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Passage (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Caller: Yes, hello Swami. I would like to know how you get your money to make all your trips to India and New York and Mexico. Who provides you with money?

Prabhupāda: I was provided free passage in a shipping company.

Caller: You was what?

Prabhupāda: Free passage.

Caller: Free passage. Who pays for that free passage?

Prabhupāda: Oh, free passage, there was no question of payment. The shipping company carried me free.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 12, 1969, New York:

Prabhupāda: Witch. And at night she is tigress. So that is the nature of woman. But the world is so made that everyone is keeping such tigress. (laughs heartily) Din ka ḍākinī rat ka bhāginī. (Hindi) Every moment she is sucking blood. She is such a dangerous tigress. Every moment sucking blood. But (Hindi) the people, the world, people of the world has gone so crazy that each one is keeping one tigress. (laughs)

Brahmānanda: Right in the home.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is Tulasī dāsa's remark. So in many passages of his poetry he has not done very justice to woman. And another poetry, he writes, dhol guṇār śūdra narī. Dhol guṇār śūdra narī ihe sab śaśan ke adhikārī.(?) Dhol guṇār paśu śūdra narī, ihe sab śaśan ke adhikārī. Dhol, dhol means drum, mṛdaṅga. Gunar, guṇār means... What is called English? A fool, fool. Illiterate fool, what is one word?

Brahmānanda: Buffoon?

Prabhupāda: Maybe buffoon. Buffoon is sometimes troublesome. But guṇār means he doesn't understand very nicely.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1971, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Because our government, India government would not allow to take money to go outside. So somehow or other I got the P-form sanction, and one big shipping company, they allowed me free passage. So I came here with great difficulty. Of course I was very comfortably situated on the sea, but still, because I am not accustomed, I got sea sickness. So the travel was very miserable. Still I came. Then for one year, I was going here and there, there was no fixed-up position, and then in 1...9, I came here in 1965, September, then 1966, July, I incorporated the society and started my preaching in a storefront, and... Second Avenue. And then gradually the students came and it developed, one branch after. Now we have got sixty branches, and our expenditure is very heavy. According to Indian calculation it is about 700,000's of rupees. We are paying every rent, we have got in each center not less than twenty-five devotees, up to hundred, hundred and fifty. So it is going on by Kṛṣṇa's grace.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 21, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Calcutta, yes. A very perfect gentleman. Kind-hearted. Sometimes we joked. We were taking this, what is called, peanuts. So the professor was passing. So some of our friends remarked: (Bengali) So he thought that professor did not know Bengali. So immediately he turned: (Bengali). So we became very much ashamed. Yes. So all the professors from foreign countries, they were instructed to learn Bengali language, local language. That was the system. All officers, big officers, educate... (Aside) Good morning. ...big educationists, they were to learn the local language. And they used to learn Bengali. Especially in Calcutta. There was one professor, Mr. Scrimgeour. He was professor of literature, English literature. So while teaching one English literature, he was giving parallel passage from Bankim Candra Chatterjee. Yes. "Your Bankim babu says like this." He used to say like that.

Room Conversation with Dr. Arnold Toynbee, Famous Historian, at his home or office -- July 22, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So Bhagavad-gītā recommends that the whole society should be divided into four divisions: the brāhmaṇa, or the most intellectual persons, the kṣatriyas, the administrators, the vaiśyas, the mercantile agriculturists, and the śūdras, ordinary men, laborer or worker. Because this material world is conducted by three modes of nature, goodness, passion and ignorance, so according to the quality of the person, he should be listed in different categories. And it is the duty of the state to see that all these categories, divisions, they are working nicely.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: Then, by God's arrangement, by nature's arrangement, all the necessities of the living entities, they will be supplied. They will be free from all anxieties, diseases. This was practically demonstrated during the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. I, I wish to quote some passages from... during the reign of...

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 12, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore Viṣṇu-tattva is called acyuta, infallible. (break)

Prajāpati: ...from politics to the world of theology. One of the most misunderstood passages in the western scriptures, things that are..., most speculation about, is the beginning of the Book of John, where it is said, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God." And that Greek word is logos. And so many people have said so many different things about that passage. No one really understands it.

