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Plants (Conversations 1977)

Expressions researched:
"plant" |"planted" |"planter" |"planting" |"plants"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Buffalo and bison different.

Dr. Patel: But they are of the same degree or more wild. These are tame. This, sir, is a (Hindi). We call it (Hindi), the Sanskrit word, more or less. (pause)

Prabhupāda: The coconut trees makes the place paradise, palm trees.

Dr. Patel: I've got the place, sir. When you came to my house my wife immediately planted twenty-two coconuts all round. Now we get coconut, they'd be more than two thousand rupees per year.

Prabhupāda: We are getting eight thousand.

Dr. Patel: Yes, you are very good. Mine is hardly half an acre.

Prabhupāda: The other day Girirāja told me we have got eight thousand.

Hari-śauri: A year.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Pūrṇam. Pūrṇam idam. Pūrṇam adaḥ (Īśopaniṣad, Invocation).

Dr. Patel: It was a challenge to one scientist who taught nonsense...

Prabhupāda: Well... What...?

Dr. Patel: One man challenged by me, a student, you know, "Sir, you said there is no God. Can you make a living cell even of a..., not of, much less animal, of a plant even?" And he looked with open mouth. "Can you make a single cell living? Cell of. Not of the whole tree." That is nature. That is God. That is Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-sthaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi (Bs. 5.35). Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntarastham. Paramāṇu. Āṇu. Then paramāṇu means smaller than the atom. Six paramāṇus makes one āṇu. Atomic dimension is the combination of six paramāṇus. So in that paramāṇu also the Lord is there.

Dr. Patel: He made it, and then He entered into it. That is what the Veda says.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Antara-stha. Yac-chakti... There is verse. The Paramātmā. Paramātmā is there. The whole human life is meant for understanding all this and glorifying the Lord. And they are wasting the life by imitating the hog. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujaṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). Viḍ-bhujām. Viḍ means stool; bhujā means eating. Yac-chaktir eṣa... What is that? There is a verse. Eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭiṁ yac-chaktir asti jagad-aṇḍa-cayā yad-antaḥ, aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu... (Bs. 5.35).

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

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

Haṁsadūta: I mean I talked with Mahāṁsa also. I talked with him when he came back day before yesterday. Talked with him very frankly and openly. Of course, he always says, "Yes, yes, yes," and then he just does whatever he feels should be done. And Tejas also... Now, Tejas, for example, he started a vegetable garden, and it was going on very nicely, but then everything dried up because all the workers, they work under Mahāṁsa. They're all accustomed to taking instructions from him. And so the plants were not watered. Mahāṁsa continually put the water someplace else. So now everything that Tejas has done is frustrated. So he feels, "Why should I be here?" Tejas, I think, has something really to offer. I think he's experienced, but if he's not given a field and some space to exercise his talent, he's going to go away, and I feel, without Tejas... I mean there's no one else I can refer to about these matters. I don't know anything about farming. I don't know planting. But Tejas seems to know. And he speaks Telegu also, and he also is one of our devotees. And I have more faith in Tejas than I would any other person who we might consult. But ultimately Tejas is, I think, more important than anyone else because he is your devotee, and he's very faithful and responsible. And one other thing which Tejas... When he was there, he worked out financial..., what he saw was the actual financial picture of how Mahāṁsa had been investing money in the past and what kind of result he had been getting on the basis of labor and...

Prabhupāda: Now the money which we have transferred, so that is... You are three signatures.

Haṁsadūta: We are three signatures, yes.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) No, my creed is at their home.

Jagadīśa: You planted seeds in their home.

Rāmeśvara: Sometimes they capture... Very rarely they capture one of our members and they convince him to leave. And after they convince him to leave our movement, then they tell him many lies about us. And then he goes on television and tells the American public that we brainwashed him. So sometimes they get some of our ex-members to speak against us. This is going on. In Los Angeles I have met three ex-devotees who viciously lie about us.

Prabhupāda: Who is he?

Rāmeśvara: Just minor devo... They're never leaders.

Jagadīśa: Initiated?

Rāmeśvara: One girl. And they're vicious, very hateful. Because they are constantly being told that we are evil.

Prabhupāda: Nitāi has gone there to do it? (chuckles) No.

Rāmeśvara: No. I think... Last I heard he was still in Vṛndāvana area.

Prabhupāda: If he is in Vṛndāvana, that is good for him.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Hari-śauri: To change him.

