New York (Conversations 1976 Jan - Jun)

Expressions researched:
"N.Y." |"New York"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: That means they don't want expansion.

Mahāṁsa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So what kind of committee?

Mahāṁsa: But that also is a farce, because they spent thirteen lakhs of rupees for construction of a temple in New York.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: New York.

Mahāṁsa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So New York, we have got so many temples. Let them here.

Mahāṁsa: They know. Anna(?) Rao, who is chairman.... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...temples (indistinct) foreign countries, then let them (indistinct) We shall.... How?

Mahāṁsa: They are very political. They want to take charge of everything that they give money for.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Mahāṁsa: They want to take charge of everything that they give money for. Just like these temples which they have in New York, they will be in charge of them. They are the pūjārīs and things...

Prabhupāda: That means they are constructing their own temple.

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...we distributed about twenty of your big books in half an hour there.

Prabhupāda: In New York?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: In that Gaṇeśa temple. I've gone there with Yadubara and Viśākhā once.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They already built it?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, they have a temporary one, but they're building a.... They've been building it for five years. They just have a layout of all...

Prabhupāda: What is their cult, this Tirupati committee?

Acyutānanda: Hinduism. Hinduism. Very.... No definition of that term now, Hinduism. Just like if we want to get on the radio, they'll say, "Well, there are so many minor sects. So if we give time for one, then everybody will want." But then, when we want some other aid, they say, "No, you're a majority group. We have to help the minority groups." So sometimes we are a minor sect and sometimes we are a majority.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) All fools, rascals, mūḍhas. (break) The Tirupati is a Vaiṣṇava temple, so they should encourage.... Vaisnavism means real religion. All other, bogus, cheating religions. That is.... Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo atra (SB 1.1.2). Kaitava means cheating. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). They do not know that. What is this land?

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: You have got experience?

Pīppalāi: No, I don't have experience.

Hariśauri: He was running the presses in New York.

Prabhupāda: So you like this?

Pīppalāi: Yes, very much so.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Jayapatāka: And also John prabhu... Both of them, they are staying here even though there's no electricity.

Prabhupāda: Electricity is not very important thing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Which way, Jayapatāka?

Prabhupāda: So?

Jayapatāka: They wanted to show their land.

Prabhupāda: Where it is? So? What that land will be utilized for?

Jayapatāka: That's only good for cultivation.

Morning Walk -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ten dollars you can sell it like that for, twenty dollars. Every month or two we have to hold a garage sale because so many.... When the boys join I get them to donate everything they have. I send one man with them to their apartment. Usually they are sharing their apartment or house with some others, friends, and suddenly the Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees come in and take everything out of the house, furniture...

Prabhupāda: They feel glad.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Sometimes.... One time I was in Boulder, Colorado. So I meet this boy on the campus and in five minutes I convinced him to...

Prabhupāda: I have seen in New York. Many tenants, they leave their whole possession and go away. I have seen it. And for the landlord it becomes a problem, how to cleanse this. I have seen it. All table, chairs, bedding, scattered in this way, and they went away. I have seen it.

Morning Walk -- February 28, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So anyone who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he's māyayāpahṛta-jñāna. he's a... He's madman. Actually everyone is mad. That is the medical report. Do they give some present? No.

Kīrtirāja: Not some present, but even, even the policemen, they are stopping the traffic, especially when they see the devotees coming. In Calcutta we saw. We were driving from Germany with Gargamuni Mahārāja in those six vans, and the policemen were especially stopping the traffic so that we could come through. And in New York also, the policemen on the street, they are dancing.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Kīrtirāja: When the saṅkīrtana party is coming, sometimes they are raising their arms and they are dancing also, because they see that we are, that this movement is not like the other movements. The others, they are just staying hippies, and now they are... They have some guru.

Prabhupāda: These rascal gurus...

Kīrtirāja: Like you said yesterday, they are all rascals.

Prabhupāda: It has been discussed by that professor.

Morning Walk -- March 9, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were just talking about that last night, that generally someone in Indian would think, "Let me go to London," but you thought, "Let me go to..."

Prabhupāda: No. I was simply dreaming, "How to go to New York?" Actually I thought.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The biggest.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was scheming, "Whether I shall go this way, through Tokyo, Japan, or that way? Which way is cheaper?" That was my plan. And I was targeting to New York always. Sometimes I was dreaming that I have come to New York. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Bengali ) (aside:) We cannot accept food from the demons. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...supplied at least nice food. (break) You are the first time here?

Indian man (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: How do you like?

Indian man (1): Very nice.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...purify the whole atmosphere. (break) ...world we are all condemned. Still, Kṛṣṇa has given so many facilities. There is a Bengali proverb. Bondhīr astekur bhaga.(?) Ast kur(?) means the place of garbage. If a aristocrat asks that "You have to live in my garbage place," "Oh, that is also better." Similarly, Kṛṣṇa.... This is garbage. This material world is garbage. Still, we live so comfortably. Now just imagine what is His dhāma. It is the garbage tank. Still so nice. And just think what is His real place, Goloka Vṛndāvana.

Morning Walk -- March 10, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: He's going...

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Variety means beauty.

Jayapatāka: We were going to bring from New York, I think.

Prabhupāda: Madhudviṣa Mahārāja will bring next year. Is it very expensive?

Guru-kṛpā: No, it's just...

Madhudviṣa: No, but the computer. You need one computer to run it.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So that is very costly.

Jayapatāka: Computers are very cheap nowadays.

Madhudviṣa: Yeah, it's very expensive. Actually the electricity would be very expensive, the bill, which would probably be paid by Mahatva(?). (laughs)

Prabhupāda: No, if it is very expensive, don't do it.

