger generation began to come to me, and they started the San Francisco branch, Montreal branch.

Interview -- February 1, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: They are doing nicely. They are making progress. They are understanding the philosophy. They are working for it. Now I am the only man who came from India, and still, I am one. I have no... There are many Indians, but I have no Indian follower here. Of course, in India we have got. That's a different thing. But these, all these American boys, they are cooperating with me. That means they are taking this movement very seriously. We have got two great papers, magazines, already, Back to Godhead. One is published from New York, and the other is published from Montreal. (break) In French language. Montreal it is published in French language, and they are well received. Recently I have received one letter from my disciple, Janardana. He is Janus Dambergs, M.A., he is the editor of that paper. He is a very good scholar in French language.

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Now we have got six temples. One in New York, one in San Francisco, one in Los Angeles, one in Boston, one in Montreal, and one in Santa Fe. And another one of our students has gone to Buffalo, he's on the professional, for starting another temple.

Interviewer: How many people belong to these six temples?

Prabhupāda: In each temple there are average about fifty people.

Interviewer: Fifty people.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: Our process is to accept everything which conduces to develop Kṛṣṇa's love. So those methods are given by experienced ācāryas, that "You just follow." Just like when a child tries to walk, the mother gives some direction or some help in a wooden plank, that "You try to move in this way. You will learn how to walk," similarly, there are certain principles given by experienced ācāryas. If we follow those principles, then we can work or we can go to the perfection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. It is not the method that is important. The real important is how to develop your love of Kṛṣṇa. If somebody develops love of Kṛṣṇa, or God, without those methods, there is no objection. We are not limited by the methods or ritualistic methods. But there are certain ritualistic method, which, if one follows, then he can quickly learn the art of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like we restrict our students in four principles: illicit sex life and intoxication, gambling, and meat-eating. So it is not that a gambler or a meat-eater or a man addicted to illicit sex life, he cannot love Kṛṣṇa. It is not that. But that is very rare case. If he follows these principles, then it will be easier for him. Because Kṛṣṇa, or God is pure, so so long one is impure in his habits, it is not possible for him. So these are the purificatory processes. And so far our signals or some marks on the body—just like we take tilaka; we have some beads—this means... Just like it is practical. When I was in Montreal and other cities, when we passed through the road, the children, the persons, they also said, "Hare Kṛṣṇa!"

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: At the present moment, we have got fourteen temples: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Buffalo, Boston, and Montreal, and Seattle, and one in New Vrindaban. We have purchased about 130 acres of land and developing there, New Vrindaban. And we have got now a temple in London, in Germany, Berlin. And we are in negotiation with Florida friends and we have sent one of our representative in Hawaii. So we have got so many temples. Gradually it is increasing. And boys and girls, especially younger generation... My, amongst my disciples, the oldest disciple is thirty-five years old. Otherwise they are between twenty to twenty-five.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Janārdana: Well, Montreal center has a room for a press. However, there is the inconvenience that the building may be torn down in two years.

Prabhupāda: What about that other building, that storefront down?

Janārdana: A storefront downstairs? I don't know all the details about that. I haven't been looking into...

Prabhupāda: You told me that there is a church for sale on the other side of the park?

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Prabhupāda: More than hundred, because we collected hundred dollars, and utmost, they have paid one dollar.

Janārdana: The summer season is very slow in Montreal. The churches cut down their sermon program. The synagogues don't having sermons in the summer very often. So that's why we haven't had so many engagements. But in the month of September things begin to pick up faster. The coldest time of the year is the busiest time of the year here actually. The real busy season is January and February.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was speaking to Gaurasundara that Janārdana speaks, "The winter season is the busiest season," and you said, "It is dull season"? (chuckles)

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Janārdana: Well, a few will get easily tenants, but he wants to get a tenant for the whole winter. And September is a month when there is the best chance for getting a tenant because that's when all the student population comes back into town and this is a student district. And so in the month of September he would like to either get a tenant for the whole year or leave the place open. But maybe I can persuade him because it is not very easy to find a suitable apartment for only one month in Montreal.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...pare dhana parke diye nija labha cora: "I borrowed something from you, and I lend him. He does not pay me, and I become thief."

