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Plate (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- March 9, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Then your next question is, "Is diet an important segment of the word?" Yes. Diet is very important thing. Just like when a patient goes to a physician, he prescribes a certain type of diet. Why? That's a practical fact. Why you accept a physician prescription of diet? Suppose a man is suffering from diabetes; his diet is different. A man is suffering from tuberculosis; his diet is different. A man is suffering from typhoid fever; his diet is different. Therefore diet shall not be extravagant or whimsical. They must be selected. First of all we have to see what is the diet of the human being. Actually I read in some scientific magazine, a medical magazine, that our teeth is not meant for eating meats. These teeth are meant for eating fruits. Actually the shape of the teeth is like that, just like sharp knife. You can, apple you can take immediately. But if you take one piece of meat, you cannot eat so easily with these teeth. So first of all you have to understand what is your diet. So your diet is different from animals' diet. You take anything. Even stool is food for a certain animal, but that does not mean I have to eat stool also. Stool may be eatable for a certain type of animal. "Oh, that is not my diet or food." Similarly, we have to discriminate. Now so far we are concerned, Kṛṣṇa conscious person, we are studying Kṛṣṇa conscious. What is our diet? Our diet is Kṛṣṇa-prasādam, what is offered, as I told you, that something is offered to Kṛṣṇa. Then we take. We don't take anything direct. Just like these fruits. We have first of all offered to Kṛṣṇa. Here is a plate. Then we take. That is our system. Even we take vegetables, fruits, we don't take directly. We first of all prepare or cut into pieces, offer to the Deity. Then we take. Now, the idea is that we take the remnants of food offered to Kṛṣṇa. Now, when you offer something to some respectable person, you ask him, "What can I offer you?" If I go to your house and if you want to offer me something to eat, you will ask me what I wish to eat. That is the etiquette. So similarly, we have to offer Kṛṣṇa what Kṛṣṇa likes to eat.

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: You can sit down. So everyone is working. Never mind in whatever occupation one is engaged. That doesn't matter. But one has to test whether he is becoming successful. Because everyone wants success. We are not animals that without any success we shall work hard labor. That is animals' business. Just like several times I have given the example, dophara gadha, the ass of the washerman. That kind of business and work is no use. Dophara gadha, ass of the washerman. Here, of course, you have no experience. In India there is a class who are called washermen. In India there are different castes. Washerman, a class; barber, a class. I mean to say... So many departmental. So each and every one, there is a class who take up that work. Sweeper, a class. All the necessities. The clerk, even clerk, there is a class; priest, there is a class; the fighter, there is a class. That is nice arrangement. In India... And florists, there is a class, florist. Their business is simply to supply flower. Fisherman there is a class; butcher, there is a class. Just like we have got a temple, now we require potter. Potter, there is a class. In Jagannatha temple the arrangement is that... One does not know since how long... (someone enters) Come on. In Jagannatha temple... Sit down. Jagannatha temple, the prasādam is cooked every day in new earthen pot. No old pot is used. Once used, it is thrown away. Formerly, this was the system in India. Even dishes, once used, it is thrown away. No washing. Even golden dishes, silver dishes, once used, it is thrown away. And now golden dishes, there is no use of golden dishes, neither nobody throws it away, but that was the system. Now the earthen dishes... Just like china clay dishes, this is considered impure because it is repeatedly used. In India, those who are strict Hindus, earthen dishes, once used, it will be thrown away. Clay dishes. So this is china clay dish. It is not to be used again. It is thrown away. Just like you have got paper plates and glass here. You eat it and throw it away. Similarly, India... Now it is being introduced, these paper dishes, gradually, but from very old time, refreshment or foodstuff supplied in clay dishes, and after eating, it is thrown away.

Conversation with Devotees -- August 15, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: Yes, every morning, and just make systematic so that it becomes very nice. And at least twelve heads. So you are husband wife. How many pairs? Six? Or five? Come. And you are also going? Eh? London? I ask you, Annapūrṇa.

Annapūrṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Eh? You want to go with them or you want to go separately?

Child: I would like to go with Annapūrṇa.

Prabhupāda: Oh. That's all right. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. (devotees chant japa) All right. Oh, it is too little. The plate is not yet full. Give me one spoon. Himāvatī?

Himāvatī: Yes?

Prabhupāda: You can give two rabris (milk sweet).

Haṁsadūta: Can I put some on here?

Prabhupāda: Yes, why not? Halavā is very nice. Who has prepared? Oh. (end)

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

Devotee (2): Yes.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. (break) Your golden cup is very nice.

Guest: Thank you. I'm glad you like it.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...gold plate. What did he cost?

Guest: Twenty-dollars.

Prabhupāda: So I'll offer one day sweet rice to Kṛṣṇa in this pot. I have asked already Govinda dasi to make little sweet rice and offer to Kṛṣṇa. Then the pot will be used. Yes. (break) ...India still, amongst the Hindu family, whenever they use some new thing, household, they'll offer first of all to the Deity. Every family has got Deity. Every Hindu family, especially the high class, brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, they must have Nārāyaṇa-śilā. You know Nārāyaṇa-śilā? Śālagrāma.

Janārdana: Stone.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is worshiped in every family. Arcye śilā-dhīḥ. Śilā means stone. So arcye, the worshipable... I think this is correct.

Talk During Prasada After Kirtana -- November 8, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What is this? Oh. For taking?

Viṣṇujana: Would you like a plate, Swamiji?

Prabhupāda: No, no. A sannyāsī should always take in his hand. That is the system. Not in a plate. That means if you take in a plate, you'll take much. (laughter) So in hand, he cannot take much. Kara-pātrī. That is the instruction. But in this age such strict laws cannot be followed. The Bhāgavata says that when there is flat grass cushion, why should you ask for bedding? When you have got natural pillow, this hand, why you ask for a pillow? Then when there is river, so much water, why do you stock water? When there are fruits in the tree, why do you go and beg? When there is cave, why you are searching after apartment? (laughs) When the old garments are thrown in the street, then why you are searching after clothing? These are the instructions. Completely free. Kasmād bhajanti kavayo dhana-durmadandhān (SB 2.2.5). Why should you go and flatter these monied men? That is complete independence. But those days are now gone. (laughs) It is a different age. Los Angeles, I think it is a good place. Hm? What is your...? Your problem solved?

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Maybe we can distribute prasāda twice in the play.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even just to... Maybe that plate we'll just give to a few people nearby.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...first speak in detail about Ṭhākura Haridāsa's disappearance. So tell me maybe how you want it to be performed.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Ṭhākura Haridāsa was living in a cottage which was... Just like I am living here, and the garage site a little far off, Haridāsa was living a little distance. So when Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to go to the sea for taking bath, He every day, every morning He used to go to Haridāsa Ṭhākura and taking his informa..., "Haridāsa, what you are doing?" Because Haridāsa was Mohammedan by birth, so out of his meekness he did not go to the temple. But in those... Especially in those days they were very strict. They do not allow anyone except Hindus to enter the temple. Nowadays, of course, there is law. If somebody is, actually has come to the Hindu way of life, he's allowed. Our Jayagovinda and others were allowed to see Jagannātha temple. But in those days there were no such system and Haridāsa out of his own accord, he did not want to disturb. But Lord Caitanya, God Himself, used to come to see him every day. So one day when Caitanya came, he looked little bit depressed.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Prabhupāda: It is not that any spiritual master. Sampradāya. Sampradāya means a particular line of disciplic succession.

John Lennon: But, you see, Maharishi said exactly the same thing about his mantra's coming from the Vedic, with seemingly as much authority as you, and he was probably right. So how... It's like having too many fruits on a plate, and you can't only eat two of them.

Prabhupāda: No. If mantra is coming down in that way, then it is potency; the potency is there.

John Lennon: But Hare Kṛṣṇa is the best one.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Yoko Ono: Well, if Hare Kṛṣṇa is the best one, what is the reason why we have to bother to even say anything else other than this one?

Prabhupāda: You don't require to bother to say anything else. We say that Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is sufficient for one's perfection.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: The story is a mouse came to a saintly person: "Sir, I am in trouble. If you kindly release me?" "What is that trouble?" "A cat, they are after me. I am always at risk of life." "So what do you want?" "You also make me a cat." "All right. You become a cat." Then again he came. "Sir, again the complaint is here." "What is that?" "Dogs are chasing me." "Then what do you want?" "I want to become a dog." "All right. You become a dog." In this way he came up to the tiger by the benediction of the... And when he became a tiger, he was... (snarling sound-laughter) Just like our Brahmānanda Prabhu. "All right. Again become mouse." You see? So these civilization is like that. They became tiger, and they are so much badly trained up that they have to become again a mouse. That is the way. That is the way of nature. If you don't improve yourself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you again become stool worms. The human form of life is an opportunity to come out of the cycle of birth and death, but if one does not take—these are the statements in Padma Purāṇa—then he loses the chance. They do not know what is life, how life is rotating, talking nonsense, "I am God. Why Kṛṣṇa should be God? This is written by man." How much low-graded people have become. They are completely under the laws of nature. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14), stringent laws of nature, and still, they are claiming, "I am God. I am this. I am that. I am free. I am..." And they do not mind, even they are degraded to the position of the worm of stool. But there is possibility. What is this worm of stool? It is also living entity. It is not a different thing. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). One who knows, he knows that the worm of stool and Brahmā are the same living entity. Simply under different reaction of karma one has become Brahmā and another has become the stool worm. Now we begin. (break) It is not difficult. Simply the layout should be sent to different parts, and they will make immediately plate, and that will be paper. Daily you have to send it.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- June 29, 1971, Los Angeles:

Śyāmasundara: They mocked him. I think they mocked him for having this and finally he couldn't take any more, and he probably hit the guard, so they threw him in jail for six months.