Morning Walk -- March 12, 1976, Mayapur:

Pañcadraviḍa: You showed the example when you came to New York. You were cooking capatis and everything.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Otherwise who would cook at that time? (break) ...apartment. So I was cooking, and he liked. He thought that "Without any payment, I have got a cook."

Revatīnandana: Dharmadhyaksa dāsa used to be one of his disciples before he joined your, he became your disciple. And he said that he was talking to Dr. Miśra, and Dr. Miśra still talks about your cooking. He said, "Oh, Swamijī, he saved my life." He said, "He taught me how to eat properly." He still talks about you.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...improved his health. He says still?

Revatīnandana: Yes. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Revatīnandana: Dharma was telling me.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...to rise early in the morning and do whatever is needed. Then, at nine, half-past nine, I will go his apartment and begin cooking. Then, after finishing, I'll take my bathing, and then we shall eat together. And then, after eating, I will go to the Fifth Avenue for loitering.

Morning Walk -- March 12, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: I was studying Americans, how they are walking, how they are shopping, like that.

Satsvarūpa: One time you said you were happier then, maintaining yourself, than having thousands of disciples.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There was no chance of finding fault. (laughter) Now I have to find fault.

Madhudviṣa: (break) ...New York now named Jaya Nimāi Nitai. When you were first in New York, he was a musician. He used to write music, and he used to get inspired by looking down from his apartment down to the street. And every day he said he used to see this little Indian man walking by, and it was you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. And he couldn't figure out what was going on, this man walking by on the street every day.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I was having morning walk regularly, alone.

Madhudviṣa: He said you used to walk very fast. (break) (Indian band playing)

Madhudviṣa: Entrance? (break)

Rādhāvallabha: ...ISKCON temples, ISKCON activities, ISKCON temples, ISKCON Deities... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...people will know there is exhibition? There is no signboard. Who will know that here is...?

Rādhāvallabha: We'll have to put up signs today showing the entrance. There will also be a BBT and the scholars' quotes.

Prabhupāda: Where is this?

Rāmeśvara: That is near Atlanta.

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: He has got ten lakhs of rupees because he collects the bribe from others and pay to the police. Everyone knows. There was one Mullik, now, on that Mahātmā Gandhi Road. His business was that. He was collecting. That quarter, our quarter, was full of pocket, pickpockets, guṇḍās. Pickpockets, gundas, in our childhood they were our neighborhood. (laughs) I remember when I was child I was coming, and the pickpocket was pickpocketing, and he was... He was doing like that: "Don't speak. Don't talk." I have seen all this. And whenever there was any riot, so we were accustomed to see everything. When there was Hindu-Muslim riot, one boyfriend told me, "Oh, don't go to your house. It is... A great riot is..." I thought, "Riot is going on daily." It was the same thing. (break) ...quarter. Induriya prakāra(?)

Bhāgavata: In New York one policeman admitted that when the police would capture the thieves with the stolen goods, then they would confiscate the goods and keep it privately in their homes and sell the stolen goods and get the money for themselves. They would not return it to the owner, but they would utilize it for making money. So they are also thieves.

Prabhupāda: So if this is the practice in a country which is so opulent, just imagine what is there in India.

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Mahendra: Sometimes they use it, right.

Madhudviṣa: In New York there was a big scandal. There was ten millions dollars worth of drugs confiscated from a boat, and they put it in the police lockup, and then it was gone.

Prabhupāda: In Navadvīpa... You have heard the name of Vamsidāsa Bābājī. So sometimes, when his things were stolen, the disciples will cry that "It is stolen." So he said, "Why you are bothering? One thief gives; another thief takes. That's all. Who gave the money, he is also thief, and who has taken away, he is also thief. So why you are bothering?" One thief gives; another thief takes.

Bhāgavata: He learned that the policeman was selling the stolen goods because one morning in New York they passed by the temple, and they said, "We have many cartons of paper towel. You want to buy?"

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Bhāgavata: They came by our temple. They said, "We have many cartons of paper towel."

Prabhupāda: Paper towel?

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: "Artistry. But the poem is a symphony in which God is seen in all things. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda is, of course, profoundly sympathetic to the theme. He brings to it a special interpretative insight. Here we have a powerful and persuasive presentation in the bhakti tradition of this dearly beloved poem. The Swami's introduction makes clear at once where he stands as a leading exponent of Kṛṣṇa consciousness." That is my actual...

Devotee (1): (break) ...not only have your books there in the New York Public Library, but the head librarian of that Oriental division did the review also.

Prabhupāda: "...government(?) of postgraduate college..." Oh, O.B.L. Kapoor. (break) "It is an exhaustive plan of original Sanskrit text in Devanāgarī, then a translation, English synonym... What practitioner of philosophy cannot but be attracted to this serious student and scholar of Sanskrit language and Hindu religion and philosophy? The viewpoint of a devotee cum scholar has the advantage of making the philosophy meaningful to any practical-minded person."

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This man? He's a military man. This is one of our airport distributors, distributing books. Here is the bus construction. You can see how they're building the buses. That's our head office in-charge, Keśava-bhāratī.

Prabhupāda: Where the head of office? It should...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now it's in Phoenix, but it may be shifted soon to New York. Airport distribution. This is the installation of all the Deities you were attending in Chicago. That was a big ceremony.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Chicago? Did I install? No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, you were present on the vyāsāsana...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation With Radha-Damodara Sankirtana Party -- March 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda? When I was very young, in the house I was living in.... My friend, his father was from Louisiana, where they have many alligators. This was in New York.

Prabhupāda: Where it is?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Louisiana means near, around Florida.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Many?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Alligators, crocodiles.