Rāmeśvara: They say to break him of the spell. We have got a spell on him.

Prabhupāda: But why he again comes back? You could not break.

Rāmeśvara: Sometimes they cannot break, because we have planted our...

Prabhupāda: In most cases they come back.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. I would say four out of five come back.

Jagadīśa: We have given him knowledge.

Prabhupāda: It is not a prison house.

Rāmeśvara: They say, "You cannot deprogram a Christian because Christianity is real. Therefore this is the proof that Hare Kṛṣṇa is false."

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Rāmeśvara: That there is no record of any Christian...

Hari-śauri: We were all Christians, and we changed.

Jagadīśa: There's a record of a Christian deprogrammed, Peter himself. Christ prophesied that "Before the cock crows you'll deny me three times," and he did. He was deprogrammed just by his association.

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Huh? Why you are trying for? Simply make a show? You are thinking already, but you do not know. Your world is your father, mother, and two sisters, that's all. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tridhātuke svā-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu. That is your world. A little family, a little community, that is your world. We do not think in that way. We include even the animals, trees, plants-brothers. That is our philosophy. We feel. When you cut a tree unnecessarily, we feel. This is our feeling. Unless there is absolute necessity, we do not wish to kill even a tree, what to speak of animals. When in our Bombay the coconut trees were being cut, I was feeling actually: "Why unnecessarily the coconut trees...?" You cannot give anyone life, so how, what is living, you can kill? It may be tree or animal or plant. You cannot give him life. So you have to suffer for this.

Gargamuni: Can we go inside?

Satsvarūpa: He said it was open in the morning.

Gargamuni: See if we can go inside. (break)

Prabhupāda: I was going to purchase ticket, Māgha Melā. He said "No, you don't go. That's it."

Bhāgavata: Then there is a lake over here and there is animals, birds, different types of birds.

Prabhupāda: Oh, zoological.

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: No. They say that both humans and monkeys come from a common ancestor. But they don't know what that is.

Prabhupāda: Who was your ancestor? (laughter) Jalajā nava-lakṣāni sthāvarā lakṣa-vimśati. There is chronological order followed: first of all aquatics, then trees and plants, then insects, then reptiles, and in this way, then birds, then beasts, then human being. Which way? This? No.

Bhāgavata: If you want to go out, this way. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...it from Padma Purāṇa, and he has explained in his own imagination. The idea has been taken from Padma Purāṇa because the Padma Purāṇa, it is already there, evolution. Asatiṁ caturaṁś caiva. Eighty-four lakṣa means hundred thousand, 8,400,000. That is also given. Where is that, that Darwin's theory?

Bhāgavata: They have no number of species.

Prabhupāda: Imperfect idea. He wanted to credit himself. He has stolen the idea from Padma Purāṇa and wanted to explain in his own way, imagination, speculation.

Bhāgavata: The actual evolution is that the soul goes...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhāgavata: ...from the species, from one species to another in chronological order.

Room Conversation -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Simply prasādam distribution-bas. We shall stop them with hari-saṅkīrtana, village to village.

Gargamuni: Yes, cause they frankly admit, the Americans, that they planted CIA agents in the priests to try and convince the people and change them. But they failed because these CIA agents became detected. So I told them that actually also this Christianity, the Indian people cannot accept, the mass of people. Maybe a few. But they can accept our movement.

Prabhupāda: No, that is in lower class, not brāhmaṇas.

Gargamuni: Yes. No. They will not accept. But they can accept this movement.

Prabhupāda: This movement will accept because there is prasādam, teaching, and actual behavior, Vaiṣṇava.

Gargamuni: And they've been brought up in it thousands of years. They will accept it. "And it's coming from America. Therefore you should support it."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No, they are not open-minded. They have to be pushed within the water. (laughs)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That's our first remark, "Please let's be open-minded. We are not dogmatic. We're not presenting something religious, fanatic. But let's discuss in open platform, see which one is..."

