Pick up (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"pick up" |"picked up" |"picking up" |"picks up"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk at Stow Lake -- March 23, 1968, San Francisco:

Devotee (1): One of my friends said, "(inaudible), you want to tell us everything, so why don't you build a machine to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa for you?"

Prabhupāda: Huh? Yes. Machine was not made for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, but we are utilizing it so that the machine-maker may be benefited. Because we employ everyone's energy to Kṛṣṇa. So by his energy he has manufactured this machine, so we are employing in Kṛṣṇa's service so that he may be benefited, purified. We are showing him the mercy. Just like one flower picked up from a plant offered to Kṛṣṇa is offering benefit to that plant. Because his energy is in the service of Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, the person who has manufactured this machine, when it is employed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness business, he's benefited. Indirectly, we are giving him opportunity, although he does not know it. But his energy is being utilized for Kṛṣṇa. We offer prasādam, the same principle. A man does not know about Kṛṣṇa. But he wants to eat. By eating, he'll be gradually Kṛṣṇa conscious. So you have... Our business is to give opportunity to all forgotten souls to be engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, today or tomorrow. The boys and girls who have come to this society, they have accumulated in that way, knowingly or unknowingly, some Kṛṣṇa conscious qualification, and therefore they have taken this opportunity. (Pause) We have no dog friend. (Laughs)

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Prabhupāda: More than hundred, because we collected hundred dollars, and utmost, they have paid one dollar.

Janārdana: The summer season is very slow in Montreal. The churches cut down their sermon program. The synagogues don't having sermons in the summer very often. So that's why we haven't had so many engagements. But in the month of September things begin to pick up faster. The coldest time of the year is the busiest time of the year here actually. The real busy season is January and February.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was speaking to Gaurasundara that Janārdana speaks, "The winter season is the busiest season," and you said, "It is dull season"? (chuckles)

Janārdana: January and February are the busiest, and they are the coldest months too.

Prabhupāda: Very busy?

Janārdana: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) And what about that girl?

Mālatī: Tulasī devī? Oh, very nice.

Yamunā: Oh, Karṇapura is beautiful! He's the best little boy you could ever imagine.

Mālatī: He's already brahmacārī.

Yamunā: He's just fantastic. Upendra really loves that kid. Upendra picks up Karṇapura and Upendra doesn't know about children. And he'll take Karṇapura and he'll make him kiss every picture in the temple, (laughter) especially at the feet of Lord Caitanya he'll go, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa." Karṇapura will go, "bang, bang." (laughter)

Prabhupāda: (laughing) Very nice. So Murāri(?), you have got to say anything?

Murāri: I have got to say anything? No. I was just visiting.

Prabhupāda: Thank you. (end)

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Lord Caitanya Play Told to Tamala Krsna -- August 4, 1969, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: I may say, eight or ten years old.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think that what we will try to do is have Birbhadra come with us and he will play Lord Caitanya as a boy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That will be nice. And he is a very intelligent boy. He'll pick up.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Are there any other, any other nice incidences between this time and when Lord Caitanya got married?

Prabhupāda: In childhood there are many incidents. Another incident... That is a very important incident. When He was very small, crawling, so one brāhmaṇa came as their guest. And the brāhmaṇa, after preparing food, when he would offer to Kṛṣṇa, this boy, a child, crawling and take the prasāda and eat. And the brāhmaṇa will cry, "Oh, everything is spoiled. This boy, child has touched." Then His father would request him, "I should take care of Him. Please cook again and offer to Kṛṣṇa." He said, "It is too late now. I'll eat some fruits." "No. Please cook." So twice He spoiled in that way. Then it became night, so all the ladies, they went to sleep with the child and locked the door of the room. And at night at about eleven o'clock the brāhmaṇa, when he was offering to Kṛṣṇa, and the child came and took the prasādam. The brāhmaṇa again began to cry, "Oh, here again the child has come. How you are taking care?" And nobody heard him because everyone was sleeping. One letter is left here?

Discussion with Guests -- December 23, 1969, Boston:

Guest (1): But I don't think I'm thinking of myself as matter but I'm also not thinking of myself as...

Prabhupāda: No. You are not matter. You are spirit. Your body is matter. You are also one of the energies. You are spiritual energy and your body is material energy. And because you are spiritual energy, therefore your intimate relationship with the spirit soul or the Supreme Soul... That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness or God consciousness. The body will change, but you, as spirit soul, you will not change. You are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Body being changed, that is not changed. That is eternal. So we have to pick up our eternal relationship with God. That is missing.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:

Prof. Kotovsky: ...conditionally(?) to group them in four classes because...

Prabhupāda: The, the confusion, confusion has come into existence because in India in later days the son of a brāhmaṇa, without having the brahminical qualification, claimed to be brāhmaṇa, and others, out of superstition or traditional way, they were accepted as brāhmaṇa. Therefore the Indian social order has disrupted. But our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we are picking up from everywhere brāhmaṇas, everywhere, because the world needs the brain of a brāhmaṇa. Just like here, Mahārāja Parīkṣit, although he was a monarch, he had a body of learned sages and brāhmaṇas to consult, advisory body. It is not that the monarchs were independent. In the history it is found that some of the monarchs were not in order. They were dethroned by the brahminical advisory committee. Although the brāhmaṇas, they did not take part in politics, but they would give advice to the monarch how to, I mean to say, execute the royal function. Just like not, not very old, very, say, about... What is the age of, I mean to say, Asoka? Say about thousands of years ago.

Room Conversation with Dr. Karan Singh, -- November 25, 1971, Delhi:

Dr. Singh: They can fight also.

Prabhupāda: But just like the brain says that "Here is an enemy," so hand immediately strikes. Brain gives direction that "Here is an enemy coming," and he strikes with his hand. This is kṣatriya. And the belly supplies food, vaiśya. And the legs, śūdra, carries. So there must be systematic division of the work. Everyone should work. The brain will work, the hand will work, the belly will work, the leg will work, but the direction should be from the brain. Therefore, first of all duty is there must be an intelligent class of men directing. Then the other direction will follow. If the duty of the intelligent class of men is taken by the foolish rascals, then how this work will go on? That is first reformation, that we should pick up the intelligent class of men of the world and they will direct. And next the administrator class. And next the productive class. So intelligent class means one who is Kṛṣṇa conscious, he is intelligent, actual. Just like in Bhagavad-gītā it is said, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). Is it not? So jñānavān means the first-class intelligent class. So after many, many births, when one becomes actually wise, what is the symptom? Māṁ prapadyate, he immediately surrenders to Kṛṣṇa. Vasudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). That is the highest perfection of intelligence, to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Then he will give direction to the administration. The basic principle is that without being Kṛṣṇa conscious, you cannot work properly. (Sanskrit) Because we neglected Kṛṣṇa, therefore brāhmaṇa, kṣatriyas, they have fallen down. Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, everyone.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Author -- April 1, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: But if he is actually, anyone wants to see, so he should see our books also, magazines also. Why does he not see? We, our, send our boys in the streets with books. If you are not liking this saffron dress and dancing, why don't you read the books?

Author: No. I don't think you take my point. What I am saying is that... Let us imagine that the reader who picks up the book, this book that I am going to write, I hope, is very much like a person who sees the devotees dancing in the street, because he is seeing something for the first time. Now, it's necessary, surely, to describe the external and superficial features.

Prabhupāda: It is not superficial. This dancing is spiritual ecstasy. Otherwise it is not a dog's dance. You see? Any gentleman, if I ask you, "Please dance on this footpath," will you agree? It is not that dancing. You don't compare with that dancing. It is not dog's dance. They chant, they feel, they dance. That is another thing. You try to understand it. If they are coming from respectable families... Now, here is a boy. He is a professor. So if I ask him, "Please go and dance on the footpath," will he agree? A professor will agree? But when a professor dances, there is something. You should understand.

Conversation with Author -- April 1, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: So they are Hare Kṛṣṇa people, they dress in a particular way. That is the answer. That's all.

Author: I don't mind. Sir, I don't mind how they dress. I don't mind how anybody dresses. I don't mind at all. I happen to dress conservatively, other people dress less conservatively, and you people dress in saffron robes. It's not an...

Prabhupāda: Then what is your real question about the dress and shaven head.

Author: For most people...

Devotee: One thing I think I understand is that he is saying that many people come and become interested in our movement by seeing us. Or by—not understanding anything of what we are doing—but by visual, by the mundane, seemingly, aspects. And in his book, I think what he is saying is he wants to present it in a way that will attract that sort of person, whereas most people will not pick up the book and read it because it's a book on Kṛṣṇa conscious philosophy, but because they are interested in the outward aspect of things, if it contains that to some degree, then they will pick it up and then he can present both and give them some knowledge also of what we are doing in our philosophy.

Prabhupāda: I do not follow.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The other point is that when we manage these things, there are many guṇḍās in Vṛndāvana. They will try to create some trouble. Just like yesterday. You were present? This boy was fighting with one man. You were not present?

Gurudāsa: No. What time was it?

Prabhupāda: When the minister came.

Gurudāsa: I was not here at that time.

Prabhupāda: Tried to pick up quarrel. (break) You have not met?

Gurudāsa: Yes, I have met him. At Janmāṣṭamī two years ago at New Vrindaban.

Pañca-draviḍa: He is coming in the third shift.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Pañca-draviḍa: They will... Girirāja and Bhavānanda and them, they will probably be in the third shift ,depending on how the land deal goes, whether it is settled by them.

Prabhupāda: It must be settled. Not (indistinct). Therefore, I have asked so many people to go there. It must be settled.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1972, Vrndavana:

Gurudāsa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Otherwise Bon Mahārāja was deputed, but he wanted to cheat. He thought that "I shall go to England and become. When I come back, I shall advertise myself, 'I have preached in this way and that way and that way' and exploit." Just like Vivekananda. They are all cheaters. Vivekananda had no knowledge even to..., knowledge to give. He was such a rascal. And he went to America and he picked up three women, that's all. That is his achievement. One Sister Nigrita(?), his private secretary, that's all. This is all cheating. If you do not know... They go for wine and women, that's all. All these swamis they are going now these days. Saccidananda, that long-haired man, he is also being sued for something. Who was telling me?

Gurudāsa: That Devasa(?) boy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So this cheating process is going on. But you cannot cheat Kṛṣṇa or māyā, that is not possible. It is gosvāmī, that is (indistinct) Don't make compromise that somehow or other just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, everything will be done. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). Duratyayā. It is very difficult to surmount the laws of nature. So how is that achieved? Just like laws of nature are so strict, if you eat more, immediately you get indigestion. So how you can cheat? You can experience. Nature's law is working. Therefore, to become brāhmaṇa means satyam. You know the meaning of satyam? Satyam means truth. The first quality is he is truthful. Satyaṁ śaucam ārjavam āstikyaṁ jñānaṁ vijñānam. The beginning is satyam. Generally the people in pilgrimages like Vṛndāvana, they have taken this religiousness as a profession to earn money, just like other businessmen do.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1973, Los Angeles:

Devotee: For detachment, it's just austerities?

Prabhupāda: Detachment, when you'll understand that this is good, this is bad, naturally you'll have detachment for the bad. Unless you know this is good, this is bad, how there can be detachment? When you are offered two kinds of foodstuff, and if you know: "This is good, this is bad," then naturally you have detachment for the bad and pick up the good. First of all you have to know what is good and bad. Then, when you are convinced, naturally you know: "Oh, this should not be taken." Detached, automatically. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59). Therefore knowledge is first required for detachment. Jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā (SB 1.2.12). Jñāna, first of all knowledge, then detachment. unless you have knowledge, artificial detachment will not work.

Morning Walk -- May 1, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Lemons also.

Prabhupāda: Not lemon. Watermelon. These are the products of the desert, as well as dates. Just like these date trees can grow in sand. (pause)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, yesterday's Bhāgavata lecture, the example that the hundred dollar bill, one hundred dollar bill. So if somebody picks up and takes it, he's a thief, and if somebody who just does not care...

Prabhupāda: Does not take it.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, he's also not good. And the one who takes up and says, "Whose coin is this?" Then he's good.

Prabhupāda: Yes, his service is better.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, but how about the one who picks up and he doesn't find the owner of the coins but he offers to Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: No, he must find out. Because there are so many men, some of them must have lost that. So so far Kṛṣṇa's property is concerned, everyone knows, "This is Kṛṣṇa's property." There is no need of finding out. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Just like everyone knows, "This is American state." Where is the difficulty to find out? That was an example, but so far things are concerned, we know that, as we know that this land belongs to the American state, similarly this is false. Actually, everything belongs to God. There is no difficulty to understand. You have not created this ocean. You have not created this land. You have created nothing. You are simply stealing. That is your business. So how you do not know that it belongs to God? Everyone should know. This is knowledge. If I create something, I must enjoy it. Rather, the Vedic injunction is that you do not enjoy anything which you cannot create. You do not enjoy anything which you cannot create.

Morning Walk -- May 1, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Therefore you cannot enjoy anything. You have to accept everything as prasādam. First of all you take sanction from the proprietor. Then you he will give... That is your business. Just like if I want to use this land, I have to take permission from the government, that "I want this land. Give me permission." So when government gives you permission you can use. Otherwise you will be criminal. You cannot say, "Oh, there are so much land, let me encircle it with my fence and I live there." No. Immediately criminal. You cannot do anything as you like with this ocean. Can you do? No you have to take permission from the government. Just like the fishing boats, they have got government permission. Otherwise they cannot. Therefore in the Īśopaniṣad it is said, tena tyaktena bhuñjīthāḥ (ISO 1). Tena tyaktena. "When it is sanctioned, when it is given to you, then you enjoy." Mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam. "Do not touch anyone's property." This is Vedic injunction. So if everything belongs to God, how you can touch it without His permission? But they are rascals. They do not know who is God, where is God, how to take permission. They do not know. Therefore they become criminals. They are suffering. Encroaching upon God's property and therefore they are suffering. All these things are stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Everything belongs to God, and because we are sons of God, we can use the father's property. But not more than what I require. Just like in a family everything is father's property, and if you eat more, all the good things in the family, that is not allowed. You must take what the mother or the father gives you. That is your business. Similarly everything is God's property. Everyone, even the birds, beasts, everyone has right to use the father's property. Just like the birds. They will use. Just like they are picking up the small fishes. So as much they require, they are allowed, "Take it."

Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: And he has mentioned my Bhagavad-gītā in my name also.

David Lawrence: Yes.

Prabhupāda: In the in...? What is that?

Śyāmasundara: In the insert, in the record insert.