Prabhupāda: Crocodile.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So one day his father brought him two little crocodiles as a pet back to New York, where we were living. So he was keeping them in the bathtub. But just as you described, they started to grow, and eventually they became so big that he had to keep them in the house, and then they were running. And anyone that would come in, they would run. (laughter) Finally they had...

Prabhupāda: Very ferocious.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They had to give them to the zoo. New York Zoo.

Prabhupāda: But I understand they can be tamed also. Is it possible?

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: So don't you think that we are self-sufficient? We are feeding at least ten thousand devotees daily, but we have no fixed income.

Reporter (8): They don't have any fixed income.

Prabhupāda: No. None of us have any fixed income, but we are traveling all over the world, New York, London, Calcutta. It is just like going from this quarter to that quarter. Our men are moving like that. Immediately coming, one dozen men from Germany, one dozen from London, and immediately going. We are paying so much money to the airplanes, and we have got so many centers. So how it is going on? On Kṛṣṇa's grace. We depend on Kṛṣṇa. Our income, daily collection, is not less than one lakh of rupees, and we are spending everything.

Reporter (8): One lakh daily.

Prabhupāda: That is minimum. Sometimes we collect five lakhs daily.

Reporter (5): What is the way you go about collecting money?

Prabhupāda: That book-selling.

Morning Walk -- April 21, 1976, Melbourne:

Devotee (1): No, they weren't. They just ate him. He had been there a couple of times, so they became suspicious when he came back. He had been exploiting them. (break)

Guru-kṛpā: ...were so worried, but this country is so big, and there's only twelve million people. More people live in New York City than in this whole country. And they say "overpopulation."

Prabhupāda: They would not allow.

Guru-kṛpā: Yes, they don't allow.

Devotee (3): They have the "white Australia policy." (break)

Prabhupāda: ...Chinese man, Indians, they will come in large number. But they will not allow. That is the difficulty.

Guru-kṛpā: There's more cows in this country than people.

Prabhupāda: They are killing?

Guru-kṛpā: They are eating them.

Prabhupāda: And other countries, they are starving for want of milk. Therefore I say the United Nation simply barking dogs. What is the value if they cannot adjust? United Nation, all the nations should take advantage all the facilities offered, but that they will not allow. And they are named, "United." Just see. Farce.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Well, we had almost finished two. They'll be added in June, so that will make eight, a total of eight. And they're having a normal program going on nicely. And Madhudviṣa Mahārāja also went to visit the other temples. He said in Boston they've gotten.... I think they've already gotten it, right? That restaurant? Ambarīṣa Prabhu has gotten the most wonderful restaurant there, just around the corner from the temple. So it will be very, very high class restaurant with waiters, and...

Prabhupāda: Now, this New York restaurant being organized, other restaurant will follow.

Guru-kṛpā: This restaurant down here, I just was there. Gaura-govinda, he's the one who decorated it. First class. People really like it.

Prabhupāda: From the very beginning I was asking to open restaurant and farm. Produce ghee in the farm and send to the restaurant, and make nice samosā, kachori preparation, and there will be no scarcity of money. And if you organize in this way, your whole country will be transferred into Kṛṣṇa conscious country. Whole country. So, what about your China program?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, we went to New York to meet with Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja's father, and he was very helpful. We approached him in a frank way, and he immediately got the help of his office. He's the president of this Far East American Council.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One of your disciples, Praghoṣa, he's the biggest book distributor, practically. Tripurāri trained him up. He is now starting a program of meeting with these executives and doing just this. He is working in New York, and he's developing a program like this.

Prabhupāda: Now in India also they are trying. Yaśomatī.... Yaśodānandana's report is that he approached one head librarian in Andhra Pradesh and...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Karnataka.

Prabhupāda: Karnataka. Karnataka province, educated province, Karnataka, South India, Karnataka, very educated. So he has immediately ordered thirty sets of books in different libraries. He has appreciated so much.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The professors in Bombay, some of them are already reviewing Prabhupāda's books very favorably.

Prabhupāda: So you just touch the topmost men. But if, somehow or other, if you see some of the topmost men of the China, "You kindly read our books at your leisure."

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Guru-kṛpā: Myself, how to go about it. I don't have any experience or knowledge of that.

Prabhupāda: No, you have no experience. I know, so that Australian boy who works constantly, there is one temple,...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bhāskara.

Guru-kṛpā: Bhāskara, yeah he's in New York.

Prabhupāda: He can come and help.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He'll be free pretty soon.

Guru-kṛpā: Someone has to organize for the construction though. That's the main thing, then later the inside.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In Māyāpur they are completing the, um, that building? They had begun that long residential building.

Prabhupāda: Which one?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The one while we were there.

Prabhupāda: Uhuḥ.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Hari-śauri: Two weeks.

Prabhupāda: Three.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The Ratha-yātrā in New York is taking place on July 18th.

Prabhupāda: So if I go earlier in New York, my place is available?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh yeah, if you like to come it's ready.

Prabhupāda: Mm, I want to go. I want to see how this new building is...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Utilized.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) I went there in New York, no place to stay. It is very gladdening we have got now nice building.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This place is the best facility we have in the movement. (break)

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) Nitāiyer karuṇā habe braje rādhā-kṛṣṇa pābe. (indistinct) Balarām hoile nitāi, so this word bolo akutibe(?), it is supporter (indistinct) the verse (indistinct) nāyam ātmā bala-hinena labhyaḥ. Lord Baladeva. Give this garland to him and this flower to that boy. (dictation tape recording plays) (end)

Morning Walk -- May 26, 1976, Honolulu:

Devotee (3): The devotee is peaceful, ever peaceful.

Prabhupāda: Karmī.... Just like, I began this Kṛṣṇa consciousness business with forty rupees, eh, in New York. Now, say within eight or ten years we have got forty crores. What is the karmī who started his business with forty rupees and within ten years, eight years, has got forty crores?

