Parents (Conversations 1976)

Expressions researched:
"parent" |"parent's" |"parentless" |"parents"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Acyutānanda: Then they will say, "Well, you are proselytizing by rice."

Prabhupāda: I am not proselytizing. I am bringing him...

Acyutānanda: Unless they take to your religion...

Prabhupāda: ...to his original consciousness.

Acyutānanda: Unless they follow you, then you won't feed them. You are starving them until they...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. We shall go on. Chanting will also go on. Both things.

Acyutānanda: That was the article of the CARE, I think. They will give food, but you cannot use it to proselytize.

Prabhupāda: No, we give kṛṣṇa-prasādam, not food.

Acyutānanda: Like in Guntur, in a Christian hospital, in the maternity ward they would not release the baby to the parents until they converted to Christianity.

Harikeśa: Where?

Acyutānanda: In Guntur. So they did it to one brāhmaṇa family, and he brought it to the court because he was more orthodox, and they were.... Only one or two articles came in the newspaper. It was hushed up.

Harikeśa: It takes ten years for the court to decide.

Acyutānanda: Well, immediately the police ordered that it had to be released. Or they put.... Just like the Mohammedan water, they put some bread in a well in a place like this, and then they can say, "You are all Christian now because you have drunk the bread that we have put there."

Prabhupāda: They are doing like that here?

Morning Walk -- February 9, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: American system.

Prabhupāda: No, here also, some cases. Gandhi's wife was one year older than Gandhi, yes. Kaustubha Gandhi, she was seventeen years old, and Gandhi was sixteen years old, and they were married. There are many cases.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That was arranged by their parents, or they did it themselves?

Prabhupāda: Yes, by their parents. Except in Bengal, in other provinces they do not take much care of the age. Generally the bridegroom is older. Boy is older than the girl. (break) ...was married, he was eleven years old.

Hṛdayānanda: Eleven years old.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And his wife, my mother-in-law, was seven years. Dr. Rajendra Prasada, the president, he was married when he was eight years old.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: "He is my father." That's all.

Guru dāsa: Nara-priya(?) do not know śāstras. They know unalloyed devotion.

Prabhupāda: No, that is the nature. A child generally abides by the order of the parent. They are playing. The parent says, "Don't do it! Sit down!" Immediately sit down. That is the nature. So why don't you break your nature, that "My duty is to carry out the order of the supreme father?" Then you are safe.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: And when you carry out that order—you fully surrender—then you enjoy full freedom.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is full freedom.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: That is the freedom.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is freedom.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: That is absolute freedom.

Prabhupāda: Full freedom means to be under the order of the Supreme. That is full freedom. That is full freedom.

Morning Walk -- April 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Akṣayānanda: Fallible soldiers.

Prabhupāda: Fallible soldier? Yes.

Akṣayānanda: Sometimes I say to young boys, "You are seeking protection from your parents in your childhood, and then, when you grow old or when you grow older, they will want protection from you, because they will become old and feeble. So where is the protection? There is actually no protection." And everyone can easily understand that.

Prabhupāda: Protection is ultimately Kṛṣṇa.

Akṣayānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: It is all false thought that "He is giving me protection. He is giving me..."

Akṣayānanda: Yes. And the same person who is giving me protection, later he will ask me for protection, and then I will ask somebody else...

Prabhupāda: No, no, even when the father-mother is supposed to give protection, that is also not right conclusion. Otherwise there are so many fathers and mothers who is giving protection to his children. The father-mother, when the child is sick, the father-mother gives all—one who has got means—best medicine, best medical treatment, but the child dies. Where is the protection?

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Everyone can be devotee.... It is a question to understand that "I am not this body." That is beginning. So a businessman can try to understand, a lawyer can try to understand, or a philosopher can try to under.... Everyone can do that. The real point is, first of all try to understand that you are not this body. So where is the hampering, becoming a businessman or family man or this or that? There is no hampering. We are trained up from the very beginning of our life by our parents. We got the opportunity. And businessman, no businessman, it doesn't matter. Ahaituky apratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo... (SB 1.2.6). Find out this verse. Ahaituky apratihatā. Kṛṣṇa conscious is unhampered by anything material. It does not mean that because you are a businessman you cannot be Kṛṣṇa conscious. No. That is not. You may be whatever you are, but you can become Kṛṣṇa conscious at the same time. (break) (devotees offer obeisances) (background talking) So it is not the superexcellency of English language. It is subject matter. Formerly they used to speak in Sanskrit. Therefore it is recorded in Sanskrit language. It can be transferred to any language. The thoughts are there. That is real point. Just like we are translating the thoughts in English, in Spanish, in Portuguese, in French. The real thing is the thought, not the language. But in Sanskrit language you'll find very, very high thoughts. That is because it is very old language.

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Therefore I am asking what is the conception, why they need, why they do not need. First of all describe food. There is some idea, that food is like this. Then the question of food. If there is no need of food, then why is this food question?

Devotee (1): Just like the child wants to be protected by the parent, they're thinking that..., therefore people are feeling that they want to be protected by God. The child is always seeking protection from the parent.

Prabhupāda: There is necessity of God. Just like the child, there is necessity of the parents, a parent is there. Similarly, you feel necessity of God, God is there. Feeling the necessity of parent, the parents are there. Similarly, if you feel necessity of God, then God is there.

Devotee (1): They say that because people are feeling this necessity, it is a crutch.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Necessity means there is. Otherwise why necessity? When you feel hungry, the necessity of food, food is there. The necessity of light, the sun is there.

Morning Walk -- May 30, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: That continues. Beginning is father and mother taking care. So it continues you have the care of father. That is your fault. Therefore you suffer.

Hari-śauri: But practically speaking, we can see that at a certain stage the children have to take care of the father and mother, and not the other way around.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Grown-up children will take care, but the beginning is that without your parents' care you could not succeed. You would have died.

Hari-śauri: This is Freud's argument, that at a certain stage he can leave that care and venture out for himself.

Prabhupāda: He can leave the father's care. But how can he deny father?

Devotee (5): He denies the father. He denies the God the father. He says that's a wish fantasy for ......

Prabhupāda: Fantasy? Father is not fantasy. He is fact. You are grown up. You can leave the protection of the father. But how can you deny father? Then you are a rascal. It is not good to live independent of father. If the rich, opulent, very kind, very merciful, why shall I leave? A father is generally, even though he's personally a bad man, he's still, he's kind, merciful to the son. That he is, actually. A rogue, he loves—just like Ajāmila. He was a rogue, but he was taking care of the youngest child. This is nature, we study that even the father is a rogue, he's kind to his children. So practically he does all nonsense things, but giving protection to the family. So why should he give up the protection of father? When we say father, means all-kindness, all-mercifulness, all taking care. Immediately. In Bengali there is a word, putra davitra hoy, kumāra(?) (indistinct) (indistinct) A son may be bad, but his mother is never bad. Son may be bad, mother.... Son may be bad, but the mother or father is never bad. The father may also be bad, but the mother is never bad.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Devotee: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Just like a child had..., has faith in his parents. So that is not an artificial thing, that is fact. And parents are trustworthy to the child. There is no doubt of..., by nature. So, similarly, why could..., you should be in trust in God? Why blindly? Why not trust with knowledge? And that is our movement. Every civilized person has got some faith in God. But now, they're advanced, they should understand what is God, why you must have faith in Him. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Reporter: It's a matter of education...

Prabhupāda: Simply faith, blind faith we do not endure. And therefore they are becoming godless. And gradually, if we do not understand factually what is God, then the whole human civilization will be godless. To become godless means again animal. That is the difference between animal and man. In the animal society there is no question of religion, faith, God. These things are not there. The human civilization, if it becomes like that, without any faith in God, without any understanding of God, then where is the difference between cats and dogs and human beings? They must know God scientifically. That is the actual aim of human life.

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

Prabhupāda: So we cannot bring it to the court?

Rāmeśvara: Perhaps. I'll see. But this is an example.

Prabhupāda: No, I know that.

Rāmeśvara: It is mostly from parents. Parents have had bad experience that they have lost their children to this movement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that's the big propaganda now. The, there's one.... There's a number of men who kidnap, their professional business is to kidnap devotees and other people who belong to other groups like ours. And they're paid by the parents to kidnap the children back, and they call it deprogram the children, deprogramming.

Hari-śauri: Prabhupāda saw that article on that Ted Patrick.

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.

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

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Ekaś candras tamo hanti. Stars, they cannot do anything; they simply glitter, that's all. Glow-worms.