Prabhupāda: They cannot understand the Absolute. God and God's word are not different. Otherwise, why we are after Bhagavad-gītā? Because Bhagavad-gītā is the words of God. So as good as God.

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Yes. The spirit soul is also energy, and matter is also energy. Two energies, when they contact, the, the so-called expansion of matter takes place.

Robert Gouiran: Yes, and we could study in our laboratories the passage from energy to matter and back from matter to energy. It's what we call...

Prabhupāda: Matter is also energy.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. But make them devotees. That is the real father and mother, who begets children and make him devotee. That is real father and mother. Otherwise cats and dogs. A Tulasī dāsa, he has written one poetry that "A son and the urine comes from the same way." Son... Son means it is born out of the semina. That also comes through the genital, and the urine also comes through the genital. So he is giving this example that "Putra and Mutra..." Mutra, means urine, and putra means son, comes from the same passage. So if the son is a devotee, then he's putra; otherwise he's mutra. (laughter) Otherwise he's urine. Very nice. Yes. Putra and mutra come from the same channel. If he's a devotee, then he's putra, otherwise he's mutra. (break) ...miseries are compared with the heat and cold. Mātrā sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). Śīta and uṣṇa. Uṣṇa means hot, and śīta means cold. They are pleasing and miserable in circumstances. Cold is very pleasing in the summer, and heat is very pleasing in winter.

Morning Walks -- June 18-19, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: ...khalu sarvataḥ syāt. Viṣaya means sense enjoyment. Now, that boy and the girl, they're taking dogs. The dog is also male and female, and the man is male and female. So viṣaya means sense enjoyment. The sex enjoyment is both; the dogs and the man, they will have. But the man can get Kṛṣṇa; the dog cannot get Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference. Viṣaya, that sex enjoyment, is available both for the dogs and the man. But the man can achieve Kṛṣṇa; the dog cannot. That is special. Viṣaya khalu sarvataḥ syāt. (break) ...of eating, sleeping, mating. That is available in every life. (break) ...another passage is there in Prema-vivarta, janame janame sabe pitā mātā pāya: "In every life, one can get father and mother." Kṛṣṇa guru nahi mile bhajahun re bhāi(?): "But Kṛṣṇa and guru cannot be had in every life." That is only in human life. Otherwise, as soon as there is birth, there is father and mother. Either you become human being or tiger or snake or bird, the father mother is there. But the spiritual father and Kṛṣṇa, that can be obtained in human life, not in every life.

Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Get it, and the, what is called, syllabus, that we shall give. We have got so many books. We shall select this book for graduate, this book for post-graduate, and these books for Ph.D.'s.

Dharmādhyakṣa: Even you have different levels. Like they can undergraduately study Bhagavad-gītā, but in graduate they can study it more intensely, like that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like in general course they select some passages from some books. So we can do that.

Room Conversation with Lt. Mozee, Policeman -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Our treatment is for the diseased person. So diseased person does not make any distinction of poor man and rich man. Rich man is also diseased, and poor man is also diseased, and everyone should be admitted in the hospital. So hospital should be in such a place where the poor man and rich man, both of them can come because all of them are diseased. So when one comes to the hospital there is no such thing as a poor man's hospital or rich man's. Hospital is hospital. And everyone being diseased, everyone should take advantage. But the difficulty is, as we are quoting the passage, that rich man, he thinks that he is not diseased. Although he is diseased number one, but he thinks that he is not diseased. That is the difficulty of the rich man. But we are thinking everyone is diseased. And you know better than me being police. There are criminality amongst rich men and poor men alike.

Room Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Wax, Writer and Editing Manager of Playboy Magazine -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Mrs. Wax: She must become dependent on her son because her husband would ideally become a sannyāsī. Is that...?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You will find that Kapiladeva is instructing mother. That picture you can show her. Third Canto? You see the picture in the cover? The first-class son is instructing mother. Her husband has taken sannyāsa and gone away. The son, first-class son, is instructing mother. That is the book. You will find full instruction to the mother. You can read one of the passages. You can read, Nitāi, what He is instructing to His mother. The mother is questioning, and son is answering.