Devotee (3): Therefore the difference is the karmī's not successful.

Prabhupāda: A bhakta is never unsuccessful.

Devotee (2): (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes. Karmī.... Just like this house you have got. For a karmī to invest so much money, it will takes fifty years. We got this by donation. (laughter)

Morning Walk -- May 31, 1976, Honolulu:

Hari-śauri: I was telling you about that blob of garbage that was left out in the..., headed towards the harbor in New York. For the last fifty years they've dumped all the garbage in the sea, and now it's collected together, and it's coming back into the shore. They think that in about fifteen years time, if it travels at its present rate, it will be blocking the entire New York Harbor. So ecology means they have to try to find out ways and means of avoiding things like that.

Devotee (2): Useless waste products. They've discovered new ways in science how to use things which can be used and used again and again. For example, newspapers, instead of throwing them away, they can recycle them and make new newspapers.

Devotee (3): They also say they were going to recycle their own urine and stool and use it over and over.

Prabhupāda: How?

Devotee (3): Like in the spaceship. When they go to the moon they recycle their own urine and drink it over again. (laughing)

Devotee (2): Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the most popular philosophy is (inaudible).

Prabhupāda: Madman. (laughing)

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: While I was in New York, I've been going to the United Nations building there, and there's a organization called ECOSOC, the Economic and Social Council. It's made up of the members of the U.N. and I think there's very good chance that our society can be represented amongst this group as a nongovernmental organization, which means that in various matters which the council discusses, we would be a consultive group and we would be able to present statements as well as literature on how to solve..., on our viewpoint on how to solve various problems facing the council. And these would be distributed to all the United Nations representatives.

Prabhupāda: As soon as you say "God," they will reject.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, actually, one of the things which this council handles is freedom of religion throughout the world.

Prabhupāda: That means they do not believe in God. Freedom of religion means whatever you like, you do.

Hṛdayānanda: Yes. That's a fact.

Prabhupāda: That is going on. Religion is not very important.

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Thinking. Thinking, he's under the influence of māyā. māyā is dictating, "Why you are trying to go away? Come on, here, Santa Monica." (laughter) And when you become detestful either this Santa Monica or any Monica, "I am not interested," then your spiritual life is...

Jagannātha-suta: Śrīla Prabhupāda, when I was in New York recently to check the color printing of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.2, we were presented with two awards which your books had won for color and design, two awards from the Printing Industries of Metropolitan New York. They gave us big wooden plaques with a certificate of excellence, yes, for Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and for Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

Hṛdayānanda: You should show Prabhupāda, bring him those plaques.

Jagannātha-suta: Yes, we have those plaques hanging up in the Press building now.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Bring it, I shall see.

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

Devotee (1): Yes, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then, in Boston, I stayed on the sea, on the only, but I saw the Boston city. Then I was brought to New York. So I had one friend in Butler, Pennsylvania. Hm. After my arrival, I was received by some representative of my host. So he took me to Butler, and there I stayed for twenty days. Then I came to New York. (break) One (indistinct), one Dr. Miśra, so that is the beginning of my life in New York. Then struggling, then gradually, when these boys came to me, I got some relief. And in this way, we are propagating, opening branches, and the movement is going forward.

Reporter: Are there many decisions that people asked you to make, about whether the movement should do this, or should do that, or do they bother you of that now, or are you just busy writing and translating?

Prabhupāda: No, we do not accept any—what is called?—defective suggestion. We do not accept. We have got our program. This program is coming directly from Kṛṣṇa. The Bhagavad-gītā is there.

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: More and more our society is getting respect because of the big buildings.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Rāmeśvara: New York.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's why, I think your Guru Mahārāja was in favor like that.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, he said that potthor katha ke usa cane gauri ber katha sundari(?) If you remain poor, then nobody will be...

Rāmeśvara: And this diorama project will also give us a lot of respect.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. We have got many things, stock. We shall exhibit gradually. We have got many things in stock.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Many new ideas.

Prabhupāda: First of all, I started the book. That is, by Kṛṣṇa's grace, it is becoming successful. Then diorama. Then I shall give next idea.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This diorama is a major idea.

Prabhupāda: (laughs)

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: We do not say that "If you cannot pay, I will hang you." No. "Pay, try to pay." (static) In our Hyderabad scheme, we have taken three, four lakhs loan from you. And he has taken, Jayapatākā has taken, you know? Nobody has paid me. Till now. But there is promise they will pay.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that's good. At least the big temples, Rāmeśvara, in the beginning can certainly afford it.

Rāmeśvara: On a long-term basis.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I won't even, for New York, I won't even take a loan.

Prabhupāda: No, we can forward loan if it is absolutely necessary.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I won't need it. We have the money.

Prabhupāda: Oh, this side also road is becoming...

Rāmeśvara: All the way down from the beach to downtown Los Angeles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fixing it.

Rāmeśvara: This is going to be one of the main streets in Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is.

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I saw it in New York recently, our president, (sic:) Ādikeśa, he went up against Ted Patrick on television, big television show, and he completely defeated him. So Ted Patrick was saying that, you know, these people are all fanatics. So (sic:) Ādikeśa, at the end, he said, so, if we're fanatics, then the Pope is even more fanatical, so why don't you deprogram him? And everybody laughed at that Ted Patrick. (laughter)

Rāmeśvara: He says we teach our.... I mean he has many arguments. He knows all about the incidents in Germany and Japan, and he uses this against us.

Prabhupāda: He's collected all these bad.

Rāmeśvara: "Lying and cheating," he says.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A few devotees who have joined him, who left and have joined him, they have given him this inside information, so he tries.... Actually, though, no strong devotee can be changed by him. He only gets the very new men. So now he's written a book.

