Expressions researched:
"not exactly"
Hayagrīva: Hermaphroditic means they have the physical features of both man and woman.
Prabhupāda: Oh. At the same time?
Hayagrīva: At the same time.
Prabhupāda: I do not exactly. But such people they have their own society and their means of living is that whenever there is some good occasion, a marriage or childbirth, like that, so they go there and pray God that this child may be very long living. In this way they make some prayer and get some...
Prabhupāda: Brief summary... In this scene Caitanya Mahāprabhu became the student. Not exactly student. He inquired and Rāmānanda Rāya answered. So the importance of the scene is that Caitanya Mahāprabhu does not follow the formality, only the sannyāsīs should be the spiritual master. Anyone who knows the science of Kṛṣṇa, he can be spiritual master. And to show this example practically, although He was sannyāsī and brāhmaṇa and Rāmānanda Rāya was a śūdra and a gṛhastha, householder, still He became like a student and inquired Rāmānanda Rāya. Rāmānanda Rāya felt some, I mean to say, hesitation that "How can I take the position of a teacher to a sannyāsī?"
Prabhupāda: It is not exactly a church, but it is an institution for understanding the science of God.
Interviewer: Could you tell people how you are dressed today, what's the significance of your clothes?
Prabhupāda: About the significance of our institution?
Interviewer: No, about the way your clothes, the way you're dressed today. Uh, the robes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That wrapping... It is not exactly wrapped. It is a bag for our beads. We are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. So the beads are supposed to be sacred and therefore we keep it in a bag so that it may not touch the dust or any other impurities. So it is not wrapping, it is covering of the sacred beads.
Interviewer: Now I just want to read one section here. I think you'll be able to... "The International Society for Krishna Consciousness began when Swami Bhaktivedanta arrived from India with $2 on his person, a metal suitcase full of ancient-looking books and a cotton cloth robe, colored yellow, as a sign of the renounced order of life. In India, men of his order are completely dedicated to propagating the spiritual life of a mendicant wanderer.
Prabhupāda: Guru means not exactly teacher. Guru, the word, means heavy. Heavy. H-e-a-v-y, heavy.
Interviewer: Is guru and swami the same thing?
Prabhupāda: Swami means practically the same idea. Swami means the master of the senses. One who has not control over senses, he cannot become guru. The renounced order means he's strictly away from all kinds of sense gratification, especially sex life. Therefore, he's called swami. Swami means the master. One who has become the master of the senses, he can become the spiritual master of the society. That is the idea.
Prabhupāda: Yes. But meditation as this Maharshi or any other swami or..., are professing, that is not exactly the process of meditation. The standard meditation is described in Bhagavad-gītā. That is very difficult job. You have to select a solitary place, you have to sit in a certain posture, you have to regulate your life, complete celibacy, eating, sleeping... There are so many rules and regulations that that sort of meditation is absolutely impossible for the present way of life. For the present generation, the chanting, vibration of holy name of God, is recommended in the scriptures. It is said that meditation was possible in the Satya-yuga, when people were cent percent pure. And they are... For the present, mostly, people are impure. So they cannot execute meditation as it is described in the standard scriptures.
Prabhupāda: Seaweeds, yes. So they... All over the body there was some seaweeds. Not exactly... He was very unclean and odd-looking, and beard and ugly. So he thought that "He's a great yogi. If I refuse, 'No, I'm not going to hand over my daughter to you,' then he may be angry and create some catastrophe." So he said, just to avoid him, that "I have got eight daughters, and it is the desire of my daughters that they should be given over to one husband." No, that "they should be married all at once. So unless I find other husbands for my daughters you have to wait." So immediately, "Yes, I shall myself become eight then." And he expanded himself, eight expansions. So at that time what could he say? He said, "You know, my dear sir, that they are princesses after all. They may not like such ugly husband."