Karandhara: And in jail they won't give him anything to eat except... They won't give him a special diet, so all he can eat is just a little bit of vegetable. They have... On a plate they give him mostly meat and a little vegetable. They won't give him any extra vegetables.

Prabhupāda: Yes? Where the jail is?

Śyāmasundara: Which jail is it?

Karandhara: County jail, Los Angeles County Jail.

Prabhupāda: So we cannot send our prasāda there?

Karandhara: No. They won't let anything in. You can't even send books there. They won't let him wear his beads. They won't let him have his beads or anything, or his sacred thread. They took it all away from him.

Śyāmasundara: Can we go visit him?

Karandhara: We can visit, yes. Visiting hours on Saturdays and Sundays. I went there the Saturday before last, before I came.

Prabhupāda: So how is he here?

Karandhara: Well, he's doing all right. He says he chants and he prays.

Prabhupāda: Well, what can be done?

Room Conversation -- December 11, 1971, New Delhi:
Prabhupāda: So bhakti-yoga is so powerful. Executed properly, very simple method. Then you become the most learned man in the world. Even without going through the books, they will be revealed. Kṛṣṇa will reveal. Kṛṣṇa is śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). As you become purified by hearing the glories of the Lord, Kṛṣṇa, puṇya-śra, hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi, the dirty things which push obstacles and impure understanding, they are removed. They're washed up. Washed up. Just like if your room is dirty, there..., there is possibility... Therefore I ask you, keep cleansed, your bathing, your clothes, your room. Otherwise you'll suffer hepatitis or jaundice, this, that. You'll suffer, because you are not clean. If you clear, you remain cleansed, then there will be no disease. If you remain cleansed, you eat properly-don't eat more, don't eat less—there will be no disease, no doctor. That's a fact. But you do not know cleanliness, although you are..., that is because your, your cleanliness is with machine. And without machine, you cannot keep clean. Why not this broomstick is sufficient? If in India machine is not available, you cannot be clean? Keep everything cleansed-utensils, plates, teeth, hands, feet. Use sufficient water. There will be no (indistinct). Dirty things should be removed, and cleansed inside and outside. Inside cleansed: simply Kṛṣṇa consciousness, always thinking of Kṛṣṇa. That is inside clean. And outside, that is also required. You cannot neglect, because outside unclean means inside also you'll see unclean. If you keep both sides clean, then you will be healthy inside and outside. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇa puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi. Abhadrāṇi, all inauspicious things, that will be cleaned. They should be washed.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 15, 1972, Madras:

Prabhupāda: ...have no attachment. These are all nonsense. You cannot be (indistinct). A living being, to become desireless, how you can? I am living. I am not a dead body. Desire should be to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. Attachment should be for Him. That's all. You have to change. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You have now attachment for sense gratification, desire for sense gratification. This has to be changed. Purification of desire, purification of attachment. Tat paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). Eyes, because it is diseased, you don't pluck out. This is nonsense. Cure the eyes of the disease, then you will see things right. The Māyāvādī philosophy is pluck out the eyes. Buddha philosophy is make it zero. That is also same thing, plucking out. Our philosophy is "No. Cure it." That is the difference. It is very simple. Which one is better? Just like a man is suffering from disease, fever, and doctor gives him medicine. He dies. Then the patient's guardian says, "Sir, he is dead now. You have given some medicine, he is dead." "That's all right, fever is gone. Fever is gone. Never mind he is dead." (laughter) These rascal philosophy statement is like that. Make zero. Make imperson. Then the difficulties of personality... Because they have got very bad experience of personality here. He had to become minister, he has become king and this and that, householder, all botheration. So make imperson. That's all. Negation. Personality is giving us trouble, so make imperson. God must be imperson, because as soon as we have person, there is trouble. They have got experience. (indistinct) as soon as they (indistinct), make it zero, then there is no pains and pleasure. The body, because Buddha philosophy does not give any idea of soul-bodily concept. The body is combination of matter, so dismantle this combination. Just like you have got a skyscraper building, so you have to pay tax. Break it, make it zero, so no tax. This is philosophy. Do you follow? You have got a very big building, so you have to pay tax. To save tax, break the building. No more taxes. No more pains and pleasure. No more anxiety. That is Buddha philosophy. That means these philosophers are called fools and rascal, less intelligent. Would you like this advice, that you have got a big building, just like in London there is a big building, and he has got a policy anyway that he does not allow any tenant. Largest building in London, to save tax. But his point is different. In Bengali there is adage that (Bengali), that a man's utensils were stolen by a thief, so he became very angry, that "A thief has taken all my utensil. All right, I shall not purchase utensil. I shall take food on the floor. I shall take food on the floor. No more utensils. I shall not keep plates and utensils any more. I shall take food on the floor." This is philosophy. (break) We don't believe in so-called nonviolence, nonattachment, zero. No. We believe in everything, but if there is required violence, fight, "Yes, come on." Yes. Arjuna.

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Prabhupāda: Any other questions?

Sudāmā: Yes.

Bhānu: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Since we are going to have three altars, then we should also have three different plates, a different plate for each altar?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is already known to you. Bhānu knows very well. You have seen in Los Angeles. Why three plates? If you can spare more plates for each, that will be nice. Just like one for Rādhā and for Kṛṣṇa, one for Jagannātha, one for Balarāma, one for Subhadrā, one for guru, one for Gaurāṅga, Pañca-tattva, five. If you can increase, you can manage, that is nice. Otherwise one plate to guru is sufficient. If you cannot spare. If you can spare, you can increase as many plates as you can. Otherwise one plate to guru is sufficient.

Devotee: On ekādaśī, we can offer the Deity grains?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. But not guru. Ekādaśī observed by jīva-tattva, not by Viṣṇu-tattva. We are fasting for clearing our material disease, but Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Caitanya Mahāprabhu... Caitanya Mahāprabhu also may not be offered grains because He is playing the part of a devotee. Only Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Jagannātha can be offered grains. Otherwise, Guru-Gaurāṅga, no. And the prasādam should not be taken by anyone. It should be kept for next day. What is that?

Cintāmaṇi: I tried to make a flute for Kṛṣṇa because He doesn't have a flute. Is that okay?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Sudāmā: One and a half hours before sunrise is when the ārati begins. Then you wake them up before.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Just waking, ārati begins. And you can offer something.

Bhānu: We should offer the plate after the ārati?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: After.

Devotee: Is it all right for the Deities' hair to show?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee: Sometimes, at some temples, the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities, sometimes Their hair shows.

Prabhupāda: Shows?

Devotee: Yes. Like Rādhārāṇī's hair is down in front. Is that all right?

Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter. That is for beauty, as it is possible. Better keep it that side. Just like Rādhārāṇī's hair... There is picture. That gopīs, they have got their hair that side. Rādhārāṇī is also one of the gopīs, but she is the dearmost gopī. That's all. Otherwise, she is also gopī. Then? What else?

Sudāmā: Bhānu had a question about something.

Bhānu: Does evening ārati vary according to the sunset? Or it is just...

Prabhupāda: No. Sunset.

Interview with the New York Times -- September 2, 1972, New Vrindaban:

John Nordheimer: (laughing) It's already been suggested that we (the New York Times) are not divinely inspired. At any rate, this book-

Prabhupāda: If one gets a diamond, he possesses something valuable. But in this civilization you are simply making plastic plates and plastic cups. Indeed, in Japan I have seen pasteboard homes. And everyone is thinking that he is advanced. Formerly people used to have golden and silver utensils, but now they have plastic ones, and still they are very proud to be so materially advanced. What is your position? You have a bunch of paper and think, "I am a millionaire." What is the value of that paper? Is that not cheating? However, if we possess gold or diamonds worth a million dollars, that is actual wealth. But we are educated in such a way that we think we are millionaires by paper only. As soon as there is some catastrophe, millions of such dollars could not buy bread. This actually happened in Germany; millions of marks could not purchase one piece of bread. All this is going on in the name of advancement of civilization, and the real purpose of life, God consciousness, is missing. So every thoughtful man should come forward to understand this movement and take it seriously. Why are the people being misled? We just have to try to understand this philosophy, the basic principles of God consciousness.

Conversation with Bajaj and Bhusan -- September 11, 1972, Arlington, Texas, At Their Home:
Prabhupāda: So if kamāt-krodhād-bhayāt coming to Kṛṣṇa, they get perfection, what to speak of loving Kṛṣṇa? What is their position? So some way or other, you come to Kṛṣṇa. That is our mission. Yena tena prakāreṇa manaḥ kṛṣṇa niveśayet. Somehow or other, just attach your mind to Kṛṣṇa; your life is perfect. And what is the objection? Kṛṣṇa is most beautiful, Kṛṣṇa is most opulent, Kṛṣṇa is more powerful, Kṛṣṇa giving you assurance, "I give you protection," and still, if you don't take to Kṛṣṇa it is misfortune, simply misfortune. Unfortunate. So you remain. If you want to remain unfortunate, who can help you? So instead of arguing, you just surrender to Kṛṣṇa and make your life successful. That's it. That is wanted. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma... Now, these foreigners, they are practiced, always chanting Kṛṣṇa. You cannot do that? Why? Let me know why. You are all young boys; they are also young. They have got more facilities for sense enjoyment than yours. Why don't you take to it? So it is better late than never. Take to it. Take interest in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. You are all Indians. Make your life successful. Help others and be helped. (aside:) What is this? (Hindi—discussing prasāda to be served) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Tūrṇaṁ yateta. (Hindi) Life is very short. Any moment it can be finished. Tūrṇaṁ yateta na pated anu-mṛtyu yāvat. Before the next death comes... You give me in a plate. Where is restroom?
Morning Walks -- October 1-3, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Jayatīrtha: That the knowledge that you have isn't theoretical but it's realized. He was very much impressed by that.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He liked the prasādam so much that I made another plate and he finished that. Then after that he took the..., he finished the... What is that preparation from eggplant?