Prabhupāda: About us?

Rāmeśvara: About his experiences of kidnapping our students and others.

Morning Walk -- June 7, 1976, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Before the massage.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's right time.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...widespread, Śrīla Prabhupāda, very widespread. Now I'm afraid about it being in New York, because one of the leaders has been.... I just found out that he's one of the leaders. He's been in New York for about three weeks on his way to London, and he's a pūj..., he has his own Deities which he has on the altar, which means he's talking to our pūjārīs. I am, I have to get back there as soon as possible to see. They have like a newsletter they send out all over the world.

Rāmeśvara: They mail it out?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, well it's a bunch of notes they mail out on a regular basis. It's really poisonous. Pradyumna has been investigating. He got a bunch of their notes photocopied. The one thing I've noticed about the people that are involved with this, two features I particularly have noticed. One of them is that they don't go out on saṅkīrtana. Everyone I've seen...

Prabhupāda: Then everything will be finished. Preaching will be finished. In this sahajiyā party, then preaching will be finished. Siddha-praṇālī.

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

Prabhupāda: Petrol smelling everywhere.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's from these automobiles, the exhaust. They say that in some cities like New York, just living in the city itself, it is like smoking two packs of cigarettes every day because of so much pollution in the air, so contaminated. (break)...in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that the cure for madness is open space and fresh air. That's Ayurvedic method. So in the cities there's all kinds of confined spaces, the air is not all clean. There's so much madness. (break)

Prabhupāda: (in car) Scientists are changing their theories, how we can accept? Reasonably? You are changing your theories, how we can accept you are scientist? You are not sure of your position. Philosophers also, they say "I believe." What is the meaning of this philosophy?

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

Devotee: You were staying in the YMCA.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) So I did not say anything seriously, but perhaps he took it very seriously, Gopal's father. So he might have written to Gopal that "Swami Bhaktivedanta wants to go to America. If you sponsor, then he can go." So whatever the correspondence was there between the father and son, I did not know. I simply asked him, "Why don't you ask your son Gopal to sponsor so that I can go there? I want to preach there." So after some months, three, four months, the No-Objection Certificate from the Indian embassy in New York, Gopal sent to me, yes, that he had already sponsored my arrival there for one month. So all of a sudden I got the paper, No-Objection Certificate by the Indian embassy. After so much inquiry, I learned that so much inquiry was done and so on, so on. Then I tried to take a passport and paper process. So I got the passport. Then I approached that Śrīmatī Morarji. She once gave me five hundred rupees in exchange of my Bhāgavata book, so I approached her, that "Give me one ticket." They have got their shipping company, Scindia Navigation. So she said, "Swamiji, you are so old, you are taking this so responsibility. Do you think it is right?" "No, it is all right." (laughs) At that time, I was seventy years old. So all the secretary, they thought that "Swamiji is going to die there." Anyway, they gave me the ticket, one return free ticket by their ship. Then arrangement was going on. So there is another process to get a P-form. You know.

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

Devotee: Gurukṛpa?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Aniruddha.

Devotee: Gaurasundara?

Prabhupāda: No, Aniruddha.

Devotee: Oh, Aniruddha.

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. (end)

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

Prabhupāda: Bronze, but it will not be polished. We want polished.

Bharadvāja: I have to investigate it.

Prabhupāda: Bright face.

Hari-śauri: There's a boy that was in New York who cast some brass Gaura-Nitāi Deities in Australia. They came out very nice. You could talk to him. He might give you some good information. His name is Bhāskara.

Prabhupāda: Brass is best, next to gold or silver.

Bharadvāja: But I think the other Deities we shall just do in concrete, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and Lalitā, Viśākhā. Either concrete or hard plaster.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Bharadvāja: Hard plaster, tempered plaster, hydrostone.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: You have seen all my room in the Rādhā-Dāmodara temple?

Rādhā-vallabha: We looked through the cracks. They're usually not open. Very inspiring.

Hṛdayānanda: Rādhā-vallabha has one newspaper article when you had just arrived in, I think, Butler.

Rādhā-vallabha: Trivikrama brought it up last..., two nights ago.

Hṛdayānanda: When you had just arrived, I think before going to New York, and when you were being interviewed, and it said the Swami is welcoming lectures, and it was very inspiring for us.

Prabhupāda: The Butler picture?

Rādhā-vallabha: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Another paper was there: "Ambassador of India's culture."

Hari-śauri: Yes, that was the same article, in the Butler Eagle. It shows a photograph of you looking through one of your books.

Hṛdayānanda: Many times the devotees lament that we could not have been there to help you, because there was so much service.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you are helping me. (pause) Who can create such fragrance except Kṛṣṇa? (devotees laugh) Fragrance is coming from here, from the dirt, muddy dirt, and fragrance is coming. Unless there is fragrance, how it came here? The color is coming, the beauty is coming, the fragrance is coming, the arrangement is coming along the stem. Where is that scientist? They are seeing every day, and "There is no God." Just see, how foolish they are. You do it.

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

Kīrtanānanda: So village life is best.

Prabhupāda: That is the best life. That you develop. It will be an ideal thing. You haven't got to go office fifty miles off. Just get little vegetables and milk, bas, your problem is solved. It is practical. Why you should go fifty miles off?

Rādhā-vallabha: In New York, to go to work, they go into the subway car, and there are so many people...

Prabhupāda: That... Not only, the ferry, steamer, bus, train, subway, cars, there are so many things. I've seen it. They start for going to the office early in the morning, and they come back at eleven o'clock at night. And few hours, that is their family life. And that hours are wasted by sleeping and by sex. This is their life. And to forget all these miserable conditions, drink. This is civilization.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Richard: Okay, now Karen Ann Quinlan, you know her?