David Lawrence: Yes. In fact, when they picked up my copy of the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, which was on my desk, two or three boys immediately said, "Ah, that's on the George Harrison L.P."

Prabhupāda: He has very intelligently connected.

David Lawrence: Yes, yes. It was there.

Prabhupāda: This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement with his...

Śyāmasundara: He doesn't want to do it overtly because they will think he is crazy. So he's doing gradually.

David Lawrence: Very gradually.

Śyāmasundara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And what is that song, "I am not the same..."?

Śyāmasundara: Something. "I'm not the same..."

Prabhupāda: "I have changed."

Garden Conversation with Mahadeva's Mother and Jesuit Priest -- July 25, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Then the next question...

Jesuit Priest: ...is the success in the next, which means union with God for eternity. That's top priority. And following Christ's words, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God," then all the other things are of very minor importance. It's closeness to God and return to be one with the Beatific Vision in heaven. That's the top priority, that's our aim in education, and that's what Michael was taught when he was at Sunnyhurst. And that he does well and gets a degree, yes, very good thing. He could be a doctor or an architect or a leader in commerce, what have you, of which all of which are essential for the well-being of the world. This time last year I was dead. I was picked up as unconscious in the corridor, and the doctors said that I had experienced... I was as near death as makes no difference. Well, if it hadn't been for the skill of the man that...

Prabhupāda: So...

Jesuit Priest: ...looked after me, I wouldn't be here this afternoon.

Prabhupāda: So next life, how it will be ascertained? What kind of body I am going to next life?

Jesuit Priest: I don't think it matters very much. I couldn't care less what's happening after I'm dead. All I know, there's not annihilation. I'm going to be joined with almighty God.

Prabhupāda: No, it cannot be blind.

Mother: We're going to almighty God. That's all.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...that business in your country. What is that? Topless, bottomless?

Devotee: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: No? They want. There is regular business. In India also. In the hotels there are regular business to pick up college girls and enjoyed by the guests. So many things are going on on this basis of sinful activity. All over the world. So they become polluted, all people..., population, then how they can expect good government? Some of them will take the charge of the government, and he's polluted. (pause) Indigestion. You know that? Indigestion.

Devotee: Ha.

Prabhupāda: You have not digested your food. (break) Any carpenter working in... (break) The government was pleased to reply that they're maintaining themselves by selling literature. Similarly, if it comes to the notice of the government that they're maintaining ourselves by production of food, they'll like very much. (break) In your temple.

Morning Walk -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Anthropomorphic. That means man worship.

Satsvarūpa: They deify a man. He's a man but the people make him as a god.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Satsvarūpa: They say that about Kṛṣṇa, that Kṛṣṇa was a man, and then later His followers deified Him. That man wrote that in that pamphlet, Dr. Bannerjee, in Delhi.

Prabhupāda: Oh, he has said like that? Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā manuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). So why they do not deify others? Only Kṛṣṇa. There were many big, big men. All the Pāṇḍavas were very big men. Kṛṣṇa was contemporate to the Pāṇḍavas. Why Kṛṣṇa was picked up, and not the Pāṇḍavas? What is the reason?

Yogeśvara: The Pāṇḍavas were the devotees of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: No, no. This Anthropomorphism cannot be applied.

Satsvarūpa: Their activities were not so great.

Prabhupāda: Well, nobody's activities can be greater than God's activities.

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Very recent, very recent future. This Communist and Capitalist mentality will bring the next... The Communists will be victorious.

Dhanañjaya: And after the war what will be the result?

Prabhupāda: After the war they will come to sense. The Communist problem... Communist is not a problem. It is good proposal, but they are missing one point. They are making Lenin the leader. If they make Kṛṣṇa the leader, then the Communistic idea will be very fruitful. They are picking up a rascal leader, but if they pick up the nice leader, God the supreme dictator, then every-thing is all right. They are catching up a dictator, but they do not know that he is rascal number one. But if he catches the Supreme Lord as dictator, as Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66), then he will be happy, immediately. Keep amongst yourself and produce. Produce food grain, produce cotton, mustard seed. Self dependent, no use... And we don't require motorcar. Bullock cart is sufficient. There is no need of going anywhere.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1974, Geneva:

Yogeśvara: He's Italian.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is said that he was very poor man. So he painted in a fruitshop grapes.

Devotees: Cezanne.

Prabhupāda: Ah. So the crows came to pick up the grapes, and the king was passing, he picked up, "Oh, who is that artist?" He became rich man in association. No, I have seen in that hall. So first-class picture. I have never seen such nice picture. Exactly life. (break)

Yogeśvara: ...the book glorifying the Russian ideals, he is thrown out of the country.

Prabhupāda: Just see. It is a country... People are not bad. I have seen. They are very nice. The government, the rascals, a few men, who are controlling the government, they are all rogues and thieves. The same thing in India. Everywhere mass population, they are innocent. These rascals made them..., misleading. In Russia I have seen. The mass people, they are very nice. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). They are innocent. In India also. The Pakistan happened due to these politicians. The Hindus, Muslims, they are innocent. They don't fight. These politicians engaged them to fight artificially for their political ambition. The wars also declared nowadays, on account of the rascal politicians. The people do not want it. (break) ...to the Indian railway strike, have you got any news?

Bhagavān: It ceased the other day.

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: So why the moon planet is bereft of? Material, anything material, it is combination of earth, water, fire, air, ether. Anything material. It is a combination.

Karandhara: Well, there are probably very minute quantities of moisture on the moon. But they say nothing significant, nothing suitable for agriculture.

Yogeśvara: There are no plants growing on the moon. In the desert we find some plants, but they have not found any vegetation on the moon.

Prabhupāda: That means they have not gone thoroughly. One portion of it.

Karandhara: Well, they have scanners on these satellites which pick up vegetation or life. From hundreds miles away, it will show up on a screen. And they sent it all around the moon, and it hasn't shown any indication of any organic matter or life. They can send this satellite up around the earth planet and they can locate fields of corn, fields of wheat, from hundreds of miles away, just by the way it shows up on these different electronic devices. (break)

Prabhupāda: Take one of these... (break)

Yogeśvara: The vegetables, made of different elements. (break) ...and they say they found indications of elements that were existing at the time of creation that went into the making of the living entities... (end)

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: Lady says that there are some common points with the Christians who also certainly want to become independent from this body which wants material life only.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It doesn't matter whether it is Christianity or Hinduism or Muslim or... Knowledge is knowledge. Wherever knowledge is available, you must pick up. So knowledge... Now let us explain, that knowledge has no color. Knowledge is knowledge. It doesn't matter whether Christianism or Hinduism or Mohammedan. Now, this is a knowledge, that every living entity is imprisoned within this body. This knowledge is equally good for Hindus, Muslim, Christian or everyone. There is no question of Christianism or Hinduism. The soul is imprisoned within this body, and the problem is birth, death, old age and disease on account of this body. But we want to live eternally, we want full knowledge; we want full blissfulness. To attain that goal of life, we must get out of this body. This is the process.

Morning Walk -- June 21, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: No, but that is the answer they would give. I don't believe the special name of God is for me the name, the word God. We are praying to God.

Prabhupāda: No, no. No, no. Then name... When Christ says, "Hallowed by Thy name," there is name. The name is Kṛṣṇa, already there. Therefore he did not require to say again. But the name is there, Kṛṣṇa is there, Viṣṇu is there, Mādhava is there, Govinda is there. There are thousands and thousands of names. So you pick up any one of them. And chant it. Why do you say there is no name? Then we are chanting the name. Then what we are? We are all rascals and fools? If he says, "No, there is no name," Christ confirms there is name, and we are chanting the name. How you can say there is no name?

Professor Durckheim: Yes, quite. Well, I understand exactly what you mean very well.

Prabhupāda: There is name. It is confirmed. "Hallowed be Thy name." Now, we are chanting the name. What is your objection? You chant this name.

Professor Durckheim: I have no objection.

Prabhupāda: No, you... I mean to say anyone.

Room Conversation with Reverend Gordon Powell, Head of Scots Church -- June 28, 1974, Melbourne:

Reverend Powell: Is this part of the God consciousness, that in everything is the God?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everything is made out of energy of God.

Satsvarūpa: Here are some sweetballs made out of milk and butter.

Prabhupāda: You can, you can pick up.

Reverend Powell: Made out of what?

Satsvarūpa: Mostly out of milk and butter.

Prabhupāda: Milk preparation.

Reverend Powell: Thank you. And, um,...

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can eat.

Reverend Powell: Now?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Reverend Powell: Thank you. (eats)

Satsvarūpa: Very juicy.

Reverend Powell: Hm. Very juicy. Hm.(laughs)

Prabhupāda: All of them, give, each, one. We can prepare hundreds of nice preparations from milk. Therefore cow protection is required. Do you like?

Guest: Very sweet, Prabhupāda. (laughter)

Room Conversation -- June 28, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: I say it is very nice, immediately. Because he was embracing tree also. So that is God consciousness, advanced God consciousness. Because everywhere there is part and parcel of God. Any way, either materially or spiritually. In our childhood, actually what I am doing, it was all taught in our childhood by our parents, my family. We were taught, "There is a grain of rice on the ground, and if it is touched by your feet, you should pick up the grain and touch on your head." This was our training. The idea behind—that the grain of rice is not man-made. It is sent by God. "O God, give us our daily bread." So here is the bread. It is God's mercy. Just see how idea, great idea. What is given by God, that is also God. This is God consciousness. You are asking God's mercy. So God's mercy is also God, the Absolute. So how can you disrespect a thing which is given by God? You cannot produce rice. You cannot produce bread. It is given by God. Everything... Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, raso 'ham apsu kaunteya (BG 7.8). Just try to understand Kṛṣṇa from the beginning of drinking water. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said that "The taste of the water, I am." So water, or any liquid thing you are drinking, if you are feeling some pleasure, ānanda... Ānandamaya. That God is ānanda. So there is the sample of ānanda. So if we simply practice this, that wherever I derive some pleasure, that is God, then you become God conscious. To become God conscious is not difficult. Simply one has to learn how to practice it. That's all. Everything stated. Find out that verse. Raso 'ham apsu kaunteya prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ. (pause) Who will not respect Jesus Christ? He sacrificed everything for God, even his life. So who is that rascal that he'll not respect to Jesus Christ.

Room Conversations -- September 11, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) So Akbar (indistinct) asked Birbal, "What is your idea of sex life? How long it continues?" He answered, "Up to the point of death." "No, no. I don't believe it." "All right." So one day all of a sudden Birbal came to Akbar (indistinct) house, "Sir, you have to go with me immediately with your youngest daughter." So Akbar (indistinct)'s daughter, king's daughter, very (indistinct). So the father and the daughter and Birbal went to see one dying man. The man was dying, and he asked, Birbal (indistinct) that "You simply see his face." So when he was entering, that man was looking to that young girl, not the Akbar (indistinct). He was looking over that young girl. Both of them were intelligent. Then Akbar (indistinct) said, "Yes." And our śāstra says yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). What is the happiness of the gṛhastha life? Gṛhastha is different, gṛhamedhi. There are two words. Gṛhastha means living husband and wife together, but the aim is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And gṛhamedhi means he has no Kṛṣṇa consciousness; therefore his life is sex. That is the difference. Therefore, this word is used, gṛhamedhi. Yan maithunādi. What is the standard of happiness? Maithu, sex, that's all. Yan maithunādi. All these gṛhasthas, you will find they are accumulating money, they are enjoying sex life, then daughter's sex life, son's sex life, grandson's sex life. They are busy. Especially in India you will find, they spend thousands lakhs of rupees for son's and daughter's and grandson's sex life. Is it not? That is their happiness. "I am enjoying sex life." Just like my grandmother-in-law. She is concentrating on sex life. She was old, she had no opportunity. Let grandson-in-law, granddaughter. One who is impotent, he wants to see others enjoying sex life. You know this? He enjoys. He cannot do it. There are many persons, he is impotent, so he brings another man to his wife, then he watches. You know this? This is going on. Sex. They will see the dog's sex life, very (indistinct), how he is enjoying. Cow's sex life. Dog is having sex, and there will be crowd. This is the basic principle of material life: sex. In this way, prostitution, this way, that way, that way, that way, this is the only point. There is no other aim. Yan maithunadi-grhamedhi-sukham hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). And this kind of happiness is most abominable. Most abominable. But that is the center of life. Is it not? Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham. Most abominable part of the body for passing urine, obnoxious smell, but that is the point of life. How much degraded this material life. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ. The śāstra has picked up most abominable thing: that is the point of pleasure. Yan maithunādi. Maithunādi, either he himself, or for his son, for his grandson, for his great-grandson, the family. Very aristocratic.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Paramahaṁsa: He was playing karatālas very nicely.

Prabhupāda: Not only that, he's a born devotee. He'll take the ārati lamp and do like this and try to open the door. Anything you... Whatever he has seen others are doing, he'll do.

Paramahaṁsa: He was using the cāmara and the peacock fan.

Prabhupāda: And he chants also. He picks up the words.

Haṁsadūta: He's one of the happiest children I've ever seen.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Haṁsadūta: He's one of the happiest, jolliest looking children I've ever seen.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhajans and Room Conversation -- March 8, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: Gāy gorācand madhur sware. I think I have sung this song. Huh? (Prabhupāda continues playing and singing for a few more minutes) Wherefrom you have purchased it?

Haṁsadūta: This harmonium was originally made for Nara-nārāyaṇa, and then it was... but it was never delivered to him. It was picked up by Maṇibaṇḍha. And Maṇibaṇḍha left it in Amsterdam, and so they did not like it. So I gave them a harmonium that I had, and I took this one. (Prabhupāda chuckles) Because I think it's very good, huh?

Prabhupāda: It is not very good.

Haṁsadūta: But it's nice. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: So kīrtana is going on, here and there.

Haṁsadūta: Oh, yeah, everywhere.

Prabhupāda: Paris also?

Brahmānanda: Oh, yes.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Brahmānanda: We have the impression, because we are taught from the very beginning in the schools, that the leaders are to be worshiped, that their birthdays are to be celebrated...

Prabhupāda: Where you are going?

Śrutakīrti: He's going to pick up that lawyer.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Brahmānanda: It is difficult to come to that understanding, that actually, those who are the leaders are not to be trusted.