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, one boy joined our temple here, he was attending a very well known college and straight A's in physics, a scientist. So his parents were a little concerned. His father is a very big professor at California Institute of Technology, the biggest technical school in America. His mother is a professor of anthropology, and she is in the family of millionaires from Germany, German industrialists, so they were very concerned. So they came to visit their boy at our temple, and now the mother is coming regularly, giving nice donations and sometimes spending the weekend.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Dānavīr: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So give him nice. He's living with us?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: He was given one room? No?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dānavīr, was he given a room?

Dānavīr: We have him a place to study every day.

Trivikrama: He also has a Ph.D., from Heidelberg University in philosophy.

Prabhupāda: Therefore, I say that take care of him, he's a good.

Garden Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Go on.

Nalinīkaṇṭha: Canto Seven, Chapter Six, text 2.

yathā hi puruṣasyeha

viṣṇoḥ pādopasarpanam

yad eṣa sarva-bhūtānāṁ

priya ātmeśvaraḥ suhṛt

"The human form of life affords one a chance to return home, back to Godhead. Therefore every living entity, especially in the human form of life, must engage in devotional service to the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu. This devotional service is natural because Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the most beloved, the master of the soul, and the well-wisher of all other living beings." Purport: "The Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā, Chapter Five, verse 29,

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ

sarva-loka-maheśvaram

suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām

jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati

(BG 5.29)

'The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries.' Simply by understanding these three facts—that the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, is the proprietor of the entire creation, that He is the best well-wishing friend of all living entities, and that He is the supreme enjoyer of everything—one becomes peaceful and happy. For this transcendental happiness, the living entity has wandered throughout the universe in different forms of life and different planetary systems, but because he has forgotten his intimate relationship with Viṣṇu, he has merely suffered, life after life. Therefore, the educational system in the human form of life should be so perfect that one will understand his intimate relationship with God, or Viṣṇu. Every living entity has an intimate relationship with God. One should therefore glorify the Lord in the adoration of śānta-rasa or revive his eternal relationship with Viṣṇu as a servant in dāsya-rasa, a friend in sakhya-rasa, a parent in vātsalya-rasa or a conjugal lover in mādhurya-rasa. All these relationships are on the platform of love. Viṣṇu is the center of love for everyone, and therefore the duty of everyone is to engage in the loving service of the Lord. As stated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the Bhāgavatam, Third Canto, Twenty-fifth Chapter, thirty-eighth verse: yesām ahaṁ priya ātmā sutaś ca sakhā guruḥ suhṛdo daivam iṣṭam. 'In any form of life, we are related with Viṣṇu, who is the most beloved, the Supersoul, son, friend and guru.' Our eternal relationship with God can be revived in the human form of life, and that should be the goal of education. Indeed, that is the perfection of life and the perfection of education."

Prabhupāda: Any question about this statement? You can discuss.

Nalinikantha: This chapter is entitled "Prahlāda Instructs His Demoniac Schoolmates." Teaching the children.

Prabhupāda: He was taking opportunity to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness during tiffin hours. When the teachers would go away... During tiffin time, of course, the teachers go away, and Prahlāda Mahārāja immediately will... (aside:) Let him come here. He'd immediately take the opportunity of preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. (greets Indian guests in Bengali) Āsun, come on. (break) ...Kṛṣṇa consciousness even in the classroom. All the school friends were sons of demons, means atheist class of men. So they did not know anything about God, and Prahlāda Mahārāja was taking advantage of the school tiffin hour and preaching. So his first beginning of the teaching was kaumāra ācaret prajño dharmān bhāgavtān iha (SB 7.6.1). From the beginning of life, when we are children, we should learn about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the beginning of his teachings.

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

Prabhupāda: Hm. Āyur-vyayaḥ. Simply spending the duration of life. Just like you have got some bank balance, and if you spend it for useless purposes. Similarly, we have got some bank balance or duration of life balance. Our death begins.... From the next moment of our birth, death begins. Suppose I'll live hundred years. So I am born, one day passed means one day is reduced from hundred years. The friends come, "How old is your child?" the parents says "He is three years old." That means three years he has died. Ninety-seven years balance. So if we waste our, this balance of life for nothing, that is forbidden. Kevalāyur-vyayaḥ. You utilize the balance for some good purpose. No, we are wasting it. The so-called economic development means we are wasting the balance of our life. This is the philosophy. Read it, na tat, huh?

Magazine Interview -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Interviewer: If they're interested.

Prabhupāda: Interested or not interested. Child is not interested for education. But it is the duty of the father to make him educated, sometimes punish him. So a child may be foolish, but how the parents can be foolish? It is not that because the human society is not interested, this should be stopped. No.

Interviewer: How can you make them interested if they're not?

Prabhupāda: Well, how these boys are becoming interested? They are young men, they have got so many ideas of bodily enjoyment, but how they have become interested? Thousands. They are all young men. How they have become interested? And you cannot withdraw them from this interest.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: And you give the book?

Mādhavānanda: Yes. It is like magic. Kṛṣṇa is trying to help them also.

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. So all these other literatures, they are meant for the crows. And this literature is meant for the swan, paramahaṁsa, white swans. So it is not the bodily color. It means those who are advanced in their development of life, consciousness, it is meant for them. It is not for the crows, who are still eating all nasty things in the garbage. Crows, they do that. They take pleasure where there are garbage, all nasty things and.... And the big swans, they will like water like this, garden like this. That is.... Even in the lower animals, there is difference between the crow's society and swan's society.

Conversation with Clergymen -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: There's no training to qualify a person to become first class. There is no training.

Kern: I'm thinking of the retarded, the Mongoloid, the encephalitis, those who are born with...

Prabhupāda: Nobody's born intelligent; that is not possible.

Kern: No, I understand. You see, it mentions in there that.... I was thinking what message do you have for the parents of a child...

Prabhupāda: How to train them first class.

Kern: No, this is a retarded...

Scheverman: A child that is born handicapped, intellectually handicapped.

Kern: Cannot walk nor talk.

Prabhupāda: Well, that is another.... That is exceptional. Generally, anyone is born, according to Vedic civilization, everyone is born fourth class. When he takes his birth, it is to be accepted he's a fourth class. Now by training, you can make him first class, second class, third class. By birth, everyone is fourth class.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Hmm. That was Śyāmasundara's father's car. So he's a good driver, (laughter) but very dangerous driver. I do not know, Śyāmasundara, his father is a rich man, lawyer, got good estate and he's the only son. He did not like to stay with father.

Hari-śauri: No one in the West likes to stay with their parents.

Prabhupāda: Two sisters, very beautiful girls. They're unhappy.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They're unhappy?

Prabhupāda: Yes. His two sisters.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I heard he was preaching to them. At least one of them that came to the temple that time. She came to that program.

Prabhupāda: She first of all came in London.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: She was piano player.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, they're artists. They're artists. They're not happy. Divorced. His mother is very gentle, I have seen. Father is also respectable man.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Family life in the West is disastrous.

Prabhupāda: The father wants to get them back at home, but they don't.... The father is also taking pills for sleeping. (laughs) Father is also not happy.

Hari-śauri: That's the thing. In the West, even though the opulence is there, the children can see the parents are not happy. The parents are always full of anxiety. So even though the parents want the children to stay at home, the children they resent that, because they can see that "You have nothing to offer. It's just a facade."

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They don't want to become like their parents. They don't see that their parents are a desirable example to follow.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Wine and sex. They see from childhood. One boy, Rancor, so his father and mother divorced and he was young child. He was the first child of his mother. And the mother, he said, would daily bring a new friend. So he could understand.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: A new woman.

Prabhupāda: Not new woman, his mother, he was under the care of mother.

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

Prabhupāda: That is due to misgovernment. There is no king; all rogues and thieves are in the government. Mismanagement. It is the government duty to see that everyone is doing nicely so that they can live peacefully, happily. There must be direction. Just like parentless children. Nobody is to take care; they'll be wretched. So India's position is like that. The parentless children. There is no good government. And they supply this control wheat that is not even touchable. Unfit for human consumption. There is a worm...

Hari-śauri: Control wheat?

Prabhupāda: Yes. They purchase from here and there all rejected wheat, and they supply it. There is no ghee, no milk, no proper food grain. Everything black market. Any necessary commodity you cannot have in the open market; you have to purchase in black market. Just like for the building purpose, cement. In your country you can purchase any amount of it. You cannot purchase. You have to purchase black market, and that cement also mixed with some... What is that? And unless you give some bribe, it is not possible.

Prabhupada Inspects New BTG -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Won't it help to have your books in their homes though? And maybe future generations will, you know, be benefited, they'll read your books?