Prabhupāda: We don't know anyone.

Richard: Okay, this is a, let me explain very briefly. Here is a girl in New Jersey, near New York, whose brain has died through a traffic accident. Her body is still alive. Her body is still alive, but her brain is dead, she cannot get up, speak, move.

Prabhupāda: This is already explained, the brain is an instrument. The instrument is not working, but that is not death.

Richard: Right, her soul is still alive, is that correct?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Richard: Her soul is still alive, and she is still functioning spiritually, even though her brain is dead. Is that what...?

Prabhupāda: That is possible because soul is there.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: (indistinct).

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: I've been visiting your buses, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and managing the book distribution with the buses. It's going very nicely. Ever since Māyāpur all the boys have doubled their collection and distribution. And as soon as all the debts from New York temple are paid, then more and more books can go. We'll try to do everything. (break) The men are just like the army. The van leaders, bus leaders. So everything is very efficient, clean, and very high-powered. (break) ...just two years ago, when we left India, that you wanted an army of sannyāsīs and brahmacārīs always traveling, distributing books.

Prabhupāda: (looking at plaque) Commissioners?

Hari-śauri: Commissioners of Parks and Boulevards, William Livingston Jr., President; Fred Gunter, Vice-President.

Ambarīṣa: Sperimus meliora.

Hari-śauri: (indistinct) generibus. Some Latin inscription on the bridge.

Ambarīṣa: It means to increase their happiness they have built this park. Melior means increased happiness.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...Kṛṣṇa there is no happiness. All imagination.

Hari-śauri: Moghāśā mogha-karmāṇaḥ.

Prabhupāda: We shall go this way?

Ambarīṣa: This way's OK.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Mādhavānanda: They claim that when we chant, we hypnotize ourselves.

Prabhupāda: And still we save expenditure. You hypnotize by drinking. (laughter) We haven't got to pay for that, whiskey bottle. That is also hypnotizing. You want to forget all day's labor by drinking. That is also hypnotizing. Or by gambling. So we also hypnotize. Better hypnotizing method.

Jayādvaita: In New York, you argued that it may be hypnotizing, but by this hypnosis we get people to give up gambling, intoxication, meat-eating and illicit sex. So it should be adopted.

Śrutakīrti:( break) ...some very interesting statistics this morning about drinkers in this country.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: My father, he's the president of this liquor company, and they study the charts to see who is drinking the most. And they have discovered that the biggest drinkers in the world are the politicians in Washington, D.C., that they drink more liquor than anyone.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They have got so many anxieties. So many anxieties.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Mādhavānanda: In the restaurant in New York, many, many respectable people come, and they come once and they come back again and again and again.

Prabhupāda: Panwanna(?), puṣpānna, kijeranna(?), so many things. What is that? If you kill the cow you get the meat only one time. But if you allow the cow to live and take milk, and from milk you can make hundreds and thousands of preparations. That is enjoyment, real enjoyment. In Delhi, there are shops, very respectable shops. One side salt, and one side sweet. But the salt side or sweet side, they're all based on ghee. This preparation, dahibarā, so nice. Combination of grain and yogurt. So introduce this. They do not know. It is a new type of civilization we are trying to introduce for the benefit of the human society. They do not know it. Crude civilization. Primitive. Kill an animal and eat. And when you are civilized, you are supposed to know so many things; why should you kill the animal? You utilize the animal. This milk is taking the blood without killing. That is humanity. You are eating beef because of the blood. So if you take the blood in a different way, you get the same benefit. And if you are still ambitious to eat the meat, flesh, just wait, it will die, you take at that time. Why so hurry? Everyone will die, there is no doubt about it. So you take the dead body and eat. Why do they not?

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: One big lawyer, he is fighting us for not going to the airports. He is working for the airlines. So he was going on a pleasure trip to Las Vegas from New York. So his friend gave him five dollars and said, "When you come to a good charity, give this—it will give you good luck." So he took the five dollars, got on the plane, went to Las Vegas, gets off the plane, goes into the terminal, and a young man comes up to him, says, "We are doing very good work. Please give a donation." He said, "Oh, my friend has given me five dollars, so here is a good cause." Gives the five dollars to the boy, he said: "Oh, here, take this book also." So he, "All right." He goes and sits in the car, opens the book, he said, "Oh, no! It is the Hare Kṛṣṇas! I have been tricked." This story was told by Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja's parents. Their friend was the lawyer. So Kṛṣṇa is benedicting everyone, even the enemies. (break)

Mādhavānanda: Sometimes the karmī salesmen, they stand around to watch us distribute books. Because they are so amazed at our techniques of sale and distribution, they want to learn.

Jayādvaita: They become very respectful. They don't know anything about our philosophy, but they see how nicely we...

Prabhupāda: Good salesmen.

Mādhavānanda: Yes. And sometimes they even offer jobs to the devotee, that "You come and work for me. You will be salesman for my..."

Prabhupāda: "And what nonsense book you have got? (laughter) We are going to stop your sales." Tell them. "And we are going to stop your sales. Instead of helping you for selling your books, we are going to stop all these nonsense books. That is our mission." Tad vāyasaṁ tīrtham. That is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Na yad vacaś citra-padaṁ harer yaśo jagat-pavitraṁ pragṛṇīta karhicit, tad vāyasaṁ tīrtham uśanti mānasāḥ (SB 1.5.10). That verse, that however nicely it is written with..., what is called, metaphor, poetic ornaments and very good language, grammatical set-up, and so on, so on. So that, although it is very nicely written from literary point of view, but because it does not contain any glorification of Kṛṣṇa, it is just like the spot where the crows take pleasure. Crows. The crows means they go the nasty place where all nasty things are thrown. They take pleasure there.