Prabhupāda: Yes, leaders means government men. That is described. They are all thieves and rogues, anywhere. Dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. Dasyu. Dasyu means plunderers, rogues. Unless you become a rogue you cannot go to the government. You cannot... Any honest man cannot stay with these government men. That is not possible at the present age. Any government. Unless... Just like first-class rogue, your Nixon, he became the president. Because he was a first-class rogue, he became the president. So unless you are first-class rogue, you cannot stay within the circle of government men. Rājanya dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. And their business will be to eat up the vital force of the people. Bhakṣayiṣyanti prajā sarve rājanya dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. This is the statement. And people will be harassed. On account of their godlessness, they will be harassed by three things: famine, no rain, and taxation. Taxation by the government, and there will be no rain, there will be famine, no food, and they will be so much embarrassed that they will give up their family and go away, gacchanti giri-kananam, will go, enter into the hills and forest, giving up their hearth and home. This is Kali-yuga. And this is due to their godlessness. On account of this, then the democracy, means anyone, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, anyone who becomes powerful, he will capture the government post. So the śūdras, they are now powerful. Śūdras. Industry means śūdra. So they will capture the governmental power. Just like Communist.

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: ...indicates God, then it is not bad. That is our point. If we indicates to God... Just like Allah. If this name indicates to God, then it is this Allah word as good as God. There is no difference. Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija sarva śakti. The Allah, the conception of Allah means The Great, is it not? So God is Great. So by chanting Allah, I am meaning God, the Supreme Person, so it is as good. And actually in Mosque, they chant Allah-u-akbar, like that, so far I've heard. So that prayer, if it is not God's name, then what is the use of this prayer? That is God's name. Similarly, the Hindus may chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, they're indicating to the same personality. It may be different language; therefore, it is as good as God because God is absolute. But this, this name is authorize because Muhammad said that you chant, "Allah." So it is authorized, because he is God's representative. Therefore my request is, or our request is that you chant the name of Allah. We don't say that you chant Kṛṣṇa. You chant the Holy name of God. If Allah is approved name of God, you chant it. That is our request. We don't force you that you chant the name of Kṛṣṇa. No, we don't say that. If somebody says Jehovah is the name of God, that's all right, you chant Jehovah. Allah is the name of God, that's all right, you do it. We simply request that you chant the holy name of God. That's all. If you have got it, we don't force you that you chant the name of Kṛṣṇa. That is not our way. We accept: if Allah is God's name, it is as good as the name Kṛṣṇa. We are not so sophisticated that you have to chant this Kṛṣṇa's name. No, we say: Harer nāma. That is the śāstra, harer nāma. The name of the Lord. So there are many thousands of names, that's a fact. So you actually chant the name of God. Pick up of the millions of God's name, whatever you like, you pick up and chant. That is our propagation.

Conversation with the GBC -- March 27, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Functional, main functional responsibility is to go and see that the temple regular work is going on, the president is doing nicely, to check in this way. You can sit down in the class, in the..., and see how things are going on. That's it.

Jayatīrtha: That's it. Now, one point we've included that we haven't really done before is the idea of establishing committees and individual service...

Prabhupāda: Committee, I shall appoint also, if there is any need. Amongst the GBC, I shall pick up some members and make a committee for a particular...

Jayatīrtha: For example, we put down that there may be a regional committee.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jayatīrtha: Just like in Europe, we have a regional committee for managing, I understand...

Prabhupāda: What is that regional co...?

Jayatīrtha: Isn't it Bhagavān, Haṁsadūta...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I have said that Haṁsadūta, Bhagavān and Brahmānanda may...

Jayatīrtha: So it's a kind of regional committee for managing.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversation with Devotees on Theology -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Acyutānanda: So after...

Prabhupāda: No, their...

Acyutānanda: Since St. Paul did they find out...

Prabhupāda: That is academic. That is not theology.

Acyutānanda: I think that, Prabhupāda, the theologians invented these questions like "Can God make a yardstick with no end on it? How many angels can fit on the head of a pin? Can God make a mountain that He can't pick up? Can God commit suicide?" All these questions, they...

Prajāpati: Not so much...

Acyutānanda: ...talk about.

Prajāpati: This is what's called philosophy of religion. This is different than theology. Philosophy of religion, they're all atheists, all taking pokes at the other people's idea of God.

Room Conversation with Yogi Bhajan -- June 7, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Therefore they can waste very lavishly.

Yogi Bhajan: But they are very beautiful people. One of the girl there in your organization almost brought tears to my eyes. And it is very seldom I have tears, and I love them when they come. And she said to me, she just came and hugged me. "Oh, Yogiji, I love you, you came." I said, "Oh, don't tell anybody. I just want to go around. And I want to run away." So she knows me. And she took me to her one store where there where a lot of books, and she asked me to have some books, and some of them I had, some I didn't. So I picked up. And she said, "You know, we were raised like dogs. Now we are being raised like gods. You think this old man, our god, is going to stay with us?" You know, she is very young in your organization. I said, "What are you talking, a old man?" She said, "Our Prabhupāda." Then she took your whole name with reverence. And I looked in her eyes. I said, "Look, my dear daughter, if that man has taught you so much love, then you will never be separated. Keep doing what you are doing. You will be all right." There is devotion. There is a power to learn. There is a power to gain. They have many faults, but they have many merits also. I think it is a time to present them, as they perform of the humanist to the whole world. And that will take away a lot of misunderstandings.

Prabhupāda: No, misunderstanding, there are... That will continue. You see?

Morning Walk -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Brahmānanda: Yes, and then you pick up the phone, and you..., they tell you the room number, and then you go in the elevator.

Prabhupāda: Scientific. (laughter)

Brahmānanda: Yes, it's very advanced. They call them erotic centers. (break)

Jayatīrtha: They went on strike.

Brahmānanda: France is not as developed. In France the prostitutes...

Prabhupāda: Well, in France you can get prostitute on the street. They are standing.

Brahmānanda: Well, that's a bad system for the prostitutes because...

Jayatīrtha: They've gone on strike, saying that the government is not treating them properly.

Brahmānanda: They're not being protected by the government like they are in Germany. So they have gone on strike by going into the churches and occupying the churches. So it has created a big...

Prabhupāda: Occupying the churches?

Jayatīrtha: The Catholic churches.

Brahmānanda: They go on strike. They go there and they won't go out.

Prabhupāda: That is called Gandhi's policy.

Brahmānanda: Yes, gherao, or something like that.

Prabhupāda: It is called satyagraha.

Morning Walk -- June 27, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What they are doing?

Brahmānanda: They're picking the papers.

Prabhupāda: Oh. He's earning forty dollars daily?

Jayatīrtha: At least.

Prabhupāda: Just see. For picking up the paper they have to pay so much. (break) (walking:) ...is we want to distribute books vigorously because general public, they have not yet understood what is the importance of this movement; neither they have any knowledge. The general public, maybe with some exception in India, they are simply like cats and dogs. They have no knowledge, that what is the purpose of this life (indistinct) and... Pravṛttiṁ ca nivṛttiṁ ca na vidur āsurāḥ janā. That is stated. Pravṛtti means what we should accept, what kind of life we should accept and what kind of life we shall reject. This is their first ignorance. Pravṛttiṁ ca nivṛttiṁ ca na viduḥ āsurāḥ janā (BG 16.7). And what is the next line? Jagad āhur anīśvaram (BG 16.8).

Jayadvaita: Na śaucaṁ nāpi cācāro...

Prabhupāda: Nāpi cācāro. Na śaucaṁ nāpi cācāro...

Jayadvaita: Na satyaṁ teṣ...

Prabhupāda: Na satyaṁ teṣu vidyate. This is the whole population. They do not know... There are big, big nation, big, big philosopher, big, big scientists and all very big, but what kind of life they should live, they do not know. What is the accurate destination of our life, that they do not know. And all humbug, big, big scientist, philosopher, theologist, and so on, so on, politician, sociologist, welfare. But real thing, they are rascal.

Morning Walk -- June 28, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: Modern stone does not produce. They have become modernized? (laughter) (break)

Kuruśreṣṭha: In Dvaraka, when Kṛṣṇa was here, they would have such parks?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Kuruśreṣṭha: Nice walkways?

Prabhupāda: Mmm. Better than this.

Kuruśreṣṭha: Mangoes growing?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. In a time the swan gives birth, dozen children, and there is no overpopulation. And men are killing so many children, and still, they say overpopulation? Why overpopulation? In the animal society, bird society, they do not say it is overpopulated, neither they kill. Rather, those who are bird eaters, they will be glad, overpopulation. "We shall be able to eat them." You see. How many there are?

Brahmānanda: Nine.

Prabhupāda: The mother is not concerned how to feed them. (break) ...safe under the protection... They are learning from the mother how to pick up food. (end)

Morning Walk -- June 30, 1975, Denver:

Satsvarūpa: Something like that.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Satsvarūpa: After he speaks, he speaks about his institution.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because the institution is now closed. So he thought that he would bring some student from America. (break) He is also one of the, what is called, trustees of the... So he has said to Bon Mahārāja "You better hand it over to Bhaktivedanta Swami. You cannot do it." (break)

Bhāvānanda: ...is intelligent.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He is businessman. Picking up the... (break) ...in Hong Kong, they are picking up some food from this garbage.

Sudāmā: Yes.

Prabhupāda: You have seen it?

Sudāmā: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Picking up food. (break)

Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Sandy Nixon: Well, I think there's always been castes. It's just that we don't recognize the fact that they're there.

Prabhupāda: No, recognize means if a man is qualified medical man we accept him as medical man. And if a man is qualified engineer, we accept him as engineer. Similarly, Bhagavad-gītā suggests—not suggest, it is there—there are four classes of men, the most intelligent class of men, the administrator class of men, the productive class of men and ordinary worker. That is already there. Bhagavad-gītā says how they should be classified, that "He belongs to this class, he belongs to that class." That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, not that by birth, hereditarily, one becomes a caste. You don't try to misunderstand. The classification is already there: one class of men, very intelligent. Is he not there in the human society? Do you think all men are equally intelligent? Do you think? There must be one class, very highly intelligent class. So what are the symptoms of the intelligent class? That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. The first-class intelligent man... (break) ...you find all these qualities, he is first-class man. So we are trying to introduce that, that without first-class man, the society is useless. So there are first-class men. You train up. Just like a boy is intelligent; still, he requires training in the school, college. Then he maintains his first-class brain, first-class position. So there is first-class man. Now we have to train them properly how to become controller of the mind, how to become controller of the senses, how to become truthful, how to become cleansed internally, externally, how to become full of knowledge, how to try to apply the knowledge in practical life, how to become God conscious. This training is... A first-class man can take up, just like they are taking, all these boys. They had their first-class brain, and now they are being trained up. That is required, trained up first-class men. That training is required. So we are not introducing caste system, that any rascal born in a brāhmaṇa family, he becomes a brāhmaṇa. We don't accept that. A man who is first-class trained up to become a brāhmaṇa, we accept him. It doesn't matter whether he is India or Europe or America. It doesn't matter. We are trying to introduce this system. That is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā. Caste system means a man is born in a brāhmaṇa family, and if by habit he is fifth-class man, and he is accepted first-class man on account of birth. Similarly, a person, very intelligent, he can be adaptable to all first-class habit, but because he is born in a śūdra family, he is śūdra. We want to stop this nonsense. We are picking up first-class brain and training up how to become first-class men. This is our business, not that introducing this rubbish thing. No, we are not introducing. Otherwise how I am offering them sacred thread? Now just see. Anyone from India, he will understand he is a first-class brāhmaṇa. We are training like that.

Room Conversation with Devotees -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans:

Satsvarūpa: Well, the other difficulty, you brought this up several years ago, was that the men who take many wives have to be very select. Otherwise men will be attracted to join our movement for sex life, having different wives.

Prabhupāda: No, no, unless our men are trained up, why you should allow to stay here and to wife. We want trained up men, not third-class picked-up. We want men who will follow the rules and regulations and fully trained up. Otherwise we don't want. We don't want ordinary karmīs and... And if he agrees to be trained up, then we'll take. Otherwise what is the use of bringing some useless men? He must agree to produce his own food, and work. Our rules and regulations, he must follow. Then it will be ideal community. Otherwise, if you bring from here and there some men and fill up, that is not good thing. This is a training institution, to become devotee.

Morning Walk -- August 26, 1975, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So far, there wasn't any surplus. Now there's a surplus...

Prabhupāda: Where is the surplus?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Now it will start coming. Now it is... From Jhulan-yātrā our income has picked up.

Prabhupāda: But you have got money?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Now we will have a surplus.

Prabhupāda: You'll... Again "to be."

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: End of this month.

Prabhupāda: Again "to be." Again, at the end of this month, again "to be." Again "will be." Say "We have no money." That's all. Why do you say indirectly? "It will be." So many managers and so many discrepancies.

Guṇārṇava: Akṣayānanda Swami is going to collect.

Prabhupāda: He is collecting money. He is also paying?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He hasn't been collecting that much.

Morning Walk -- September 15, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So our mission is to eradicate this ignorance, that they are living in a wrong conception of life. That is the point. The human society is making so-called progress under wrong conception of life. What is the answer? Therefore they have been described as mūḍha because they are living in a wrong conception, animal life. Wherefrom you have come?

Vāsughoṣa: Kathmandu. Tonight I will go to Hyderabad. I am collecting money. But one thing I find even when we explain to these people, you know... Just like smoking cigarettes. In Kathmandu I was explaining to people, "What kind of enjoyment is this from smoking cigarettes? You are coughing..." This is the way Acyutānanda Swami also describes, so I picked up from him. "You are coughing. You are killing yourself." He also described like this, "Intoxication means poison. Toxic means poison. So this is intoxication. You are actually administering poison. What kind of sanity is this?" So all those people, they told me, "Well, I'll give up cigarettes later."

Prabhupāda: At least they admit the fault, hm? Do they?

Vāsughoṣa: Yes, some people... One hippie I was talking to, he was saying, "I believe in technology and Darwin's theory of evolution." So I said, "The greatest technologists in America have said that cigarettes can kill you. Why are you smoking these cigarettes?" He said, "Yes, I want to give it up," but then he kept on smoking. And to Indian people I explained about karma, you know, "according to your activity," and they all admit, "Yes, there is karma." So I said, "Why don't you serve Kṛṣṇa?" They said, "Later, later." They all say like that.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- September 27, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Girirāja: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Hopelessness. When we see in our association all these girls. They are so nicely, well qualified. Whatever they are taught, they immediately pick up.

Kartikeya: In America they were asking my wife how Indian women are able to keep such devotion for their husbands. So they are actually very much interested and envious of this situation in India.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the nature. That is... They want to be a faithful wife, but there is no husband. Where to become faithful?