Prabhupāda: Let the parent, present generation read first of all. (laughs) Then talk of future generations.

Hari-śauri: At least they're still inclined to read the Bhagavad-gītā. So if they have yours, then they can be correct, they can correct their misunderstandings.

Prabhupāda: What is this article? Ah. "Kṛṣṇa Consciousness-The Spirit of '76." "Curing the Crimes of a Lifetime." Vibhavatī. "Curing the Crimes"—read it.

Room Conversation and Reading from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1 and 12 -- June 25, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Abhirucir, yes. Now formerly marriage was a religious ceremony. Marriage was, this boy and this girl should be married, it is a religious function where the father and mother will see their horoscope and see if they are compatible, they will agree, they will live peacefully, so many things are there. Still, in India such things are calculated by the parents of the boy and the girl. But in this Kali-yuga, dāmpatye abhirucir. Abhirucir means the boy and the girl, if he likes, if he says, that's all. No other calculation. And the, after three days after marriage, there is divorce. (laughter) Because abhirucir, "I like, I don't like," that's all. Now I like, and after three days I don't like, finished, business. In Chicago I saw a newspaper. One girl, within three weeks she has divorced two husbands. (laughter) Yes, I saw it in the newspaper. So this, formerly the father, mother used to see that this boy and this girl are going to be married. So by horoscope, by other circumstances, by family, cultural, by education, so many things, whether they will live peacefully. That was the understanding. Husband-wife means, a man requires a woman, a woman requires a man. They should be combined in such a way that they can live peacefully. If there is no disturbance of the mind, then they can make further progress in spiritual life. Therefore marriage is also necessary, and that must be properly done. This was the... Now there is no such consideration. The boys and girls are free, and if one likes the other... Dāmpatye, what is that?

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

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "In this Sixteenth Chapter the Lord explains both the transcendental nature and its attendant qualities as well as the demoniac nature and its qualities. He also explains the advantages and disadvantages of these qualities. The word abhijātasya in reference to one born of transcendental qualities or godly tendencies is very significant. To beget a child in a godly atmosphere is known in the Vedic scriptures as garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. If the parents want a child in the godly qualities they should follow the ten principles of the human being. In Bhagavad-gītā we have studied also before that sex life for begetting a good child is Kṛṣṇa Himself. Sex life is not condemned provided the process is used in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Those who are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness at least should not beget children like cats and dogs but should beget them so they may become Kṛṣṇa conscious after birth. That should be the advantage of children born of a mother or father absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The social institution known as varṇāśrama dharma, the institution dividing society into four divisions or castes, is not meant to divide human society according to birth. Such divisions are in terms of educational qualifications. They are to keep the society in a state of peace and prosperity. The qualities mentioned herein are explained as transcendental qualities meant for making a person progress in spiritual understanding so he can get liberated from the material world."

Prabhupāda: So where is that institution to train people to acquire these transcendental qualities? There is no such institution. We are attempting to qualify the man in transcendental qualities. This is the only institution. Otherwise, where it is? I don't think, throughout the whole world, there is any institution to train the students in transcendental qualities. Who cares for transcendental qualities? Go on.

Room Conversation -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: The black men.

Hari-śauri: No, just the people in general, for happiness. Because they understand that if there are so many different groups, then there will always be fighting and dissent. So they are always looking for some compromise how to get the groups to live together.

Prabhupāda: This is equal—Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Otherwise not.

Hari-śauri: No. Materially speaking, they've tried so many ways to integrate the black with the whites here in America, but what has actually happened is, through those efforts, they've created a worse situation. By deliberately forcing black children and white children to go to the same schools... Sometimes they have what's called here bussing. It's a big major issue in politics now. Because they take all the black children and they take them to a white area just so that they can go to the school there. They actually take them further away from their local schools to another school, where it is all white children, so that they'll integrate and mix. So it's very controversial.

Prabhupāda: The parents won't like.

Hari-śauri: No. They say, because it's like an artificial.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is artificial. They are lowborn, there is no doubt about it. Otherwise, they are getting the all facilities, still they are wretched, poor, unclean, not educated, not gentle, everything. All bad behavior. (end)

Garden Conversation -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: That is the purport. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsu śreya uttamam (SB 11.3.21). One has to go to guru when one is inquisitive. Jijñāsu. Jijñāsu means we want to know so many things; that is our nature. Child also wants to know. He asks his parents, "What is this, father? What is this, mother?" That inquisitiveness is there in everyone. So when one wants to know about the Supreme, then he requires a guru, or spiritual master. It is not a fashion that "Everyone keeps a guru; let me also have a guru." Not like that. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). "In order to understand the transcendental science, one has to go to guru." Jijñāsu śreya uttamam. After artha,... Just like generally, naturally, one goes to temple, church... Four classes of men. One is needy: "O God, give us our daily bread." One thinks... Actually, that is the fact. God gives us bread. So traditionally we are trained up. So we go to God, "Give us our daily bread." Similarly, one who wants to know what is God. Just like in our society, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they see that these boys, young boys, they have given up everything, they are after Kṛṣṇa. What is this Kṛṣṇa? That is intelligent.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No. Chapter Three. "In this chapter the author has fully discussed the reason for the descent of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, after displaying His pastimes as Lord Kṛṣṇa, thought it wise to make His advent in the form of a devotee to explain personally the transcendental mellow reciprocations of service and love between Himself and His servants, friends, parents and fiancees. According to the Vedic literature, the foremost occupational duty for humanity in this age of Kali is nāma-saṅkīrtana, or congregational chanting of the holy name of the Lord. The incarnation for this age especially preaches this process, but only Kṛṣṇa Himself can explain the confidential loving service performed in the four principal varieties of loving affairs between the Supreme Lord and His devotees. Lord Kṛṣṇa therefore personally appeared, with His plenary portions, as Lord Caitanya. As stated in this chapter, only for that purpose did Lord Kṛṣṇa appear personally in Navadvīpa in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja has herein presented much authentic evidence from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and other scriptures to substantiate the identity of..."

Prabhupāda: You are reading Caitanya Mahāprabhu. About Nityānanda, see the contents? No, in the beginning. Chapter where is contents. Nityānanda-tattva.

Rūpānuga: "The Glories of Lord Nityānanda-Balarāma."

Prabhupāda: Fifth Chapter?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: "This chapter is chiefly devoted to describing the essential nature and glories of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: That pathologist.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. He works in National Institute of Health in Washington, D.C. We was telling me he was from Haridwar from a very pious family, and he said his parents are Vaiṣṇavas, and he has been thinking since from his childhood about this problem about life, the origin of life and consciousness, and we talked a little bit about our concept of this origin of life, connecting from the Vedas and the scientific interrelationship. And he was very much impressed, and he told me that if he can be of any help, he's willing to...

Prabhupāda: You should call him, let us.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, he's coming this evening.

Prabhupāda: All right, very good.

Pradyumna: In India, there are many Ph.D.'s and scientists who are Vaiṣṇavas, and they write articles. But in India it doesn't go noticed. In the South, there are many.

Prabhupāda: In South, eh?

Pradyumna: In Bangalore and many places.

Prabhupāda: They are all Vaiṣṇavas. So recruit them. You know? Then let them write articles in this. Yes, it will be very nice.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: The system is the boys and girls should be married earlier, and they should work, and there should be no divorce. But whether your country law will allow, that is another difficulty. You may introduce something, but the state law may not approve of it.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I don't think there is any minimum age for marriage, simply the parents have to give their consent under a certain age. There's no minimum age.

Hari-śauri: There is in England. In a lot of countries now there's a minimum age. No, they cannot be married under that age. Women sixteen, men eighteen.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But with parents' consent.

Rūpānuga: ISKCON parents, if the girl is fifteen, like you said, fifteen, then the ISKCON parent may give permission, that is legal. Not only that, but our own men, as I have done in Virginia, I have registered as minister in the state, and I can perform marriages. So our own men can register to perform marriages.

Prabhupāda: Another difficulty is the boy and the girl, they also do not stick. That is another difficulty.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Then you have to go to the... Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Just like we were discussing Sanātana Gosvāmī, he has gone to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he said, "Sir, You have brought me from the entanglement of family life. Now tell me what is my duty." So that discussion is going on. So you should approach guru and take instruction from him what is, how to act. If you want to act as a brahmacārī, he'll give you direction, "You do this." If you want to act as a gṛhastha, he'll give you direction, "You do like this." That is wanted. The guru, the parents, the government, they should guide.