Prabhupāda: Bhagavad-gītā: cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). "I have created the four divisions of caste." It is not exactly caste; section, varṇa. So how you can stop? It is natural. So Bhāgavata recommends, Suta Gosvāmī is addressing, ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ. This system of sectional division, this is... "He is brāhmaṇa, he is kṣatriya, he is vaiśya, he is śūdra, he is brahmacārī, he is householder, he is vānaprastha, he is sannyāsī." Or sub-section. "He is potter, he is washerman, he is this and that." You may divide it or not, this section will be there in every society. So Bhāgavata says that "You may be situated in any section. It doesn't matter." Either you be a kṣatriya or a brāhmaṇa or a potter or a washerman or whatever you may be, it doesn't matter.
Prabhupāda: So the instruction is that... 'Khila pārthiva vānaraḥ, vyāpare suvyaparam. Avyāpara means a occupation, an occupation which is not fit for you. That is avyāpara. Avyāpara-suvyaparam. And one occupation which is not exactly fitting you, you do not know how to do it, so avyāpare suvyaparam yo kartu... If one wants to act in a business in which he is unable to do, then he is killed just like this fool monkey. Avyāpare suvyaparam yo naraḥ kartum icchati, sa-mulo hanyate. That foolish person is killed just like this monkey. The monkey's business was not to imitate the sawman, but he wanted to imitate. The result was that he was killed. So that is not expertness. Expertness is you just try to do which is easily performed by you. You don't accept anything heavy task because Kṛṣṇa does not want that you have to do this heavy task. Whatever you know, you just apply it. You dovetail it in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Prabhupāda: No, not exactly the same thing. That is the conference—I want to convince you that London is the real place of happiness.
Guest (1): But maybe I think that I know...
Prabhupāda: You may think, but you'll have to be convinced that your thinking is wrong.
Guest (1): Or maybe I can convince you that your thinking is wrong.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. Therefore conference required. (laughter) Therefore conference required.
Prabhupāda: So that drama was so successful, it was unique in Calcutta. Because we were not, we were not professionals. I saw from the stage a huge gathering, they're all crying. I was surprised, "Why these people are crying?" You see? It was great successful, because we were not professionals. We were not devotees at that time, but some of us were devotee by family tradition, but not exactly what is actually meant by devotee. But still, because we were not professionals, the drama was so successful, unique. And there was no female. Now Śacidevī, Śacidevī, the friend who take the part, took the part of Śacidevī, his shoulders were so big, (laughing) so just see. So there was no question of beautiful woman taking part. So still the drama was very successful. Similarly, when Caitanya Mahāprabhu staged, all the devotees took part. Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura, Advaita, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Nityānanda and Mukunda and other, all devotees... (pause) Yes?
Prabhupāda: It is not exactly the hierarchy, but in the Christian method, Roman Catholic method, the process of the Pope, Archbishop, and..., that is very nice. There is no objection of us. But our point is that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is lacking. In spite of all arrangement, if people lost faith in God, so simply by hierarchy, what is the benefit there? There is no benefit. You see? Bambarambhe laghu-kriya, in the Sanskrit word, that you can make a very high-grade arrangement, but the result is zero. So that hierarchical arrangement is exactly not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But our method is very simple. If one is fortunate enough to meet a bona fide spiritual master and if he acts strictly under his discipline, he also becomes within a very short time another spiritual master.
Prabhupāda: Not exactly, but I came to preach the gospel of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and fortunately I met some enthusiastic young boys and girls. So then we formed this society.
Interviewer: This was in New York?
Prabhupāda: Yes. I first came in New York. Then I went to Pittsburgh, and for one year I was traveling, and I established this society in July 1, 1966.
Interviewer: How many centers are there now?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Religious... If you say religious orders, there are many religious orders; they allow all these things. It is not exactly religious order. It is training of consciousness, because we are trying to put people in original, pure consciousness, which we call, technically, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like when rain is showered from the cloud, it is pure distilled water, but as soon as it is in touch with the earth, it is salty or so many chemicals are formed, similarly, original consciousness is pure, but when it is contaminated with matter, the consciousness is impure. So we are trying to purify the consciousness. That's all. That is our program. It is not a religious order. Consciousness is there in every living entity, and we are trying to purify his consciousness. When he comes to his original consciousness he becomes completely happy.