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is our argument. Just like this plant is coming out of the womb of mother. Everything comes from the mother. So there must be father. Anything you see, it is coming from earth. Earth is the mother. Dhenu-dhātrī. So where is the father? "I cannot see." You cannot see? That does not mean there is no father. There must be father. And the father says, "Yes!" Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). Bījo 'haṁ sarva-bhūtānām (Bg 7.10). The answer is there.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's a very subtle subject. We try to present this bhakti-yoga among scientists...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...and these physicists and biologists. We are thinking how to do it.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No, here is argument. Here is... A plant is coming. So yoni... The source of birth is called yoni. So yoni is there, the earth. But who begotten this? There must be father. Because we, our experience, without father and mother there is no generation. You prove that, that here is the mother; there is the child. And where is the father? And the father says, "Yes, I am father." Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). Bījo 'haṁ sarva-bhūtānām. That's all. There must be father. "You do not see." This is not logic. There must be father. So there must be God; otherwise how they are coming? By whose arrangement? Now, the exact fruit and flower will come from this. You bring another tree. Not it will resemble like. Varieties of life. You cannot say it is accident. Huh? Why not accident—the red flower comes here and the white flower comes there? Accident? They're standing for years. Why there is not a single accident? And accident. You say, "accident."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: This is a nonsense theory.

Prabhupāda: Simply rascals. And because we have become rascals, we accept them, "Oh, here is scientist."

Gurukṛpā: They find it convenient to accept what these scientists say.

Prabhupāda: No, accept, we accept, but we accept the real scientist, Kṛṣṇa. Therefore we are triumphant. We understand.

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

Prabhupāda: That is supposed. Where there is no tree, a castor seed tree is very big tree. That is going on.

Satsvarūpa: If there's no tree?

Prabhupāda: You know castor seed tree, a plant? it does not grow.

Satsvarūpa: Small.

Prabhupāda: Small. So there is no banyan tree. It is taken—"Oh, it is very big."

Hari-śauri: I don't follow the analogy.

Satsvarūpa: In the complete absence of trees, then a small tree is considered big.

Hari-śauri: Oh. (laughs) Well, say, like here in Māyāpur now we have a situation...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Why? Why one should stress to become big tree? Here it is clearly said even if you are small tree, you can get perfection. So we should take that.

Hari-śauri: So in Māyāpur here now we have that situation, that so many...

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This is a better meditation. Meditation... One is performing meditation silently. But if we chant "Hare Kṛṣṇa," it is forced meditation. He has to meditate. So it is better meditation. Just like they're chanting. I am engaged in different business. Still, I am hearing. (kīrtana in background) This is the... And one is silently meditating, he's getting, maybe he's getting the benefit, but here anyone who is hearing, getting benefit. Therefore chanting is better than... Yes. And it is recommended by Haridāsa Ṭhākura that... This is discussed in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that "Chanting, even the trees, even the insects and the animals, they will hear and they get the benefit." So it is better meditation. Even the trees, plants, animals, birds, beasts, they can take benefit. And if it is done by pure Vaiṣṇava, then they get the full benefit.

Rāmeśvara: There's another trend that I have noticed recently, that they have... In the past, formerly, many articles were full of quotes in Sanskrit, and recently they have not been using so much Sanskrit, but just the English. The magazine is, they say, is mostly sold...

Prabhupāda: That is not bad. Sanskrit, not necessarily it has to be quoted, but the English is there. It is sufficient. The purport is there.

Rāmeśvara: It's now... Now this magazine that we're printing in Los Angeles, ninety-five percent is sold in Canada and America. We used to ship some of it to England, but now they want to print their own in England. We find that all over the world they don't want to import from America, but they want their own. The public feels, "Why should this be an American import? Why not print it..."

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- February 28, 1977, Mayapura:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There's some misunderstanding. When I came from New York, there was one Christian minister. He was going to Bangalore, India, but I was all the way from New York to Delhi with him. We sat together side by side, and since he was minister, he was interested in what I was doing, so we started talking about philosophy and the science of the self. So I asked that "Mostly we are told that in Christianity, many people don't believe that there is soul in animals." He said same thing, and he was a minister. In animals, plants...

Prabhupāda: Big animal. He's a big animal. Animals... He is also animal but big animal. That is what he... That I have already said, small animals. Śva-viḍ... What is that? viḍ-varā... Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ (SB 2.3.19). He's a puruṣa. He's a very exalted person, but he's a paśu, animal, because he does not know anything about spiritual life.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: If people know some of these very basic principle of life, that all the living entities like animals and these things, they are all...

Prabhupāda: Superior than the matter. That how you can deny it? Kṛṣṇa says clearly, apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parāṁ, jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho (BG 7.5). They cannot... They're so dull, they cannot understand it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Their heads are filled with dung.