Devotee (2): The vegetable, he really liked that.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, he finished all plate, he liked so much. He said, "What is this?"

Prabhupāda: Gradually try to convince him and let him read our books.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We are in the same floor. He works on the physics side, I am in chemistry side, but we are in the same floor, fourth floor of the building. No, he is on the third floor. So Śrīla Prabhupāda is saying that prove the existence of Kṛṣṇa by the science of physics, your knowledge. So he asked me, how am I going to prove the existence of Kṛṣṇa by chemistry?

Prabhupāda: That requires your knowledge.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 30, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: ...things of value, they're disappearing. Just like formerly people used to have some dishes of valuable metals. Now it is plastic. This is the advancement.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: It's...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That's what they call.

Prabhupāda: Rascals, they are thinking it is advancement. And if he goes to sell the plastic plates, nobody will pay even cent. But one of those metal plate, if he's in difficulty, he can get some money. This is scientific advancement. Instead of gold coins, now there is papers: "I trust in God. We trust in God." Cheating, "We trust in God." Take hundred dollars. And what is this hundred dollars? It is paper. "We trust in God." By the name of God, I give you. And it is scientific. That's all.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They call it convenience.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They call it convenience.

Prabhupāda: Yes, convenience means going to hell. That's all. It is very convenient to go to hell. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa. Everything synthetic. Cotton is disappearing.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Kṛṣṇa-Kāntī: Oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idam (Īśopaniṣad, Invocation).

Prabhupāda: Yes. And we eat, we finish. And we cannot again produce. God's power is like that, that He eats, at the same, keeps everything intact for your eating. And I, if you give me a plate, I eat and there is nothing for you. That is difference. He also eats. Otherwise we are making all these bogus things, preparing so many nice things, offering to God? Is that false?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No.

Prabhupāda: No. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation). He is so complete that one minus one equal to one. That is Absolute. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is expanding Himself by so many energies, but Kṛṣṇa is the same. There is no loss in His energy. Even in a human being or animal, he produces so many children. Just like hog—he produces at least one dozen children every year, but the hog is the same. If a hog can have so much power... And formerly one man used to produce hundreds of children. Wherefrom the potency comes? If a man is giving birth to hundreds of children, but still, he is the same man, wherefrom the potency comes? Why man? Even the fish, thousands of eggs they produce, and thousands of fishes are again produced. Wherefrom the potency comes?

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Paramahaṁsa: Śyāmasundara, Śyāmasundara is not in the temple.

Prabhupāda: Oh. What is that?

Devotee: Oh, this is just a little preparation, burfi and a little kheer.

Guest (3): Can't you bring him the plate like that?

Prabhupāda: No, that's all right.

Devotee: I tried to find a plate. There's no... Should I leave it here?

Prabhupāda: Hm. Yes.

Guest (3): So so many stories he had memorized, and he started writing and asking many questions, Prabhupāda, so I'm not... But he has got the talent that if he'll get the right guidance and all this, he can easily translate Mahābhārata, many stories in the book shape, in different articles, which can very much help in our movement.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- September 1, 1973, London:

Śrutakīrti: Goloka Vṛndāvana, are there still varieties he said.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. There are varieties. Ānanda, ānanda, pleasure means varieties. Variety is the mother of enjoyment. Without varieties, just like we prepare from grains, sugar, ghee, hundreds of varieties. If you simply give grain, ghee and sugar, it will not be enjoyable. But the same thing, you prepare in varieties and give you a plate, oh, you'll say, "Oh, so nice thing." The ingredients are the same. Grains, ghee and sugar, that's all. Similarly, this material world, the ingredients are the same. Namely five gross elements and three subtle elements, finer. Earth, water, air, fire, sky. These are gross elements. And mind, intelligence, ego these are finer elements. Combined together this material world has come. The brain behind is a living entity. Just like we are using these ingredients, these five elements: earth, water, air, fire, sky, making this building, making this table, making this chair, vase, so many things, harmonium, pictures, book. So the ingredients are the same, but my brain is working in different varieties. My brain or your brain. Human brain. Similarly this material cosmic manifestation is full of varieties. The brain behind it is Kṛṣṇa. That is stated, you have read our Bhagavad-gītā?

Guest: I've taken a look.

Interviews with Macmillan and various English Reporters -- September 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: I do not know. I do not know.

Reporter (3): You haven't heard of it?

Prabhupāda: No, I have no knowledge.

Reporter (3): Well, thanks for talking to me.

Prabhupāda: Thank you. You have take prasāda. Plate.

Reporter (3): Yes, I have. I had some.

Prabhupāda: Yes, take prasāda.

Reporter (3): No... (pause)

English girl: I've committed many sins in this lifetime. How can I make my peace?

Prabhupāda: Eh? What is that?

Girl: I've committed many sins in this lifetime. How may I make peace?

Haṁsadūta: She says she has committed many sins in this lifetime. How she can make peace?

Prabhupāda: Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is the only remedy. What you are doing now?

Girl: Secretary.

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: He will say... They may say, but we are putting some fact. They may say all nonsense. We are not going to accept that.

Karandhara: Some of them say, "Well we've improved on nature. By making things like plastics and medicines, we've improved nature."

Prabhupāda: All right. Very improvement. People were eating in silver plates, golden plates, and you have improved by plastic plates. (laughter) This rascaldom can be understood by another rascal. We are not going to do.

Hṛdayānanda: The plastic is a great problem because they can't get rid of it. Plastic has become a great problem because there is no way to dispose of it. So it just piles up and piles up, and they can't get rid of it.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In the future they are going to make plastic houses.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Transparent, you can see everything from the house.

Prabhupāda: So what is the credit there?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They say that is an improvement.

Morning Walk -- December 31, 1973, Los Angeles:

Jagajjīvana: In the past there was a lot of gold on the planet. What has happened to it? There used to be a lot of gold on the planet?

Prabhupāda: Yes. They used as utensil, as household pots. Just like now you are advanced, using plastic, because you have become very advanced. So you are using plastic. They were using gold.

Jagajjīvana: So what has happened to that gold?

Prabhupāda: What happened? If you keep utensil at home, what happens? You eat nicely on the plate. That's all. Why you are concerned, what happening? It is in your store. That's all. And gold is such a metal, any part of the country, any part of the world you go, you get immediately value.

Karandhara: Yes. Whenever there is an economic depression, then gold remains valuable. Just like when the stock market crashed in 1929, if you had gold you could still purchase goods. No matter how bad the economy was, people would accept gold as barter, but not currency.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Indian economy was that if you have got extra money, you get gold ornament for your wife. So then your money is stocked there. Or purchase some utensils, silver utensils. That was Indian economy. This depositing in the bank and thinking that I am getting good interest, that is another cheating. It is another cheating. If things are not available, what will you get by getting interest? Therefore I am advising that purchase land and produce our own food. There will be no problem.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 20, 1974, Bombay:

Guest: Last year or two years back, we had lots of (indistinct) central playground (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Make that. And give them prasādam. Let them have saṅkīrtana. Here, that meeting will be done here. In this way make propaganda. It doesn't matter it will be belated. It doesn't matter. It will be a... Better late than never. But this propaganda should be done. (break) Now, now, better purchase hundred chairs. So around the temple room place hundred chairs so that many people can stand. They will sit comfortable without, with the, with their shoes. So make some attraction, people may come. And whoever comes, give them prasādam. Whatever you can. "Please take prasādam." Give him plate. Make this way.

Guest: What I was saying apart from all that... In my personal capacity, not as a lawyer, as a life member,... But as a life member, I can help on the police commissioner also.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guest: In writing, I can help on the police commissioner.

Prabhupāda: Yes, let him come.

Room Conversation -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Satsvarūpa: Yes. We're preparing a letter to send to the whole society.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We, suppose we make ghee there. We can make sandeśa there. We can make rasagullā. We can make so many things, especially ghee. So open restaurant in any part of the city, and make nice kachoris, puri, halavā and so many other things, juri,(?) and people will purchase it. They'll come and sit down. I've given all the... That every foodstuff is ready. You sit down. Whatever you like, you take. And this is our charge for one plate. Don't waste. Just like it is distributed. You take one, two, three, four, as much as you like. But don't waste. Don't waste. So so far for your eating sumptuously, the charge is set. Suppose this man eats only one cake and you eat four cakes. That does not mean we shall charge more.

Yogeśvara: Same.

Prabhupāda: Same charge. Same charge. You sit down, eat to your heart's content, be satisfied, and let him also eat. Don't waste. We supply. This is our program. Not that each time... Just like in hotel, each time a plate is brought, immediately a bill. Is it not? No. You sit down, eat to your satisfaction. Charge is the same.