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

Journalist: How many temples are there?

Prabhupāda: We have got thirteen temples. Thirteen. One in this Los Angeles, one San Francisco, one in New York, one Santa Fe, one Buffalo, one Boston, one Montreal, one Vancouver, and Seattle, Columbus, and then London, Hamburg, in this way... Hawaii.

Journalist: Well, there's got to be more than a hundred people in thirteen temples.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, more than a hundred, yes. About a...

Hayagrīva: I don't know.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I have got list. There are more than hundred.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- February 12, 1969, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: There are six centers. Why six? Seven. Seven centers. One in New York, one in San Francisco, one in Los Angeles, and one, Santa Fe, one, Montreal, one, Boston, one, Buffalo.

Interviewer: And do you spend a certain amount of time in each center? Do you yourself travel from one center to another?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I travel... Just like now I am this side, and from here I'll go to New York. Then I shall go to Boston. Then I shall go to Buffalo. Then I shall go to Montreal. In this way I travel.

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: Yes. She is good typist.

Haṁsadūta: We have one boy in Montreal. He says that he wants to go to Florida the first of May. His father is a real estate man. So he wants to get a job and then get a temple, and he wants someone to come there. He said me preferably.

Prabhupāda: All right. This South, North Carolina, they are also doing... (laughs)

Haṁsadūta: He wants to go to Palm Beach. Palm Beach is the richest place in the country.

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: 247. You see? (chuckles)

Haṁsadūta: I'll try in Montreal. We have new devotees now, lot of new boys.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Oh, you will get devotees. You just begin saṅkīrtana party. You will get many devotees. You see? In Los Angeles, daily the devotees, new devotees, are coming, and very nice boys. We are now searching after a bigger place. Yes. That temple is not sufficient, although that is the biggest center of all our centers. It has got compound. It has got parking place. It has got two big halls, one big room, one big kitchen, and three, four, five small rooms. It is a nice situation, you see, just suitable for our purpose. And they decorate Jagannātha very nicely. Yes. So increase centers. And what is the name of the boy who went to...

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: That we shall arrange, somebody to go. Yes.

Haṁsadūta: Maybe you remember Mr. Sini(?) in Montreal?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Haṁsadūta: Well, he approached me just recently. He wants to open a store, Indian store and goods, and he wants the boys in the temple to work there. He wants to make some arrangement so the temple will get some money.

Prabhupāda: He is very cunning man.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, I know. I don't trust him at all.

Prabhupāda: He wants to utilize our men.

Conversation Before Lecture -- April 29, 1969, Brandeis University, Boston:

Prabhupāda: So then you should not give publicity. You must even in the beginning verify that we are not hippies. Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is not for hippies. In many places this is a notion, that we are hippies.

Devotee: Montreal.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Devotee: Montreal too, the same thing.

Miss Rose: Yes, but a lot of hippies have gone back to... They've went to Florida, Swamiji. Thousands of hippies went back to Florida. They left Boston.

Prabhupāda: They are, most of them, in Hawaii also.

Meeting with Devotees -- June 9, 1969, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Sarvasva, he is not living in the temple.

Satyabhāmā: Gopāla Kṛṣṇa in Montreal.

Prabhupāda: Gopāla Kṛṣṇa, yes. Yes.

Hayagrīva: Gopāla Kṛṣṇa? Where is he?

Prabhupāda: He is in Montreal.

Satyabhāmā: And Malvani. Malvani, the old man.

Prabhupāda: Malvani, he is not disciple.

Satyabhāmā: He's living in the house.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:

Prof. Kotovsky: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So that means they are lacking. It may be as you say, or it may be as I say, but there must be a department of knowledge, what is the... Now, recently one cardiologist, a doctor, he has accepted that there is soul, in Montreal and Toronto. I had some correspondence with him. So he is strongly in belief that there is soul. So that is another point of view, but we accept knowledge from authority. Authority. Just like this statement is given by Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is accepted as the authority by all the ācāryas, in Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is studied amongst the scholarly circle and philosophical circle still, all over the world. And this statement is given by Kṛṣṇa:

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Everywhere. Everywhere. In Bombay, everywhere we go, "Hare Kṛṣṇa." In Montreal. They joke, they'll clap, but they'll chant. And that is wanted. I want to see that everyone is chanting. And if chanting has effect, then either he's chanting jokingly or seriously it will have the effect. Fire, if you touch either jokingly or seriously or cautiously, it will act. So our request is that you also preach this cult. Let us cooperate. The whole world is suffering for want of God consciousness. So it is the duty of all religious sects to teach this simple art of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa or any other name which you have got. That's all.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Your health is all right?