Conversation with Professor Hopkins -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prof. Hopkins: They say, "He is dogmatic," okay. Do you feel that you are dogmatic or...

Prabhupāda: No. You find out any passage in my book dogmatic, then you say dogmatic. Any page you open, where is dogmatic?

Prof. Hopkins: Well, dogmatic, to call someone else dogmatic means to start with that you don't agree with what they are saying. If I agree with you and you...

Prabhupāda: No, you have to agree. You open any passage of my book.

Prof. Hopkins: Well, some people would say to insist that Kṛṣṇa is the only way, that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the only way...

Prabhupāda: No, no. The only thing that God is one, that you have to accept. God cannot be many. If God has got competitor, then he is not God.

Morning Walk -- December 18, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: No, but he had also mentioned about bhuma puruṣa. That there is really a...

Prabhupāda: No, there is, but this is one of the beginning stage, ekatena. "I am one," monism. Ekatena tena bauddha visatum aham. (indistinct)

Dr. Patel: That passage, ekatena bahutena bahuda visato mukham(?) That passage comprises all of the philosophies of India.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Pantheism, monism, dualism.

Dr. Patel: And qualifies, I mean.... Somebody has very well commented on that particular śloka, giving all the views of Madhvācārya, Rāmānujācārya, Jīva(?)ācārya, and all the modern.... Somewhere I read, I don't know where, on that particular śloka. After all these things, ācārya, ācārya para...

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: No, there is no competition. It is a science. Science is to...

Scheverman: We rejoice when we see people coming to the Lord God, wherever it may be and however it may be.

Prabhupāda: Do you have the passage there?

Jayādvaita: Yes. "Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life, whose sinful actions are completely eradicated and who are freed from the duality of delusion, engage themselves in My service with determination."

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

Prabhupāda: The Tulasī dāsa's Rāmāyaṇa means Rāma-carita. It is not Rāmāyaṇa. Rāma-carita Manas. He was devotee of Lord Rāmacandra. So as he was thinking of Lord Rāmacandra, he has written. So he was a learned scholar, brāhmaṇa, he must have read Bhagavad-gītā, Bhāgavatam. So all his translation is there on the basis of the śāstra, especially Bhāgavata and Bhagavad-gītā. You'll find many parallel passages. But Gītā is the summary of all Vedic literature, and it is spoken by the Personality of Godhead. So if we fix up our attention on the Bhagavad-gītā, then you can get advantage of all other śāstras.

Evening Darsana (on night of arrival) -- August 16, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: There is no question of management. Anyone comes, if you have made packages for distribution, give a package.

Indian man (4): There will be a lot of confusion, Prabhupāda, there. And what we should do in that passage, we should make them sit, as we were discussing, about six hundred or so. We should make the passage and put daddis(?) these on that and make all the visitors and guests sit on that, and immediately after pratiṣṭhā is over, installation of the Deities and all, one by one they should be allowed to go have darśana and come back. When they return, give them prasāda. Not in package, bhoogi (?) sweet, it is...

Prabhupāda: Whatever you want to arrange. When they're going back. That's all.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Evening Conversation -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: No, you can accept a suitable situation according to your convenience. There is brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa. Four orders are there. Whichever is suitable for you, accept. But don't forget the problem and the aim of life. And we don't want men giving some quotation from a book just like these so-called scholars do. He has not gone through the book, but take some suitable passage and note, and then he advertises himself that he has studied so many book. "Bibliography." Is it not? So-called scholar?

Satsvarūpa: Footnotes, bibliography.

Prabhupāda: Footnote scholar they are now.

Interview with Mr. Koshi (Asst. Editor of The Current Weekly) -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Mr. Koshi: Is interpretation necessary or not?

Prabhupāda: Why interpretation?

Mr. Koshi: Some passages, they do not know to understand it.

Prabhupāda: Just like if they do not know this is a tape recorder. What is interpreting? Everyone knows that this is a tape recorder. So what is interpretation? Interpretation required when you do not understand.

Page Title:Passage (Conversations)
Compiler:Rishab, Serene
Created:22 of May, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=19, Let=0
No. of Quotes:19