Optimistic (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"optimism" |"optimist" |"optimistic"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

I am not very much optimistic. Almost I say it is impossible.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Remote chance in the present way of going there. But this is not remote. If one wants to go there, there is a particular ritualistic process. If you adopt that, then you can go in your next life. That means after quitting this body you get a different body and you get your birth there. That is Vedic process.

Reporter: Did you say through a particular ritualistic process you can go there in your next life?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Reporter: Okay. Now I still want to find out if you have any feelings about, say, if...

Prabhupāda: Going there with this body?

Reporter: Yes.

Prabhupāda: No. I am not very much optimistic. Almost I say it is impossible.

Reporter: But if the impossible happened and they were able to safely land on the moon's surface do you feel they would have any difficulty or encounter any trouble with the beings that you say live there?

Prabhupāda: The trouble is already there. You are going with great difficulty and if you land there you may die immediately. Everything is finished. You are already encountering the difficulty. It is not very easy. The Russian scientists, the American scientists, they're trying for the last ten years. Still, they have not approached the moon planet. So difficulty is already there.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

That is not optimist, that is proper civilization.

Conversation with Journalists -- August 18, 1971, London:

Journalist (1): Because there's no need for any one person to have any more than anybody else.

Prabhupāda: No. God has given everything. God has given everything, but if one party becoming demonically powerful, he occupies everything, the others suffer.

Journalist (1): Yes. But the difficulty is, and that's a very optimistic view of human nature.

Prabhupāda: That is civilization.

Journalist (1): But, no...

Prabhupāda: That is not optimist, that is proper civilization.

Journalist (1): Some people might say, who weren't perhaps as convinced as you...

Prabhupāda: Some people means the demons. We are creating demons. By our education, we are creating demons. That demons, they are being frustrated; they are now becoming hippies. Yes. That is the position. Because everyone wants to enjoy. So as soon as we cannot enjoy, there is some reaction. You see?

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Ration means black market.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Madras they have become Communist.

Gurudāsa: She says we are amidst Communism.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Gurudāsa: She said it is not around the corner, we are amidst it now. So it's very obvious.

Indian man: We are in the midst of it.

Gurudāsa: That is what she said.

Pañca-draviḍa: Even the optimistic merchants and people you talk to, I say, "It is Communist government?" They say, "Well, it is Communist-minded government." The government has printed in the paper one headline recently that says by next March..., what is that called, Rana, Rana or Rava, next March calendar.

Prabhupāda: Ravan?

Pañca-draviḍa: Rava or something, a particular notation on the calendar, it corresponds to March or April, r—a something. I don't know the exact period of time, but by March, the government says they will completely..., they want to completely take over the control of wheat by this time. They have already taken over the control of atta and flour and now suji. They want to take over the control of wheat and the control of sugar completely. So all these things we are seeing is what they are doing, they are taking over control, they are rationing the items, but in the ration shop you can get 800 grams of the product and then you have to go out onto the market and buy at outrageous prices, because nobody can feed a family on 800 grams of sugar a month. It's very little for five people. The price of sugar has gone up over a rupee and a half since the government took over.

Prabhupāda: Ration means black market.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

We must be very much pessimistic, not at all optimistic of this world. Unless you become pessimistic, you will not be able to go back to home. If you have little attraction for this world—"It is good"—then you have to remain here. Yes. Kṛṣṇa is so strict.

Morning Walk -- May 17, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: That is another foolishness. How long you will live? When the time of death comes, you will not live longer even by a moment. When a man is going to die, his life is finished. Can your injection, medicine, give one minute's life more? Is there any medicine?

Amogha: Well, there seems to be.

Prabhupāda: No...

Amogha: Sometimes when they give medicine they live longer.

Paramahaṁsa: They say that by perfecting heart transplant they may make people live...

Prabhupāda: They may say, they... Because we take them as rascals, why shall I take their words? We should consider them a rascals, that's all. (someone shouts nastily in background-Prabhupāda barks at them) (laughter) Another rascal. He is enjoying life. So the world is full of rascals. We must be very much pessimistic, not at all optimistic of this world. Unless you become pessimistic, you will not be able to go back to home. If you have little attraction for this world—"It is good"—then you have to remain here. Yes. Kṛṣṇa is so strict.

Paramahaṁsa: But Jesus said: "Love thy brother as thyself." So if we love our brother...

Prabhupāda: That we are loving. We are giving Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is loving, real loving. We are giving him eternal life, eternal bliss. Unless we love them, why we are taking so much trouble? The preacher must love the people. Otherwise why he is taking? He can do it for himself at home. Why he is taking so much trouble? Why in eighty years old I have come here if I do not love? So who can love better than a preacher? He loves even the animals. Therefore they are preaching, "Don't take meat." Do they love the animals, rascals? They are eating, and they love their country, that's all. Nobody loves. It is simply sense gratification. If somebody loves, he is Kṛṣṇa conscious, that's all. All rascals. They are after their own sense gratification, and they will put a signboard, "I love everyone." This is their business. And fools are accepting, "Oh, this man is very philanthropic." He does not love any man. He loves only senses. That's all. The servant of the senses, that's all.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

So what he is proposing? It's nothing new.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That will be finished?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) will work?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But he is not, he's optimistic. He said they will find new sources on the nuclear energy, solar energy and all these predictions. But the point there is that these people, they believe in what he says, because he has Nobel laureate (indistinct), and he's respected by... He's very old about seventy...

Prabhupāda: So what he is proposing? It's nothing new.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He's giving some thought, to those people who are worried, "Don't worry about life, it's going to be all nice." And...

Prabhupāda: No, we are not worried, and even if we, one is worried, he'll be finished by that time. So all worries will be gone. Moreover, after death there will be no worries. (pause) Prove that everything is being done by God, that we want. Half past five?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

No.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So it was argument, not that we have rejected. Upāyān cintayet prajñāḥ...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You mean the treatment? Yes, I have learned to take everything very philosophically, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I mean I took it that you were presenting the..., you know, presenting the whole picture to be considered.

Prabhupāda: I am now puzzled. Still, I am thinking.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I thought it was very good what you said in the sense that it... It actually makes everything... It presents a more real picture. We should not be overly optimistic, neither should we be completely fatalistic.

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And above all, our whole program here is completely transcendental. It's just like Kṛṣṇa dāsa Bābājī said. Your consciousness is so sublime that it's just wonderful at every moment to be with you. I mean, although I wish that you were... We all wish that you were completely healthy, yet at the same time we have never experienced so much nice exchanges with you. I mean we all... Every moment is so relishable to be with you. So I mean, even this puzzlement is very transcendental. None of us see any of this in any kind of a mundane view. It's all due to your consciousness being so Kṛṣṇa conscious, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I mean to me this puzzlement is simply another proof of the existence of Kṛṣṇa, 'cause Kṛṣṇa certainly is not puzzled. It seems like everything is happening according to His plan.

Prabhupāda: Kīrtana may be stopped now.