Prabhupāda: Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura, in his previous life, he elevated himself to the loving stage of Kṛṣṇa. Not exactly, just previous, bhāva. It is called bhāva, ecstasy. But some way or other, he could not finish, so according to the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, he was given birth to a nice brāhmaṇa family. (aside:) You can call that Bengali lady. She can hear. So very rich. Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe (BG 6.41), in that way. Rich family, at the same time, brāhmaṇa family. But richness, generally, sometimes glide down to wine, women, and intoxication. So by bad company he became woman-hunter, prostitute-hunter. So he was too much addicted to one woman, Cintāmaṇi. So his father died, and he was... He did not marry. In your country it is called girlfriend, and in our country it is called prostitute.
Prabhupāda: No, Buddha is worshiped by statue. That is historical. That is historical fact. And there are many temples in Burma, China, and in Japan, all these Buddhist countries. But these Buddhist temples began not exactly after Buddha's disappearance. At least, after one thousand years. That is a fact.
Allen Ginsberg: Yes. That's much later.
Prabhupāda: Yes, much later. Because when Buddhism was driven out of India, then in Japan, China, Burma, the Buddhism flourished. Yes. That is after, almost after one thousand years. Otherwise whole India was Buddhist, whole India. Sometimes the Jagannātha Temple... They interpret. Actually it is not. They say that is also Buddhist.
Kīrtanānanda: Not exactly the knights. They were more...
Prabhupāda: Noblemen. Yes. The knights are different?
Kīrtanānanda: Yes. Knights were fighting men.
Satyabhāmā: They're warriors. Knights were like kṣatriya.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh. And noblemen?
Kīrtanānanda: They were the lords. They were...
Satyabhāmā: There were no brāhmaṇas, though. (laughs)
Śyāma: There were bishops.
Kīrtanānanda: Not exactly brāhmaṇas. They were proprietors of large tracts of land, and they were responsible for giving protection to a certain number of people under them.
Prabhupāda: Actually I did not understand in the beginning what he was speaking. So Bhaktisiddhānta's writing is not very easy to understand. Yes. But we should try, read and read again, and simply that vibration will help us. That's all. It is transcendental vibration, not that everyone will understand. But if you simply give aural reception to the vibration, that will make him advanced, not exactly that anyone has to understand it. Yes. Just like a man is sleeping and somebody is calling him. In his sleeping condition he does not understand. By calling, calling, calling, he gets up because that vibration is there. Not that in his sleeping condition he is understanding what is this sound is coming. So similarly, we should give reception to the transcendental vibrations made by Kṛṣṇa and His bona fide representatives. That will make us awakened. Not that we understand everything.
Prabhupāda: No, they have now made changes. Just like our late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. He made some Hindu code. He introduced in that Hindu code the right of divorcing husband and wife. But these were not in Manu-saṁhitā. And, of course, they are changing. If you like, you can change. But the social order also not exactly the same as it was before.
Prof. Kotovsky: Oh, yes.
Prabhupāda: And so many things. So they're changing. But before this modern age the whole Hindu society was being governed by Manu-smṛti. Manu-smṛti, yeah.
Prof. Kotovsky: In all periods in India...
Prabhupāda: One thing I shall request you, that our missionary activities, we are not exactly businessmen. You see? Our only idea is these books are published for missionary activities. So exactly we are not business power. So I will request your chairman that even sometimes you find something, discrepancies, you don't mind it, because we are not strictly businessmen. Yes. But we are very sincere. We shall reciprocate very sincerely. But sometimes we are not strictly like businessmen. (Japanese)
Prabhupāda: World is vast. So according to your karma... Just like you have got a particular type of body. You are young man, there is another young man also. Still, his body and your body is not exactly the same. His bodily feature, your bodily feature, his intelligence, your intelligence, they are all different. But a child grows to become young man, that's a fact. You are a child, another child was there. So they have got now different body. Just like you have got a different body from your childhood life. Is it not? But you know that you had a childhood body, although the body is not there. This is transmigration from one body to another. Just like a dream at night. You change this body. You accept another body. And although you're lying down on your bed, you've gone to some other place. Subtle body.