Śivānanda: My health is fine.

Prabhupāda: Thank you. You are the pioneer of European activities.

Śivānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: From Montreal, you were pushed. Yes. And from San Francisco, Gaurasundara was pushed to Hawaii. (chuckles) So Śivānanda Prabhu was also pushed from Montreal. So Kṛṣṇa is very much pleased. And Sudama was pushed to Japan. Now, anyway, that pushing has not become unsuccessful.

Room Conversation -- December 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: That is our experience. So if some man from a poor family becomes, wants to become a citizen of America, a rich man, it is not so easy. You have to undergo through so many things to get the citizenship. There are so many, that your country, yes, they have got big immigration department simply to consider this application of different countries for citizenship, or to immigrate. I have seen, in Montreal, people applying for citizenship or immigration, big line, very big line, and a similar immigration department in Canada, there is no problem. So people very much anxious to become citizens in America, because it's a rich country. So as there is restriction here in this place, in this planet, that you cannot enter any other country... If you think their country is very nice, actually, in comparison to other countries, there are so many facilities in America.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- October 15, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) New York, San Francisco, Los Angles, Chicago, Boston, Buffalo, Montreal. Sixty-six all over the world.

Indian man: (Hindi with Prabhupāda)

Prabhupāda: Oh. Give immediately, on the (indistinct).

Devotee: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Give immediately. And you come to the Imlitala.

Devotee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

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

Prabhupāda: And New York is a very expensive city, a great city, a great forest. (laughs) And I am poor man. So then it is a long history. Then I began chanting in the Tompkinson Square, and I think, in the first day this boy, Acyutānanda Mahārāja now, he and another boy, Brahmānanda Mahārāja, he is also preaching in Africa, these two boys danced, and this photograph was published in the New York Times with great details. That was the first encouragement. And after chanting in the park, many young men and girls used to come to my apartment and my meeting place. In this way I started, first in New York, then in San Francisco, then Montreal, then Boston. In this way, now we have got about one hundred branches all over the world, forty branches in America. Big, big cities, Australia, I mean to say, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Boston. What is that? Other cities? San Francisco.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Two Buddhist Monks -- July 12, 1973, London:

Buddhist Monk (1): I had last time an opportunity before coming to Southampton, I addressed some people from Śrī Laṅkā, and there were some people from Canada as well at Montreal. And I pointed this out. In this light, I find almost all the teachers that come from that part of the world and their followers are trying to live up to this noble virtue. And if people get together, live together and have meals, perhaps even that...

Prabhupāda: So these devotees, they have not been separately instructed about hospitality. But because they are devotees of the Lord, this hospitality automatically they learn. Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ (SB 5.18.12). If one becomes perfectly a devotee of the Lord, all the good qualities of demigods manifest automatically.

Room Conversation with Officer Harry Edwards, the Village Policeman -- August 30, 1973, Bhaktivedanta Manor, London:

Prabhupāda: So everywhere we go, as soon as people see us, they say, "Hare Kṛṣṇa." In Montreal, when I was going on road, the children will chant, "Hare Kṛṣṇa." So it is now popular. Yes.

Revatīnandana: Just last summer we were walking in... Was it St. James' park?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: Around that pond. And one old bum was there on the park bench. He went by and stood up: "Hare Kṛṣṇa." (laughter)

Morning Walk -- December 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Candanācārya: Yesterday I made the acquaintance of a theologist, a professor from the University of Montreal. He said that the Roman Catholic presentation of Christianity is that God came to share the suffering of man.

Prabhupāda: That is another rascaldom. Why God should share the sufferings of man?