Prabhupāda: Two things are there already. Any layman can understand. A person living—a person dead. So why he is dead? Something is missing. So that missing element is important or this body is important? These rascals cannot understand even, so dull brain.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A common farmer here can understand that.

Room Conversation -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes, some flower tubs, and... You have already done? No.

Girirāja: No.

Prabhupāda: Some flower tubs.

Girirāja: Well, we have potted plants, but actually, we want to make like landscape.

Gargamuni: The lift doesn't go up to the roof, though.

Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter. One...

Girirāja: We can take by palanquin.

Prabhupāda: No, one story I can go. Not now, but I can go. So you are trying so much for my comfort. I do not know whether I shall be able to repay you. Then I shall try my best. It is not possible to repay your debts, that so kind. So I can simply pray to Kṛṣṇa to give His blessings to you so that you may remain very steady in devotional service and preach this cult all over the world. Otherwise, I have no other means. Without your help I could not do anything. So you are very much kind. Kindly continue your cooperation. Paropakāra. This is the movement for paropakāra. I have got report from our other temples all over the world. They are doing very nice, is it not? Other temples outside India, they are doing very nice.

Devotee: Yes.

Room Conversation -- April 13, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually a letter came yesterday, I think, from the chief minister. I haven't opened it yet. Shall I bring it?

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Fan.

Upendra: (bringing garlands) This one was made by a little girl. The boy who fixed the buzzers, his little daughter made.

Prabhupāda: This is our flower? Hm? Get all round, flower, the first land vacant. You should plant them. Puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca.

Upendra: Paramparā mālās. There's five mālās here for the paramparā.

Prabhupāda: First of all hear. Then tomorrow they... Kṛṣṇa is helping. He'll help more, more. We are not going to be misled by their leadership.

Girirāja: No. They have nothing to say. Actually, the way you've trained us is very good, that you always present their arguments and then how to defeat them or what is the defect, so when we go out for preaching, we're not baffled by their arguments.

Prabhupāda: That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's policy. Let the rascal Sarvabhauma speak first of all. Let his talk be finished. Hear silently. And then reply. He'll hear.

Girirāja: I found, at least in the business community, there are many mūḍhas.

Prabhupāda: Mood? Ah, mūḍhas, yes.

Conversation with Yadubara (after seeing film) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That's nice. That can be, and this..., done that.

Yadubara: Do you think there should be any sequel to this film? In other words, to carry on the philosophy?

Prabhupāda: No, you have given the evolution of from fish to plant, plant to insect, bird, animal. That can be little elaborately, evolution. Then human being, full consciousness. Now, this is the chance for understanding God. And if they are still kept in darkness like the animals, that's a dangerous civilization. Refusing the opportunity to the humanity. By knowing this, you can get out of this continual evolutionary process. That is anti-material world, Vaikuṇṭha world, where you can actually live. Na jāyate na mriyate vā. He does not take birth, neither dies, and dances with Kṛṣṇa. That is life. That we are wanting. We are seeking after. It is not possible here. Here you have to go through the evolutionary process again and again if you don't take the opportunity for going back to home, back to... Then it is your misfortune. So this civilization keeping people in their unfortunate condition. Mām aprāpya nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani (BG 9.3). This is opportunity to understand God and go back to Him, but that opportunity is being refused. Therefore he is returning again to the same position of birth and death. From animal to man, from man to..., up and down. But dehāntara, that is very dangerous. Tathā dehāntara, you have to change your body. Stop this. If you are scientist, stop it. Continue as American forever. Why you cannot? Why you are so proud of your so-called scientific education? Then you are under control. You have constructed this skyscraper building. Live here forever. Why don't you live? Kicked out. In the same house can become a cockroach because you have got attachment. "All right. Live here as cockroach." Who can check it? Cockroach is also life. Dehāntara. The proprietor becomes cockroach. Can you check it? Nature will do. Now we are proprietor, next life a cockroach. "Live here in your skyscraper building." How much valuable time he has wasted by constructing this skyscraper building. He remains there in the photograph, and actually his life is in the commode. Cockroach. He is living in the commode, and his son's worshiping his photograph. This is... This is called ignorance. Very misleading civilization this is. So we are trying to save everyone from this misleading civilization. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We are trying ourself to be perfect and trying to teach others perfect life. Kṛṣṇa begins His teaching from this understanding. "You are not this body." This is beginning of Bhagavad-gītā.