Room Conversation with Monsieur Mesman, Chief of Law House of Paris -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Yogeśvara: Last year, you were received by the Mayor at Hotel De Ville.

Prabhupāda: No, but in America we have reception from highly scholarly people, university heads, like that. Our books are being read in universities, colleges, and they're accepted in big, big libraries. Not only accepted what is published, but they have forward order for all the publications that will come. Yes? Hmmm. (someone comes in with a plate of prasādam)

Pṛthu-putra: (explains about prasādam)

Prabhupāda: They have learned this preparation, these girls. We have taught them. We are strictly vegetarian. From grains, from milk and sugar, and just two three, things, we require, and we can prepare thousands of preparations out of that. From milk and grains and sugar... And? What else?

Pṛthu-putra: Fruit, vegetables.

Bhagavān: Fruits.

Prabhupāda: Fruits, vegetable, we can prepare thousands of preparations, very palatable. Some of them you can taste. Yes, take. Whatever you like, take.

Room Conversation -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Oh, they are thinking like that? (indistinct)

Guest: One of the big people here, I said to him after I argued like this for hours, I said, "You are Western and I am Eastern, not the other way around." Thank you very much.

Prabhupāda: Give him the whole plate. (laughter)

Guest: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) So I am very glad to see you.

Devotee: (indistinct)

Guest: Yes, and she was hoping to come later, but if you are only going to be here two days, I don't know whether she will...

Devotee: We'll be leaving the 15th, evening of the 15th, late the 15th.

Guest: Yes, and this is the 13th. I'll take this to her. Thank you very much.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much for your coming here.

Guest: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- March 1, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: Whatever you desire.

Mādhava: If I desire something to appear here now...

Prabhupāda: Yes, you will remain here as insect.

Mādhava: No, if I desire a plate of prasādam to appear here...

Prabhupāda: Then you will go to Vaikuṇṭha. (laughter)

Mādhava: How do I do it by just desiring? How is it done?

Prabhupāda: By desire you are creating everything. Why these material varieties? You desire. In the spiritual world also, varieties. You desire. You want to serve Kṛṣṇa as His friend, you want to serve Kṛṣṇa as His lover, you want to serve Kṛṣṇa as His father, as His servant, or you want to serve Kṛṣṇa by supplying fruits and flowers, or river Yamunā. Everything, whatever you like, Kṛṣṇa will give you opportunity, in this material and the spiritual world.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: After complete annihilation and then, when the creation starts again...

Prabhupāda: There is no question of annihilation.

Room Conversation with Canadian Ambassador to Iran -- March 13, 1975, Iran:

Ambassador: Um hm. I know they think that sometimes. Even here there are people who think that.

Prabhupāda: Oh, they are thinking like that? But I heard that the king is very pious.

Ambassador: One of the big people here, I said to him—after I argued about this for hours—I said, "You are Western and I am Eastern, not the other way around." (laughs) Thank you very much. I shall take your leave?

Prabhupāda: So, give him prasāda. Give him the whole plate. (laughs) You can take whole plate. So I am very glad to see you.

Ambassador: Yes. And she was hoping to come later, but if you're only going to be here two days I don't know whether she will...

Paramahaṁsa: We're leaving the 15th, evening of the 15th.

Ambassador: Yes, but this is the 13th now. I will take this to her. Thank you very much.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much for your coming. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Ambassador: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. (Ambassador apparently leaves) (break) (end)

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

Ravīndra-svarūpa: So... These men are influencing. One of the things we did. We invited him to the temple, and we gave him a big plate of nice prasādam, and he liked it very much. He said, "If my wife could learn to cook like this, I'd give up meat." So we thought that was very significant.

Pañcadraviḍa: Send his wife over to the temple. We'll train her up.

Ravīndra-svarūpa: So why don't you write a book? Why don't you become a theologian from their point of view and write a book about Christianity? If they, if they can do it, if they can do it, write books and get people to read them, then why can't you do the same thing, write books on Christianity?

Acyutānanda: Did you pass the course in...?

Devotee (2): If you want to get into their world.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Rūpānuga... Rūpānuga is already getting one book together, so you can write a chapter in it. There's a book, and he's going to comment... It's a scientific book on different aspects and he's commenting on, I think, social, various social applications. So you can comment on the theosophical points. I mean it can be included in this book. Actually if you have the qualifications, I'm sure he would want a chapter from you. Prabhupāda, you know that book Rūpānuga's putting together?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Therefore... Because he is hog. You become hog. You'll not hate it.

Madhudviṣa: But what if I am human being? I am enjoying this material life...

Prabhupāda: Then why do you hate that?

Madhudviṣa: Well, I don't hate what I'm doing now, myself.

Prabhupāda: No, if you are given a plate of stool, would you like to eat?

Madhudviṣa: No.

Prabhupāda: Then why? Why do you hate? Why do you hate?

Madhudviṣa: But I'm not a hog now.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They eat the hog.

Madhudviṣa: But I am not a hog.

Prabhupāda: And therefore you hate.

Madhudviṣa: I hate it because I'm not a hog.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: He is sincere.

Amogha: Yes, he was very sincere. Then one day he came to the temple on Sunday because I invited him. He wanted to make sure, he wanted to find out the difference between us and Christianity. But he was convinced in the end that the main philosophy is the same point, the same purpose.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Amogha: And he ate a big plate of prasādam. He liked it very much. So he was saying that perhaps we can have some regular comparative religion course in the school, and when we show the students, tell them about Hare Kṛṣṇa movement as a study, about, as he calls it, our religion, so they can also come in a bus to the temple.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Amogha: The students will come in a bus and see how we chant and have some prasādam.

Prabhupāda: It is a good reception. So that is still going on?

Amogha: It hasn't started yet. This is the plan. But sometimes he hesitates, because he has doubts.

Prabhupāda: Superstition. That is superstition.

Amogha: He gets in bad association, and then he begins to doubt a little bit, I think.

Prabhupāda: You do your duty, that's all. (pause) What is this? Stone or something?

Morning Walk -- May 10, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that "I am showing you the way how to understand Bhagavad-gītā. You have to accept that." Not so many ways. Only that way. That I have explained in the Preface, that when you have to take a medicine, you have to take the direction: dose, such and such. Not that so many ways doses are prescribed. According to the prescription you have to take. Otherwise you will waste your time. Now they have wasted so many plates. What is the value of this? (referring to memorial plates on trees.)

Amogha: Bhūtejya.

Prabhupāda: What benefit is there? A soldier has died. So what is the use of having a tree, having a plate?

Amogha: This will make us remember how much our countrymen...

Prabhupāda: What benefit is there by remembering?

Paramahaṁsa: Well the family feels honored that there is a tree here for a son of their's.

Prabhupāda: What benefit do they derive?

Paramahaṁsa: Well, they can come and see it.

Prabhupāda: Do they think that man who has died is still there?

Amogha: Next time when there is a war, then they will feel more inclined to fight, knowing that there may be a tree for them.

Prabhupāda: It means, this is government deceiving. The man is not there. And even if he is there, suppose the soldier after dying for his country has become a tree, is it a very good reward? (laughter) How foolishly they are thinking. We have to point out their foolishness. That is our business. They are working very hard, undoubtedly, but they are working foolishly. Śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8). The result is simply they are becoming tired. That's all.

Morning Walk -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Bhūtejyā.

Devotee (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: So there is religion. Yānti bhūtāni bhūtejyā. What is this "UJV"?

Amogha: That is the license plate.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. What is the... Generally, the city's name are there.

Devotee (1): Well, it usually has a U before the initials. I don't know why.

Amogha: Generally, they make them all-each one is a little bit different.

Devotee (1): Was Mahīrāvaṇa also a demon?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (1): What happened to him?

Prabhupāda: He was killed by Rāmacandra.

Amogha: He was called by his brother, wasn't he...?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Give him some prasāda. Just take some prasāda.

Madhudviṣa: This is a little fruit that we traditionally offer to a guest. We offer them a little fruit so could you take one piece?

Prabhupāda: You can take the whole plate. (laughter)

Jesuit: Take the whole plate? I just eat it?

Madhudviṣa: (laughing) Yes, yes. It's just...

Jesuit: No special ceremony?

Madhudviṣa: We've already done that.

Jesuit: Ok. When I was in India and I visited a shrine... It was the festival of the goddess of learning.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Sarasvatī-pūjā.

Jesuit: And they brought me fruit to eat at the end, and I was embarrassed, and I didn't know whether to take it or not, and they said it's their custom, "You must take it." So I did.

Prabhupāda: We say by worshiping God, everyone is worshiped. There is no need of separately worshiping goddess of fortune, goddess of learning. Just like if you pour water on the root of the tree, it goes to every branch, leaf, and twigs, every..., approaches. Take some fruits.

Room Conversation with Dr. Copeland, Professor of Modern Indian History -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Amogha: He said as one of the qualifications, we should add good humor, to honesty. He says you have good humor.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. One who has got knowledge, he is humorous also.

Dr. Copeland: Ah. (laughs) Oh. Well, what do we do now?

Prabhupāda: Take prasāda. Prasāde sarva-duḥkhānāṁ hānir asyopajāyate. Take the whole plate.

Dr. Copeland: Take the whole plate?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Amogha: Don't miss out on tulasī leaf. You can take it home with you. Have it for breakfast. (break)

Dr. Copeland: Now we'll try and tell him I didn't really disagree with him or with you.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Dr. Copeland: I don't disagree that when you say the texts that you follow is the text that you believe in. All I'm saying is that there are other texts, and surely there would be some value in studying the other texts. But he's disagreeing with that, so...