Harikeśa: So then they want to become liberated.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Being hopeless repeatedly, now they want liberation. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (break) Jaya. (break) ...samājīs?

Kartikeya: There are many. They fight with us. Over in office, when they come, they speak such ill words about many of our religious leaders and God. They are so much brainwashed, completely brainwashed. They call themselves Hindus, but they do not want to follow any God, only brahma-tattva or Brahman. They believe in the Vedas...

Madhudviṣa: Actually they are atheists.

Prabhupāda: Nāstika.

Morning Walk -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Harikeśa: ...so you can see what kind of quality they have.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Take "everyone is rascal," then train them. That is wanted. Take everyone as rascal. There is no question that "Here is intelligent man, here is rascal, here is the..." No. First of all take them all rascals, and then train them. That is wanted. That is wanted now. At the present moment the whole world is full of rascals. Now, if they take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, select amongst them. Just like I am training. You are brāhmaṇa by training. So one who is prepared to be trained as brāhmaṇa, classify him in the brāhmaṇa. One is trained up as kṣatriya, classify him. In this way, cātur-varṇyaṁ māyā sṛṣ...

Harikeśa: And that kṣatriya would engage everyone basically as śūdra and then pick from them.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Harikeśa: He would initially pick...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. You pick up... You take the whole mass of people as śūdra. Then...

Harikeśa: Pick out.

Prabhupāda: Pick out. And rest, who is neither brāhmaṇa nor kṣatriya nor vaiśya, then he is śūdra. That's all, very easy thing. If he cannot be trained up as engineer, then he remains as a common man. There is no force. This is the way of organizing society. There is no force. Śūdra is also required.

Room Conversation -- October 29, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: This is right answer, that you cannot non-cooperate with the stomach. You must serve the stomach. Otherwise your position is very precarious. That is the answer. If the finger thinks that "I shall remain independent and be happy," that is not possible. The stomach must be supplied food, and then all the parts of the body, they'll be happy. That is the point. So you cannot non-cooperate with the stomach. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is the central enjoyer. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). He is the center. Just like ordinarily this African state, if you do not satisfy the state or the president, then you cannot remain happy. Independently you cannot be happy. We require in every step sta... We have come to this park because state is cooperating. In the morning we shall come, and they have prepared it nicely. We are not going to the jungle. So if we actually want happiness we must cooperate with the state. This is crude example. Similarly, if our ultimate aim is to become happy, then we must cooperate with Kṛṣṇa. This is obligatory. You cannot escape it. Then you'll be unhappy. This is the... Stomach. Pranopaharac ca yathendriyanam. Therefore the natural process is you pick up... A child even. He picks up some something, but he does not put anywhere—immediately in the mouth. Why he does not bring it in the ear? Why? The child immediately takes it.

Morning Walk -- December 24, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: That is what I say.

Prabhupāda: ...but, my point is...

Dr. Patel: See, experiment depends upon all that.

Prabhupāda: ...if there is truth, where is the scope of experiment?

Dr. Patel: I mean, that you want to, you want to pick up that point, then you are absolutely right, there is no experiment.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is contradiction. If you say "truth," there is no question of experiment. That I..., try to understand. It is contradiction.

Dr. Patel: By all these jñāni-yogīs, I mean you are a bhakti-yogī, but I talk of jñāna-yogīs.

Prabhupāda: Jñāna-yoga is also truth if you follow. Just like jñānāvasthitā tad gatena manasā. So that is truth. But when there is question of experiment, that is not truth. That is my point.

Dr. Patel: Then they are making experiment in an area which is not already known.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that means that that is not truth. So experiment with truth cannot be; this is contradiction.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 2, 1976, Madras:

Devotee: One guy testified that he was picked up and taken away for four days.

Acyutānanda: Well, that was...

Prabhupāda: What they are? They are police? No. Mounted police?

Acyutānanda: Yes, mounted police.

Prabhupāda: A mounted police here?

Acyutānanda: Saber. Sword.

Devotee: Oh, it's a stick.

Acyutānanda: Oh, yes, lāṭhī, made like a stick. Yes.

Prabhupāda: (break) Why they are guarding here?

Acyutānanda: I think for the horses.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're exercising the horse.

Acyutānanda: (break) ...house in Bengali. Is this where Swami Vivekananda...

Prabhupāda: Yes. After coming back from foreign countries, he made his position here in Madras.

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Acyutānanda: That sign is there, "Swami Vivekananda, the Hindu monk."

Prabhupāda: But who cares for Rāmakrishna Mission? Hindu monk, but who cares for the Rāmakrishna Mission? For the last eighty-five years they are working. How many Hindus they have made? Simply bogus propaganda. They advertise that "We have made all Americans..." But where the Americans? They picked up two American ladies, that's all. Where is the Hindu sādhus eating meat?

Acyutānanda: Here it says, "Hare Kṛṣṇa Babu nagar."

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Acyutānanda: Who is Hare Kṛṣṇa Babu?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It says "Hare Kṛṣṇa nagar atar(?)" in the front also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who is that? (break)

Indian man (1): That is Hare Kṛṣṇa land. This is Hare Kṛṣṇa Babu.

Prabhupāda: Babu? Babu means?

Indian man (1): It's a name of the...

Prabhupāda: Foreign devotees, they are joining this movement not because it is a Hindu culture. They take it as a real spiritual culture. Otherwise why, for the last hundred, two hundred years, the Hindu sannyāsīs, yogis, were going there? Who did accept it? Did anybody? The Rāmakrishna Mission, Hindu monk, within the eighty-five years, how many Hindus they have made? You can count maybe a dozen only. Huh? Did they make any Hindus, European, American young boys? And it is the Hindu custom that sannyāsīs eat meat?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Drink wine.

Morning Walk -- January 13, 1976, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Those places are good places for preaching.

Jayapatāka: I went there when I bought the boat. People there are so hungry, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Angry?

Jayapatāka: Hungry. Hungry. They're very.... I was eating a banana, I threw the peel on the ground and a boy picked up and ate the peel. I saw. They are so hungry. If we went there and distributed prasādam, so many people would be...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Jayapatāka: Enthusiastic.

Prabhupāda: So that Consulate General, he has promised to help for getting grains from India, er, from America?

Jayapatāka: He's given me the law, numbers, and he said that it's much higher than he is, but he'll give a recommendation if it comes to him. Apart from that, he told me how it's done.

Prabhupāda: So why don't you take it very seriously?

Jayapatāka: Well, he just told me last week. I heard you were coming, so.... The thing has to be done from Washington, D.C.

Prabhupāda: So our men can do it. You advise them to do the needful.

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: He breaks?

Jayapatāka: Because... He used to be baby. Now he's getting angry more. We'll make over there one fenced area, brick.

Prabhupāda: So make pakkā.

Jayapatāka: Yes. Otherwise sometimes he just picks up devotee and throws. Just last night he picked one devotee and threw him. Very dangerous now. He used to be quiet but now he's getting old and ornery.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He threw the devotee?

Sudāmā: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hurt?

Jayapatāka: Yes, hurt. Hurt his leg.

Prabhupāda: Then how to control?

Jayapatāka: We have to build him a special cage. Pīppalāi and others, they are able to control with stick and by nose. But inexperienced man, they just walk right next to him and then-whsst! You have to be careful when you go by him, so we have to put him separate...

Prabhupāda: Separate. That is the way. That Hanuman Prasād in...?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hm. Yes, I remember him.

Prabhupāda: So, yes, so just suggest that way. Give him a plan.

Morning Walks -- January 22-23, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Every śloka there is śabda, dhātu, everything. Nominative, objective. (break) ...some you are going to say, just study yourself, whether it is not the civilization of asses and pigs. You have to understand first of all. Is it not? They are working hard like an ass just to become an ideal pig. Is it not this civilization?

Harikeśa: Having sex with mother, daughter, sister...

Prabhupāda: Yes. How śāstra has picked up the example, just see. Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate... (SB 5.5.1). What is that?

Harikeśa: Viḍ-bhujāṁ ye.

Prabhupāda: Viḍ-bhujāṁ ye. This is not civilization. This is civilization, tapasya: no meat-eating, no this, no this, that, and become perfect, ideal brāhmaṇa life, satya śama dama śuci jñāna vijñāna. This is civilization. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. Unless you become civilized like this, there is no opportunity of brahma-jijñāsā. And so long you do not inquire about Brahman, that you remain, that pigs and hogs and asses. If human civilization is wasted to cultivate the pig civilization, naturally, "All right, you come here. Become a pig now. Take this body." Kṛṣṇa will say, "Nature, prakṛti, he got this chance to become human being, but has misused. Kindly give him a body of pig."

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No.

Jayapatākā: They say they get much better reception in Orissa and Bengal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because...

Jayapatākā: And already they picked up one devotee, I think. Devotees come also quicker.

Hṛdayānanda: Lord Caitanya...

Jayapatākā: I think if we concentrated first in Bengal and Orissa, we get some, enough devotees, and then they could help us in the other villages elsewhere.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatākā: All over India. Like Madana already got three devotees when I was there in one week. By now he may also have more. Bengalis like kīrtana very much. (break) ...devotees are Bengalis.

Prabhupāda: ...ago Bengali culture was very much adored all over India. Even one big politician, Gandhi's guru, Goke, Gokule, he remarked, "What Bengal thinks today, other provinces will think tomorrow." He said like that. And actually all big, big movements started from Bengal. The national movement also was started from Bengal. Whatever we may criticize Vivekananda, when... He's a Bengali. He went first for preaching Indian religion. Rabindranath Tagore, he's a Bengali.

Morning Walk -- March 16, 1976, Mayapura:

Rūpānuga: Out of sight, they say it is finished.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So this thing you have to convince them. Why should you allow them to remain a rascal? Now the sun is rising. Does it mean all of a sudden a sun is created? So these are the examples. You have to preach like that. Simply believe your eyes? You believe also there was no sun; now it is sun. That means all of a sudden a sun became created. See the intelligent persons and convince them. Yad yad ācārati śreṣṭhaḥ (BG 3.21). Pick up the best man. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He picked up the best men, Sanātana Gosvāmī, Rūpa Gosvāmī. So His movement became successful. Sanātana Gosvāmī was not an ordinary man. Very educated, learned brāhmaṇa and minister, Caitanya Mahāprabhu picked up. Similarly Rūpa Gosvāmī, similarly Jīva Gosvāmī. Picked up means by His preaching they became converted. So similarly pick up a person like Sanātana Gosvāmī, intelligent, in position, and try to convince him. Why he will not be convinced, if he's a human being? This is not religion. That I am breathing, what is this breathing? Eh? What is the breathing?

Guru-kṛpā: Air going in and out.

Morning Walk -- March 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: "Belonging to others."

Devotee (1): Yes, "of others." So who can see like loṣṭravat...

Prabhupāda: That is para-drav...

Devotee (1): ...rubbish, or like rubbish, cannot take, cannot pick up. Mātṛvat para-dāreṣu para-dravyeṣu loṣṭravat, ātmavat sarva-bhūteṣu: "Every living entity," ātmavat, "like he himself."

Prabhupāda: Yes, as we feel pains and pleasures...

Devotee (1): Sa yaḥ paśyati: "Who can see like that..."

Prabhupāda: ...they should know the others also will feel. If my throat is cut, I feel, and "Why shall I cut the throat of another, poor animal?" This is learned man. And this rascal, maintaining slaughterhouse, and learned man? And they cannot understand. And big, big priests, they'll defend: "Oh, this 'Thou shalt not kill' means it is meant for the men, not for the ani..." They'll put arguments. Christ says clearly, "Thou shall not kill" and they will defend.

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

Reporter (1): Which particular teachings you think can purify a man? Because you said the salvation lies in practical teachings of Gītā.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You have to revive your consciousness that you are part and parcel of God. And the part and parcel of God means to serve God. Just like this finger is part and parcel of my body, but it is meant for serving my body. I ask the finger, "Come here"; it is serving me. "Come here"; it is scratching. "Pick up the food. Give it to me"; he is giving it. This is business of the finger. If the finger cannot carry out my order, then it is diseased. And if he immediately carries out order, then it is healthy. Similarly, we being part and parcel of God, we must be ready to give service immediately. Then it is healthy condition. And if we do not, then it is māyā. We are serving. You are serving. Everyone is serving, because our constitution is to serve. Big, big leaders, they are also serving. Anyone you can see. The sun, he is serving. Exactly in the time it is rising by the order of God. Exactly in time it is setting. So everyone is serving. Ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa āra saba bhṛtya: (CC Adi 5.142) "Only master is God, and everyone is His servant." But the diseased condition is that when we do not serve God, we serve something else, māyā, and that is diseased condition.

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (break) Garuḍa. He is perfect vegetarian. You know what is his food? Snakes. (Dr. Patel laughs) And he is carrying the Lord. It is a devotee, you see? He is not vegetarian. And how powerful he is that one sparrow, a small bird, lost his egg. The samudra took it away. And he decided, "I shall dry this samudra." So he began to pick up some water. So Nārada Muni was passing. So he asked, "What you are doing?" And "Sir, yes, the samudra has taken my egg, so I shall dry it up." So he said, "But how you can do it? You are so small. You just pray to your head. You are bird, and he is the head of the birds. You just pray to Garuḍa. He can do it." So he prayed Garuḍa, and Garuḍa came and asked samudra, "Immediately deliver; otherwise I shall take step." Immediately it was delivered. Such powerful. Yes. And he was not a vegetarian. (Hindi with Dr. Patel) You become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is the... (Hindi with Dr. Patel) (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Thank you very much. Namaskāra. Jaya. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Real culture is how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. (Hindi)...no illicit sex, no gambling, automatically. Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samā... If you simply turn these people to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all good qualities will come automatically. All good qualities. That is wanted. And we are practically seeing that. Simply by becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious, lover of Kṛṣṇa, they are becoming qualified. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ (SB 5.18.12). There is no good qualification for a nondevotee. He'll simply act on mental speculation, that's all. It has no value.

Morning Walk -- May 26, 1976, Honolulu:

Devotee (2): When the government comes they may have so many health rules and regulations that if someone has a little hut, they will not let them stay there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They set fire. They set fire. "Let them become without home, then they will work for my shop."

Devotee (2): There were so many mangoes here that were dropping to the ground, and they've gotten rid of some of the mango trees because they said that the people were stopping on the side of the road picking up the mangoes, it was causing a traffic hazard.

Prabhupāda: Causing what is that?

Devotee (2): They were causing traffic disturbance. So therefore they took away the mango trees. There were much more mango trees in Hawaii than there are now. Anyone could go and take mangoes off the ground.