Prabhupāda: By logic, by science. Anyway, that we have to make program. Because this is most misleading. The whole human society is affected by this misleading theory. We have to make program, go from place to place and invite all big men, all scientists. That program we have to make. We cannot allow this nonsense theory to go on. We must make something. Brahmānanda, how to make this? This is a fact, that, that life comes from life. In another sense life does not come. Life is existing. It is not exactly the word that life generates, no. Life is existing. The matter is generated. Matter is generating, and it stays for some time, again it is vanished. Just like this body. This body is born at a certain date, and it will be finished at a certain date. This is matter. (break)
Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore the Vedic scripture says, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). His person is different. Sac-cid-ānanda. That is not exactly with our personality. This is material. This is temporary personality. Now I am man. Next time I may become dog, Next time become demigod. It is changing. It is not eternal, sat. So God is not like that. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā (BG 4.6). He does not come here being forced by the material energy. He comes by His spiritual energy. Sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā. Find out this. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata (BG 4.7). Therefore, as soon as He's accepted as ordinary man, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam, paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ (BG 9.11). He does not know what is the power behind that. Read it.
Anna Conan Doyle: Not exactly.
Guru-gaurāṅga: Prabhupāda said that Jawaharlal Nehru, the former prime minister of India, someone has said now he is a house dog in a home in Sweden.
Anna Conan Doyle: I hope not for him.
Prabhupāda: You may not, but nature is different. Just like a child does not hope that if he puts his finger in a fire, it will not burn. But nature is so strict, it doesn't care for the child or the old man. It will burn. I may prove very innocent, but nature doesn't care for that. Nature doesn't care for that. Nature will not show any mercy for the innocent child. No. That is nature. Is it not fact? If a child puts his finger on the fire, nature will not consider that: "Here is a innocent child. He may not be burned." No. Equally. Therefore nature is very strong. We cannot avoid the control of the nature. If you do something, it must acting, react in the same way. The same... If you put your finger in the fire, it must react, burn it. Nature is so strong. So as soon as you violate any law of nature, you'll be punished.
Prabhupāda: Yes, previous life there was. Just like previously, you were a child. Previously, you were a boy. Previously you were a young man. So similarly, we had previous life. Previous life means not exactly in this body but another body. But I am eternal. I live either in this body or in another body. Just like I'm a person, I live in this apartment or any other apartment. The apartment may change, but the person who lives in the apartment, he does not change. Similarly, I am spirit soul. I am simply changing different apartments. But there is a life, because I am eternal, where I haven't got to change apartment. I get permanent residence.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Lady Guest: Not even brāhmaṇa.
Prabhupāda: Not exactly, yes.
Lady Guest: Not a brāhmaṇa.
Prabhupāda: But at least he's a kṣatriya.
Guest: He's a defense ministry.
Prabhupāda: Yes, defense ministry is kṣatriya and that is, that is the sanction of the śāstra.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. But you have to accept the origin, the person. That is our philosophy. Then you accept our philosophy.
Karandhara: Then they say, "Well it's not exactly a person, it's inconceivable."
Prabhupāda: Therefore you cannot say that He is not a person, because He is inconceivable. You cannot say whether He is person or not person, because you are illusioned, and inconceivable... But why you are thinking that because you cannot say perfectly, everyone cannot say perfectly? You are thinking like that. Just like we have got experience: one body cannot say something, but the other can say. Practical experience. Just like this child cannot say something but the father can say.
Prabhupāda: ...two classes of men: the communist and the non-communist. Not exactly communist and capitalist, but communist and non-communist. Out of these two, the communists are going to be powerful. This is the world tendency. So if the world becomes full of communists, then the human civilization will be finished. All rogues and rascals, that's all. The American government wants to check this tendency. But they cannot check it if they remain "so-called trust in God." That will not be possible. So according to our proposition... Not only now, it is forever. Two classes of men are there: sura and asura. Surāsura. Viṣṇu-bhakto bhaved devaḥ. Deva and sura, the same thing. Asuras tad viparyayaḥ.
Prabhupāda: Yes. But he borrowed the idea from Vaiṣṇava. His guru, not exactly guru... In his zamindari, Golpur, he was going to a Vaiṣṇava, Baul. But Baul is sahajiyā. So he got the idea of Vaiṣṇavism, but because he was not Vaiṣṇava, he presented his idea in a different way. That is his Gītāñjali. Gītāñjali is the depiction of the idea he got from that Baul.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: His songs are so popular in Bengal.