Madhudviṣa: I was reiterating the point that we only follow the ācāryas, and there is maybe a slight different approach within the ācāryas, but the conclusion is the same. The conclusion is that we must surrender to Kṛṣṇa. And we don't place too much value in people who are commentating on the scriptures who don't follow the ācāryas. We don't place that much...

Prabhupāda: No, that is the statement in the Bhagavad-gītā. Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). We have to receive the knowledge through paramparā, disciplic succession. "And because the paramparā is broken, therefore it is lost," Kṛṣṇa says. So we cannot accept Bhagavad-gītā or any Vedic literature, which is called śruti... Śruti means one hears from the ācārya. That is the system.

Room Conversation with Director of Research of the Dept. of Social Welfare -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:

Director: When will you be coming back to Melbourne?

Prabhupāda: Next January.

Director: Come again this often...

Prabhupāda: Yes. So I am going, but I only hopeful on these young boys. They will do. Take the whole plate. Take the whole plate, it is fruit, it is very nice. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam (BG 9.26). This is meant for human being, the fruits. The tigers will not eat the fruits. The tiger, canine teeth, they will not like. We have got different teeth for eating fruit.

Director: It's very nice and sweet.

Prabhupāda: So we have got food grains, we have got fruits, we have got milk. By combination of milk and food grains we can prepare so many nice palatable, full of vitamins. Why we should kill the animal? Let the animal live and take it's milk and prepare nice food, full of vitamins. Milk is nothing conversion of blood. So why do you take the blood by killing? Take the blood in a different form, milk. This is our program. Let the animal live peacefully, and if you are meat-eaters, let the animal die and you eat. There will be no charge for it. The meat-eaters, let us keep some animal, take milk, and when it dies naturally, you call the meat-eater, "Please take this." You take the skin free, you take the bones free, you eat meat. Just wait for the death. It will die after all. That much concession I want. But let the animal live without any fear of being killed so it will supply more milk. Suppose if you know that I am keeping you here for killing. Will you be very happy?

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Ambarīṣa: Book of Mormon.

Siddha-svarūpa: The book of Mormon is written on golden plates.

Ambarīṣa: They have a gold Jesus deity.

Siddha-svarūpa: They do. They worship Jesus. But they clearly accept that one, that the person is separate from his body, the soul is different than the body, that we are not flesh, that we are spirit.

Ambarīṣa: They have very strict disciplines too.

Siddha-svarūpa: And they accept that God is a person, that Jesus is the son of the Supreme Person. They even use the word, "Supreme Person, Supreme Personality." So in that way they are in conflict with...

Prabhupāda: That God is separate from Jesus?

Siddha-svarūpa: Yes, that He is the father of Jesus. They make long arguments to show their point, that God is one with Jesus as father and son, not as two persons the same person. And they also have fairly strict... They have strict principles, but the people don't follow them very well.

Ambarīṣa: A lot of the young people do. Like I live around Salt Lake, and there's a lot of Mormons there and there's a lot that... (break)

Siddha-svarūpa: ...we can become creators of a universe and be in charge of our own universe. They are hopeful for that. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...in Bhāgavata also that after passing one hundred life of first-class karmī one can become Brahmā. And after becoming Brahmā, he goes directly back to home, back to Godhead. (break) ...this dissolution, Brahmā hasn't got to die. By the same body he goes. (break) All the inhabitants of Brahmaloka they also go with Brahmā.

Morning Walk -- July 4, 1975, Chicago:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We've been reading in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, that, there's a statement that when Caitanya Mahāprabhu took prasādam at the house of Advaita Ācārya, there's a verse quoted from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that a sannyāsī should not leave anything, no... When he's taking his meals he should not leave anything on the plate. But sometimes we have heard in the past that a sannyāsī should leave something on the plate.

Prabhupāda: No. Sometimes the guru leaves some remnant to be taken by the disciple. That is meant for the disciple. Ordinarily they should not. (break) ...from the other side of the lakes?

Brahmānanda: It's Canada.

Prabhupāda: Canada, oh.

Śrī Govinda: Actually, I think it is Michigan. It is another state in the United States. Then to the north is Canada. (break)

Satsvarūpa: One temple, St. Louis temple, has come to this festival, and they brought with them their installed Deities which are Gaura-Nitāi. I wasn't sure that was right of them to do that. And They're now on the altar of the Chicago temple, but the Deities are not in the St. Louis temple. Gaura...

Prabhupāda: That is closed?

Satsvarūpa: They left one man there. Better to keep the temple open with the Deities there or can the...?

Prabhupāda: No, no. When there is Deity, it must be taken care of.

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1975, San Francisco:

Paramahaṁsa: In the British historical museum in London, I have seen there's a plate about this large, and half of it is pure gold, and the other half is lead. And they found this. They can't explain. It's just a straight line where they separate, and they can't explain how it was produced. So they're experimenting now to try to change lead because there's only, what is it, one proton or electron in the atom? Different. There's only like one proton difference between lead and gold. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...the sky there are many big, big planets where the millions of miles made of gold. Just like desert, there is gold desert.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. We saw coming here a salt desert. There's a whole desert of salt.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In Utaḥ. It's called salt flats. There's a great salt lake. And the lake is gradually drying up. And for miles and miles and miles, simply salt.

Prabhupāda: Even in this planet.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Sudāmā: And the water in that lake is far more salty than the ocean water.

Prabhupāda: Hm, must be.

Room Conversation with Professor Olivier -- October 10, 1975, Durban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: All of our different books, just offhand. These are some of the colleges as of several months ago who placed standing orders for our books. Now, the professors, as we go from college to college in America, in the universities, they are using our books as textbooks, standard textbooks. They are seeing that the cost of the book is not the real criterion. The criterion is the quality of the teaching. Someone may be attracted by the cover... (break) ...transliteration is pronounced, different words, glossary for words which may not be so well understood by the neophyte, references. And for the different pictures, plate numbers and explanation. It's a complete edition. Nothing has ever been seen like this in the Western world. So there's great authority behind it.

Prof. Olivier: Yeah. This... Our university has almost an obligation to make a study in depth of all of these points.

Prabhupāda: And after studying Bhagavad-gītā thoroughly, then begins further, higher study-Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the same principles. Show.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The same format is used. There is color illustrations, introduction, and Sanskrit transliteration, word for word.

Prof. Olivier: Now, would this be... Would this be a... Where would this come in, a book like this, in the study course?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This is the postgraduate study of Bhagavad-gītā, yes. The Bhagavad-gītā teaches the general...

Prabhupāda: No, Bhagavad-gītā is entrance, and then this is graduate. And Caitanya-caritāmṛta postgraduate.

Prof. Olivier: Our great problem is at the undergraduate level.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Well, there is the Nectar of Devotion and the Teachings of Lord Caitanya.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: After all, vegetable will be eaten by somebody. So let government distribute there. Vegetable, grains, fruits, milk, ghee, yogurt, natural produce—they will be used by somebody. The government may store and distribute, those who are in need. That's all.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Maybe somebody is only producing gold or gold plates, or somebody is producing something that isn't food. So he would give that to the government.

Prabhupāda: Well, gold plates, that is not a necessary thing. He can eat on plantain leaf, natural production. That is luxury. So when people live simple life, the luxuries will no more be required.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Let's say the government is building some wells or some roads. They could feed the people who are doing that, śūdras who are doing that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Śūdras, that "You dig this well and take your food." That's all. Work will go on. At the present moment I require one scissor. I can go to the blacksmith and pay him some grain. He will give me. Now they are producing, Krupp Company in Germany, millions of razor, millions of scissors. Now they will have to find market, where to sell. And as soon as goes to sell in India, the British government—"No, no. You cannot sell." Then he becomes angry: "Oh, all right." He declares war.

Morning Walk -- November 13, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...good substance, very good substance. Stool is full of hypophosphates.

Dr. Patel: Whatever it is, but there it is...

Prabhupāda: That was analyzed by a big doctor. You know that Dr. Ghosh who came? Dr. Ghosh from Allahabad? So one day I went to his house, and I saw in a plate something yellow is kept. And "What is this, doctor?" "Oh, that is stool to be examined."

Dr. Patel: The stool, so long it is in your body, it is you, a part of you, because we are all, majority of us are body conscious. There are very few people like you, who are so conscious.

Prabhupāda: That is Māyāvāda philosophy.

Dr. Patel: We are in the process of making soul-consciousness.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is Māyāvāda philosophy.

Dr. Patel: But still every moment we are body conscious.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's it. But that is Māyāvāda philosophy, "Everything one. Everything one."

Morning Walk -- December 14, 1975, New Delhi:

Bhāgavata: (describing Māyāpur) All the devotees, some devotees, they live in the main building, and some devotees they work on the weaving, and some devotees work in agriculture, some devotees work in the gośālā. They make competition, that "Who will come to the maṅgala-ārati first, early." Now they are coming one hour before maṅgala-ārati. They're in a competition, and the ones who dance through the ārati, throught the entire ārati without stopping, the ones that come early, they get this stamp, Kṛṣṇa stamp. You get twenty stamps, you get one plate of mahā-prasādam. You get thirty stamps, forty stamps... You get one thousand stamps, you can go to Vṛndāvana for darśana. You get two thousand stamps you can go for opening ceremony in Bombay. Like this he is making program. Everyone is working very hard to come to the maṅgala-ārati first, to chant the..., and to dance. Everyone is working very hard. He has increased the enthusiasm.