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

Prabhupāda: Very nice water?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Very beautiful, and there are many plants, the water plants, flowers, lilies and... And there are, surrounding area, a lot of sprouts and many... We have these tamāla trees on the hillside. It is hillside. And these big jackfruits trees, jackfruits, and pippalas, and...

Prabhupāda: Jackfruit is very nice, both unripe and ripened. The...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is full of jackfruits, this Vishnupur.

Prabhupāda: ...jackfruit is very nutritious, very palatable, both ripe and unripe.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Pineapple is also very nice.

Prabhupāda: Pineapple also.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: And we also have some sandon(?) trees.

Prabhupāda: You can simply live on jackfruit. It is so nice. And mango must be there.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, yes, there are many mangoes.

Morning Conversation -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No aim.

Girirāja: It only has harassment value.

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They can't plant trees there.

Girirāja: No.

Prabhupāda: They can do nothing, they have no use, but simply harassment, these people.

Girirāja: Yeah. That's the only reason.

Prabhupāda: So impress this point to Mr. Rajda.

Girirāja: Mr. Rajda himself in his letter wrote that this ten feet will be of no benefit either to the Municipality, either to the public, but it will only disturb us.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's already a road. So what more do they want? We're not blocking anything.

Prabhupāda: So...

Girirāja: Now the only thing is that they may ask for some type of compensation.

Prabhupāda: We shall give something to them, but we shall give.

Conversations with Kirtana Groups -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: There is no question of... That small amount is sufficient, according to the circumstance. Just like in the desert they don't require much water, the camels. Once drunk, they can go on the desert for three days. You cannot do that. There is water. Otherwise how watermelon is coming?

Brahmānanda: Even the cactus plants, they're able to grow, and they store the water...

Prabhupāda: Everywhere there are these... These rascals, they do not know. Everything is there, every planet.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The five gross elements is present all the...

Prabhupāda: Kṣitir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ. Must... (aside:) Give me. Give me that.

Indian devotee (4): Still down?

Prabhupāda: Hm. (break) Everywhere there is life, there is everything, varieties. Here you see in the water there is life, in the land there is life, in the air there is life, within the silicate there is life. So many, many millions. These crabs... What is called?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Crab.

Prabhupāda: How they are living? As soon as you walk, they go within the sand.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- June 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Sir Jagadish was influenced.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. That is why we want to have a very strong discussion in Bose Institute.

Prabhupāda: He wanted to give to the Western world that there is life in plants, the same Vedic knowledge. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think you mention in one of your books that he has proved that the plants also have feelings.

Prabhupāda: Hm. That is his contribution. He is the first man.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Did you know him, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No. He was also older than our father. But I have seen him in childhood, when I was ten, twelve years old. Very intelligent man, soft speaker. His... This Marconi's theory is his theory. The wireless... The thief has taken. They have stolen. And the British government gave credit to Marconi. He was very sad.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That everybody knows.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The wireless, there was a system. That was his discovery. He was very sorry. The British government stole the idea and gave the credit to Marconi. The Britishers, they always wanted to minimize the value of India, that "They are not civilized. We are present there to make them civilized."

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

Prabhupāda: P-u-n-a-r n-a-v-ā.

Śatadhanya: Oh, punar navā.

Prabhupāda: Punar navā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a plant?

Prabhupāda: It is a creeper. It is spread on the hill.

Śatadhanya: Navā means birth.

Prabhupāda: No, not that. Don't go "birth" or "death." It is the name only, punar navā. It is a herb, creeper, and this is the medicine for... It is available here also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So they should get it here, then.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I have asked him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ācchā. "The day ended with a visit to the Philosophy Institute. The professors were in a meeting, and they did not want to speak with me."

Prabhupāda: Just see. The first reception is they do not like to speak with him. Of his bodily feature and language... But the end is good reception.

Conversation about Old Days in Calcutta -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Non... Yes, "Fish is a vegetable, water vegetable."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, that's what they say, "water vegetable." I noticed that these banana trees, they don't seem to have any bananas on them. Growing in your garden?

Prabhupāda: Hm, why?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: My guess is that in order for bananas to grow... Like I have not seen normally banana trees growing in this side, you know what I mean, Vṛndāvana. I suspect it has something to do with the soil. You can't just take a tree and plant it wherever you want. Soil has to be such that it can give the proper nutrition for bananas to grow. It looks good, but it's not banana. (break)

Room Conversation -- July 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They eat you?