Prabhupāda: No, all over the world, more or less.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Even I sang some of his songs when I was in Calcutta.
Prabhupāda: The bug is also there. The mosquito is also there. The leader is also there. So, so many bodies, they are in the same room, but the enjoyment is not the same. Leaser's enjoyment is not exactly like the occupier of the room.
Nitāi: So they say that "Because life is temporary, let's live it up."
Prabhupāda: Oh, that is foolish, another foolishness. That is... "You are beating me with your shoes. That's all right, it is temporary. That's all right. Let me go on suffering this." So that is foolishness. He does not think that "Why I have been subjected to be beaten by shoes, insult? All right, I do not mind. It is temporary." That is foolishness.
Prabhupāda: Bhāgyavān, opulent... If you earn money, you become bhāgyavān. Bhāgyavān means... The word has come from bhagavān, and bhaga means opulence, six kinds of opulence: riches... Aiśvaryasya samagrasya vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47). So one who possess all these things not exactly like Bhagavān, but partially, according to his position, he's called bhāgyavān.
Nitāi: But in this verse that you just quoted, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa brahmite kono bhagyavān, how does one come, become to the stage of...
Prabhupāda: God is person, then? What did he say?
Jyotirmayī: Then he said that so is it not that God, the person, this divine essence, is a superperson, an evolved person, and not exactly somebody impersonal. Like he said that in Śaṅkarācārya's philosophy there is the conception of tat. So is not this tat conception, this divine essence, this superperson...
Prabhupāda: Yes, He is divine essence. God is divine essence, just like you have volumes of milk and you churn it, then you get so much butter. So the butter is the essence of the milk. Similarly, the spirit is vast, all-pervading. The example, another example, is just like the sunshine universally spread, very big. Then you concentrate the sunshine, it is sun globe. And if you still concentrate, you will see within the sun globe there is sun-god. So he is the essence of this light, the sunshine light, the sun globe light, and the person—sun-god, Vivasvān, he is person—he is the essence among all this light.
Bhūrijana: I want to understand in this sense though, exactly how far your instructions are because I know I want to do it, what you say, but I am not exactly...
Prabhupāda: You are old student.
Bhūrijana: Yeah.
Prabhupāda: If you still cannot understand what is my instruction, then how can I help you? New students may say like that. You are intelligent, educated, old student. If you say... (long, silent pause) Our movement is that beginning of spiritual life is to surrender. If there is no surrendering, then it is no advance. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). This is the beginning. If that thing is lacking, there is no beginning even, what to speak of advancement. That is discussed already. Na siddhiṁ sa avāpnoti na sukhaṁ na paraṁ gatiḥ. This is the beginning of spiritual life.
Prabhupāda: They come in the Viṣṇu Svāmī. I do not exactly know who was his immediate guru.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. I'm just trying to clear these points up because, I remember when I was preaching in South India, this discussion came up, that... Just like Mādhavendra Purī, he found the Deity of Gopāla, and you've explained...
Prabhupāda: That is our Gauḍīya. Mādhavendra Purī is Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. You explained how he was worshiping the Deity. Now, that Deity of Gopāla...
Prabhupāda: Not exactly enters, but he catches the body. But because the ghost has no gross body—he has got his subtle body, mind, intelligence, and ego—you cannot see him, how he has attacked that body. You cannot see the body of mind, intelligence. You know I have got my mind; I know you have got your mind. But you do not see my mind; I do not see your mind. So ghost is within the subtle body: mind, intelligence, and ego. So with that subtle body, he attacks the man, but you cannot see. He does not enter into him. The enter is the soul within the body. Therefore sometimes ghost is walking in the room. We cannot see. But he takes away something. We see that the thing is going away. (laughter)
Jayatīrtha: No, "and tolerant." " 'Such MEN,' " capital M-E-N again, "he said, 'are first-class citizens and should be advisors to the world. Second and third-class MEN have not found God and should be administrators and workers.' " Not exactly right. "He spoke thirty minutes and never mentioned women. I asked how women fit into his system. 'Women,' he said, 'is not equal in intelligence to man. Man's brain weighs sixty-four ounces; women's weighs thirty-six ounces. It is just a fact.' He continued, 'Women are meant to assist men. That is all.' He said women do not figure in his class system except as daughters or wives. 'An unmarried woman presumably is classless. Is that,' asked a male reporter..."