Prabhupāda: These are all a school building? Hm? They're extended.

Tejas: Yes.

Devotee: It's a school.

Tejas: They have also opened a new school. Besides this they have opened another college.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Tejas: Some place in south Delhi.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (end)

Morning Walk -- December 26, 1975, Sanand:

Prabhupāda: Because you are rascal, your government is rascal-democracy. What is the government? Government means your replica. So why do you blame the government? You are fools, rascals; you send other fools and rascals and suffer consequence. (break) ...tea, growing tobacco, growing jute, and no grains. And grain for the animal, so that animal, as soon as it becomes fatty, send it to the slaughterhouse, and then finish business. Smoke, eat meat, drink, and be happy. So much land, but it is producing tobacco, which we are prohibiting, "No smoking." (break) Vegetable is utilized. (Hindi) These crops. (Hindi) (break) ...nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām.

Indian man: (Hindi) ...effulgence.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Prabhā. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40).

Indian man: What is meant, "halo" and "effulgence"? That word meaning, "halo"? Prabhā?

Prabhupāda: Halo is ksatta(?). Practically the same meaning. (break) ...field is green and this field is not green? If you take care every field will be green. (break) ...prasādam to the audience.

Devotee: Sumptuous.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: Full plate.

Prabhupāda: Then accept program. (break) ...distribution of prasāda, then we can go everywhere, whole day program, kīrtana and distribution. So that is meant. And simply dry philosophy? What people will understand? (Hindi) (end)

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, I have seen. Eating and remnants, it is kept in...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes, put in the refrigerator. And then you cook it up again with fresh foods, mixing together.

Harikeśa: Is it all right if he keeps it in there and then he puts some on the plate when taking? He puts on the plate when taking?

Prabhupāda: I do not know whether it is all right, but it is not all right that you eat and keep it. This is not all right.

Harikeśa: He takes it from there and puts it on the plate before you eat?

Yaśodā-nandana: He keeps the salt in a separate bowl. When you require it he will give you only as much as you require.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is nice.

Hariśauri: That's why the bowl is there. That's what I intended to do, but I have to keep it away from the table.

Prabhupāda: The principle should be that you should not leave remnants of food. As soon as it is used, it should not be used more. Otherwise it is not possible to give up. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59). I am eating something not very superior, but if I get the chance of eating something superior, then I give up this inferior. So there is no question of making it vacant or void. To fill up the place with better thing.... So when you think of Kṛṣṇa, then you forget māyā. Otherwise you are entrapped with māyā. Why Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto? Mām eva ye prapadyante. This is wanted. As soon as you become anyābhilāṣī, then it becomes difficult.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the system.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It sounds like they make a huge quantity at Purī, huge quantities of foodstuffs.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Any time you can get one thousand man's eatables.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Any time? But we only offer one little plate at ārati.

Prabhupāda: No, that you can increase as the demand is increased.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There is such a demand in Purī?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone goes. They do not cook. He purchases prasādam and eat. Everyone.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's so famous. Yes, whenever someone visits there they always bring back prasādam from Jagannātha.

Prabhupāda: It is... Fifty-six time, prasādam is offered there, fifty-six time.

Harikeśa: It's constant.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Harikeśa: It's constantly being offered all day long.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Once offered, ārati is performed. Then it is taken away, washed, the room. Again half and hour after... Why half an hour? Fifteen minutes after. Throughout the whole day and night, fifty-six times.

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

Prabhupāda: Because everyone is prostitute. Vartula pravaha.(?) You know vartula pravaha? This nyāya, logic? Vartula pravaha. One brāhmaṇa was taking bath daily in the Ganges. So as a brāhmaṇa's regulative principle, they take kośa-kuśī to offer oblation to the forefathers, śraddhā. So one day he found there are so many kośa-kuśīs, so he could not understand which is his own. So next day, just to find out his own, he put one earth ball in his own kośa. Kośa you understand?

Jayapatākā: Some plate.

Prabhupāda: One plate, yes. It is placed like this. So when he came from, after bathing, he saw that so many kośas are, everything is containing that ball, vartula. Then again he was puzzled that he put a ball in his own kośa so that he can find out, but when he came back from bathing he saw that all the kośas... Then he asked all other brāhmaṇas, "How is that, that there are so many balls in everyone's kośa? I put it to recognize my own." So they said, "I thought that it is a fashion now. It is an occasion to put a ball in..." Vartula pravaha. The same difficulty. At Bombay there was some news like this, that prostitutes are not doing well in their profession? Who told me that?

Harikeśa: He said it was in the Illustrated Weekly.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Gurudāsa: It seems to be one and different simultaneously.

Prabhupāda: No, no, not like that point. (laughs)

Satsvarūpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, are the planets shaped liked balls or more like plates? Because it's, it's hard to understand, 'cause they're called dvīpas, "islands." Their roundness is the roundness of a plate or like a ball?

Prabhupāda: Which one?

Satsvarūpa: The earth planet?

Prabhupāda: If it is like a tree, then these things can be as dvīpa, island.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow. You know...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The scientists are getting smashed to bits by your statements, Śrīla Prabhupāda. This destroys their whole theory. Orbs, round spheres. I think that this Māyāpur building, we must build a big planetarium in it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That, that I am going to do, Vedic planetarium.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: What is the instruction?

Guest (3): The instructions to Joseph Smith was, well, in a ten-year period of time, from 1820 to 1830 many things happened to Joseph Smith. One thing was that he was visited by an angel called Moronai, who lived fourteen hundred years earlier in the Americas, and he was a prophet, and he wrote a book and sealed it away, and it was written on gold plates. Joseph Smith translated this ancient work of Egyptian hieroglyphics into English, and it was called the Book of Mormon after a great prophet.

Prabhupāda: So what is the message?

Guest (3): Well, the message is that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the kingdom of God.

Prabhupāda: So what is the church of Jesus Christ?

Guest (3): Well, Jesus Christ's church, that's simply it.

Prabhupāda: What is that? What does he say, that "You do this. You do not do this"?

Guest (3): I don't understand what...

Guest (4): You mean the Commandments and...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- May 31, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: They will try to make adjustments with material nature, everything will be failure. ...hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā. They'll never be able to adjust. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30), chewing the chewed. That's all. (break) ...adjustment to lie down in the skyscraper, and now they are coming. Why they have come to the ground? Punaḥ punaś carvita. Sometimes on the ground, sometimes the sky. (break) They reject the stool and urine and then accept it. They do like that. (laughing) (break) It is rejected. It cannot be utilized. In India still the system is they use metal; when it is broken you can sell it. They take half price and supply new.... They use metal pots, and the (inaudible) is that when it is broken and old we can exchange with new plates. And this kind of bowls you have to throw away. You cannot utilize.

Devotee (3): So they break very easily?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee (3): These plates, the silverware and things that people use?

Prabhupāda: No, whatever (unclear). Silver is not half price. Silver, little less than new one. They purchase one rupee less. It was 200 rupees new, and the purchaser will take 190 (unclear) ...India they use (unclear).

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

Prabhupāda: ...could not eat one cāpāṭi. (laughter-Prabhupāda laughs) Later on: "Bring more!"

Kīrtanānanda: Prabhupāda was feeding us all from his own plate.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Sit down. (break) New spoon?

Hari-Sauri: Yes, a new spoon. I think Jagannātha-sūta bought it, and a few others.

Prabhupāda: That article is very nice, Jagannātha's...

Hari-Sauri: Er, Jagjīvana.

Prabhupāda: Jagjīvana. Jagjīvana.

Hari-Sauri: There's one article that he wrote for the BTG and a reply that Viśvakarmā made. Prabhupāda just read the article.

Kīrtanānanda: I brought some pictures.

Prabhupāda: Ah, very nice, the Deities. (indistinct) Kiśora-Kiśorī.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Hari-śauri: I used to work on them, same thing. I was working where they pour the metal into ingots, into casings, and then when it solidifies they take a chunk of iron out, it's still white hot, and then they put it in ovens. And then after a while, when they need them, they take them out with big cranes and they put them on a series of rollers, and then it goes through a mill, what they call a mill. It's like a big mangling machine, and it crushes the steel ingot into plates, big plates. Then it goes along and it's cut and sent out. It cools down on big banks and it's sent out. So my job was, I was doing maintenance fitting on all those machines. On the rollers and on the cranes and on the big mills, like that. It was terrible. We used to work from two o'clock in the afternoon until ten o'clock at night, one shift, then from ten until six, and then from six until two.

Prabhupāda: Eight hours. Without any recreation?

Hari-śauri: Well, one break, for lunch. It was just indescribable. There's so much heat and fumes, and always covered in oil and grease, crawling around on your hands and knees to fix some machine.

Jagadīśa: All for the advantage of some wealthy man.

Prabhupāda: And after this hard labor, his only recreation is wine. Did you drink?

Hari-śauri: (laughs) Yes, we used to go straight from the steel works to the pub, public house.

Jagadīśa: I also worked in a factory for a while. Same thing. And people were always getting hurt.

Prabhupāda: You are not meant for that. (laughs)

Hari-śauri: No.

Interview with Professors O'Connell, Motilal and Shivaram -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Guest (1): It doesn't appeal more to the young ones than to the older people?

