Prabhupāda: But it doesn't matter. Our purpose will be served anywhere. So, try to concentrate in this village organization life. Full of anxieties, city life. The houses already there, if you repair them nicely then it is a very nice place. They're gradually being repaired.
Bhagavān: Yes. No one is getting any salary here, they are just working and taking...
Prabhupāda: Yes, that's all. Why salary? Kṛṣṇa's servant. We are eternal servant. That is the beauty of our institution. We have no hired men. Unless one is sincere, why he'll work? What is the time now?
Bhagavān: Eight-thirty.
Prabhupāda: I think it is stopped. Just see how beautifully it is colored. This sense, aesthetic sense. Kṛṣṇa knows how it will become beautiful. Svā-bhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. Construction—eh?—of the flower. And there is no intelligence.
Hari-śauri: Chance.
Prabhupāda: So beat them with shoes and when they protest, "Oh, it is chance, don't mind. It is by chance I am beating." (laughter)
Bhagavān: It seems they are struggling so hard for existence they do not have time to contemplate these simple things, working so hard.
Prabhupāda: So show the simple example that how by simple living and thinking of Kṛṣṇa, one can become perfect and happy.
Hari-śauri: People's minds are so much agitated by false desire that they can't appreciate anything. Real beauty they overlook, searching for something else.
Prabhupāda: My mother used to make puffed rice at home. So there is special rice available for making puffed rice. Either you can prepare at home or you can purchase in the market, special rice. So she was preparing nice puffed rice, very, very nice. In a sand pot. My mother was always engaged in making some food preparation. Some pickle, some chutney, and this puffed rice, or something else, something else, something else. Besides cooking for the family, she was being assisted by my sisters. Always palatable foodstuff. So many guests were there, and if son-in-law would come, they would specially prepare food for him. To receive guests, give them nice food to eat, prepare nice food for the family, this is the Indian pleasure. They are not very much, nowadays, for upkeep of the home, very... That, in their own way, they keep it very nicely. Every utensils, very cleansed, they are kept ready for use, some cloth. If you go in a poor man's home, but you'll find everything very neat and clean. Ask these gṛhasthas to keep their home very neat and clean. Are they keeping?
Bhagavān: Yes.
Prabhupāda: What are the general program for eating?
Bhagavān: For eating? Every morning everyone has a nice glass of yogurt, chickpeas and apple, orange and banana.
Prabhupāda: Chickpeas fried?
Bhagavān: Boiled, chick peas. And apple, orange and banana. And in the afternoon they have rice, dāl, cāpāṭi, and salad, and in the evening they have a glass of milk and a little bread.
Prabhupāda: That's nice. What is that machine?
Hari-śauri: One of the vans.
Prabhupāda: Vans. (child crying outside) "Prabhupāda?" (laughs)
Bhagavān: We brought the Jagannātha Deity here from Paris for Ratha-yātrā, and He stayed here for eight days and then went back. And when He went back all the Gurukula children, they were all crying and running after the truck.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā (laughs). So... It is natural affection.
Bhagavān: The little boys also, they were crying, little girls.
Prabhupāda: So Ratha-yātrā was functioned here?
Bhagavān: Oh, yes, very big, two hundred devotees here. It was very ecstatic. Nice prasāda and nice procession. When He came, all the cows came up and they were looking. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: The villagers joined?
Bhagavān: Yes.
Prabhupāda: They are finding something new
Hari-śauri: The Times of India gave a very good report of New York Ratha-yātrā.
Prabhupāda: You have got it?
Hari-śauri: It's in the room, I thought you'd seen it.
Bhagavān: They cannot publish anything bad about us. They try to find, sometimes.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hari-śauri: Seems they're always carrying little snippets of information about what we're doing. Before there was a report about the restaurants, and here there's two reports about..., one about the Jagannātha festival in New York and one about the proposed Vedic university in Kurukṣetra. These were on consecutive days. The one about New York, it says, "Washington, July the 19th." That's where it's reported from. It says, "New York saw on Sunday an unusual spectacle of three brightly colored chariots being pulled along the city's prestigious Fifth Avenue from Central Park to Washington Square, a distance of about five kilometers, by members of the Hare Kṛṣṇa group. The rathas, built in Orissan style with giant wooden wheels, attracted large crowds of spectators all along the route. It was a novel experience for the New Yorkers. Many resident Indians who are not members of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement enthusiastically gave a hand in the pulling. The Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees were celebrating the feast of Jagannātha in the traditional Indian way. The police and the city administration readily cooperated. In a city that is coming to be known for its tolerance of diverse cultures, chariot processions promise to be an annual event. While a few citizens booed and some altercations were reported, the spectacle was well received by the New Yorkers. 'I think it is great,' the New York Times quoted a man as saying. The person, who identified himself as a visitor to New York and was not a Hare Kṛṣṇa fan, referring to the Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees, added, 'They are all happy and dancing, and that's what life's all about.' Later a vegetarian feast was served to the admirers."
Prabhupāda: Very good.