Prabhupāda: Yes, the tree.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They eat through the roots.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Spider, big, big spider.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a thing called the Venus Fly Trap. It's this special plant, and if anything goes near it, it goes like that. Maybe they have big ones in Africa.

Prabhupāda: Simply eating competition. These American... It's called surfer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: American?

Prabhupāda: What is that sport, surfer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Surfing. You mean on the board in the water? Surfing.

Prabhupāda: So they may become fish next life.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually you said that in a lecture in Hawaii in our temple. I remember. That really gave everybody a thought. Food for thought.

Prabhupāda: It is in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvam (BG 8.6).

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśomatīnandana: They're having a very nice farm in Ahmedabad.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Yaśomatīnandana: One hundred acres. It's all very nice level land, and we have planted crops in 150 bighās. That is about...

Prabhupāda: So you give some... We are getting many other land. If your becomes ideal, you can teach them. People are coming for chanting?

Yaśomatīnandana: Yes. One gṛhastha is there, and the first week he went there, every night three hundred people were coming.

Prabhupāda: That's it.

Yaśomatīnandana: And that was in the middle of the desert. Not desert, in the middle of like jungle, you know.

Prabhupāda: That I want.

Yaśomatīnandana: It's fifteen minutes away from the...

Prabhupāda: We don't want any profit. We don't want any profit. You produce. You eat. You chant. Organize. Don't go outside.

Yaśomatīnandana: Don't go to the cities.

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhavānanda: They had their disappearance day of Ṭhākura Haridāsa. They distributed prasādam, and five thousand people came. We sent a party of men down.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Five thousand.

Bhavānanda: Now the flood waters have recessed. We're preparing for the planting, plowing. Everything has been flooded. Just now it's dry enough to plow for planting wheat. We planted 170 coconut trees. (pause)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your pulse is nice and strong, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: What is the attitude of our Godbrothers?

Bhavānanda: Favorable and helpful.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Which ones?

Bhavānanda: Mādhava Mahārāja, Kosan Math(?), Madhusūdana Mahārāja.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mādhava Mahārāja was there?

Bhavānanda: He was there two weeks back.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Anybody met him?

Bhavānanda: Jayapatākā Mahārāja went over, but he was out that time. That Hṛṣīkeśa Mahārāja in Caitanya Maṭha was also there. All favorable and helpful. That big nagara-saṅkīrtana on Pūrṇimā, that was very successful. It healed a lot of misunderstandings between the temples.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhakti-caru: Next we'll give you at 12:30, so after two hours we'll give you some barley water, barley milk and some avocado, like yesterday, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Jaya.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Should I go on reading, Śrīla Prabhupāda? He says that book distribution is doubling there also. He says, "On the farm we are doing spring planting, and this year seven acres is being put into crops, an increase over last year, since the population has grown. The farm is now famous throughout the country as..."

Prabhupāda: If you give me some rest, I can sit down.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If we give Prabhupāda some rest...

Upendra: Some pillows.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Back rest. (break) "...with your permission we would like to come and visit you sometime later this year, as it has now been so long since I have had your personal association." Do you give him permission to come visit you?

Prabhupāda: Why not?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "I am a fallen wretch, but I am hoping and praying to the best of my capacity that your health will improve." (break) Would you like Bharadvāja to sing a little?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why?

Jayapatākā: Because he only has one bighā right now, and that land is just next to his.

Bhavānanda: Planting?

Jayapatākā: Now planting is going on. Already many flowers and vegetables have been planted, and now the wheat fields are being plowed for planting. (break) ...if the big temple was thirty or thirty-five stories high, there would be any harm?

Prabhupāda: No harm. It is too much.

Jayapatākā: The present design is too much. Yes, the present design means that every month, six hundred thousand dollars would have to be given, and that's just too much.

Prabhupāda: Too much strain is not good.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Also the tendency is that when you make an estimate, you're always higher. You say thirty million dollars-it's very likely that it will go more.

Jayapatākā: Yeah, so then consider. (break) ...his birthday was a couple days ago, and then he invited us. So I sent two brahmacārīs to his āśrama for his birthday celebration.

Prabhupāda: His temple is completed?

Page Title:Plants (Conversations 1977)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:19 of Nov, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=27, Let=0
No. of Quotes:27