Prabhupāda: No, any education, if you take young, youthtime, that is easily. For old man it is difficult, but he has to take so many years to forget what he has learned. (laughter) That is the difficulty. Young man, they are easily receptive. Old man thinks, "Why shall I give up my present understanding?" That is the difficulty. But if he gives up and takes to, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66), if he takes to it, then immediately, in a moment. So this is, this plate is for me?

Guest (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: No, no, keep it and I shall.... At least I shall see. It is for you, take it.

Guest (1): No, it's for you.

Prabhupāda: No, no. He'll save this for me.

Devotee (1): It's for you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Nice. And no tea, no liquor. Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhaḥ. If the professors chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, naturally the students will do that. Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas tad tad eva itaro janaḥ (BG 3.21). Less important person also follow. If the professor's chanting, the student will immediately follow. You can do better service. If I go, I request them, they'll not do it. But as soon as they: "My professor is doing. All right. Immediately."

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

Prabhupāda: As powerful as the other wheels?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: More powerful. Look at them, Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is steel. This is steel. He built the carts in Australia. What is your opinion?

Hari-śauri: These are fantastic.

Jayānanda: See, these are like this, flat plate on the outside, then there's a piece of chain that goes around the inside.

Hari-śauri: Amazing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Think this is strong enough, Hari-śauri?

Hari-śauri: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then he's covered it with canvas. This has rubber tire, and then it's covered by canvas.

Devotee: ...steel.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Pretty big carts. These carts have the same mechanism, they go up and down, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: "Trayādhīśa, can I offer you?" "Yes." I gave four. Again finished, again four.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You must have been surprised to see how much they could eat.

Prabhupāda: Um, I was not surprised. He was young man, very stout and strong.

Kīrtanānanda: Originally, we all ate from Prabhupāda's plate though. There was one plate of prasādam. And Prabhupāda would just give little, little to everybody. And everybody would be satisfied.

Rāmeśvara: It is the great weapon, prasādam.

Prabhupāda: I used to keep some prasādam, anyone would come I would give.

Kīrtanānanda: After class also you always distributed some prasādam. After kīrtana and class.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was clapping my hand. In meeting, I used to collect not less than six dollars, not more than twenty dollars. And that was...

Rāmeśvara: Daily.

Prabhupāda: Not daily.

Room Conversation with Pandita from Tirupati and Government Minister -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: It's ten minutes before prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Call him. Call him.

Paṇḍita: I shall wait till you finish your meals.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So you can take in your room. Give him some plate. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Minister: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: Take prasādam. You give (Hindi) So you have brought? So if you kindly wait, then I can finish my meals. Then I shall talk.

Minister: Oh, yes. We will go. We have come here just to have your darśana.

Prabhupāda: No, I have to talk with you something. So if you kindly wait...

Minister: I will wait.

Prabhupāda: Then give him some place. Give him some book. He may read it.

Minister: I'll sit for a while.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Evening Darsana -- September 1, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: No, no, not...

Indian man (3): No, because if you have the idea, the land is the least part of it because so much is to be done, if the idea is that something should be done. I learned that gentleman, Mr. (indistinct) ...and he has said that he will do something. I was not there at the time of the (talks about himself—very low, hard to hear)

Prabhupāda: You bring one little plate prasādam from there, from that...

Indian man (3): You will be in Vṛndāvana for some...

Prabhupāda: Three weeks.

Indian man (3): After that you don't know. After that where you go, you don't know.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian man (3): Well, this is God's work, Lord Kṛṣṇa's work. I am trying (indistinct) to cooperate with you because nobody can do.

Prabhupāda: No, you have done tremendous work.

Indian man (3): No, but which is very little considering the situation, the condition, problem (in the) country. I am at a lower level than your level than your work (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: The one encouraging thing in this movement is that our books are being very much appreciated. In all universities, foreign and Indian, libraries, professors, learned scholars.

Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Caraṇāravindam. That the Englishmen were ruling over us. Now here is English boy, he's giving me massage and fanning me. What is the reason? Unless he feels something obligation, that "He has given us Kṛṣṇa," what business he has got? Not for him, for all of you, to give so valuable free service, unless there is this sense. What do you think? You have no obligation. You are European, American. I am Indian. It is through this via media Kṛṣṇa. This is practical. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is God. Yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ. Because they have got sense that "We have got God," therefore they are feeling so much obliged. Kṛṣṇa is God, there is no doubt about it. It is not yet ready?

Hari-śauri: They're making a plate now.

Prabhupāda: Viśvambhara is there?

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So we shall follow strictly. Here is God. Take. Because if you are serious after God, here is God, take Kṛṣṇa. This is our philosophy. Hm? What is the answer? If he's serious about God. I think this paper wrote that, that Village? "We thought God is dead."

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: With Viśvambhara you have discussed?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Akṣayānanda: Then I'll talk to him now.

Prabhupāda: Just like we were going to in the evening... Don't divert attention. In the evening we have estimated four plates. Each plate eight puris.

Akṣayānanda: Six plates.

Prabhupāda: Six plates. Six plates, eight puris means forty-eight puris. Forty-eight puris, Viśvambhara calculated the āṭā and ghee.

Akṣayānanda: Yes, you already made that estimate.

Prabhupāda: Two rupees. Āṭā and ghee, two rupees. Then other preparation, another two rupees.

Akṣayānanda: He'll tell me everything Prabhupāda. No need to...

Prabhupāda: No, no, why don't you hear? You are hearing now. Four rupees to prepare all the plates. Four rupees, say five rupees. So five rupees, monthly 150 rupees. So we are offering four times. So 150 rupees four times.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You give me lunch in banana leaves. Give me.

Hari-śauri: We were doing that in Māyāpur. I remember last time.

Prabhupāda: Because there are so many banana leaves. You can utilize it. One leaf is sufficient for four plates at least.

Caraṇāravindam: Actually I must confess, generally most days I use a bit of banana leaf to take some of your remnants on. Take a bit on a banana leaf, and then take from there. It is very handy. Actually the monkeys they come and also they eat this leaf. They often come and tear off a piece of leaf and sit on this eating them. Monkey.

Prabhupāda: That is destructive. They do not know.

Caraṇāravindam: They sit there eating them.

Prabhupāda: Because they do not get anything they make mischief. They're very mischievous. If they do not get any eatables they will cause mischief.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Haṁsadūta: We're printing locally now. The same books, but local printing so that they can be afforded by the public.

Prabhupāda: Yes. When we print locally it will be sold at half-price.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This Bhagavad-gītā for example, it's going to be sold to the masses at fifteen rupees in about three weeks. We are printing the Indian edition with 48 color plates. The government of India is giving us concessional paper for printing. They are very pleased with our... We're getting lot of concessional paper so we are expanding the printing.

Interviewer: What is the price of this edition?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is, in America it's seven dollars, seven dollars ninety-five cents.

Prabhupāda: And what the home member has said?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The home minister recently said that he wants this movement to be spread all over the world. One of the prominent people said he wants this movement to be spread all over the world.

Interviewer: Now, sir, from your lips, how to attain this Kṛṣṇa consciousness and to maintain it?

Prabhupāda: Once you come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you will maintain.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Nobody's bona fide, that's all. This is their conclusion. Because they have confronted with some non-bona fide, they have concluded that everyone is non-bona fide.

Hari-śauri: It's very easy just to try to brush it all under the couch and forget about it.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) A man's household utensils was taken by the thief. He promised, "I shall not purchase anymore utensils, I shall eat on the floor. (laughs) Because the thief has stolen my plates, I'm not going to purchase anymore, I shall eat on the floor. (Bengali)

Hari-śauri: They give the example that just because someone may be passing counterfeit money, that doesn't mean that all the money you get...

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. They conclude that no more take any money, all counterfeit. At least in India, Bhagavad-gītā is there, accepted, the God-science literature all over the world.

Hari-śauri: Hm.

Prabhupāda: Every country. So why they do not take the Bhagavad-gītā as the standard?

Hari-śauri: Eventually they will if we push it on. (pause)

Prabhupāda: My mother was very much fond of pickles. After resting in the afternoon, she would take something very sour, pickle. We used to take with her also. (laughs) We were small children, my mother died when I was only 14 years old. (long pause) (aside) What else? All right bring it.

Room Conversation -- November 24, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Help to understand.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I am understanding. He is saying that everything is all right but he needs equipment sometimes. So if they need equipment the procedure is that it has to be...

Prabhupāda: Equipment? What is that equipment?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Like plates or...

Indian devotee: These bedding materials and these mans for managing these..., sweepers and all. We are running short of mans. Of course we are trying to get short of man...

Akṣayānanda: Short of men. Cleaners.

Indian devotee: Cleaners and these mans...

Prabhupāda: You have got cleaners.

Akṣayānanda: Coming.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Akṣayānanda: Well, we had sufficient but they are unreliable, paid men, so we're getting new men. But I don't think that's the difficulty with the management.

Prabhupāda: So you solve this difficulty. You answer. He has got difficulty. You answer him. So he has got difficulty.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not a mistake. We perfectly agreed. You told me so, that (Hindi).

Prabhupāda: What will be price for one lakh?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Of this? I think it will go around a velo(?), because the real book cost seventy-eight paisa; paper is about forty paisa. So paper, whether you buy one or one lakh, it's the same. Printing is about thirty-eight paisa. And out of thirty-eight paisa, plate-making and all will come to about ten paisa.