Candanācārya: I asked him this, and he said, "So that man would accept more as reality, suffering."

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk at Villa Borghese -- May 25, 1974, Rome:

Bhagavān: When there was the oil crisis in the United States, they were giving reports how some person would go in his car, go ten miles in a big car to buy one pack of cigarettes.

Prabhupāda: Stick to your own place and grow your food. There is no question of transport. Little transport is required, that bullock cart. Kṛṣṇa was being carried on bullock cart. There is no use of petrol. Use simply the bull. They are already there. Utilize them. No. The bull should be sent to the slaughterhouse. Petrol should be used.

Atreya Ṛṣi: They try to solve every problem by transportation, by airplanes, cars. For example, we had this big conference in Montreal. From all over the world came... (end)

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 13, 1975, Perth:

Gaṇeśa: That's why they are called Methodists because they use different methods.

Amogha: We saw one church, the church that they got in Montreal for the temple. They, right before the devotees took over the church, they were having rock musicians playing music every night. And in this way they were trying to get people to come to church. And they would sing songs sometimes about religion, using all electrical instruments and everything.

Gaṇeśa: This man who is coming to see you today, he also has done this in Perth.

Amogha: Dean Hazelwood.

Prabhupāda: What he has done?

Morning Walk -- June 30, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: So how did you go there? Did he...?

Satsvarūpa: He has some patrons among the professors. I know this one Professor O'Connell, he kept him at his home for some days and did some advertising for him for meetings. And then he has another professor friend in Montreal. So he knows different people. He has contacts. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...net result. Has he started anything?

Satsvarūpa: No.

Bhāvānanda: Some trouble. (laughter) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...come alone or with somebody else?

Car Conversation -- August 3, 1975, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: And St. Lawrence is different river.

Jagadīśa: St. Lawrence is near Montreal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...given so much property. Use it properly. Be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Be happy. "No, we don't happiness. At the same time, we aspire after happiness." (break) ...bird?

Jagadīśa: Seagulls.

Prabhupāda: Bird? It is a bird?

Jagadīśa: Yes.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So shall I refer to your name? (Bengali) So take the... So "Your Excellency, Śrīmatī Indira Devi..." Indira Gandhi or Indira Devi?

Lalitā: "Indira Devi" (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: "Indira Devi Gandhi, when I was in Canada, in..." Montreal?

Brahmānanda: Toronto.

Prabhupāda: "When I was in Toronto, Canada, Śrīmatī Lalitā Devi, who is just like my daughter, sent me one intimation..."

Brahmānanda: Sent me?

Prabhupāda: "One intimation that you wanted to see me."

Morning Walk -- October 18, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Our verdict is final: "All rascals and fools." Therefore, when I ask these rascals, "Any question?" Stopped. (laughter) "Come on, any question?" What they will question? I challenge them, "Any question?" They know that "We have been proved as rascals." Yesterday, last night, I told that the aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādāṁś: (BG 2.11) "This is the position of everyone. Everyone is fool, rascal. He does not know what is the real problem of life." Nobody said that "Why you are calling everyone rascals?" In Montreal some Bengali gentleman said, "Swamiji, you are using very strong word, 'fools and rascals.' Can it be explained otherwise?" And "No, this is the only word, that you are all rascals and fools. This is the only word to be used." (laughter)

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Madhudviṣa: ...already. For our temples. In Toronto, I think, we bought a Catholic church, and Montreal and Australia also, that was Catholic property. They are selling all their property off because they cannot afford to maintain.

Pañcadraviḍa: Still in South America the people are Catholic and pious...

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) we wanted to purchase a convent...

Madhudviṣa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: How dilapidated.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, he was taking care of me here in Los Angeles. And they used to come from San Francisco. First of all, I came to San Francisco from India. Then I came to Los Angeles, to start a center here. I think Dayānanda took charge of this center.

Hari-śauri: So Los Angeles center was opened on your arrival back from India. And up to that time there was New York and...?

Prabhupāda: San Francisco.

Devotee: And Montreal?