Prabhupāda: They don't want natural things.

Devotee: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Chanting produce plain living, high thinking. The modern leaders, they don't want.

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: By bending iron.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He's been to South Africa also, this Uri Geller. He was bending keys, bending keys. He's from Israel. "Like Indian-god men who had talented propaganda agents, Geller too had one. Dr. Kavoor in fact claimed that G.K. Swami Nathan, one of the magicians who performed some startling acts at the show, had disguised himself as a swami, replete with saffron robes, and had spent a few months in the āśrama of a highly popular god-man near Bangalore, from whom he had picked up his repertoire of tricks. Exposing fraud was his mission in life, said Dr. Kavoor, and he would continue to write letters to god-men and miracle makers in the hope that they would accept his challenge someday." In the same newspaper there's a nice article about Jagannātha. "Jagannātha Festival (indistinct)."

Prabhupāda: You may read that.

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

Prabhupāda: Then when there is some sign of death, why do you go away? Sit down and die. (laughter) You don't accept. You are talking foolishly. You don't want to die. That is a fact. You are talking foolishly, that "I accept it," but you don't accept it. That is the fact. But because you have no other way, then you say, "I accept it." The real fact is this, that you do not wish to die, but you find that there is no other alternative, "Then I accept it. All right." So you can talk like that, foolishly, but intelligent man, you do not want to die.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: One time, one boy said that. So as soon as he said it, I picked up a stick and went like that "Oh!" and said "See, you are afraid." And he said, "No, I'm not afraid." So I went—and he was showing fear.

Prabhupāda: Even dog is afraid, what to speak of man. The animals, when they are taken to be slaughtered, they cry. So animal is afraid of death, why not man? Everyone is afraid.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, always. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). They are thinking of Kṛṣṇa.

Pradyumna:

tad-vāg-visargo janatāgha-viplavo

yasmin prati-ślokam abaddhavaty api

nāmāny anantasya yaśo 'ṅkitāni yat

śṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanti sādhavaḥ

(SB 1.5.11)

"On the other hand, that literature which is full of descriptions of the pastimes of the transcendental glories of the name, fame, forms, pastimes, etc. of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a different creation, full of transcendental words directed toward bringing about a revolution in the impious lives of this world's misdirected civilization. Such transcendental literatures, even though imperfectly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by purified men who are thoroughly honest." Purport. "It is a qualification of the great thinkers to pick up the best even from the worst. It is said that the intelligent man should pick up nectar from a stock of poison, should accept gold even from a filthy place, should accept a good and qualified wife even from an obscure family, and should accept a good lesson even from a man or from a teacher who comes from the untouchables. These are some of the ethical instructions for everyone in every place without exception. But a saint is far above the level of an ordinary man, and he is always absorbed in glorifying the Supreme Lord, because by broadcasting the holy name and fame of the Supreme Lord the polluted atmosphere of the world will change, and as a result of propagating the transcendental literatures like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, people will become sane in their transactions. While preparing this commentation on this particular stanza of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we have a crisis before us. Our neighboring friend China has attacked the border of India with a militaristic spirit. We have practically no business in the political field, yet we see that previously there were both China and India, and they both lived peacefully for centuries without ill feeling. The reason is that they lived those days in an atmosphere of God consciousness, and every country over the surface of the world was God fearing, pure hearted and simple, and there was no question of political diplomacy. There was no cause of quarrel between the two countries of China and India over land which is not very suitable for habitation, and certainly there was no cause for fighting on this issue. But due to the age of quarrel, Kali, which we have discussed, there is always a chance of quarrel on slight provocation. This is due not to the issue in question but to the polluted atmosphere of this age. Systematically there is propaganda by a section of people to stop glorification of the name and fame of the Supreme Lord. Therefore there is great need for disseminating the message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam all over the world. It is the duty of every responsible Indian to broadcast the transcendental message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam throughout the world to do all the supermost good, as well as to bring about the desired peace in the world. Because India has failed in her duty by neglecting this responsible work, there is so much quarrel and trouble all over the world. We are confident that if the transcendental message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is received only by the leading men of the world, certainly there will be a change of heart, and naturally the people in general will follow them. The mass of people in general are tools in the hands of modern politicians and leaders of the people. If there is a change of heart of the leaders only, certainly there will be a radical change in the atmosphere of the world. We know that our honest attempt to present this great literature conveying transcendental messages for reviving the God consciousness of the people in general and respiritualizing the world atmosphere is fraught with many difficulties. Our presenting this matter in adequate language, especially a foreign language, will certainly fail, and there will be so many literary discrepancies despite our honest attempt to present it in the proper way, but we are sure that with all our faults in this connection, the seriousness of the subject matter will be taken into consideration, and the leaders of society will still accept this, due to its being an honest attempt to glorify the almighty God. When there is fire in a house, the inmates of the house go out to get help from the neighbors, who may be foreigners, and yet without knowing the language, the victims of the fire express themselves and the neighbors understand the need, even though not expressed in the same language. The same spirit of cooperation is needed to broadcast this transcendental message of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam throughout the polluted atmosphere of the world. After all, it is a technical science of spiritual values, and thus we are concerned with the techniques and not with the language. If the techniques of this great literature are understood by the people of the world, there will be success. When there are too many materialistic activities by the people in general all over the world, there is no wonder that a person or nation attacks another person or nation on slight provocation. That is the rule of this age of Kali, or quarrel. The atmosphere is already polluted with corruption of all description, and everyone knows it well. There are so many unwanted literatures full of materialistic ideas of sense gratification. The people in general want to read. That is a natural instinct. But because their minds are polluted, they want such literatures. Under the circumstances, transcendental literature like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam will not only diminish the activities of the corrupt minds of the people in general, but also it will supply food for their hankering after reading some interesting literature. In the beginning they may not like it, because one suffering from jaundice is reluctant to take sugar candy, but we should know that sugar candy is the only remedy for the jaundice. Similarly, let there be systematic propaganda for popularizing reading of the Bhagavad-gītā and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which will act like sugar candy for the jaundicelike condition of sense gratification. When men have a taste for this literature, the other literatures, which are catering poison to society, will then automatically cease. We are sure therefore that everyone in the human society will welcome Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, even though it is now presented with so many faults, for it is recommended by Śrī Nārada, who has very kindly appeared in this chapter."

Prabhupāda: So what other literatures say? There is not one. In our society we do not read even newspaper, is it not? Do we? Huh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Only in context to our preaching work.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So to accept a spiritual master must mean that one is in ignorance and one is enlightened.

Prabhupāda: For ignorance there is no need of guru. An ignorant cannot inquire about God. Intelligent man can inquire about God.

Guest: We have to pick up our children. Thank you. (break)

Prabhupāda: Pick up children from a school? Do you know him?

Devotee (2): They're from Wheeling.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Once you said, Śrīla Prabhupāda, "If you are God, what will you do when I kick on your face?" Because if God is creating the sun, such a great planet in the sky, thousands of tons of energy, so if they are the source of the sun, but "What can they do if I kick in their face? Nothing. So how is that God?" Kṛṣṇa, when..., someone was, Paundraka, he was saying he was God, He said, "All right, hold My cakra." And He took off his head. So to these false Gods we can say "What will you do if we kick you in the face? You cannot save yourself."

Prabhupāda: That is the proper treatment. (laughter)

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

Prabhupāda: But it cannot be done. This is another foolishness. Because Kṛṣṇa says, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). But the difficulty is the caste system is coming on account of false notion that a brāhmaṇa is the son of a brāhmaṇa. That is caste system. But Kṛṣṇa does not say. He says, "By quality and work." He never says, "By birth." So this so-called castism in India that is a false notion of cātur-varṇyaṁ. Real cātur-varṇyaṁ means guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. One must be qualified. And how one is qualified? That is also described. Satya śamo damo titikṣva ārjava jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyam. So there must be education. It is not that to abolish the caste system which is contaminated by false conception, or birth right conception. This wrong caste system should be abolished and training centers should be opened how to train a person to become brāhmaṇa or to become kṣatriya. Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. So you cannot avoid it, but because you have misconceived the caste system, that should be abolished, and the system recommended by Kṛṣṇa, that should be taken. Otherwise you cannot avoid it. Caste system will remain. Just like truthfulness. So all over the world you'll find somebody who is truthful. Why do you take it: "His father was truthful, therefore he is truthful."? This is nonsense. This is nonsense. Kṛṣṇa never said that. The father may be Hiranyakasipu, but his son is Prahlāda. Or a son... Not that the, one has to become exactly like the father. It may be. There is every possibility, but it is not a fact that the son becomes like the father. It is not fact. So similarly, the first class man is truthful. Now, wherever you find a truthful man, you classify him as brāhmaṇa. That is wanted. Why do you take that "Here is a son of truthful man; therefore he is brāhmaṇa"? That is misconception. You have to pick up the truthful men all over the world and classify them as brāhmaṇa. That we are doing. "If you follow these principles, no illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling, no meat-eating, you are brāhmaṇa. Come on." His father may be meat-eater or gambler or drunkard, but he is agreeing, "All right, come on, this come. You are welcome." Then it will be all right. You cannot abolish the truthful class of men. There are... You'll find truthful men everywhere. So you have to pick up. So Kṛṣṇa says that, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā, guṇa-karma... You pick up the quality of men and put them in the brahminical class, and then next, kṣatriya class, then vaiśya class, then śūdra class. But you cannot abolish that system. That is a false attempt. Because more or less, there will be a class of men who are truthful. You cannot abolish. More or less, there will be a class of men who are sinful. So as soon as you want to pick up from a family, then it is mistake, miscalculated. That caste system should be abolished.

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

Prabhupāda: These are all artificial. The harijana word was used by Gandhi unnecessarily for a class of men who are not fit for the position. Harijana means "the men of Hari." Just like Nārada. Nārada is called harijana. Great devotee is called harijana, "the persons related with Hari." But if you select some bhangis and camaras and keep them as he is and rubberstamp it, "Here is a harijana," what will be the effect? There is no harm to pick up a low class man and to elevate him to the position of harijana. There is no impediment. You can do. But if you keep him a low class man and if you stamp him harijana, then what will be benefit? Just like we are initiating selected men. "Are you ready to follow these rules and regulation? When he says, then "Come on. Become harijana." Not that "I'll keep myself in that same abominable condition of life and I shall become harijana." So this "harijana" word has come from Gandhi. He did not try to make him real harijana. He simply rubberstamped him. So what is the value of this harijana?

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

Prabhupāda: First of all, who will take it? Kṛṣṇa has given already according to the time, He has summarized the whole Vedic scripture in the Bhagavad-gītā, but who is taking it? And Caitanya Mahāprabhu and all the ācāryas, they have explained how to accept Kṛṣṇa consciousness or Kṛṣṇa's instruction. So first thing you must be ready to take the presentation according to the time and circumstances. Then everything will be all right. If you manufacture your own way of life, if you do not take it from the authority, then it will be failure. Just like this harijana. Harijana is very good idea, make everyone harijana. But harijana is being picked up from the lowest class of men, the bhangis and camaras. That is recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā, papa-yoni. But how this pāpa-yoni can be purified? Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya. By accepting Kṛṣṇa as everything, that means full surrender. Then he can be, even if he's pāpa-yoni, he can be rectified. But if there is no question of surrendering to Kṛṣṇa and if you rubberstamp a low class man that he has become harijana, how it will be effective? The condition is there, māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya.

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

Prabhupāda: Certainly.

tapasā brahmacaryeṇa

śamena damena va

tyāgena sattva-śaucābhyāṁ

yamena niyamena vā

(SB 6.1.13)

To advance in spiritual life these things are essential, tapasya. Tapasya means voluntarily accepting something which may be painful. Just like we are recommending no illicit sex, no gambling, no meat-eating. So those who are accustomed to these bad habits, for them, in he beginning it may be a little difficult. But in spite of becoming difficult, one has to do it. That is called tapasya. To rise early in the morning, those who are not practiced, it is a little painful, but one has to do it. So this is called tapasya. So according to the Vedic injunction, there are some tapasyas that must be done. It is not, "I may do it or not do it." It must be done. Just like in the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad it is ordered that one must go to the spiritual master. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). So there is no question of voluntarily, but it must be. And one must carry out by the order of a spiritual master and the order of the śāstra. That is called tapasya. Just like in our line ekādaśī is compulsory. One may feel some inconvenience fasting or simply eating fruits. No. It must be done. There are so many rules and regulations which is essential. It must be done. That is called tapasya. Without consideration whether it is convenient or inconvenient for you, which is, must be done, that is called tapasya. Tapaḥ, divyam... Just like Rsabhādeva orders that this human life is meant for tapasya. Therefore in our Vedic civilization we find so many rules and regulations. This is tapasya. From the very beginning of life, brahmacārī, to go to the spiritual master's place and act like menial servant. Nicavat. It is said. If the spiritual master says that "You go and pick up some wood from the forest," and one may be a king's son, but he cannot deny it, the spiritual master's order, "You must go." As Kṛṣṇa, He was ordered to go and pick up some dry wood from the forest. So He had to go.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: So how he can understand? He's a fool. How he can understand? (break) ...into the moon planet, what does he understand about water there? There are so many millions and trillions of planets. How he can understand what is there?

Devotee (1): Where did the astronauts go?

Prabhupāda: They'll go to hell (laughter). To pick up some sand, as if sand is not there.

Sadāpūta: Śrīla Prabhupāda, is māyā especially empowering the scientists to come up with nonsense?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Sadāpūta: It is all coming from Kṛṣṇa, though, isn't it?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because you want to be fool, Kṛṣṇa makes you a better fool.

Sadāpūta: He's also the greatest cheat.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...to become devotee. And if you want to become rogue, He'll give you all facility to become rogue. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). He's so kind.

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

Hari-śauri: Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Let him come. So?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Getting French visa was done, and tomorrow I pick up your passport and apply for Iran visa. Then just one more, Italy, remains.

Prabhupāda: Why do they speak about seeing? What is the value of your seeing? I have seen the Atlantic Ocean, that means I have seen everything? This is ludicrous.

Rūpānuga: They may simply speculate from a distance, that "Here is the surface," like here...

Prabhupāda: That's all. Real business is speculation.

Rūpānuga: Here it says, here, this is some great, here...

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is "I am not stealing."

Rūpānuga: Twelve hundred miles above the surface. Now they want to speculate what is there.

Prabhupāda: Who asked him that who is stealing? But he said "I am not stealing."