Guest (3): But it says that if I follow another person's occupation, even if I do it better than my own occupation, that is not as good as following what I ought to be doing.

Prabhupāda: If you are unfit for that occupation, why should you imitate, waste your time? If you are, you are fit for becoming a carpenter, why should you imitate a brāhmaṇa? Better be expert carpenter and serve Kṛṣṇa with the result of carpentry work. Then there is perfection. Saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam.

Morning Walk -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Hari-śauri: In a lot of big cities that's a major problem now. They can't get any teachers to teach there because the children are so violent and uncontrollable that the teachers are just too scared to work there.

Prabhupāda: In our Gurukula we'll improve. But the parents do not want that their children should be religious, sādhu.

Rāmeśvara: In these schools, the children are given drugs by their schoolmates. Even at an early age, six, twelve years old, ten years old, they are smoking cigarettes.

Evening Darsana -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Everyone is exchanging love in this world, we see that practically, that husband and wife are exchanging love, children and parents are exchanging love, friend and friend are exchanging love. There are so many different relationships in which we exchange love. Even animals like a dog; a cat/dog is exchanging love. It's been analyzed, experiments have been done that even a plant is more productive when he knows that the person who is taking care of the plant is a friend. They speak about the green thumb. So even plants respond. They are sensitive. In a sense they are also exchanging love in a simple way. So this loving propensity is natural. The difficulty is that due to ignorance, we're exchanging love on the bodily platform, which is asat, temporary. And therefore everyone is frustrated. Everyone is frustrated. It's a false platform of love. So the real platform of love is when we come to the soul platform. Kṛṣṇa speaks about this in the Bhagavad-gītā:

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā

na śocati na kāṅkṣati

samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu

mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām

(BG 18.54)

That when you come to the soul platform, it's also called brahma-bhūta stage or platform of the soul, then mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām: that bhakti, bhakti means transcendental love and service to God.

Prabhupāda: Bhakti means yes, exchange of love between God and the individual soul.

Evening Darsana -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Beer cans and...

Prabhupāda: This is national degradation. Every state full of garbage, litters. Not only now, I was living here (indistinct); the last 10 years. At least I have seen.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: One of the parents of the devotees who came the other day, they said they went to Vṛndāvana, and the gentleman who bought those pictures, photographs in Washington...

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He said he was surprised how clean Vṛndāvana was.

Prabhupāda: Many, even the poorest man's house you go in the village, you'll find everything neat and clean. At least the kitchen and eating, very neat and... Climatic condition is also nice. Almost all the year there is sunshine. Only during rainy season the sun is... That is also cooling a bit. After summer season, the rainy season covering, there is enjoyable cooling. Now everywhere... (end)

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes, so our business is to educate them that "Your hammering business is not your life. Your freedom is real business."

Interviewer: Freedom is what?

Prabhupāda: Real business.

Interviewer: You've, I'm sure you've heard or read about these claims by these parent groups that claim that the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement members are, ah, sort of controlled by intensive indoctrination? Brain-washed they call it, you know, by getting up and having the two hours or three of chanting in the morning and prayer beads constantly and the group life, that they're sort of controlled, and denied their freedom. What do you say about that?

Prabhupāda: It is due to misunderstanding. They do not understand what kind of preaching, what kind of education we are giving. We are giving education how to become free from the hammering business in the jail. They think hammering business and keep oneself within the jail is the real life because they have been accustomed to that. And when we speak that "Hammering or to keep within the jail is not your real business: your real business is freedom," naturally they find contradiction, and they think that we are doing something against their business. That is the difficulty.

Morning Walk -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They know it is bad, but they like it.

Prabhupāda: Will these parents like that the children may have liberty to follow a dark path? Will the father like?

Rāmeśvara: No.

Prabhupāda: Then why the government doesn't...?

Hari-śauri: They're making too much revenue to stop selling it.

Prabhupāda: That is not good government.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The parents are bad also.

Rāmeśvara: They put an age limit on it. They say you can only buy liquor when you have reached a certain age.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They want the children to be good, but the parents are bad.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They want the children to be good, but the parents are all bad.

Rāmeśvara: I think you have to be eighteen years old.

Prabhupāda: Then you become bad.

Morning Walk -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: "Afro-American Art." What is this?

Hṛdayānanda: I think it means art by American black persons.

Rāmeśvara: Afro-American means people with dark-skinned bodies, they have painted these paintings.

Hari-śauri: One of the big problems that you read about a lot now is how parents are confused about how to educate their children, because there are so many different standards, and they don't know how their children will turn out anymore.

Prabhupāda: Here is our standard—to make him devotee.

Hṛdayānanda: China.

Rāmeśvara: These are Chinese art paintings. They are having a special exhibit of Chinese art.

Prabhupāda: Afro-American, why not Indo-American?

Bali-mardana: There is an Indian exhibition at a different museum right now. This museum also has Indian exhibitions sometimes.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Jayatīrtha: Yes, that money in the Lloyd's Bank account? Yes, we will give you better interest than the bank.

Prabhupāda: Good. No, now we are book selling nicely. I think our settlement.... (?) Kṛṣṇa has arranged everything cautiously and not extravagantly. You go on. Everything will be all right. There will be no scarcity. Yāvad-artha-prayojanam. Our parents taught us, mother, if there was a grain of rice on the ground and it is touched with feet, "Oh, you take it." We were taught like that.

Jayatīrtha: Nothing should be wasted.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa has sent you His grain. You cannot waste it. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Live that way. And Kṛṣṇa is providing so much facilities for becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious, and why should we deviate and spoil this life, take the risk of again going into the cycle of birth and death? Commonsense affair. We have got the good, greatest opportunity to solve this problem of repetition of birth. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). And only for little sense gratification we are going to sacrifice so great opportunity of life? This much education is wanted. Na sadhu manye yata ātmano 'yam. Eh? Find out the verse, Fifth Canto. Fifth Canto, Fifth Chapter. Na sadhu manye yata atmano 'yam asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti (SB 5.5.4). Very bad civilization. Mad civilization, pramattaḥ. Simply for little sense gratification they are prepared to take so much risk. Next life you may become cat, dog or a small grass or a tree by laws of nature. So nūnaṁ pramattaḥ. Is it Fifth Canto?

Bhagavān: Ṛṣabhadeva.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: That you can do, to make it understandable easily. It is already easy. If you want to make more easy, then do that.

Jyotirmāyī: Okay. You also allowed... You said that some parents can keep their children with them and teach themselves.

Prabhupāda: You follow that, brahmacārī gurukula, that I've already explained. That should be done. Don't bring any new thing, imported ideas. That will not be helpful. It will be encumbrance. "My experiment with truth"—Gandhi's movement. Truth is truth. "Experiment" means you do not know what is truth. It is a way of life, everything is stated there, try to train them. Simple thing. We are not going to teach biology or chemistry. They are not going to... Our students are not going to... Our students should be fit for teaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. By their character, by their behavior, by their knowledge, that is wanted. Biology, chemists, physicists, and mathematician there are hundreds and thousands. We are not going to waste our time that Gurukula should produce a great grammarian, a great geologist, biologist, don't want that. There are many other educational institutions. If you can get a good driver of your car, so what is the use of wasting your time to learn driving? Is it not? If you have got important business, you can do that. Why should you waste your time to learn driving? Better employ one driver, pay him some fare.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: That is our position. We should not waste a single moment for so-called material things, happiness. Best save time and utilize it for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That's all?

Jyotirmāyī: Yes, and just one more.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Jyotirmāyī: Because you were saying that the parents can keep their children and teach them themselves, like Arundhatī is teaching Aniruddha. So does it mean that the parents can...

Prabhupāda: He complained that "My boy is not being properly..." So I said that "You teach your son."

Jyotirmāyī: She can keep him and teach him all the time? Until he's older and so on?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Yes. That is the duty of the father and mother. Along with that, he can teach others also. These things are to be organized. But some way or other, our students should be given education and spiritual life, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Individually, collectively, somehow or other. The principle is laid down there, brahmacārī gurukule vasan dānto guror-hitam. That's the beginning. Everything is there, we have to simply follow it. We haven't got to manufacture anything. That is a waste of time. Whatever is there, you follow. Is that all right?

Devotees: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: I was astonished, that how these children take me as friend.

Hari-śauri: I don't think that's too difficult. You're the best friend for everyone.

Prabhupāda: No, but after all, they are children. How they can take it as it is? So they are fortunate children, and their parents and everyone should take care of them. A very difficult age.

Hari-śauri: You always said they're our asset for the future.