Prabhupāda: No, Montreal later. I think, maybe, Montreal first.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Jagadīśa: They don't even know..., they don't even know that the Deity is nondifferent from Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Similar proposal was there in Montreal. Then it will become a business. They are not devotees. They have no good place to perform the marriage, they come here.

Jagadīśa: The rest of the year they don't come.

Prabhupāda: You have got a separate place for allowing them?

Viśvakarmā: Yes, we have this other room adjacent to the temple room, which is very large.

Prabhupāda: So that can be used by them. Not the big hall.

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

Prabhupāda: By Thompkins Park I was chanting, and these boys gradually came. First picture was published by the New York Times. Then we started branches in San Francisco, in Montreal, Boston. And then Los Angeles. In this way...

Interviewer: So you just chanted in Thompkins Park, and people came?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I was underneath a tree. I think that picture was published by that Voice, very big article, published.

Interviewer: What did you have to offer then. If you were chanting in the park and I said "What are you doing? Why are you chanting? What's your thing here?"

Bali-mardana: He said what did you have to offer.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Bali-mardana: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There were devotees from Miami, Gainesville, Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Los Angeles, Vancouver, South America—all over South America, I think. A gigantic turnout of devotees. Very international group.

Bali-mardana: This could be like Lord Caitanya used to invite all His devotees to come and see Him at Ratha-yātrā...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bali-mardana: Similarly, if you come here, we can invite...

Prabhupāda: I'll come.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This one is not, it's not bad, but it's not so accurate. "In size it was dwarfed by 'Operation Sale.' In popular concern it was outweighed by the Democratic National Convention. But for hundreds of Hare Kṛṣṇa followers, including many Indian immigrants to New York, yesterday's Ratha-yātrā festival was by far the most important event in an eventful month. Pulling three brightly-colored chariots down Fifth Avenue from Central Park to Washington Square, the religious group's adherents were celebrating one of the oldest holy days of the Indian calendar, the feast of Jagannātha, the Lord of the Universe, according to Kṛṣṇa doctrine. Most of the participants in the parade were young Westerners, followers from as far away as Caracas and Montreal. But the crowd included hundreds of Indians who brought the basic Kṛṣṇa faith with them from Bombay and Calcutta."

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: French language is understood practically all over Europe, especially France, Switzerland.

Bhagavān: Switzerland, Montreal, Belgium...

Pṛthu-putra: Luxembourg and Belgium also, they are French-speaking.

Bhagavān: And Africa. Much countries in Africa are French-speaking.

Prabhupāda: Oh. You can sell in Mauritius.

Bhagavān: Yes. I send books to Mauritius.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone speaks French.

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

Prabhupāda: You take this paper. Make a list of important cities. Now suppose if you go from Delhi. So you can go first to Paris, Geneva, Rome, then London, Amsterdam, Stockholm. Then from London I think New York, Boston, Montreal, Canada. Then you go to the western side, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver. Go further, Honolulu.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Then you could go to the Pacific, Australia.

Prabhupāda: Ah yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: New Zealand, Sydney.

Prabhupāda: Australia, Melbourne.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Visa department, ten dollars.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: In Canada you had problem. I remember when you came to Montreal in '68.

Prabhupāda: Oh, you did not know. Canada I had very little problem. U.S., it was always problem. Rather Canada helped me. Canada, I immediately got immigration in Canada. Then I got some standing. That never mind, I have got now immigration in Canada. It will be easier from Canada to go to U.S.A. Then again I tried for U.S.A. And (in Canada) it was obtained within three months and spending only within hundred dollars. And there, in America, they were spending each time $150. The lawyer was taking.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh, you did not know. Canada I had very little problem. U.S., it was always problem. Rather Canada helped me. Canada, I immediately got immigration in Canada. Then I got some standing. That never mind, I have got now immigration in Canada. It will be easier from Canada to go to U.S.A. Then again I tried for U.S.A. And (in Canada) it was obtained within three months and spending only within hundred dollars. And there, in America, they were spending each time $150. The lawyer was taking. He was phoning, "Will you please send $150 for this expense." And how many times he has taken I do not know. They were paying. Rāyarāma was at that time chief man. He immediately... This was going on. Then when I came to Canada... First of all, I made my position secure, that "Let me have Canadian immigration." So Canadian immigration I got very soon. I think within two months. Then I applied for U.S.A. immigration. So U.S. immigration I got within three months. And I paid I think within hundred dollars. So... You know. When I came to Montreal?

