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My spiritual master Bhaktisiddhanta (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Interviewer: Would you tell me something of your own background? That is, where you were educated, how you became a disciple of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: I was born and educated in Calcutta. Calcutta is my home place. I was born in 1896, and I was my father's pet child, so my education began a little late, and still, I was educated in higher secondary, high school for eight years. In primary school four years, higher secondary school, eight years, in college, four years. Then I joined Gandhi's movement, national movement. But by good chance I met my Guru Mahārāja, my spiritual master, in 1922.

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Interviewer: How did you become a disciple yourself? What were you, or what did you follow before you became a disciple?

Prabhupāda: Same principle as I told you, faith. One of my friend, he dragged me forcibly to my spiritual master. And when I talked with my spiritual master, I was induced. And since then, the seedling began.

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

Journalist: Now when you... Do you go to this institute for a certain period of time?

Prabhupāda: There is no fixed period. No. But, say, for me, I was trained, my father was of this line...

Journalist: Oh, your father...

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. My father trained me from childhood, yes. And then I met my spiritual master in 1922, and I was initiated in... On the whole there was a background, because as I told you, 80, 90 percent people are Kṛṣṇa conscious by family-wise. You see? So we were trained up from the beginning of our life. Officially, of course, I accepted my spiritual master in 1933. Since then, I had some background, and since I met, I developed this idea. Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: I was a householder. I was doing business in medicine. Formerly, I was manager in a big chemical firm. But I was cultivating this knowledge although I was householder. I was publishing this Back to Godhead...

Journalist: So you were publishing that...

Prabhupāda: In India.

Journalist: Oh, I see.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. I started in 1947 under the order of my spiritual master. So whatever I was earning, I was spending. I was not getting any return, but I was distributing. So I was doing this business since a long time. But actually after giving up all connection with my family, I'm doing this work since 1959.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Television Interview -- July 29, 1971, Gainesville:

Interviewer: You came, sir, to this country in 1965, as I said, on instructions or orders given you by your spiritual master. By the way, who was your spiritual master.

Prabhupāda: My spiritual master was Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Paramahaṁsa Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Prabhupāda.

Television Interview -- July 29, 1971, Gainesville:

Interviewer: So you are at this particular time then the head in the world of this movement? Would that be correct?

Prabhupāda: I have got many other Godbrothers, but I was particularly ordered to do this from the very beginning. So I am trying to please my spiritual master. That's all.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1971, Detroit:

Mohsin Hassan: So you are intent to serve the Lord Kṛṣṇa in the same method for ever.

Prabhupāda: Yes, because I am ordered by my spiritual master in that way. So I am trying my best.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1971, Detroit:

Mohsin Hassan: They were, I was told, associated with Gandhi. What's your relation with Mahatma Gandhi?

Prabhupāda: Gandhi, in my young age I was Nationalist, so I followed Gandhi. I was interested. Later on, when I met my spiritual master, I became disinterested with this temporary, ephemeral things. So this is permanent. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is permanent.

Interview -- July 29, 1971, Gainesville:

Interviewer: You came, sir, to this country in 1965, as I said, on instructions or orders given you by your spiritual master. By the way, who was your spiritual master?

Prabhupāda: My spiritual master was Om Viṣṇupāda Paramahaṁsa Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī' Prabhupāda.

Interview -- July 29, 1971, Gainesville:

Interviewer: So you are, at this particular time then, sort of the head in world of this movement? Would that be correct?

Prabhupāda: I have got many other Godbrothers, but I was particularly ordered to do this, and from the very beginning, so I am trying to please my spiritual master, that's all.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Kenneth Keating, U.S. Ambassador to India -- October 14, 1972, New Delhi:

Ambassador: Now, Your Divine Grace, when did you... Did you from boyhood enter this movement, or...

Prabhupāda: Yes. My father was a great devotee.

Ambassador: I see.

Prabhupāda: So from the very childhood I was trained up.

Ambassador: I see.

Prabhupāda: Then it was very much adjusted after meeting my spiritual master. But the ideas were impregnated and I was trained up from my childhood. That was a great opportunity that I got a very good.... I have dedicated this book to my father.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 16, 1974, Vrndavana:

Harikeśa: Associating with you is so wonderful, and yet...

Prabhupāda: Just like here in Vṛndāvana, I was here, as I am sitting here. I was sitting here in this very place. That was (indistinct). And when I was hungry I could take my food there, same place. So that is one thing. Just like there are many persons, but because my spiritual master wanted, so I, at seventy years old, when I thought, "Now I shall go," I went, to serve the order of my spiritual master. Otherwise I am sitting here in Vṛndāvana. I am old man, I was chanting. Therefore, because that is my first business.

Harikeśa: Were you just waiting to finish your books?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was just creating the situation how I shall serve my spiritual master.

Room Conversation with Catholic Cardinal and Secretary to the Pope -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Paraḥ means first-class. But a simply sentiment will not help. Therefore religion must be based on philosophy, and my spiritual master used to say this, that "Philosophy without religion is mental speculation, and religion without philosophy is sentimental." They should be combined. Philosophy and religion must be... Or religion must be based on philosophy. Then it is perfect.

Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:

Dr. Harrap: Your knowledge of Sanskrit, this is one of your basic interests.

Prabhupāda: No, not Sanskrit, but knowledge we have received by disciplic succession from my Guru Mahārāja, from my spiritual master. Sanskrit is the language but mostly we derive knowledge from Vedic revealed scriptures. And this is also one of them, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. This is the ripened fruit of Vedic knowledge.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1975, Hawaii:

Yaśodānandana: Also one time in Bombay you told this verse from Caitanya-caritāmṛta, sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83), sādhu-saṅga...

Prabhupāda: Sarva-śāstre kaya, lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya (CC Madhya 22.54). For me, personally, I had the opportunity to talk with my spiritual master not more than ten times in my whole life, not more. It may be less than that. But I tried to follow his instruction, that's all, although I was a gṛhastha.

Room Conversation with three Trappist Monks, Psychologists from the University of Georgia, and Atlanta Lawyer, Michael Green -- March 1, 1975, Atlanta:

Guest (7): The young children also? What about young children?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Young children should be educated from the very beginning about God consciousness or the science of God. We had the opportunity in our childhood. My father taught. And then, when I was grown up, my spiritual master taught. So for that reason we have got some sense.

Room Conversation with Dr. Copeland, Professor of Modern Indian History -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Dr. Copeland: Does that mean you go back to Śaṅkarācārya?

Prabhupāda: No. Śaṅkarācārya is also not authority because he does not follow the ācāryas. Of course, Māyāvāda philosophy was there always, but that was never taken very seriously. Vyāsadeva is the authority. So Vyāsadeva is not Māyāvādī. He is Vaiṣṇava. We belong to Vyāsadeva's sampradāya, Brahma-sampradāya. Therefore we worship our spiritual master as Vyāsadeva's representative, vyāsa-pūjā.

Room Conversation with Reporter of The Star -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: Take for example myself. I went to United States, unknown country, without any friend, without any hope, simply on theory (chuckles) that "I shall go and preach there," and with this expectation also, that "As soon as I shall ask them to give up all these habits, they will ask me to go away." (laughs) So in the face of so many odds and uncertainty, I went there, simply depending on my spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa, with this hope only, that "If they desire, everything can be done. But otherwise there is no hope. I am going there, hopeless, just to make an experiment. My other Godbrothers, they failed. All right, Guru Mahārāja asked me. In the beginning I did not do. Let me do it in this old age." So it became surprisingly success. Business started with forty rupees, and now we have got four crores. Where is that business in the material world, that a man started business with forty rupees and he has got four crores within ten years? Not only money, but also fame, respect. What do these kings and president or minister get respect?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Carol Jarvis: Your Divine Grace, what prompted you to start the Kṛṣṇa movement?

Prabhupāda: Well, the scientists make research. One does wrong thing to do that. So our process is to carry out the order of the higher authorities. So my Guru Mahārāja, my spiritual master, asked me to do this. Therefore...

Carol Jarvis: But you led a rather normal life—before this you were married. You were a businessman.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Interview with Mike Darby -- June 30, 1976, Wheeling, W. Virginia:

Darby: Could you tell us a little about your spiritual master's life? I've never heard anything.

Prabhupāda: This is spiritual master, one who is representative of God. And one who speaks what God has said, then he's spiritual master.

Darby: But I have never heard anything of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta, and I wondered if you would tell me a little bit about him, if you would.

Prabhupāda: What shall I say? He was my spiritual master, and whatever he taught, we are speaking, that's all. We don't talk any nonsense.

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

Interviewer: Yes, I have. You translated all of those. (pause) (break) ...I wonder if you could tell me how you came to founding the movement here in the United States.

Prabhupāda: I was ordered by my spiritual master to do this work, so on his order I came in 1965. That is the beginning of this. I came alone with no help, no money. Somehow or other (laughs) I started.

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

Interviewer: Are you the one who chooses who runs each center, who is responsible in each temple.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Our program is to open centers in every village, every town, to propagate Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Interviewer: And you choose the leaders, or Kṛṣṇa does and tells you, how does that work?

Prabhupāda: No, I have been chosen by my spiritual master.

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

Bali-mardana: The spiritual master is the representative of God to the disciple because he is in direct contact with God.

Prabhupāda: My spiritual master appointed me that "You do this." Similarly I shall appoint somebody else, this is the way.

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

Prabhupāda: Read it.

Gargamuni: "To my father, Gour Mohan De, 1849-1930, pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, who raised me as a Kṛṣṇa conscious child from the beginning of my life. In my boyhood ages he instructed me how to play the mṛdaṅga. He gave me Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa vigraha to worship and he gave me Jagannātha Ratha to duly observe the festival as my childhood play. He was kind to me, and I imbibed from him the ideas later on solidified by my spiritual master, the eternal father."

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Very beautifully written.

Gargamuni: Yes, very poetic.

Prabhupāda: That is a fact. I got good father and good spiritual master. That's all.

Page Title:My spiritual master Bhaktisiddhanta (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti
Created:23 of Nov, 2010
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=24, Let=0
No. of Quotes:24