Prabhupāda: If they can be trained up, they can become very good preacher, each one of them. And they can make hundreds of devotees. In this way we can expand. Are you realizing that there is no civilization? Actually civilization we are introducing. Except Aryan civilization, Vedic civilization, there is no civilization—animal society. What do you think? Are you convinced about it?

Harikeśa: Oh, yes, every time I walk out the door I'm convinced. And when you come back to the temple, it's marvelous, the spiritual world. No matter what going on, may be bad, may be good, doesn't matter. It's very relieving.

Prabhupāda: Civilization means to push the man forward for perfection. That is civilization.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Hari-śauri: Your nephew was a taxi driver.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Nephew was my sister's son. We had to maintain one sister and her family. She became widow. So this is Hindu family obligation. When the daughter is widow, she comes to the father's shelter with all family. The father has to maintain.

Hari-śauri: You wouldn't get that in the West. (laughs) They don't even maintain their own parents.

Prabhupāda: On the whole, during British time, people were happy, that I can... The thing is that Britishers were little afraid that "If the government is not good, it will go against our credit, that we may agitate." So they were careful to see that people are happy. But here nobody's careful. Everyone thinks "I'm in my own country. Whatever I do, it is all right." They were conscious, that "We are foreigners. If the management is not good, then it will go against our credit and it will be difficult working such a big England empire." So they were little careful. But these rascals are not... Just like the governor, he was friendly, but what is the report? Did he say? Did not behave very nicely?

Room Conversation -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Ah. In East Germany also, they have placed order. So this is joining. Just like for us, if you bring any other literature, we throw it away immediately. We take it as useless. Actually it is. We have nothing to learn from them, anything. All bogus. Either he's scientist or astronomer, or..., we know they are talking all bogus things. There may be some truth. Even that truth is there when a child speaks, there is some truth. When a child speaks to his parents, there is some truth, otherwise where is the question of talking? So little portion truth is there, everywhere. But when they talk of big, big things—they are going to Mars and scratching sand there—that we don't believe. That we don't believe. When they talk of this tape recorder, some electronic machine, joining together and it is working, that much care you can take. But when you speak of so many things, that millions of years there were germs and germination, now they are trying to come out, and it is all vacant—these are all bogus, we don't accept. Talking too much. In Bengal it is called yatap(?) When the same child speaks something too much, "Ah, stop." To the extent of his capacity, that's all right. But if you talk more than that, then you are rascal. So they are doing that now. Because they have got some electronic success, or they have manufactured some jet plane, or these, they are now thinking "Now we have owned over the whole world situation." That is nonsense.

Room Conversation -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Hari-śauri: Lockers.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is not possible for us. We welcome. But we must be well organized to utilize these poor souls for becoming first-class devotees. That should be done. Otherwise, sex life and the by-product, that is always troublesome, either you take this way or that way, it is troublesome. If it is not troublesome, why they are killing their own children? To avoid trouble. This is psychology. They want to avoid trouble. But our process is, if you want to avoid trouble, then don't marry, remain brahmacārī. If you cannot, then, all right, have legal wife, get children and raise them very nicely, make them Vaiṣṇavas, take the responsibility. So we are organizing this society, we welcome. Some way or other we shall arrange for shelter. But to take care of the children, to educate them, that will depend on their parents. Now our Pradyumna was complaining that in the Gurukula, his child was not educated to count one, two, three, four. So I have told him that "You educate your child. Let the mother educate in English, and you educate him in Sanskrit." Who can take care? So similarly every father, mother should take care that in future they may not be a batch of unwanted children.

Room Conversation -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Bhagavān: Several months ago we had a parents' meeting. Because on account of this man Moon, there was much agitation about groups taking young children away. So we had a very nice meeting with prasādam and slides, and one of the parents was saying that "We want to be angry at you, but the problem is that you are all so nice that we cannot be angry."

Prabhupāda: One gentleman has joined, he has paid five thousand dollars. His whole family has joined.

Harikeśa: Just now? That's nice.

Bhagavān: His wife's the same too.

Harikeśa: Oh? (break)

Bhagavān: I wanted to get Kṛṣṇa book published while you are here. So I really pushed our printer to work very hard. I told him, "But the thing is, I have no money to pay you right now," because we had just printed Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He said, "You try to give me five percent down and I'll give you eight months' credit."

Prabhupāda: Ācchā. (laughs)

Bhagavān: So I didn't have the money because we were fixing up. So one girl joined, and she gave eight thousand dollars.

Prabhupāda: And what is the whole bill?

Bhagavān: That was..., the whole bill was about forty-five thousand dollars. So that was sufficient for the downpayment.

Prabhupāda: It is about more than ten percent. He wants five percent.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: The parents also like it.

Nandarāṇī: The parents love it. The parents are very happy. And they pay some tuition, they pay just fifteen or twenty dollars for a summer session, and their children like it. They come and take prasāda, we have long kīrtanas. I've taught them to do pūjā, some āratik for Lord Jagannātha, and they like it so much. Now whenever their parents have their meetings, or whenever they're meeting, their children bring their Deities and they have their own āratiks there, and they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. It's very nice.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Nandarāṇī: Yes, the children like it very much. The parents also, because they don't want to take time to teach their children these things. They are so busy in their businesses.

Prabhupāda: They come here for money, at the sacrifice of...

Nandarāṇī: Yes. We have Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities here, marble, sixteen inch, I think. They've been here for two years. Nava-yauvana got them in India because he thought that soon they would be able to worship them, but we will never have ten brāhmaṇas here, I mean, it will always be just...

Prabhupāda: Not ten brāhmaṇas, at least four, five.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: So everything depends on the sincerity and seriousness. And if we take these ritualistic ceremonies, "Now I've gone to church or mosque, I have gone to temple, finish. Now let me do whatever I like." Then that is waste of time. Śrama eva hi kevalam. That is simply waste of time. That is going on practically. He doesn't want to see "How much progress I have made in the matter of loving God." That he does not inquire. He takes God as order supplier. So "He's supplying my order, that's nice." He'll never learn to supply the order of God. Neither he will come any stage on that platform. The highest stage is to supply the order of God, not make God my order supplier. That is neophyte stage. Just like a small child, he simply wants to take supply from the father. But when the child is grown up and he's educated, he wants to see "How I can supply the order of parents." That is good stage. "My parents have taken so much pain to raise me, now I am educated, now they are old man..." Sentiment, I am speaking, this family sentiment. "I must see my..." (someone enters) Come on. The whole day. That is the stage of love, that "I have taken supplies from my father so long, now I must supply the order of the father." That is the stage of love. I'll not take. I have taken so much, sufficient. Now I'll not take anything from my parents, I shall simply supply what they want. That is good son, loving son. That is perfection of spiritual or religious life, when we love God and we are prepared to sacrifice anything for God. That is perfection. So, whole day you were engaged?

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Dayānanda: Whatever gives pleasure to the greatest number of people.

Prabhupāda: Pleasure... So that is child. The child also feels pleasure with something. But it is the duty of the parent to train him to the right point of view. The child takes pleasure playing the whole day. But the father does not allow him. If you leave, let the child seeks his own pleasure, then you are spoiling him. Then there is no need of becoming your father, guardian, let him be spoiled by his whimsical pleasure. There is no need of training, schooling, colleges. There is no need. In my childhood I was not willing to go to the schools. My mother forced, by force she used to... My father was lenient and my mother kept a special man, yamadhara(?), that, "Your duty is to take him by force to the school." Yes. My father, my mother would complain that "Your boy did not go to school." "Oh, he did not go to school?" And I was sure he was very affectionate. "Why?" "No, I shall go tomorrow." Then father, "All right, he will go tomorrow, that's all right." But that tomorrow will never come. This is my practical. My mother forced me. So I thought, "It is pleasure. Why shall I go to school? Let me play whole day." But it is the duty of the guardian to see that this is not pleasure, this is spoiling. A child may think something pleasure, but the guardian should not think that this is pleasure. This is spoiling him. Otherwise why the guardians are required? Why government is needed, why king is needed, why father is needed, why guru is needed? Just to guide. Therefore whatever you think whimsically it is pleasure, the guru, the father, the king, the government, they should guide—"No, it is not pleasure, it is ruining. You should take like this." If the guru and father and the government, they are themselves rascals and fools, how they will guide? And that is the position. General public, they require guidance, but the guides themselves are rascals and fools, cheaters, bluffers. Therefore the condition, social condition... (passerby says something) He said in English?