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

Prabhupāda: They're giving back toward meaning.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: You can learn so many... Sanskrit...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, yes. Our students to pick up some Sanskrit words. Ātmā, jīva, like that. He was telling me that in about thirty or forty years our ISKCON, our movement will have a great impact in the social life there.

Prabhupāda: We are giving all, all round enlightenment. Bhagavad-gītā is full of information from all standpoint. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati (BG 4.7). We are now in such a downtrodden position, the whole human... He must accept. There is... The civilization is doomed. (pause) What do they explain about so many varieties of life? How do they come?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They call by mutation. It's called mutation.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Mutation is... They say DNA molecule is the... called master molecule. But somehow during the course of...

Prabhupāda: Somehow.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is fact. We are part and parcel of the supreme spirit, God. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). "All these living entities, they are My part and parcel." Qualitatively, we are one. Just like a small particle of gold is also gold. It is nothing else. Similarly, we being part and parcel of God, we have got that godly qualification. God can create. We can also create. That example I have given in my last magazine, that we have created this big 747 airplane, but we cannot create a mosquito. That is also plane, with pilot. That is God's creation. So the creative power, both of us, we have got, but we are limited, and He is unlimited. That is the difference. A drop of seawater contains the same chemicals, but the quantity of Atlantic Ocean and drop of Atlantic Ocean is not the same. So we are just like drop of the Atlantic Ocean, and God is Atlantic Ocean. That is the difference. But chemically test, the whole Atlantic Ocean is salty, we are also salty. Whatever chemical composition is Atlantic Ocean, we are also of the same chemical composition. And because we are part and parcel of God, therefore we show sometimes activities very wonderful, but still, God's activities are still more wonderful. That we cannot compare. That is not possible. So we should understand what is the duty of the part and parcel. Now, just like this finger is the part and parcel of my body. So what is the duty of the finger? To serve the whole body. I order the finger "Please come here," immediately it does like this. So the finger, being part and parcel of the body, it is the duty of the finger to serve the whole body. When the finger is unable to give any service, then it is diseased. If there is some pain in the finger, I want to use this finger for some purpose, to pick up this flower, I cannot do it, that means it is diseased. Similarly, we living entities, part and parcel of God, when we are unable to give service to the Supreme, that is our diseased condition. That is not normal condition. And when we are actually able to give service to God, that is our healthy condition. So in the materialistic way of life we are diseased. Because we are diseased, therefore we have to accept birth and death. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). So we have to get free from this diseased condition. Śuddhyet sattvam. Yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam.(end)

Interview and Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So we can, in the initial phase we can...

Prabhupāda: (aside:) So you can post this. Here.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This one, Bhaktivedanta Institute. I have to go into town a little bit later to pick up these passports. They're not quite ready till two-thirty.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We were also thinking that since Rūpānuga Prabhu is here in the Washington area but his participation is most important, so he's suggesting that the Institute, they house someone here in Washington.

Rūpānuga: It is also a good area for scientists. Already we have met...

Prabhupāda: That you make thing. That you will make from among yourselves.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In this college program, when we went last time to Florida, Gainesville, Amarendra, our president of Gainesville temple...

Prabhupāda: He has written. It was encouraging.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: ...but we are concerned with the educational propaganda, that "You are not this body. Body is your covering, shirt and coat. Within the body you are living, and as you are spirit soul, you have got so many things to know."

Mike Robinson: Sorry, could I just change the tape? Perhaps if we can pick up where we were, if you could just carry on. Perhaps if I can carry on from where I was, that what I'm trying to understand is the difference it makes, a person being a member...

Prabhupāda: You try to understand this, that as you have got experience of change of body.... Have you got or not?

Mike Robinson: Yes, I've got the difference there.

Prabhupāda: Similarly, the so-called death is also a change of body. This has to be understood first.

Mike Robinson: Yes, I think I've got that far. Now if we could go on from there. And then we said, you said that it therefore made a difference in the life after death, how you lived, that there were natural laws that determined that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The process is that the spirit soul is invisible in our material eyes, very small. So after the destruction of this gross body, there is another body, subtle body—mind, intelligence and ego. So at the time of death, when finishing this body, mind works. So, according to that process, the mind carries the small spirit soul to another body. Just like the air carries the flavor. Nobody can see wherefrom this rose flavor is coming, but it is being carried by the air, very subtle. You cannot see, but it is being done. Similarly, the soul is very subtle. It is being carried by the mind. According to the mind, he enters into the womb of another mother through the semina of the father, and then he develops a particular type of body given by the mother. It may be human being, it may be cat, dog or anything.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Human qualification there is no, otherwise how they are killing? Killing means they have no human qualification, animal qualification. I want you to eat, huh? You know that Aesop's fable story?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Funny story?

Prabhupāda: There was a lake. So one small lamb was drinking water on the other side, and this side another tiger. The tiger challenged that, "Why you are muddying the water." So he said, "Sir, I am here, long away, I am not muddying." So anyway, he picked up some quarrel and killed him. So the idea was to kill him, but he picked up some, find out some fault. So anyone finding out. This man who wants to kill somebody else, he's not man, he's animal. Give the dog a bad name and hang it. That English proverb? You try to discuss on this point, how people can refuse the proprietorship of God. That is a very good point for preaching. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam. Everything belongs to God. That's a fact. Sleeping? Meditating? Either sleeping or meditating, what is the real fact? Meditating or sleeping?

Hari-śauri: I'm not feeling sleepy anyway.

Prabhupāda: Meditating.

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

Prabhupāda: Not inconvenient. But now we have comfort. For staying, it is the best place. There is no question about it. But because for the function we have come, so little too far away.

Devotee: To be near the program and see what is going on.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore even it is little inconvenient. (Hindi conversation) What is the position now about this political situation?

Indian man (1): Political situation remains the same. No elections, nothing for the time being.

Prabhupāda: Mahāṁśa was saying that the businessman is in trouble.

Indian man (1): Yes, business is not prospering since last two, three years. Business conditions are not picking up.

Prabhupāda: What is the reason?

Indian man (1): A general recession throughout the world.

Prabhupāda: Depression. Not for any political reason.

Room Conversation About Blitz News Clipping -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Gargamuni: We are marching through the streets not with guns.

Prabhupāda: They admitted, "Rival to Nelson Column" in Guardian even. So who is strong enough? We are stronger than British Empire. Simply by Ratha-yātrā we are conquering. And actually that is being done. What I have got strength? Forty rupees beginning. Simply Hare Kṛṣṇa and Ratha-yātrā, that's all. That's a fact. They can see, they have got eyes.

Pradyumna: "The Indian government has been rather slow in picking up the ISKCON signals. One reason being that the genuine Kṛṣṇa devotees in the administration had been mighty pleased in the beginning with the idea of exporting Kṛṣṇa consciousness to America."

Prabhupāda: Genuine?

Hari-śauri: That means the genuine ones are here in India, and they were pleased with the idea of exporting Kṛṣṇa to America. So that means that the ones in America are not genuine.

Prabhupāda: So "You are not genuine. Therefore we are not appreciating." Genuine they appreciate. "But you are not genuine. Therefore we are criticizing you."

Room Conversation About Blitz News Clipping -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Hari-śauri: No, Harikeśa has got them.

Prabhupāda: So go and pick up and make arrangement immediately show them. One thing, that we have got this śālagrāma-śilā. So if you like to personally worship, we can keep it. Otherwise I am sending to Bombay. Do you like to worship?

Pradyumna: We can take with us? Yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That is good to take with you.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Pradyumna: We can make small thing like you used to have, small Deities? We can do that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Make a small box.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Here there are carpenters. We can get it made before you leave.

Prabhupāda: So we can carry and every morning just put in a siṁhāsana and tulasī and water and flower and little fruit. That's all. He has got tendency to worship.

Room Conversation -- September 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: That's Western mentality.

Prabhupāda: Whatever your father and mother has chosen, that's all. He's your worshipable husband. This is the... This point I wanted to bring. And her father was surprised. "How is that? I got you married with an old man? Somehow or other, circumstances I was obliged. How is that you have picked up one young man?" He chastised her like anything. Then when he came to understand that the same old man has become now young man by medical treatment, then he was satisfied. So you cannot change. I have seen it. One, my father's friend, he was very old man. My father was also... He was at that time not less than sixty-five. But his wife died, and he was married with another young girl. But his sister forced him to marry. That "Unless you marry, who will look after you? You have no children." But I have seen that young woman who was married with that gentleman... In our childhood we used to called her didi. Didi means elder sister. So the relationship was very thick and thin. But that old man, not less than sixty-five, and this young woman, utmost twenty to twenty-five. She was serving the husband like anything. We have seen it. There is no question of changing or being dissatisfied.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Scientific means after discussing for some time you propose that "Let us enjoy sex." That's all. It is common thing in your country, unknown girl, unknown boy, and talk for some time, "Let us go to some restaurant," and then talk more intimately, and then sex.

Hari-śauri: That's the whole social system.

Prabhupāda: "Would you like to sex?" And who is the young man, young... They'll deny it. I know this. During ball dance they embrace one another, another's wife, another husband, and in ball dance... Or there are side rooms. Naturally they'll feel sex and they go to the side room and discuss. Is it not?

Devotee: Yes.

Hari-śauri: The only reason they go to a dance is to pick up some woman for sex life. That's all.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: Most of my friends used to go out specifically to find some woman to have sex.

Prabhupāda: This dancing club means this. (end)

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

Prabhupāda: No, then he should be sent back. Or he can be sent to Bombay to work ordinarily. Or Hyderabad farm. Like that. Let him work on the ground.

Yaśodānandana: He speaks Bengali. That boy was in Bengal before and he picked up Bengali.

Prabhupāda: So he can go.

Pradyumna: He's very intelligent, but he's just had a bad...

Prabhupāda: So he was in Māyāpur?

Yaśodānandana: Yes, he was in Māyāpur before. He knows Bengali. He can speak Bengali.

Prabhupāda: So he can go with the Māyāpur preaching party as well.

Yaśodānandana: We could send him with Bhavānanda Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that will be nice. He knows Bengali. Let him go to Bengal and keep him under Bhavānanda.

Jagadīśa: I think that he'll be a problem wherever he goes.

Prabhupāda: No, Bhavānanda will correct his problem.

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

Guest (1): Eventually they will come around, but it will take time.

Prabhupāda: No, the leaders are not... Because their position will be finished, the so-called leaders. They want to keep in ignorance the mass of people so their foolish leadership may go on continually. That is everywhere. (break) ...learn this philosophy and preach. That is the best service.

Guest (2): My son who lives in America is very Westernized, and as he picked up Gītā, and he tried to understand it. Now he now is so much a follower of Gītā that every single letter he quotes Gītā to anyone whom he writes.

Prabhupāda: Which Gītā he has read?

Guest (2): He's very convinced about it.

Prabhupāda: No no, which Gītā he has read?

Guest (2): Your Gītā.

Prabhupāda: My Gītā?

Guest (2): Your Gītā and Cinmayananda's, two Gītās.

Prabhupāda: Cinmayananda is atheist. Atheist. He does not believe in Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation with Mr. Tombe (M.L.A.) -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

Mr. Tombe: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then things will be perfect. India, if the whole world can be saved from this chaotic position, India can do. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission. But that India leaders first of all make his life perfect. Then it will be all right. Just like our... Of course, I'm not proud, but I am alone. I started this movement alone, without any help. But because I am giving them the perfect information, whole world is taking it. Otherwise, from practical point of view, one man without any help, within ten years he cannot do like this. That's a fact. But I have no difficulty because I am following the Supreme Leader, Kṛṣṇa. People may say that I've done wonderful, but there is nothing magic. Because I am following Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Leader, so far it has become successful. So everyone can do that. Where is the difficulty? Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam (BG 4.2). If we follow the paramparā system it is not difficult.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: These are all of Prabhupāda's books. Eighty books.

Prabhupāda: Eighty-four books we have, I have written within ten years. And our publication house, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the first in the world for publishing religious and philosophical books. We are selling not less than six lakhs worth books daily.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, publishing division.

Mr. Tombe: I have got only a few of them now. I would like to pick up...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Here, these are... We only have sample copies in India. So I'll tell Girirāja to bring you some. These are only sample copies for Prabhupāda's display. (end)

Morning Walk -- December 30, 1976, Bombay:

Girirāja: In some of the newspapers in Vaidore, maybe Nagpur. He's writing for about three or five copies of those original clippings.

Prabhupāda: He has written very nicely. Good writer. Picked up the essence of the movement. That was published. (Hindi) So distribute them. (Hindi) Bhāgavata Darśana?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Next issue. This issue is all finished. Next one.

Prabhupāda: Just stop this light.

Girirāja: Then it won't be for Kumbhamela. Prabhupāda wanted it for Kumbhamela. (break)

Indian: Well, I don't know. It will be a big program there from part of (indistinct) mission. They've spent four lakhs rupees.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They never... I never thought they had so much money even for their own projects.

Indian men: They collect from the big Sikhs. (indistinct) He is very influenced. For Kumbhamela, all the Marwari want to wash off all the sins they did. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: So explain with that purpose. At least, they are sensible. (break) You cannot give up these four things: yajña, dāna, tapasya. So yajña for the brahmacārīs, begin yajña. And dāna for the gṛhasthas, and tapasya for the sannyāsīs. Yajña-dāna-tapaḥ-karma na tyājyam, Kṛṣṇa says. Do not give up this. "I have become sannyāsī, therefore I'll give up my tapasya also." Sannyāsī means the life of tapasya. If you give up tapasya also then what remains? How you become a sannyāsa? Yajña-dāna-tapaḥ-karma na tyājyaṁ kāryam eva tat. It must be continued. And again He stresses yajño dānaṁ tapaś caiva pāvanāni manīṣiṇām. Even if you think that you have become very great, "Now I'm very exalted personality. I don't require. I have become paramahaṁsa," No, no, no, no. This yajña-dāna-tapaḥ-karma, even if you are very exalted, still, it will purify you more, these things. Yajño dānaṁ tapaś caiva pāvanāni manīṣiṇām. In any condition of life these things cannot be given up.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

rabhupāda: Oh. So everything is all right?

Haṁsadūta: Well, everything is all right. I came because I have to pick up one truck which was... It was in an accident, and it was repaired, so we have to pick that up. So I thought I would come to Bombay and also see Your Divine Grace. I heard you're not feeling well.

Prabhupāda: No. So? When you started from there?

Haṁsadūta: We started eleven o'clock yesterday, eleven o'clock in the afternoon, and we spent one night in Shalampur, a nice town. We did some kīrtana in a Dvārakādhīśa temple, very nice temple. And we stayed with the owner of a trucking company. A very nice place. You look so handsome, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: (clears throat) So, how business is going there?