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. You went for the interview with the U.S. Consulate in Montreal before you got your green card for America.

Prabhupāda: No, no. In Montreal went...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, you came from Vancouver... From Seattle.

Harikeśa: You came from Vancouver. With one gentleman.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: With Shasti-mai(?).

Prabhupāda: Yes. So there was hard struggle. It is not that so easy for... In 1965 to '66, 66-67, regular hard struggle.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, I know that's a crisis.

Room Conversation -- September 30, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: There also one symptom developed. Always some sound in the ear, gongongongongon. It was so disturbing. Almost half-mad. And then Los Angeles. Then I think I went to Seattle. In this way, in the beginning there were so many difficulties. Montreal. I took Canadian citizenship. America I could not get. So one gentleman in the immigration department, he said, "Swamiji, you go to Canada and from there you try. It will be easier." Actually, it acted. The Canadian consulate general was a black man, American black man. So in the consulate I applied for immigration, and he was sympathetic. He saw my Teachings of Lord Caitanya and he became attracted. So he settled up. "This gentleman must be allowed." So he expedited the matter within three months. And then I became immigrant in the U.S.A. Then again I came back in Los Angeles, and then we took that house, La Cienega.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Prabhupāda: New York, Chicago.

Hari-śauri: Toronto.

Prabhupāda: Toronto, Montreal, Paris, so many. So many temples. Very, very big temples. The cost is sometimes fifty lakhs, fifty-five lakhs each temple.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: New York is more than a million dollars, New York temple.

Interviewer: Do you have any proposal to spread this movement in Communist countries?

Prabhupāda: Yes, we have already gone. I have been in Moscow. This, my secretary, he has brought some order from them. They are also appreciating.

Room Conversation -- November 18, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Struggle must be there. You cannot stop it.

Jagadīśa: In Montreal for about two years...

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa, since His birth struggled. (laughs)

Jagadīśa: We had harassment from the police in Montreal for two years. Sometimes they even beat up the devotees. They have put them into jail...

Prabhupāda: They have beaten even our book sellers in airports.

Hari-śauri: Chicago.

Jagadīśa: And the police mistreat the devotees. But still, the devotees continue and now in Montreal there's no trouble.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: Yes, in Canada.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Seeing my books. That Consulate General in Montreal, he, when he read my The Teachings of Lord Caitanya, he immediately became attracted.

Gargamuni: You spent only twenty-five dollars, and we spent so much on lawyers.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Twenty-five or thirty-five dollars.

Gargamuni: We were hiring lawyers in New York.

Prabhupāda: The lawyer was taking monthly at least three hundred dollars and postponing. That's all.

Room Conversation -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: No. I told him "Actually Prabhupāda, he has done more work than Vivekananda in helping to spread India's dharma all over the world." I had to very careful because there were many other people sitting around, including the manager, and I didn't want to start a fight. So I said, "Actually Prabhupāda has done greater work." He said (in shocked tone), "What have you said? You have said that your guru is greater than Vivekananda?" I said, "He has done more work." And he started, "No. You cannot say that." Then two other men who were sitting there stood up and said, "No! He has done more work. I was at the Olympic games, and I heard the whole thing was chanting in Montreal. Last year I was at the Olympic games, and I saw them all chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. He has done more work." Two men, they came. So I just sat there and let those two men argue.

Prabhupāda: It is Kṛṣṇa's grace.

Room Conversation -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: It is Kṛṣṇa's grace.

Gargamuni: Yes. He was very nice man. He was glorifying you. He said, "I have read their magazine."

Rāmeśvara: We were selling books and having kīrtana at the Montreal Olympics.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: So he was seeing that.

Gargamuni: So he saw that personally. He said it was a great thing.

Prabhupāda: At that time Haṁsadūta was there.

Rāmeśvara: No, this is just this last year.

Room Conversation -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Oh, last year.