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Pradyumna: You said in the Bhāgavatam just that, that we are afraid of the materialistic men.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Personally I feel, I have several times told. For a devotee to live with nondevotees is so obnoxious and troublesome, it is sometimes mentioned, better to remain within a cage surrounded by fire, and still, don't remain with nondevotees. You prefer to live within a cage surrounded by fire. That living is preferable than to live with this nondevotee class.

Hari-śauri: A lot of the devotees had that experience living with their parents before they joined the movement. It was so hellish they had to get out. Then they, some way or other, met...

Prabhupāda:

tāṅdera caraṇa-sebi-bhakta-sane bās

janame janame hoy ei abhilāṣ

Bhakta-sane bās, that is the essential part of progressing. Dayānanda's daughter came today, in my lavatory.

Hari-śauri: When you were in?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I was going... (break) Generally, this baḍā are made with paṭola(?) leaves, paṭola leaves mashed and mixed with this dahi.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Nandarāṇī: If someone accepts his dependence on God, then what is the second step? In preaching, so someone has accepted, "Yes, we are dependent on God," but actually they have no knowledge who God is.

Prabhupāda: Give them knowledge from Bhagavad-gītā. If you accept dependence on God, then you take instruction from God, how you'll be happy. Just like a child. The child knows he's fully dependent on parents. So he's fully obeying the orders of the parents, then he's happy, naturally. The father, mother, knows how to take care of the child and they're happy. And by nature they're dependent on father and mother. So they are happy. Mother says, "My dear child, sit down." He will sit down. By nature.

Dayānanda: Some people are sectarian in their idea of God.

Prabhupāda: What is sectarian? Every sect the child is dependent of the parents. What do you mean by sectarian? Does it mean the Hindu child does not depend on the parents? The Muslim child depends on the parents? Everyone depends on the parents. Either he may be Hindu child or Muslim child or Christian child, that is the nature of the child. Similarly, you may be Hindu, you may be Muslim, you are dependent on God. This is a fact. What is sectarian? Can the Muslims say that "No, no, we are not dependent on God"? Can the Christians say like that? We have to take the general condition: everyone is dependent on God. Where is the question of sectarian? Now this cloud, it is clouded, everyone is expecting some rain. Does it mean the rain is Hindu rain or Muslim rain or Christian rain? Dependent on cloud. Everyone is expecting rain. It doesn't matter whether he's Hindu, Muslim or Christian. Why they declare independence?

Jñānagamya: They say independence means you don't need anything.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Why? If Kṛṣṇa orders, you must. Why don't you like? That is your misfortune. What Kṛṣṇa's... Kariṣye vacanaṁ tava. That is following. You like or may not like. Arjuna did not like to fight. That's a fact. Therefore whole Bhagavad-gītā is spoken to him. Arjuna did not like fight. But when he understood Bhagavad-gītā, he said, "Yes," kariṣye vacanaṁ tava (BG 18.73). You cannot give your verdict. What Kṛṣṇa says, you have to do it. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious. You like or don't like, that doesn't matter. Just like a child. He likes or not likes, but what the parent says, he has to do. That is his success. If the child says, "Father, I don't like to go to school," will the father agree? "No, you must go to school." And if he agrees, that is his benefit. Our liking, not liking, has no value. What Kṛṣṇa likes, we have to do it. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇanu-śīlanam (CC Madhya 19.167), that is bhakti. Bhakti means ānukūlyena kṛṣṇanu-śīlanam. You have to act which is favorable to Kṛṣṇa. That is bhakti. You cannot make you choice. What Kṛṣṇa says, you do it. That is bhakti. (break) What is their reason?

Mrs. Sahani: Well, they were not even Kṛṣṇa conscious people.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Mrs. Sahani: Kauravas.

Prabhupāda: Kaurava, oh. Yes. No, not that they are not Kṛṣṇa conscious, they may be. That's all right. My business is to execute what Kṛṣṇa says. That's all. That is bhakti.

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Hari-śauri: He was prime minister for about ten days.

Prabhupāda: Yes, for a few days. He was a very prominent member in the cabinet, and now see. So planning, you make so many plans, but it requires sanction. That planning is condemned by Prahlāda Mahārāja. Bālasya neha śaraṇaṁ pitarau nṛsiṁha nārtasya cāgadam udanvati majjato nauḥ. In this way, there is a verse, that we are planning, that every parent is planning how his child will be grown nice, educated, but it becomes different. Every father, mother plan that "My child should be like this." But he is becoming hippie. When there is somebody diseased, rich man, he is planning to save him, best physician, best medicine supplied, but he's dying. So what is the value of your planning? Your planning is... That's all right. That's your duty. But it requires the sanction of some higher authority. Otherwise useless. That is your position. You may make plan, but unless it is sanctioned by the higher authority, then it is useless. That is practically going on.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Śrīla Prabhupāda? This morning both of these boys would like to be initiated if you would give them your mercy.

Prabhupāda: Yes, so let them...

Ātreya Ṛṣi: After the guru-pūjā.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Available is everything. If you pay, everything is available. Therefore they say, "If you pay, I can supply you tiger's blood." If you pay, everything is available. People have lost completely interest in spiritual life. They have lost completely.

Kartikeya Mahadevia: But in the new generation we think children are more interested in religion or the bhakti than the parents. That is a new development. People who are 25 or 15, they are not. But the children who are below 10. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...parents will encourage. They have no interest even.

Kartikeya Mahadevia: At the school level, something can be done.

Prabhupāda: The authorities will not allow. School authorities, if you say that you want whole Gītā, (?) they will not. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). This is Kali-yuga. All bad. And even one is interested, he is interested in something bogus. Sumanda-matayaḥ. They have manufactured a style of religious principle. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyāḥ. And all unfortunate.

Press Interview at Muthilal Rao's House -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: That means you are not properly trained up. The thing is, the first business of human being is to inquire about the spiritual subject matter. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is the Vedānta philosophy. Now we have got this human form of body, it is your duty to inquire about the spiritual subject matter. But if your guardians, if your parents, if your government does not teach you, then it is our misfortune.

Interviewer (3): Do you want this to become a part of the educational system here?

Prabhupāda: This is the first education. Otherwise it is animal. Animal does not require absolute education. Animal is not able to understand what is self, what is God. But a man can. Therefore the man's first business is to understand this self-realization.

Interviewer (3): Do you think it will come to India via the West now?

Prabhupāda: I don't follow.

Interviewer (3): Will it come to India via the West?

Prabhupāda: India is already there. You are neglecting. Why don't you admit that you are neglecting?

Interviewer (3): Will that neglect go, disappear, through the West?

Prabhupāda: How will that? If you don't like it, how it will go?

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: He can do, Svarūpa. He can take training, and he can do. And then, gradually, others will join.

Jayapatākā: I think all the children, they could become brahmacārīs. If the parents would be agreeable, they could become brahmacārīs and attend morning some class, then go to school. In this way the whole village could be made Kṛṣṇa conscious at least by chanting and...

Prabhupāda: Chanting is the main thing. Chanting and distributing prasādam.

Jayapatākā: If we get prasādam, then... I think that they all contribute some grain. They are very poor agricultural people, but there's no theft there. I asked. There's one man who has three acres. Three bighās of land he's giving. So they just grow their rice there and...

Prabhupāda: You can ask that instead of making paraṭā, a light khicuḍi in the morning. That is...

Hari-śauri: Instead of that sabji and everything.

Prabhupāda: No, sabji can make.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: "When you are an older, you become a debauch. But don't become now." (laughing) If it is a good thing, why older and younger?

Maṇihāra: Our relatives, especially close relatives, parents, and they see, they can see immediately...

Prabhupāda: This is natural. These things are not good. They know it, but they are habituated. But they do not like that son should be habituated. That is natural. Your father predicted about Brahmānanda that "This boy will be a saintly man."

Gargamuni: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He'll not be a karmī. From the beginning he could understand. How did he understand?

Gargamuni: Because his tendencies were never in the business field. He was an intellectual. He used to read a lot and he was interested in religion.

Prabhupāda: From the very beginning.

Morning Walk -- August 23, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: About birth control. So birth control means the father and mother, the father and mother should not become father and mother unless they take full responsibility for the children to save them from the repetition of birth and death. This is the śāstric injunction. Pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum. The, everyone is, in this material world, is going on in the cycle of birth and death. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Transmigrating from one body to another. And after many millions of years he gets the chance of becoming a human being. Now in this life he can stop the birth and death. Punar janma jāyate. That is Vedic culture. How to conquer over this process of repetition, birth and death. That is only possible in the human life. A chance is given, and if he misses this chance then again he'll be cycle... Therefore the father and mother's duty is to train up the children in such a way, that this is the last birth. No more birth. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). And that training, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But the things are different. Both the parents and the children, all of them are going again in the cycle of birth and death and wasting the opportunity of getting a human body. This is modern civilization. They do not know this science. They are kept in darkness.