Room Conversation with Ambarisa and Catholic Priest -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: They must know that they're eating prasādam.

Ambarīṣa: Yes, yes.

Śrutikīrti: There was one other thing. Mānasvī, he is outside of New York. And I don't know very much what his position is. I talked to him once, he wanted to see you in New York. I don't know if you know that. Because he says that all these things are not true. No.

Prabhupāda: He's a thief. He has taken about twenty-five thousand dollars. He's a thief from the very beginning. What he is doing now?

Śrutikīrti: He's working two jobs. They won't allow him in the temple. I think you sent one letter or something.

Prabhupāda: No, he should not be admitted.

Room Conversation with Ambarisa and Catholic Priest -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that I saw first. (laughter) I remember.

Ambarīṣa: So there are many nice projects going on in Boston. We are hoping that maybe sometime you can come. That would be very nice. Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. From New York it is not... Ambarīṣa: No, it is very close to New York, half-hour airplane ride. Prabhupāda: So it is ready? Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We were talking about different names for the restaurant yesterday. Śrutikīrti: Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja did not care for "Saṅkīrtana Restaurant." (laughs) Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I thought that there might be a name of Kṛṣṇa, like they were using "Govinda," but that's obviously a name for Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: You may read that.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "One of India's biggest and most ancient religious festivals, Ratha-yātrā, the festival of the chariots, which has been enacted in several Western cities in recent years, is to be staged in South Africa in July. The festival in honor of Lord Kṛṣṇa is planned to be held in Durban next month by the local branch of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, widely known as the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. Based on the thousands-of-years-old annual parade of the three main deities of the Jagannātha temple on huge chariots through the streets of Purī, Orissa, the festival has been staged by devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa in major world cities such as London, Paris, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Montreal and Melbourne, following the spreading of Kṛṣṇa consciousness amongst thousands of Westerners in the decade since the founding of the movement in 1966 by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. Almost a million devotees participate in the chariot festival held every summer at Purī, where they offer oblations to Lord Kṛṣṇa; lend a hand, tugging the ropes, to pull the huge chariots; line the grand route; or simply attend to see the color and pageantry from high vantage points. Jagannātha-The three colossal chariots from which the term Jagannātha is derived carry the three Jagannātha Deities of Lord Balarāma, the Lord who gives spiritual strength and pleasure; Lady Subhadrā, one who is the auspicious one; and Lord Jagannātha, the Lord of the universe,"—with a capital L—"on the three-kilometer journey symbolizing Lord Kṛṣṇa's visit to the town of His childhood pastimes. This year ISKCON will sponsor Ratha-yātrā festivals in ten cities worldwide. Durban, however, is not amongst them, as the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is fairly new and has not yet established itself on a firm basis and increased its following in Durban. Branch members are enthusiastic and are hoping to organize a procession of their own through the streets of Durban to coincide with the festivals which will be held in several major cities."

Prabhupāda: They are arranging like that or not? Our branch there?

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Do it immediately; they are eager. Begin this year. Yes, they'll get life, the Hindus. Immediately advise them. Just like I began in San Francisco on the truck. You know that? So you can begin in that way.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That was the first ratha cart?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I suggested Śyāmasundara that on a truck you make a ratha-like dome, and put this. It was successful.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It was in New York?

Prabhupāda: It was San Francisco. The first beginning was in San Francisco.

Hari-śauri: There was pictures of you riding on that ratha cart, that was a truck?

Prabhupāda: No, rather, that was second or third. In the beginning, it was in a truck. So if the people are eager, you immediately organize.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Okay.

Interview with Professors O'Connell, Motilal and Shivaram -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Guest (1): Swamiji, you came to New York, I believe, in 1965. Can you remember some of your first impressions of North American society when you came here? Did you feel it was ripe for Kṛṣṇa consciousness at that time?

Prabhupāda: No. I was not very much hopeful. That I wrote one poetry, that "Kṛṣṇa, why You have brought me in this country? What can I do? How I shall convince them how they will understand the philosophy? So, but because You have brought me here, must be there is some purpose. So all right. You make me dance as You like." That poetry, I (wrote) in Boston, Commonwealth Pier, on the sea. I came by ship. So I wrote that poetry, that I do not know what for I have come here, why Kṛṣṇa has brought me here. As soon as I shall say that there is no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no drinking, and no gambling, they'll say, "You go home. Don't talk." I knew this. Still I attempted. But these boys kindly accepted. I never made any compromise. I said, "These are the first conditions to become Kṛṣṇa conscious: no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling. Are you agreed?" They say yes, then come. If I would have made compromise, "Yes, whatever you like you can do."

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

Kīrtanānanda: It is causing a big stir, these "Moon" people. He has just bought the hotel in New York for five millions dollars.

Prabhupāda: He is also against our movement?

Kīrtanānanda: Well, I wouldn't say..., he never says anything about our movement. But they are equating us with him. The public is sometimes equating us with him and these other rascals. He claims that Jesus Christ never lived to fulfill his mission, which was to establish the perfect family. They killed him before he got married. So he has come, and he has all these wives. At least he used to, all his, whenever any of his disciples would get married, first he would have their wife.

Prabhupāda: And they're doing that? (laughs)

Kīrtanānanda: People cannot distinguish between what is true and what is bogus. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...sophistication. (break) ...reminds me of a place in Germany. Heidelburg.

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Indian families, they are living for two, three generation. (break) ...teaching them how to make home comfortable, they'll be trained up to become prostitutes. How to kill time. (break)

Hari-śauri: I think Tamāla was saying in New York they need good cooks there. Tamāla was saying that in New York they don't have very good cooks there.

Prabhupāda: Nowhere there is good cook except here. (laughter) Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja is good cook.

Hari-śauri: He's trained everybody up very nicely.