Haṁsadūta: Well, there's no money, so not much can be done. The last two days there was no prasādam distribution in the evening, and so the last two days I was there, nobody came. The problem is that since Your Divine Grace left there, the same people would be cooking, these sweeper people. And now they don't want to cook anymore because they work all day, and they say, "We can't work all around the clock, twenty-four hours." So they stopped cooking. And together with no money... So the whole thing has just come to a stalemate. So now another problem is that the saṅkīrtana party which we sent out is also not... It came back yesterday, also not going on properly. I know this causes Your Divine Grace anxiety, but I just think I should speak frankly about how I feel about the situation. I think Mahāṁsa is a very nice devotee, but he does everything himself. He's always jumping over everything, and before it can be discussed, he's already done it. Just like he flew here. He flew here, and it costs a lot of money to fly from Hyderabad and back. It costs, I think, about five hundred rupees. And there's no need for doing things in that way. So I don't know exactly how to work with Mahāṁsa. It's not that I fight with him. I just don't know how to work out things so that it comes out in a practical way.

Prabhupāda: What is the use of investing money there? I have already given fifty thousand.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Girirāja: That's true.

Prabhupāda: If I am in power, give the dog a bad name and hang it. Who is going to check me? The same story, the lion and the lamb? No? A lion was drinking water this side and one lamb was drinking water that side. So the lion saw it is very nice food. So he wanted to kill with some plea, "Oh, you are making my water muddy!" "Sir, I am here so far. How I can make your water muddy?" (laughs) In this way he picked up some quarrel and jumped over. So he's lion and he's a lamb. So it is no difficult for the lion to kill a lamb under some plea. "Might is right." There has been so much propaganda and CIA, this Communist propaganda, this Blitz propaganda. In Bengal there was heavy propaganda against our...

Girirāja: Bhavānanda.

Prabhupāda: Bhavānanda. Nothing was done.

Girirāja: Yes. It's true.

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Then it is fortunate, fortunate.

Gurudāsa: Yes, very good. A blessing in disguise, yes. So they're trying to organize. There's many bhangis who pick up the stool.

Prabhupāda: The place is nice then.

Gurudāsa: Oh, yes. And I cut down the pandal size. Originally the pandal was 100 by 150, 100 feet wide. But I saw that were going to emphasize saṅkīrtana and I measured that 120 by 75 was adequate.

Prabhupāda: Our visitors, they have got facility to come?

Gurudāsa: Yes. We have Life Member tents, and some visitors have been coming. I have been receiving them. So we have... There's one thing I wanted to ask you. A lot of youths are coming, Western youths, some hippies, but mostly clean. Some hippies. But there are two hippies, and I saw what they were like, and I didn't allow them to stay. But mostly our camp is... Until the devotees come, there are some tents that are empty. So they said, "We need a place to stay. Is it all right?" So I said, "Tonight you can stay. Then I'll let you know later on." And we preached to them. We have a morning program there, and we have an evening program. So they attended. So I thought with your permission I could erect some tents, not in our living area... The chokidhars I put outside, right on the gate, because I didn't think they should live in our area, but they should be there, so the chokidhars have a tent. I thought behind the pandal I could erect some tents, or even behind our tin where people wouldn't see them so much, we could invite some guests, charge them something for living and preach to them.

Prabhupāda: Hm. But they smoke.

Gurudāsa: Yes, some will.

Prabhupāda: That is bad.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: So actually we're getting all this free exposure on radio and on television. And each time we come off sounding very intelligent, very religious, very nice, and they come off sounding like fanatics and bigots. So people are getting a good impression of us because of the publicity on radio and television.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like Sītā was put into the fire and she came out unburned. Sītā was blasphemed, that "This woman was kidnapped by Rāvaṇa, and Rāmacandra is so henpecked that He has again picked up her and living with her." So Rāmacandra put him (her) in the fire and she came unharmed.

Rāmeśvara: You were asking me what is the use of, say, if you came to America, if you were on television. But actually people are very interested in this issue, so they will listen. They are listening to see us, hoping that we will be exposed.

Prabhupāda: Now, Hari-śauri was (saying) that there are many fanatics. They may attack me: "He's the man who has started this movement."

Gargamuni: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Now, this, this is fact, that when this body is no more working, the subtle body carries the soul to another gross body. That they cannot see, but it acts. This science they do not know. Seeing is always not competent, material eye. Just like the example is given that flavor is carried by the air. It is being carried, but I cannot see. But it is being carried. That is transmigration of the soul. The soul is carried by the subtle body to another particular body, and according to his karma under superior examination, the soul, a very small particle, one ten-thousandth part of the hair, he is put into the semina of the particular father, and he injects. So the soul takes place in the womb of the mother. She supplies the material to develop the next body. This is the process, transmigration. Then, when the body is complete to come out, then another body works. Another chapter begins: tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). So this is development.

Rāmeśvara: They have a description of how these people experience communication, talking or hearing. He says, "Hearing can only be called so by analogy." Mostly they say that they do not really hear physical voices or sounds. Rather, they seem to pick up the thoughts of the persons around them. As one woman put it, "I could see people all around, and I could understand what they were saying. I did not hear them audibly, as I am hearing you. It was more like knowing what they were thinking, but only in my mind, not in their actual vocabulary. I would catch it the second before they opened their mouth to speak." Like reading minds.

Prabhupāda: Mind is also material. Up to ether. Beyond that, ether, there is soul.

Room Conversation -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Pṛthu-putra: Oh, no. That was long time ago. Anyway, I was just staying in one place and didn't listen to anyone.

Prabhupāda: That Kṛṣṇadāsa Bābājī, he's of the same type. Not only he, mostly. Because their theory is this, to pick up some woman who is not your wife, she must be parakīyā, other's wife. And making Rādhārāṇī, and you become Kṛṣṇa, and this is parakīyā... And pointed out by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he's a kali-celā. Ei ota eka kali-celā, nāke tilaka galāi mālā, and sahajiyā bhajana kache mamur saṅge lana pare bala.(?) This is... It's not new thing. It is coming since a long time. Otherwise how Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura... He's our like grandfather.

Satsvarūpa: This discussion with Pṛthu-putra Mahārāja and the devotees in Europe doesn't so much concern those bābājīs as this business of the, when something is visited, when you have a visitation from the subtle plane, whether to take it as important or not. But you've already explained the position, to go on with your duty and not consider the message very important. Sometimes they speak of...

Prabhupāda: No, suppose you have seen that a gold mountain has come in your possession. Will you be satisfied with that?

Pṛthu-putra: No.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes. We have started one institute, Bhaktivedanta Institute?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. And I want to show several aspects of our journal, Sa-vijñānam. We have almost completed the first volume.

Prabhupāda: They are publishing one paper, Sa-vijñānam. How do you like this name? Sa-vijñānam. This is picked up from Bhagavad-gītā. Jñānaṁ te 'haṁ sa-vijñānam idaṁ vakṣyāmy aśeṣataḥ. Sa-vijñānam (BG 7.2). Sa-vijñānam means according to science. So did you see...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I have some designs about the covers of the first issue. We wanted to show to Śrīla Prabhupāda. I think I have here.

Prabhupāda: We are challenging scientists that "Life cannot be produced by chemicals only. Life comes from life." They're all big, big chemists. There is another Ph.D. Another M.A.C., M.A.C., this Oriya, Faree(?). He can also join.

Gargamuni: Śrīla Prabhupāda? I would like to see Tarun Kanti Gosh. He once told me any time you wanted to go to Manipur he would give an official letter.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Hari-śauri: The principle we're following.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In the... For the big scale, this is the required. In big scale you cannot make all of them as brāhmaṇas or sannyāsīs. No. That is not possible. This is a small scale. How many percentage of people of the world we are controlling? Very insignificant. But if you want to make the whole human society perfect, then this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement should be introduced according to the Kṛṣṇa's instruction, if you want to do it in a large scale for the benefit of the whole human society. Now we are picking up some of them, best. That is another thing. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu said para-upakāra. Why a certain section should be picked up? The whole mass of people will get the benefit of it. Then it is required, systematic. Sve sve karmaṇy abhirataḥ saṁsiddhiṁ labhate naraḥ. Para-upakāra means mass benefit, not there is certain section. Then we have to introduce this varṇāśrama-dharma. It must be done perfectly, and it is possible and people will be happy.

Morning Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Perfect team of brothers.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Therefore Kṛṣṇa has brought them here in Māyāpur. Previously they were advanced, all of you. You are simply born because the mission was to be started. Just like in Yadu-vaṁśa Kṛṣṇa ordered all the devotee demigods to "Go and take birth there to help Me." Similarly, you are also... You were born in Europe, America, to help this. Otherwise you were devotees in you past lives. I have explained that in my recent writings. The purport was mām eti: goes to Kṛṣṇa where His pastime is going on, and then they are transferred to the original. So all the devotees picked up and they were placed together where Kṛṣṇa is having His pastimes in either of these innumerable universes. He's going on. Just the moving... The sun is moving-little, little, little. So Kṛṣṇa's pastimes go on—this universe, that universe, that universe, that universe. In some universe He's present. In all universes present, that is called nitya-līlā. So those who are advanced, perfect devotees, first of all they are sent there and then, further trained up, they enter. Mām eti. Just like after passing the administration examination he's made one assistant of some magistrate, and then gradually he'll be promoted up to the high-court judge.

Room Conversation -- February 28, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: From local village?

Hari-śauri: Yes. It's very nice. Wonderful kīrtana. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...thousand.

Hari-śauri: Yes. It's picking up. It's becoming a little busy. There were one or two big parikrama parties came too. The photo display should be ready tomorrow also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Actually they say it is ready. Will you be looking at it this year?

Prabhupāda: Hm? (break) Pālikā has gone? No?

Hari-śauri: Yes. She left this afternoon.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Rangoon she's going to.

Hari-śauri: She should be back in four days.

Prabhupāda: In Rangoon we have got any place?

Hari-śauri: No.

Room Conversation -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: When it is going to be held again?

Hṛdayānanda: Yes. We just stopped for lunch break, and then, after lunch, again, around two o'clock.

Prabhupāda: So you attend?

Gargamuni: Yes, I'll attend. I just wanted to stay in Calcutta a few days to...

Prabhupāda: Pick up some fight. (laughs) There was no fight?

Hṛdayānanda: Just little fight.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Don't fight. Then everything will be spoiled.

Hṛdayānanda: Not very much fight this time. It was much more peaceful than before.

Prabhupāda: (chuckling) Yes. For Kṛṣṇa's business why there should be...? Even there is fight it should be mock fight, not real fight. Then it is right.

Gargamuni: Yeah, most of the fights we have aren't personal. They're just difference of opinion.

Prabhupāda: No, that will go on. Then majority vote. Then it's decided. What can be done?

Gargamuni: No one has any personal animosity.

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

Mr. Koshi: Interpretation.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Spoil their own life and spoil others. This is going on. The meaning is clear, but these rascals are thinking that "Meaning is not clear. Kṛṣṇa left for me to clear the meaning." That's all. Such rascals, they are touching Bhagavad-gītā. As if Kṛṣṇa left for him to clear the meaning. These rubbish things we want to stop. Of course, it is not possible. Many others are. But we are trying little, that's all. We cannot make any compromise. Therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness. What Kṛṣṇa says, that is a fact. They are completely under the grip of material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi (BG 3.27). They are declaring independence. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). False, ahaṅkāra, egotism. Nature in one slap, crack! Indira Gandhi is so powerful, one slap, "Get out." What can you do? One slap is sufficient. They do not understand. Jump. They do not know. They are completely under the control of prakṛti, and prakṛti is under the control of Kṛṣṇa. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). They do not discuss this. Still they are scholar in Bhagavad-gītā. Simply picking up some words, they become scholar. Is that scholarship? They do not read even the whole Bhagavad-gītā, neither they understand. This is going on.

Morning Talk -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But if he's not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he may rise up to that position by endeavor. Then he will fall down. And I have given this example, Nixon and Indira Gandhi. This is factual. To come to take the post of prime minister, to become the president, is not easy job. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa, great hardship. Similarly, the Māyāvādīs, they also undergo severe austerities to become one with the Supreme, impersonalists. Any... I have given the... Karmī, jñānī, yogi, politicians, and everyone—everyone has got some aim. Many rich men, they commit suicide. So this is possi... This is the ultimate result of nondevotee. He may rise up by endeavor to certain position as he imagined, "This is the best position." Just like we are also trying to occupy the best position, to become associate of Kṛṣṇa, to live with devotees. We have got also some aim, and the nondevotees, they have also got aim. But the devotees will never fall down, while the nondevotee will fall down. And if devotee circumstantially, by chance, falls down—not like them-he'll be again picked up by Kṛṣṇa. This is the science, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. A devotee's position is certain. Now, take for example my position. For ordinary karmī to possess so many properties all over the world and so many other things, money and everything, if karmī had to do it, how much hardship he had to go. And actually they are doing. Is it possible for one's life to acquire so many?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, even Birla doesn't have.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Not many miles.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, it's not too far. And this land they are donating to us.

Prabhupāda: They have done already?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They want to donate this to ISKCON to build a temple, ISKCON Hare Kṛṣṇa temple.

Prabhupāda: So if you can pick up one person from family, then we can do immediately.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Actually they have a committee, and this land actually is meant for... It is already called, already reserved for temple purposes from the government of Manipur.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So they can actually... The members of the committee told me that this was within their power, so whatever they do is final. So that's...

Prabhupāda: Maybe, but for management if we have to send foreigners, there are so many difficulties. But if the local people are trained up to our philosophy and mode of life, then there is no difficulty.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Svarūpa Dāmodara, myself, Gopāla...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Three, that's all.

Prabhupāda: So find out some... When something is offered, take it. Then we shall see how to utilize it. (Bengali) It is property, but it is being offered. Let us take it. You can pick up these boys from family.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Train them, and they will manage under our direction.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So next time, when I come back, I have a plan to go to all the villages with the slide show, or with the movies...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...and I'm going to request...

Prabhupāda: Each family...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...to give one family, one member.

Prabhupāda: That's it. Very nice.

Conversations -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They don't have the time to read. I mean, that's why they won't publish any of this. This is good, but it...

Prabhupāda: No, no, where is mentioned that Surabhī Swami was...? His name? How they have picked up your name and your photograph as everything?

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: Well, I usually have to go these places. And the man, he wanted to see me the night before, so I went to Times of India, and I was...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why would he want to see you?