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) That is fact. She is prostitute, that's all. If you classify, then she is prostitute. (laughter) That's all. There is no other way.
Prabhupāda: How you become one? If Kṛṣṇa or the consciousness is there but you lose your consciousness, why you become one?
Harikeśa: Well, it's not exactly that we lose consciousness but we merge into the supreme consciousness.
Prabhupāda: Supreme consciousness?
Harikeśa: Then we become God.
Prabhupāda: No. You cannot. Then why you are different now?
Harikeśa: It's my līlā. (laughter)
Harikeśa: Well, it's not exactly spoiling. We are really enjoying.
Prabhupāda: What enjoying?
Harikeśa: When it's too hot we can make it cooler. When it's too cool we can make it hotter.
Prabhupāda: But at the same time, you want to live and enjoy. That is not allowed. Everyone wants to live and enjoy. Hm? Otherwise why, when there is attack outside, why do you fight? The tendency is that "I shall live comfortably." Why these white Europeans have made so high plan? So that they may not be kicked out by the Africans. That is the tendency. Therefore they are making secure, Africans far away so that they may not come. You want to live securely, but that is not there. You may make political arrangement very secure, but what is the nature's arrangement? You'll be kicked out at any moment. There is no certainty. There is no guarantee even that you will be allowed to live for so many years. At any moment.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is sama-darśinaḥ. Sama-darśinaḥ means that every living being is part and parcel of God. So he is suffering for want of God consciousness, so let us teach something as far as possible. This is our mission. (break) ...dhīras tatra na muhyati. Therefore the human being's first business is how to become dhīra.
Dr. Patel: Dhīra does not exactly mean "sober," but something more than sober.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is only one part of it.
Dr. Patel: So many Sanskrit words cannot have translation into English.
Prabhupāda: Dhīra means one who is not disturbed by this bodily concept of life. He is dhīra because he knows that "I am not this body," even there is some trouble in respect of body. So Kṛṣṇa advised that titikṣasva bhārata.
Prabhupāda: There is a story that a grocer's son was doing business, and when he was given a five-rupees' note, so he was giving four rupees. So the customer said, "Why you are giving me four rupees?" "No, I do not know what is the exchange." "No, it is six rupees." So "No, father will be angry." (laughter) Means he knows perfectly well what is five rupees, but he is innocent when he was giving four rupees. And when the customer wanted six rupees, he, "No, my father will be angry." (break) ...created a havoc by misinterpreting Bhagavad-gītā, all people. According to their wish, "Five-rupees note means four rupees," by imagination. They have created havoc all over the world. Otherwise everything is there. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11). If we take Kṛṣṇa's instruction, then whole world becomes immediately happy. But they will not take it. They will manufacture their own, two plus two equal to five or three, not exactly the four.
Bhavānanda: Going up this way. I'm not exactly sure how the engineering works. Jayapatāka designed it.
Prabhupāda: It has been a mistake. The staircase should have been from this, within this.... Why it has not done, that? What is this nonsense, a ladder? (break) ...going to.... Yes.
Indian man: One person, he is coming today.
Prabhupāda: One person?
Indian man: From Krishnanagar he came yesterday and....
Prabhupāda: Yes. So I did not go to parikrama, so he very much appreciated. There was announcement that "Now parikrama will start in the evening at five, and Prabhupāda also will speak. So anyone who wants to hear Prabhupāda, he can stay. Otherwise be ready for going." So about a dozen men remained, and all went to parikrama. So I was at that time new man—not exactly new man, but not recognized disciple. I did not go. So he saw that I am sitting, I did not go to parikrama. He very much appreciated. I preferred to hear him than go to parikrama. That he appreciated.
Hari-śauri: That was the same time that you took initiation?
Prabhupāda: Yes. After that, I took initiation.
Balavanta: Somewhere near the sun. They've just imagined it. It's close to the sun, but not exactly the sun. It's the center, they say.