Rāmeśvara: Just 1976, in the summer, end of summer. From our temple in Toronto and in Montreal they combined to cover. Because there were hundreds of thousands of people, so it was a good opportunity to sell books.

Prabhupāda: Gurudāsa went there, eh? Gurudāsa?

Hari-śauri: No. He went to that Habitat Conference. That was different thing.

Gargamuni: So this man, he saw he was outnumbered, so he said, "All right, let us not talk." (Prabhupāda laughs)

Prabhupāda: A bogus.

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Just like here it happened, Hindi and English. That enviousness is always there. I have seen in Montreal. All the officers, they are speaking in French. They won't talk in English. Airport. Purposefully. And there was fight, regular fight between these French speaking and English speaking, riot. People are so foolish. So it is bilingual. In everything, English and French. If you put one notice, it must be in English and French, as here (chuckling) they in the provincial language, Oriya, and Hindi, state language, and English for outsiders-three languages. You'll see in the railway station the local language and the Hindi language and English. Actually people take advantage of the English language and little more from the Hindi. Local language nobody knows. Just like we do not know what is Oriya.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: About four or five years ago, since.

Prabhupāda: But when we tried to get immigration from Montreal, I got it within three months. Of course, the Consulate General was a black man, and he appreciated my books very nicely. He immediately he accepted.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In my case, the university sponsored me saying that nobody in the United States that can do the job as I do, which is not true.

Prabhupāda: What is that job?

Morning Walk -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: ...in a different style. (break) ...money. These rascals are also after woman and money, in a different style. Asat eka strī-saṅgī. Caitanya Mahāprabhu immediately rejects him, that "He's a rascal. He's after women." Immediately. Asat strī-saṅgī. Two kinds of rascals—nondevotee of Kṛṣṇa and woman-hunter—reject immediately. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's... The sannyāsa life is... What is that? Cent percent, no connection with woman. That is sannyāsa. What we have renounced? We have renounced... We are using the motorcar, we are using this machine, we are eating, we are sleeping in nice room—what is the renouncement? Only renouncement is no connection with woman. That is the real platform of renouncement. If one can renounce woman's connection, then he's liberated man. That is very, very difficult. (break) Except myself, they go for woman and money, that's all, in foreign countries. This is the position. This Vishnu, Vishnu... Vishnananda, Vishnu-ananda? Now what is that? One yogi is in Montreal?

Room Conversation 'GBC Resolutions' -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Satsvarūpa: Then for the division of the United States, for myself, for being editor of Back to Godhead, I would go to Los Angeles for that, Back to Godhead, but would also supervise the Northwest US zone, which includes Berkeley, California; Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, and the Dallas temple. Rāmeśvara Mahārāja would continue being the GBC for Los Angeles, San Diego, Laguna Beach, and Denver. Balavanta Prabhu would keep his same zone—Atlanta; the Tennessee farm; Gainesville and Miami, Florida; New Orleans and the Mississippi farm; and Houston, Texas. Rūpānuga would also keep his same zone—Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; Philadelphia; St. Louis; the St. Louis farm; Ottawa; and Montreal, Canada. Kīrtanānanda would keep his same zone—New Vrindaban, Buffalo, Toronto, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja was accepted as your permanent secretary, and therefore, for the vacancy created in his absence in New York, Pennsylvania farm, Boston, Puerto Rico...

Rāmeśvara: And Rādhā-Dāmodara.

Satsvarūpa: ...and the Rādhā-Dāmodara party, it was decided that he should keep the responsibility of being the GBC for that area. However, Ādi-keśava Mahārāja will act as special assistant to the GBC and take the on-the-spot responsibility.

Prabhupāda: That means he'll be trained up in his place. Is it not?

Morning Talk -- June 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Incompetent government. America knows, "If there is a useful man, why should we not give?" I know, in Montreal there was a black man, what is called? Consulate?

Devotee (1): We have no limes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where's Bhakti-caru?

Devotee (1): At the go-down. We have got lemons but no limes. Are lemons all right?

Prabhupāda: What is that lemon?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Lemon means like a light yellow, lemon.

Page Title:Montreal (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:19 of Dec, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=54, Let=0
No. of Quotes:54