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: I don't know. So I came on invitation, and then I just sat down to explain all the things that were written in the book.

Prabhupāda: I don't think there is any name mentioned, presented, in these articles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In these?

Prabhupāda: No.

Room Conversation -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Another gentleman in Hasi(?)... We were going in the same car. So he requested me, "Please come here." An old man, nice, very well-to-do man. And after giving the nice seat and some refreshment, so he said that "I like you very much. I have no son. Why don't you become my son?"

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Seems like everyone is very affectionate to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is Kṛṣṇa's grace. He picked up on the street like this.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That man?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Ne, adopted son, that is a practice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In America also, they have the foster home. The children are there, and parents may go and adopt some child.

Prabhupāda: That is everywhere. So that village gentleman, that place I liked.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Would you have agreed to stay with him?

Prabhupāda: I would have been glad. Very nice foodstuff, very nice, clean, and he has got his fresh vegetables, like that.

Morning Conversation -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: There is no excepting an Englishman. So anyway, you make these four men, subcommittee, and you take whatever land is given, given up to Kṛṣṇa. Then pick up selected persons from each family and make a strong body. And then we organize Burma and Bangladesh. And he's going to Ceylon. Formerly India, Burma, Ceylon, they were one. And somebody's going to Pakistan. So there is chance of uniting all these different parts of India by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You have to organize. At least you organize here, Manipur center, Burma, and Bangladesh, and Assam. It will be successful.

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Pāpī tāpī jata chilo, hari-nāme uddhārilo. This is our position. We have to select our worker from the worst class of the society, pāpī and tāpī. But, we shall prove, by hari-nāma they become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is the movement. You trace the history of everyone. All worst, third class. And they come here. And that is Kṛṣṇa conscious movement. How many Doctor Svarūpa has come? If we speak frankly, (laughter) all from the worst class. Those who were finished. And Kṛṣṇa... It is said, pāpī-tāpī jata chilo. Pāpī and tāpī, they are not first class. They are the tenth class. Pāpī-tāpī jata chilo hari-nāme uddhārilo. This is the test of Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement, that how many pāpī-tāpīs have been picked up. Brajendra-nandana jei, śaci-suta hoilo sei, balarāma hoilo nitāi. This is Gaura-Nitāi. What is their business? Now, pāpī-tāpī jata chilo, hari-nāme uddhārilo. "Bas? This is their business?" Yes, to deliver all the pāpīs and tāpīs. "So how is that?" Tāra sākṣī jagāi and mādhāi. See Jagāi-Mādhāi. It is not imaginary. So we have to deliver all Jagāis and Mādhāis. This is our movement. That is the test of the, of us. It is not sorry for that, but still, they should act like good men.

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: But there will be finally the trustees. And there may be one advisory board to... Pick up some friends and make an advisory board. They are not final. Final is trustee. Anything to be done should be considered first of all by the advisory board, and then if it should be sanctioned by the trustees, then it can be done. So some friends, we can make an advisory...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Some sympathizers and friends.

Prabhupāda: Local...

Yaśomatīnandana: Local citizens?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Local citizens.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hindus, I do... The trustees appoint. And when trustees are going to retire, he should nominate his own person.

Conversation: 'How to Secure Brahmacaris' -- June 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I mean, just this is a Vaiṣṇava institute, so when our students apply abroad for an entry visa, they'll get it right away, and they can get a student visa for four, five years. I don't think the gurukula kids come from abroad and then train them six, you know...

Prabhupāda: No, no, the parents are prepared to pick up the expense. That's all. Government curriculum is useless. They'll enforce kids to take eggs, three eggs...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's right.

Prabhupāda: ...in daytime, and four pounds flesh. Otherwise there will be vitamin, less vitamin. Or "Give them vitamins pills, this..." These... "Don't go to Yamunā. It is polluted."

Yaśodānandana: Even want to follow their textbook, follow their mundane textbook.

Prabhupāda: Keep this institution pure, not that we have to make it impure. Fighting, we want fighting. If we don't get, it will remain vacant, but we don't want to introduce impure. That should be a principle.

Yaśodānandana: Can all the children of the parents in our society send their children here?

Prabhupāda: Yes, why not?

Yaśodānandana: I was thinking we have many parents.

Prabhupāda: It is for them. It is for them, not for the outsiders.

Conversation with Bhakti-caitanya Swami-New GBC -- June 30, 1977, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Why he should feel? If you have to work, you have to work for Kṛṣṇa.

Bhakti-caitanya: Actually we are taking a burden from his back...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhakti-caitanya: ...just to go here and there. And I am picking up much responsibility between...

Trivikrama: One other point is Raj Kumar Gupta, that man who is so devoted. He's now sitting in Delhi.

Prabhupāda: So you combinedly do. That will be...

Bhakti-caitanya: I am sure that if... With your blessing... Because Gupta is very influential in Delhi, and Delhi, we will also be able to get the men sitting in the rear(?) if we want, because he has so much influence in the ministry now.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Bhakti-caitanya: That Mr. Raj Kumar Gupta. He is the right man in the ministry now. That Kedaranath Swami, the mayor of Delhi, he always... He is a fast friend. So if we have influential man... Now he has shifted his office from Chandigarh to Delhi, so I have to get the all ordination for Chandigarh from him, through him. So if he will introduce me to his friends in Delhi, and Delhi people mind if I will take our money to Chandigarh, so what I was wondering is collect the money from Delhi from all over, put in Delhi and Chandigarh together, all the north India.

Trivikrama: There will be no shortage of money. There's so much... Just yesterday a man gave five thousand rupees. And he wasn't even a big man. Small man. Big man, we can get. There's so many.

Bhakti-caitanya: (laughs) Yes, practically because we have no small big man.

Prabhupāda: So it is very good premise. So why Gopāla should be sorry that "I go"? Is there any reason?

Letter from Yugoslavia--'Books!' -- June 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: How intelligent.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Every language, all the books in all languages. "Feeling a little satisfied that this school had been properly inoculated..."—he called it an inoculation—"...I picked up my two bags and ran to the train station."

Prabhupāda: When all these standing orders will be supplied and they read it, we'll get more first order.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: So our book prospect is very nice future. So BBT must be very careful for distribution like this. Such reception, who is that author, he'll not be engladdened all over the world? Against odds. Against odds. It's simply Kṛṣṇa's arrangement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I just have to see if my room is being flooded.

Śatadhanya: I'll go see.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Can you just check and have that boy start mopping? As soon as it... See, that's why they were banging yesterday. And they'll have to bang some more tomorrow. The room becomes flooded as soon as it rains, due to the faulty pipes.

Prabhupāda: Now rectify the fault.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Letter from Yugoslavia--'Books!' -- June 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I know. The pipe has to be replaced.

Prabhupāda: So do it nicely so that in future it may not.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All right. It'll be a little banging. I told them tomorrow morning, when you're in massage, when you're in the garden, then they can do. I don't want them to do it while you're in this room. "Feeling a little satisfied that this school had been properly inoculated, I picked up my two bags and ran to the train station with great enthusiasm, because now I was going to meet Gurudāsa Goswami, who had come to Yugoslavia to join me. Not having the association of the devotees for many weeks...," all by himself, "...this thought of meeting..."

Prabhupāda: So try to engage Gurudāsa also as your cooperator. Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's a good word. If you said "assistant,"...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. (kīrtana starts-Govindam prayers)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't think you're feeling any pain. No. Are you thirsty at all? So today, tomorrow, those are critical days. And then one day lapse, and then another critical day. Generally the whole month is not very good, this month, next month, and one after, not very good. Of course, the best place to be is Vṛndāvana, and the best association is Kṛṣṇa's devotees, and you're under the protection of Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. So there can't really be anything inauspicious in such a situation. Śrīla Prabhupāda? We were noticing that your bed is facing... Your bed is facing more or less north. So we were wondering whether we should turn it to face east, which would be in the direction of the Deities, Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. We could turn your bed just like this, as if we were turning you. We would keep you in the bed. We can pick up the bed and make it to face with your head towards Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma, which would be east. You have any objection? This is north.

Prabhupāda: There is no objection, but which is north?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You are now facing north, Śrīla Prabhupāda. No, your head is north. This way is south, and this way is north. So this way will be east, and this is the way of Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. So if you like, we can face you east. I think you usually like to lie eastwards. See, 'cause we moved your bed in here it was like this. Otherwise normally you sleep with your head that direction. Should we do that? We can move you right now. Then we'll chant some more? Okay. (break) You want to see that Kṛṣṇa dāsa from Rādhā-kuṇḍa? The pāṇḍā. The man who takes people around. Not Niṣkiñcana Bābājī from Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation About 10th Canto -- October 16, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: We must know, the whole material world... Brahmā is one of the portion. There are... Aṇḍāntara... How many universes? Yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ (Bs. 5.48). Nāthāḥ, plural number. So there are innumerable universes, and this Brahmā is a tiny four-headed. That was exhibited in Dvārakā when Kṛṣṇa called for Brahmā. So what he can do to bewilder Kṛṣṇa? That is not possible. You pick up the idea.

Pradyumna: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Then it will be nice purport.

Pradyumna: And there's one interesting note, Vīrarāghavācārya. He says in the verse there is svayaiva māyayā. So he says, svayaiva māyayā iti anena sva-śarīraka paramātmā māyayā iti vivakṣitam.(?) Paramātmā, in his own body, had...

Prabhupāda: Upendra can give me little honey in my mouth.

Abhirāma: Śrīla Prabhupāda? I can give you the honey?

Prabhupāda: That's... Yes. Avirāma, "always working."

Room Conversation About 10th Canto -- October 16, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: If you like. Otherwise, make this verse correctly. Then take up the next.

Pradyumna: Yes. Everything was very nicely explained, Śrīla Prabhupāda, very...

Prabhupāda: Pick up the words? Set up in right place. It will be nice. In this way, slow but sure. Then, even in this condition, I can help you. There is no question of hurrying. Finish one verse, husband and wife, one day. And make it everything clear. Eh?

Pradyumna: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Vīrarāghavācārya, Sanātana Gosvāmī, Viśvanātha Cakravartī. We are just trying to explain their ideas. We are teeny.

Pradyumna: I think your commentary on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam will go down in history as one of the most..., one of the best commentaries. It will go down.

Prabhupāda: Let us try for that. (takes honey) Hm... Therefore I said "Upendra," (laughter) because it is solidified.

Room Conversation About 10th Canto -- October 16, 1977, Vrndavana:

Jayādvaita: It will be very much appreciated.

Prabhupāda: Or you bring one morning one, like that. There is no need of being hurry. Hm?

Jayādvaita: No.

Prabhupāda: You can discuss amongst yourselves. Pick up the right word and place. Then it will be very nice.

Abhirāma: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Ba... No more want.

Abhirāma: It wasn't good?

Prabhupāda: Not bad. We shall see tomorrow. Give me little water. And with some wet handkerchief...

Abhirāma: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: In this way let us pull on. Fight between māyā. Sit up for while and chant beads. (end)

Doctor Visit and Conversation -- October 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Would you like some kīrtana, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: You have got any (indistinct). Where is Girirāja?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He went into the city today for picking up the fixed deposit receipts. That was the main thing.

Prabhupāda: City?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Delhi. Because the receipts are being turned over to the head office, so they have to be endorsed there. So he went for that purpose. There's not much more to do now with this Panchashil flat, because we're going to give it. So simply it will be up to Vrindavan to make up the necessary document for transferring it. I think it doesn't even require a big document. Simply a letter on behalf of Your Divine Grace saying that "We give this apartment to you."

Prabhupāda: But one thing, if they can dispose?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, they may try and sell it.

Prabhupāda: No, no, I don't want that.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's nothing at all to lead us to feel dismayed that they haven't..., he hasn't... For example... I mean we got the call through to Calcutta by 2:30, and they said that he got the kavirāja and they got on the plane and left. That's very, very positive information. I mean, imagine if someone had picked up the phone in Calcutta and said, "I don't know," or "He couldn't find the kavirāja." But they said, "He got the kavirāja and they got on the plane." That's very, very positive information. Maybe we should read a little bit. That will be a good diversion now.

Prabhupāda: What you'll read?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, the other night... I mean we could read SB.. I'm always eager for you to hear Bhāgavatam. I mean, I wanted to call... I always like to call Pradyumna and Jayādvaita. Of course, that requires... If you wanted to translate, you could make the effort. Otherwise Jayādvaita could read some of the edited work.

Bhakti-caru: He went to Delhi.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says that Jayādvaita went to Delhi today. Why? (quietly) Irresponsible. He goes. He didn't even tell me. (break) ...read Kṛṣṇa book, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Jayādvaita: ...sent me an urgent telegram asking me to send the book manuscript and also to pick up another manuscript that he'd sent. So I went for... He told me to go for three days and not to come back to Vṛndāvana until it was done. But I went for one day. But I heard that I inconvenienced you because you couldn't translate that night. I'm sorry that I held up the work. That anthology book of different articles written by Your Divine Grace, I think that will come out very nicely. That's what Rāmeśvara was having me send him.

Prabhupāda: Anthology?

Jayādvaita: It's a collection-Rāmeśvara mentioned it while you were here, while he was here—a collection of different articles from Back to Godhead written by yourself. There's your conversation with Professor Kotovsky, and also from the old BTG you were publishing in India there's that article "Relevant Inquiries." That's very wonderful article. Your correspondence with Dr. Stahl, that's also there. And lectures from different places. When you first arrived in London there's a very wonderful lecture. So many wonderful articles that have been published over the years in BTG. But the real thing is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? I mean, just judging the symptoms, which is all that we can do, certain symptoms have certainly picked up. For instance, you're passing more urine, stool is coming naturally, and you're able to drink milk without getting any cough. These things were never there before.

Prabhupāda: Hm. That will continue.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So if the treatment is continuing, if the treatment is working, why not continue it under the guidance of this kavirāja for some time? His point is this. This is what I've seen, Śrīla Prabhupāda, being your secretary all these months, that whenever you took milk you would get cough. For the first time I see there's no cough coming. Another problem, you couldn't pass urine. Now there's double the amount of urine. Another thing, you couldn't pass stool. Now it comes normally. At least it comes without any artificial means. So the one thing that has not yet come is strength, and kavirāja is suggesting what you yourself had always said, "If I can drink milk, I will get stronger." So if the kavirāja's treatment... To my feeling it has worked. At least symptoms... The symptoms have been better under his treatment than any doctor so far.

Prabhupāda: That will work.

Bhavānanda: It will work.