Prabhupāda: So our Bhāgavata says the whole planetary system is moving like this.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Centering the polestar.
Jayapatākā: They admit that there's some center of the universe. Everything is going around that, including the sun. But they don't know exactly where it is.
Prabhupāda: That is polestar.
Prabhupāda: That I should not exactly immediately say.
Gurudāsa: We don't accept.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No. Prabhupāda just said, "Not right now."
Prabhupāda: But moon is far away from the sun. That is from Bhāgavatam.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, there's another question I have. I remember on a walk.... I have read in your books that the moon's glowing is due to reflecting the sun. Then I remember on a walk in Vṛndāvana you said that the moon is fiery just like the sun, but there's a cooling atmosphere around it. So is it actually fiery glow, or is it simply a reflecting glow?
Guru dāsa: So that piece of land is not exactly on the parikrama but off the parikrama. It's not so far from our property. You know the big park near Singhania's place?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guru dāsa: Then one more park.
Prabhupāda: Park? Singhania's building is there. I have seen. Park, I don't know.
Guru dāsa: It's an open spot, not exactly park. It's near Fogel Ashram.
Prabhupāda: Hm. So how did you like?
Guru dāsa: Well, the piece of land is nice.
Prabhupāda: Nice.
Mr. Dixon: Not exactly.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The food that we take is first offered to Kṛṣṇa in the temple, so Kṛṣṇa is the first to eat. And Kṛṣṇa demands that "You offer Me this particular source of foodstuff." So one becomes free from all sinful reactions by first offering to Kṛṣṇa the foodstuff. Not only are you eating, but also you become free from sinful reaction.
Mr. Dixon: I see.
Prabhupāda: Don't think we are vegetarian. We can become anything, provided it is eaten from the remnants of foodstuff left by Kṛṣṇa. This is our.... To become vegetarian.... There are many animals who are vegetarians. The monkeys are vegetarian; the goats are vegetarian; the cows are vegetarian.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. That means nature is above. He wanted that body; nature has given. Is that correct?
Rādhāvallabha: No, not exactly.
Prabhupāda: Then what is that?
Rādhāvallabha: That they want a particular facility, and...
Prabhupāda: And nature supplies the body, that's all. Simple thing.
Rāmeśvara: But they do not put a limit, 8,400,000. They think that it can keep going on increasing, increasing.
Prabhupāda: Then let it go on. That's all right. What is wrong?
Prabhupāda: He can use, but this "harijana" word was manufactured by Gandhi. Vivekananda died some time, 1900... I do not exactly remember. When Gandhi's movement was not started. Gandhi's movement was started in 1917. And long ago Vivekananda expired.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Anyway, his question is, "Swami Vivekananda has given a positive suggestion that one of the best ways for harijanas to command respect among all sections of people is to learn Sanskrit, the study of which is being neglected even by brāhmaṇas today. What incentives can be given to harijanas to learn Sanskrit, the repository of Indian culture and religion?"
Rūpānuga: Yes. There's another place—I'm not exactly sure; I think it's down much further—where there's much bigger falls. This is just a small place. It's not the main falls. We can go there on another walk, I think, if you want to see the big falls.
Prabhupāda: Chicken is giving life to the egg within five days, and you are scientist, you have to wait for millions of years. So chicken is better than you. (laughter) Why, rascal, you claim as scientist? Better, a chicken is better than you. Chicken is giving just after sitting on the egg. In five days, there is living entity. You rascal, you have to wait. So why you talk? Better don't talk. It is better not to talk than to talk foolish. Where is the scientist?
Prabhupāda: ...higher(?) to temple.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not exactly. We go, probably, over the Fifty-ninth Street bridge, right?
Ādi-keśava: I think it would be better now to go through the tunnel.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We're going over the tunnel, into the tunnel. What street is that? Fifty...?
Ādi-keśava: About Thirtieth Street.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You think that's faster?
Ādi-keśava: Yes, it goes right under... (break)
Prabhupāda: Imposter is falsely. It is not exactly false. Beginning with "p." Do you find there teacher? Teachers, other things?
Hari-śauri: Teacher?