Kīrtanānanda: Prabhupāda knows how to flatter. Well, I think even we could not cook so good in Boston or New York. Without being in Vṛndāvana and the natural ingredients, it is not so...

Prabhupāda: You can supply them ghee.

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, we can do that.

Prabhupāda: You grow podina? Podina? Mint? Mint?

Kīrtanānanda: Mint? Yes.

Prabhupāda: Chutney.

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: These are specially made?

Kulādri: Yes, special for you, in New York City, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Kīrtanānanda: And this is the kind of doors and the stained glass work is being done like this. The marble is being worked like this.

Prabhupāda: This is lead?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Like in the church. Who has done this painting?

Kīrtanānanda: That is, I think, from India.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Kīrtanānanda: These pictures are rose quartz. This is rose quartz and twenty-four-carat gold.

Prabhupāda: Gold? (laughter)

Kulādri: Twenty-four karat.

Prabhupāda: In that Detroit house, so much gold. That is also like this. What are these?

Kīrtanānanda: This is a sample of the handles.

Prabhupāda: Plumbing?

Room Conversation -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: They are also trained, they are not afraid. They are sitting, you go, they are not afraid. They have been trained up that "We are at home." That animals and any birds can be trained. Just like these cows, they know that all of you are friends. Animals can understand. Even if you can make friends with the tigers and lions. Yes. I have seen it. In that New York exhibition, one man was showing me. He was embracing the lion and playing like dog. I've seen it.

Hari-śauri: That used to be a circus trick as well. They used to put their heads in the lion's mouth.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: As long as the lion is well fed, you can put your head in his mouth, but if you don't feed him, then it is dangerous.

Prabhupāda: Naturally, if he's animal. They can understand that he's giving you food, he's my friend. The love, friendship, everything is there, even in animals.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Kṣayāya jagato 'hitāḥ

Prabhupāda: Kṣayāya, kṣayāya means all for ruination, bringing ruin, ruination. So save them from ruination. Actually I've seen in New York, some quarter so nasty. In London also, so nasty. Disaster. So many storefront, lying vacant houses. I was, when I had no business, I was loitering to see the city. Hellish condition. They said it was risky, but I did not know that it was risky. One electrician, he was my friend, "Oh, Swamiji, you are going in those quarters? It is not for you, don't." "Oh, I do not care. What I have got they will take from me?" So I was loitering in New York City. So many nasty quarters. London also. So many houses vacant.

Kulādri: There is more chance of being killed in New York City than in the jungle.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They warned me not to go to the Central Park in the evening. They say at night nobody goes there.

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

Brahmatīrtha: Yes, they just bring back rocks to show us, we have rocks here.

Prabhupāda: If there is rock, if there is sand, then why don't you colonise there? What is their answer? If there is same sand, same rock there, then why not... (break) ...some money and can bring some sand and bluff people that you have gone to moon planet. And people are satisfied, they're paying for another excursion to the Mars. This is going on. If you have gone there, there is land. If you fly in the sky and if you get a land then you can stay there. And because you cannot stay there, you come back again. So their... The Māyāvādīs position is there, āruhya kṛcchreṇa param, they merge into the impersonal Brahman but there is no place to stay, they come down again to this material world. You may go many thousands and millions of miles in the sky but you want to stay somewhere. But if you cannot get any place to stay then again you come to this Moscow and New York. So our enquiry is that if you have gone there, then why don't you stay there? What is the answer? Hm? Kīrtanānanda Maharaj?

Kīrtanānanda: They say the atmosphere is not suitable.

Prabhupāda: Then why rascal, you go there? (laughter) And spend so much money, rascal? You could not understand the atmosphere is not good for us, go there and spend so much money?

Brahmatīrtha: They impress the people.

Room Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This evening, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we are arranging that you can see the film a little bit later in your room. Perhaps you would like to sit outside in the garden?

Prabhupāda: Very nice. New York, how is everything going?

Rādhāvallabha: Very nice.

Prabhupāda: So we have to go outside?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (aside:) The chair is there? There are some people who have come, if you'd like to...

Prabhupāda: Yes, I'll go. So you have given them some prasādam?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We arranged for that.

Prabhupāda: Give them. They have come from distant place. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Jaya Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Jaya. Lord Śiva became victimized by woman, what to speak of others? I am thinking of that boy also, Paramahaṁsa. He was a nice boy.

Room Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Rādhāvallabha: Trivikrama Mahārāja went to see him, but he was too much in illusion.

Prabhupāda: No, that's all right. Still, I want to see.

Rādhāvallabha: You?

Prabhupāda: He was very good boy.

Rādhāvallabha: You want us to get the message to him that he should try to come to New York to see you?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rādhāvallabha: I'll try and get that message to him, to come to New York Ratha-yātrā.

Prabhupāda: He was very nice boy.

Rādhāvallabha: Leads nice kīrtana.

Prabhupāda: Māyā is so strong. Lord Śiva is not excused, what to speak of others.

Room Conversation After Film -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: You understand Hindi?

Ṛṣi Kumāra: Not really. A little bit, but I can't follow it. Do you want me to go to India, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Wherever you find suitable.

Ṛṣi Kumāra: I was thinking about going back to Los Angeles for a while, because there's good preaching to be done in Los Angeles and Laguna Beach too. I know a lot of people there.

Prabhupāda: Los Angeles or New York. New York is your old place. But you don't want to go there?

Ṛṣi Kumāra: New York? I can go there, I guess, but...

Prabhupāda: No, you can remain in Los Angeles for the time being.

Ṛṣi Kumāra: Because I know a lot of people in Laguna Beach who can be preached to. I think they'd be receptive, people who are...

Prabhupāda: Reception is everywhere if we manage nice.