Morning Walk Conversation About Bombay -- August 29, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: All right.

Indian man: These children, they are coming from which place?

Hari-śauri: France and...

Prabhupāda: The smaller one from France and the bigger one from America. International.

Indian man: And their parents also there.

Prabhupāda: They are also here. We are a society, so the gṛhasthas are there, brahmacārīs, sannyāsīs, vānaprastha. All status of life. Missionaries, they have got only sannyāsīs. We have got all.

Indian man: The other missionaries?

Prabhupāda: Just like Ramakrishna Mission. They have got only sannyāsīs. No gṛhasthas. But we have got gṛhasthas also.

Children: Go this way, Śrīla Prabhupāda!

Prabhupāda: You go this way, I shall go this way.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. B.N. Sarkar, he was going on cycle in London, busy street and his eyes bound up. Everyone has seen it. He was going on cycle in busy... Ordinary street he was going, and his eyes were bound up. Everyone has seen.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The Vice Chancellor of Bangalore University along with some other professors, they decided to do research into all these so-called gods like Sai Baba. There's another six year old "god" called Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa. So they sent Sai Baba a questionnaire. He did not reply. Then this Vice Chancellor with a group of professors, they went to this six year old Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa. He was producing ash with some magic.

Prabhupāda: Ash?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Ash. So all the local, a big crowd would come to see him. So they went and they sat right next to the child. So that day the ash was not produced. So later on the whole thing got exploded and the child's parents admitted it was bogus. Now that "god" is finished. Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa. He was six year old Śrī Kṛṣṇa. So this Sai Baba refused to answer the questionnaire. He said, "Why should I respond to these people?"

Indian man: He's angry from that.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This group of professors, they're exposing all these bogus gurus who are saying they are God.

Prabhupāda: Have you got it?

Pradyumna: Yes.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Prabhupāda: Well, the charges will be there. Gandhi was also charged, and was arrested. And that you cannot stop. That will go on in any movement. That is not any fault. Because the counter-charges are already there, everywhere. What is the American charges? I do not know. What is that?

Interviewer: That you have money from... Extortion of money from the devotees. Asking their parents to pay or some such thing.

Prabhupāda: Parents to pay. This is a farce.

Interviewer: As a donation or contribution.

Prabhupāda: So we can ask donation from anyone. What is the fault there? Is it extortion? What is that extortion? Suppose if I ask for donation...

Interviewer: No, they equate that this donation was extortion.

Prabhupāda: No, no, extortion, what do you mean by extortion? If I ask you donation and if you pay, does it mean it is extortion?

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Brahman means unlimited happiness. Ananta brahma-saukyam ananta suddhyed sattvam yasmād suddhyed satya. You purify your existence and you are hankering after happiness, you get the unlimited, greatest happiness, yasmād brahma-saukyam anantam. Hm.

Hari-śauri: So Dr. Allen Gerson says, "I am here today as a citizen who dislikes injustice, as a person who's own people, because of their religious beliefs, are being persecuted repeatedly, and as a scientist who knows how ignorance can turn the normal rationality of people into blind hatred." (aside:) He's Jewish. "As a citizen I can see a great injustice perpetrated here. Several people, all of legal age, have chosen a lifestyle which, because it differs in form from our lifestyle, has been viewed by their families as unacceptable. These families with honest but misguided intentions have had their children removed from the Hare Kṛṣṇa Temple and have attempted to reprogram them to the behavior and attitudes of society at large. The reprogramming obviously did not work and their children returned to the movement, thus angering and frustrating their parents. Not being able to understand the wishes of their children, or their behavior, or their motivation for returning, and needing to blame someone they effected through devious means to have 2 members of the Hare Kṛṣṇa..."

Prabhupāda: He has used very nice strong words.

Room Conversation on New York court case -- November 2, 1976, Vrindaban:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So a lot of these parents are saying that we should all be, we should be investigated. Now they are saying that we are not Hindus and they are saying that by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, they're thinking of the brain stops.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So in New York the press is against us. But in Los Angeles it is going in our favor, he said (refers to report by Rāmeśvara). In Los Angeles they had kidnapped the best girl distributor. Now she has come back but ah...

Prabhupāda: So these things will happen.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: They are, as soon as we become very important, our enemies, they will try to suppress us.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is what they are doing.

Prabhupāda: So, that is natural. Even Kṛṣṇa was suppressed. Kṛṣṇa could not be suppressed but the attempt was there. Kamsa. So these things go on, still we have to work.

Room Conversation on New York court case -- November 2, 1976, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: We should not be afraid. Yuddhyasva mām anusmara (BG 8.7). Kṛṣṇa advised Arjuna that you fight, not that you shall not fight. We shall fight to the best of our... And this is good, they are feeling the pressure of this movement. Otherwise why they are going to take step?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But they, these parents what they want to do, they want this to be declared illegal. Now they...

Prabhupāda: They can, the children can also, those who are our children they can form an association.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: But they cannot control us, our independence.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: They should form. How the...?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But of course we want to defeat them...

Prabhupāda: The parents, the parents cannot control their sons and daughters who is above eighteen.

Room Conversation on New York court case -- November 2, 1976, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Then whole civilization finished. Even theoretically taken, no smoking, no gambling, no intoxication, no illicit sex, their whole civilization is finished. Lord Zetland said... Not only that, one Sir Valentine Chiro (?), I think, Sir Valentine Chiro, British, important, when Gandhi started non-cooperation. So he remarked that "If Gandhi's movement, this non-cooperation movement is one percent successful, then we will have to leave it." And actually that happened. Because they were ruling over India by Indian cooperation. Gandhi struck to the right point, non-cooperation, and he scented the danger, and he remarked at that time, that if one percent of the Indian people non-cooperate then we are, our British empire finished. So there are intelligent persons, they are thinking in their own way that this movement is so strong against this modern material civilization, if it is allowed to spread then our whole civilization, whole economic structure will be finished.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: What they're doing now, these parents are getting in contact with devotees who have blooped, and they're getting these devotees to make statements against us.

Prabhupāda: Just see. They are living peacefully in a villa in Paris so happily that ah... Some, one gentleman came to see me "Swamiji, you are preaching against meat-eating, this cannot be done in this country, then we will starve." I said "No, you will never starve. You take this formula." (laughs) So they are thinking like that.

Room Conversation on New York court case -- November 2, 1976, Vrindaban:

Hari-śauri: Kali.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The purport of the play is that this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is threatening to all the associates of pāpa. (break)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He, Rāmeśvara told me last night, is completely against these so-called religious movements like ours and he has written personal letters to the parents of all the people who have joined, all those who would write to him, that these types of movements should be stopped.

Prabhupāda: The young men should form another party, all the American young men.

Haṁsadūta: Viṣṇu party.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Viṣṇu party. Yes. Now they should take in politics.

Haṁsadūta: You wrote in your Eighth Canto, there are always two parties, the Viṣṇu party and the demons' party.

Prabhupāda: Yes. If they're forming demons' party, let them...

Haṁsadūta: Form a Viṣṇu party.

Prabhupāda: That ah, the fight between the Viṣṇu party and the demon party is always going on.

Room Conversation on New York court case -- November 2, 1976, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: You should go to see Visvambhara Gosvāmī also. (Hindi) This is fortunate that you have come in this moment. So I'll give you this inspiration, now combine together all Vṛndāvana gosvāmīs. Kṛṣṇa cult is for everyone, either Gauḍīya or Rāmānuja or everyone. Now all of you should come forward. That you do. Admitting (Hindi conversation). They are concerned with the Kṛṣṇa cult. Kṛṣṇa cult means all the ācāryas, all the ācāryas, either Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Nimbārka or anyone, they should combine together. (Hindi) (aside:) Why you are talking? It is not very important. It is for him. It is a very bad habit. (aside ends) So we should be very alert in this point. All the Vaiṣṇavas of different sampradāyas, especially Gauḍīya sampradāya, you should come forward to fight this. They are gathering their strength. We should gather our strength. Fight, Kṛṣṇa never said that "Don't fight." (He) never said (to) Arjuna that "You are My devotee, you don't fight. You are very good gentleman, nonviolent, and I shall do everything for you." (He) never said that. (indistinct) Kutas tvā kaśmalam idaṁ viṣame samu.... viṣame samupasthitam. "Now there is a great dangerous fight, why you are saying like a nonsense," anārya-juṣṭam, like non-Aryan. (Hindi conversation) This fight is another good news that they are feeling the strength. Otherwise they would not have prepared to fight. Formerly they were thinking that so many swamis and yogis come, come and go. But now they are feeling the strength, they (are) charging that their young men are being kidnapped. It is strong party. And these boys, they have taken to Vaiṣṇava principles, their parents have tried to take them back and induce them to eat meat and according.... They deny. This is also tried. I have got many disciples, they are coming out very rich family, rich father. So one of the fathers called his son that "I am old man, the business is dwindling, you come and take..." So I told him that "You go. Why not take your father's business and use it for Kṛṣṇa?" So he went, on my order. The father wanted him to eat meat. So he denied that "I cannot do that. I can help in your business, but I cannot accept your way of life. That is not possible."

Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Jagadīśa: So far as the financial situation, I've discussed with Bhagatji and it seems that the best idea is to open a separate gurukula maintenance account with co-signers Bhagatji and Rūpa-vilāsa, so that... Because there's so much...

Prabhupāda: So then some of them, they are getting money.

Jagadīśa: Yes, the parents are sending money.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Jagadīśa: Because with the temple there has been confusion.

Prabhupāda: Now the temple, you can make separate account.

Jagadīśa: We have one question about one of the boys. His name is (name withheld), and he's a... He's more or less a bad boy. He's had a bad background. His mother's a devotee and she's a nice devotee, but he's very... He terrorizes the other boys.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Jagadīśa: He misleads them. He lies.

Prabhupāda: How old he is?

Jagadīśa: He's thirteen.

Prabhupāda: So he cannot be... He must go back. We cannot spoil other children.

Room Conversation -- November 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Devotee (1): I was hearing that before I left England there was some trouble in Scotland over the rules about the bars and drinking. And now they want to make a rule, a law, that the children can be allowed into the bars under their parents... They make it a big social...

Prabhupāda: They allow the children sit down. They take soda water and the father-mother drinking. I have seen it. They are learning from the father and mother from the begin...

Hari-śauri: My father used to... Every Sunday they used to go to the pub, and then for Sunday afternoon, as a special treat, they would all get..., we'd be given a glass of beer.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Father-mother take... Because they think it is civilization. Elderly boys, the father mother tell, "What is the wrong, illicit sex? Take woman, take car. Enjoy life." I have seen it. They know, "This is life. Why...?" Therefore they say, "Brainwash. This Swamiji is controlling their minds and brainwashing." That is their charge. Wash, ne. The brain should be operated, surgical to take out all rubbish things from the... It is called membrane?

Pradyumna: Cerebrum?

Prabhupāda: Cereb?

Hari-śauri: Cerebral.

Evening Darsana -- December 3, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Does that mean we have to accept him? That does not mean we accept. (break) ...one is against this movement because we are presenting Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme. (break)

Guest: ...according to him, he said, only yogamāyā has form. The jyoti... We don't call it anything but we want to. (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: That means prostitute. "Everyone is my husband." Prostitution. That's all. (break) ...does not know what is duty. Duty is sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam (BG 18.66). This is duty. Kṛṣṇa never said that everything is all right. He says, sarva-dharmān parityajya: "Simply surrender unto Me." That is duty. They do not know what is duty. And he's manufacturing his duty. That is not duty. Duty is that which is ordered by the superior authorities, "You do this." So if he does that, that is discharge of duty. And if he manufactures his duty, that is not duty. That is concoction. So they are manufacturing duty. That is not duty. If the child manufactures a duty that "I shall play all day. This is my duty," will the parents accept it?

Guest: Under... (break)

Prabhupāda: But if he knows? But he does not know. That is the difficulty. That I was explaining, mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. Mūḍho nābhijānāti. He does not know what is duty because he's a mūḍha. If you say, "If he knows," but "if he knows," means it is difficult to know what is duty. The mūḍhas, they cannot know what is duty. Therefore Kṛṣṇa personally says, "This is duty." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66). This is duty.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Mr. Malhotra: They can completely avoid sleeping! Hundred per cent?

Prabhupāda: No. They can, but they do not show like that. Otherwise artificially one would like to imitate it.

Mr. Malhotra: But in the medical theory they are saying so much insomnia.

Prabhupāda: No insomnia, he becomes mad. (laughter) That is another thing. That is disease.

Hari-śauri: One of my parent's friends, she hadn't been to sleep for 7 months because of a nervous condition when she was going crazy. I saw that.

Mr. Malhotra: There must be sleeping pills.

Prabhupāda: Yes, in western countries, tranquilizer.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Then let them come first of all. (laughter) There is no "if." There is sufficient place. Come. But nobody's coming. They want to see, "Let these white men come and we see." That's all. "We see the fun." This is going on. They are coming. They are disgusted. But we are not disgusted. That is the difficulty. Therefore I was speaking to this boy, "You are Englishman, you have come." It's a problem now in Māyāpur, here. And the government is after them as soon as three months pass. "Get out, get out, get out, get out." Then how shall I conduct my business? A big, big establishment. This is another problem. But Kṛṣṇa is doing His own business. But practically seeing. This is India's business. Bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra (CC Adi 9.41). Manuṣya-janma, not the cats and dogs, but those who have taken the human form. It is their business. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra (CC Adi 9.41), janma sārthaka-First of all, make your life successful by understanding the philosophy. Then, janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra, preach this philosophy all over the world. That is para-upakāra. So actually that is being done. They understand, they are understanding this philosophy. There is struggle now in foreign countries. There is opposition now. Who will explain what is the opposition?

Girirāja: Today we just got a new package from New York from this boy. And some of the parents were charging that we were kidnapping and mentally imprisoning their children by making them devotees. Because from their point of view their children were lost to our movement. So...

Prabhupāda: He's a lost child. His father and mother came to me and mother was crying. I said, "So take your son." And the son will not go. (laughter)

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Jagadīśa: "But such tactics are a gross violation of fundamental human and constitutional rights are to go without saying. In cases where victims have instigated charges of kidnapping against parents and deprogrammers, grand juries have thus far refused to issue indictments apparently because the work is done at the behest of parents or other relatives and ostensibly for the good of the victim. The situation which has prompted me to communicate with members of the professional psychiatric community involves sweeping implications of a very important legal case which will be going to trial sometime in the late winter or early spring. Some background of the case may be helpful here." Then he explains about the case. Anyway, it's very nicely written. And he's mostly trying to expose that the psychiatrists have to take an objective standpoint. Otherwise, there are some psychiatrists who are atheistic and they are contending that any religious experience or so-called religious consciousness is a...

Prabhupāda: Artificial dependence.

Jagadīśa: ...artificial dependence, yeah. So this is...

Prabhupāda: They say that there is a tissue in the brain, they disturb with this religious idea. They say like that. And if that tissue is operated then there will be no more religion. They can do that. With a brain operation he'll forget willfully. These rascal, so-called scientists, they can do anything.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There is no difference. And if he makes such distinction, then how he's paṇḍita? Then he's not paṇḍita. But it is etiquette, mātā svasā duhitā vā. One should not very closely sit down even with mother, sister, and daughter. That restriction is there. But that does not mean that one should not see even a woman. So we are following that principle. Never mind, man or woman, she can offer her respect, but not very near. That restriction must be there. (break) We have support from very high circle. Scholar, priest, even father, mother, parent. Many old gentlemen come to congratulate me, "Swamiji, it is our great fortune that you have come to this country." In Los Angeles they have been very nice. Many parents used to come. (Hindi)

Indian man: Now Girirāja is going about with this school work.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But the building is not yet sanctioned. You have seen inside temple?

Indian man: Yes. I come here once a week. (break)

Prabhupāda: This is... Of course, I gave him the idea. But Saurab's design. He's Dutch. He's Dutch boy. The Vṛndāvana is also his.

Indian man: How is the Kurukṣetra going?

Prabhupāda: Kurukṣetra, the government has not yet decided to give us land.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Indian man: That was a part of his qualification to get a good wife.

Prabhupāda: Now how is this (indistinct) because the bride and bridegroom is selected by the parents.

Indian man: Yes, the parents would not select that boy.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Indian man: Because parents, as they inquire today, how much you are educated, that was one of the qualifications.

Prabhupāda: So what is the purport?

Indian man: (laughs) I don't know. But to learn all these etiquettes of methods when you are in a sabhā (indistinct) these cabarets and all the... That type of cabaret, how you should behave?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We will leave at 7:25, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hm. What is the time?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifteen, twenty minutes.

Prabhupāda: What will be about the light?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They are fixing it up now.