Prabhupāda: Teacher, and other synonyms. Find out the teacher. They have got so many synonyms.
Hari-śauri: Teacher. "Educator, instructor, preceptor, master, tutor, coach, schoolmaster, schoolmistress, schoolmarm, pedagogue."
Prabhupāda: Pedagogue, yes, this word.
Bhūgarbha: He says that when one translates from Sanskrit into English and from English into French, that it's not exactly the same thing in French that it was in Sanskrit, he feels...
Prabhupāda: No, if from Sanskrit to French can be translated, I have no objection. But we have no such arrangement.
Yogeśvara: We have no Sanskrit scholars in French yet, no.
Prabhupāda: Not only scholar, not only scholar, he must be a realized soul. Simply scholars will not help, simply scholarship will not help. There are many Sanskrit scholars in India. There are many Sanskrit scholars, original Sanskrit scholars in India, they cannot understand Bhāgavata.
Prabhupāda: That is good, but that is called bhakta prakṛta smṛtaḥ. That is not exactly on the transcendental platform. In the material platform, just appreciating some great power beyond our reach, that's all. Not clear idea. Therefore they are disturbed when they think form. Form means limitation, they think. At least, they should think like that. They do not know. Nobody knows, except in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Why we have described about God so many books? But they have this idea. Very poor idea. But they are accepting God is great, that will help in future.
Prabhupāda: It is not exactly religious. You have taken by it because we misunderstand the meaning of religion. Religion generally understood as a kind of cult and faith. But in the Vedic literature, religion means the characteristic. Just like sugar is sweet, that is its religion. If sugar becomes pungent, that is not sugar's characteristic. Similarly, a human being must be God conscious. So that God consciousness is religion. Because in the human form of life one can understand what is God, and if he does not become, he remains an animal. Animal cannot understand. So therefore his business is how to athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is not our manufactured word, this is the Vedānta words. Atha, now we have got this human form body, based on that transmigration of the soul after millions and millions of years, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19), you have got this human form of life, now it is your business to inquire about the Absolute Truth.
Prabhupāda: Not exactly the same, but another. This body is useless. By accident he loses. Mutilated, it cannot be accepted.
Rāmeśvara: But somehow they revive him. Somehow he is revived.
Prabhupāda: Revived means the body was in order.
Rāmeśvara: Temporarily he left.
Prabhupāda: Otherwise, if the body is too much mutilated, it is impossible.
Rāmeśvara: Yes. This is just those rare cases where it is just like almost mutilated completely, but still, it is revived.
Rāmeśvara: 'Cause sometimes when we interview these people who are chanting, they speak from their own realization, and it is not exactly the version of Śukadeva Gosvāmī, it is not..., but it is their own realization, whatever little bit they have realized.
Prabhupāda: No, no. They may chant, but they must understand that the chanting process, that will be more effective. That they must know. Chanting is open. Anyone can chant, but they must know it, that "If I chant in the proper process, then it will be effective."
Prabhupāda: The real problem they do not touch. And the body will change, and he'll live in India or in America, say, for fifty years. He's busy. That is cats, just like these cats and dogs at night. Nobody has given him charge, but he is thinking "I am in charge of the road. Why this put-put motorcar, you have come here? Go on. Go on. Gow! Gow! Gow! Gow!" But who has given him charge? But he's starving, and people are throwing stone upon him, but he's thinking "I am in charge of this business. Why at night this car has come?" Dog mentality. Is it not exactly like the dog? He's disturbing all others—"Gow, gow! Gow, gow, gow!"—but he's thinking that "I am in charge." Is it not dog dancing, these politicians, politics? Who cares for you? Gandhi or there, he has gone. Does it mean the world activities stop? Churchill was there. He has gone. Hitler was there. They are coming and going like so many insects. Napoleon was there. Who cares for them?
Upendra: It's not exactly a wheelchair. It's a little tiny seat that they strap down.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. Who knows that they'll have it? What's the guarantee? He can't walk. You want to go by plane? Because it's two hours? That's a big advantage. (Prabhupāda coughing) Do you want a little miśri-jala, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: So that bus, they have stopped?
| Page Title: | Not exactly (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 23 of Nov, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=58, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 58 |