Prabhupāda: Plate is already made.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that's what I'm saying. No, I'm just saying by increased run how much can you save? So I imagine you save about three paisa, four paisa more per book. It's not enough to warrant extra investment. I have analyzed the difference between doing large print runs India and America. In America and Europe labor is very expensive. So to them, to stop the machine in between and start again, it's very expensive, so it makes a lot of difference. But in India labor is cheap. So for them to stop the machine in between and then start again, it's not so expensive. So the ceiling is not as great as the extra investment you have to put in. Therefore I'm not doing large run except where it's absolutely necessary.

Prabhupāda: No. Items which are selling, that we can do because...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Like Bhagavad-gītā we did one lakh.

Prabhupāda: ...to wait means that waste of time.

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Just take quotation. If you can, you print here.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And if it is for export, it will be even cheaper.

Prabhupāda: We can take quotation.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. How many color plates do you have? Hm, 298, 300. Well, we can take a quotation and see.

Prabhupāda: Here it must be cheaper.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Have you seen the Gītās we printed in India? Here are our samples. They're very good. Actually, I mean I'm not trying to be rude... Because I was negotiating the prices for the Chinese Gītā when... You know that time. Sevānanda was telling me all the prices of the worst of Hong Kong for that time. It was above a dollar.

Trivikrama: Yeah, I know, but that was in Hong Kong. We got it printed in Taiwan for cheaper.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. Because he sent me for dollar forty, dollar thirty. I have the prices with me.

Trivikrama: And this was... That was also for the corrections. No, the price is about seventy-five cents.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Only thing I've told Jayatīrtha and Bali-mardana Prabhus to do is to open a letter of credit now because we are going to be exporting these Gītās at export price. And the bank is giving our printer a loan of ten lakhs. So he has to show the bank a letter of credit, so I hope they send it, and then this will start rolling. End of February is our first shipment. We're going to ship ten thousand Gītās.

Prabhupāda: Letter of credit you can get.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I hope they give it.

Prabhupāda: Bank of America will give.

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

Prabhupāda: And store, supplies, everything is...

Gurudāsa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Road is nice.

Gurudāsa: It's being improved. In some spots it's nice. But because it's on sand they have to always keep it wet and they put metal plates down. They're trying to do it very well.

Prabhupāda: There is a Māghmela committee. One magistrate is the head. A regular committee for managing this Mela.

Gurudāsa: We have contact with this committee.

Prabhupāda: And where is governor's camp from our?

Gurudāsa: I don't know exactly, but it's in the same island. I'll find out.

Prabhupāda: No, there is... Our governor is Kṛṣṇa. Sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29).

Dr. Patel: All the Britishers were organizing this Mela, Kumbha.

Prabhupāda: No, in... They were taking... The committee... I said that, "We have committee?" This is British time. One magistrate is the head and assistants, so many.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: (laughs) Say that, yes. We're brainwashing, washing their brain.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And all these rubbish things we are finishing. "Yes, it is brainwashing, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), cleansing the core of the heart, all mistaken ideas." Speak in the court like that. "And see how we are being appreciated by scholarly section. Here is our book. Read if you have got time and see the opinion. It is really brainwashing, but for the good. Everything requires cleansing—for good. If bad impression, bad ideas, are washed, why do you protest? Let it be done. Give us freedom. It is brainwashing, but for the good, washing for good. Just like you wash your cloth. Do you think it is bad? Dirty cloth, if it is washed nicely with soap and water, who will protest against that? 'Oh, why you are cleansing your dirty clothes?' That is another foolishness. Everyone, every gentleman, every civilized man, washes his clothes with soap and water to become more refreshed. So we are giving this civilization... Actually it is brainwashing, but for the good. And see our example. The boys and girls whom you are charging, 'Brainwash,' just see after brainwashing, how gentleman they have become. They have become moralist. They have become God conscious. They are clean outwardly. Their fooding is so innocent and so nutritious. So why do you check it? Bring your plate and our plate. Now judge. Which is better? You taste. Halavā, puri, samosa, kachori, vegetable—one plate; and boiled meat with salt and black pepper... So taste now which is better."

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda did it.

Gargamuni: I think we should make maybe a few plates just like they have shown the scientists, but a few plates of yourself with some quotations challenging these men.

Prabhupāda: Our another challenge is they have never gone to moon planet. (laughs)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, that's a problem now, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (laughter) See, sometimes when we give lectures... Some time ago we gave in Gainesville. We were talking about life and matter. Then some people came, and they asked that question about the moon thing. So we said we were working on it. And...

Prabhupāda: Another my challenge is that moon is beyond the sun. First planet is sun, and then moon. So if the sun is 93,000,000 miles and moon is above the sun 1,600,000, then how they can go to the moon planet in four days? It requires seven and a half months. That is my challenge.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Bhavānanda: Eight years. Eight or nine years from now will be five hundred.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That will be very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It must be completed by then, if not before.

Prabhupāda: So now you make arrangement. The prasāda arrangement is very good. Yes, they are following. Give me one plate tomorrow.

Bhavānanda: What time?

Prabhupāda: What time you are ready?

Bhavānanda: We are always ready, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Bhavānanda: Any time of the day or night you can have full prasāda.

Prabhupāda: No. Fresh prepared.

Bhavānanda: Fresh.

Prabhupāda: Oh. What time will be suitable?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Probably at noon they're ready, because they cook dāl?

Bhavānanda: Noontime?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Twelve-thirty, one.

Prabhupāda: That's nice, one o'clock.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: How we are living if our diet is not good? Ten years we are not eating sufficiently? Then how we are living? You do not know what is good food. But the result you have to know. If we are not eating sufficiently, how we are living? A cow eats so much grass, and a human being eats a small plate. So if the cow says, "You are not eating sufficient like me," is that logic?

Ādi-keśava: No, it is not logic.

Prabhupāda: So you are just like cows and asses. (laughter) You eat voraciously. Does it mean I have to eat voraciously?

Ādi-keśava: No.

Prabhupāda: In your calculation it may be that we are eating very small particle. But that is not the fact. We are eating sufficiently. That means you have no brain. Because you are eating raw meat, flesh, and you see that we are eating fruits, you say, "This is not sufficient." It is your calculation. Actually the fruits are meant for high-class, intelligent men. It is not meant for cats and dogs or elephant. Elephant may be very good eater. Does it mean he is human being? So you are just like elephant. You are calculating your other friends like you.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Bali-mardana: Over a thousand people. And then when they ate they came back for seconds and thirds.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Give them.

Bali-mardana: Everything. Puri, sabji, sweet rice. They ate the whole plate. It was amazing.

Prabhupāda: Please do that. Give them prasādam and ask them to chant. Bas.

Bali-mardana: And then there were many articles written in the paper that the Hare Kṛṣṇas, they have supplied very nice food freely for everyone and they said, "Oh, they are very good."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The thing is when they take prasāda, then it's very easy to get them to chant.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They may not chant in the beginning, but as soon as their bellies are full of prasāda, then they chant.

Prabhupāda: (laughing) They chant. Very good. Do that.

Evening Darsana -- February 26, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh. Hm. Done very nice. Hm. Some others, they have opened account or...?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Other people? I don't think anyone has had an opportunity yet. So far, it's simply been exchanging money. The rate... (break)

Prabhupāda: It is said, imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ. (aside:) If there are outsiders, they should be given plate. (break) The dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). These words are there. Actually to understand this Kṛṣṇa philosophy, it is not for ordinary person.

Brahmānanda: What is the qualification for understanding?

Prabhupāda: These things are there. Imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ. The rājarṣi means the topmost class. Rāja means government or the king. So simply the government man or the king will not suffice. He must be ṛṣi, saintly person. So, topmost man in the society, at the same time, he must be saintly. That is the qualification of understanding Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa uses this word, imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ.

Room Conversation with Ram Jethmalani (Parliament Member) -- April 16, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "In accordance with your desire I went to Karachi and spent two days there. I first visited the marble factory of Mr. Azis Pir Mohammed. This man belongs to the Ismaili sect of Islam, the followers of Aga Khan. His factory is very small, and he and his three brothers manage it. Their primary business is cutting alabaster into vases, tiles, plates, cups, etc., and they sell their products mainly to foreign countries. I made two visits to their factory and preached extensively to Azis, his brother, his friends and workers. They all liked Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are intelligent enough to understand and in due time will be able to follow your instructions seriously. However, they need more association and a devotee to constantly engage them. I did not see fit to ask them for the use of their house as a center yet, but I told them that I would be opening a center in Karachi, and they were happy to hear this. They promised to help in whatever way they could as soon as our men appear on the scene."

Ram Jethmalani: Sir, I will take leave of you, and with your blessings, I hope we shall soon be...

Prabhupāda: No, we are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness without any sectarian... That is our... Unity on spiritual platform. Try to understand.

Morning Conversation -- April 29, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: It is luxurious. (break) ...the āṭā dough. So after it is cooked... They have got ghee. That ball soaked in ghee and the ḍāl, it is so nice when taken. That is called baṭī. Very quickly made. And after eating, with that ash the two or three utensils, mean the loṭā and the plate, they'll cleanse it very nice and walk away. And that food is sufficient for twenty-four hours. Within twenty-four hours he will not be hungry and feel very strong. The two things. And you can cook anywhere without any difficulty. In India, especially in village, you can get so many dried cow dung. So fuel is ready. The āṭā is packed up. And ghee in a pot. That's all. How simple life. Simply they'll sit down where there is water, and they'll take water. Then everything is arranged. No hotel. Or even there is no āṭā, they keep their own ghee, homemade, pure. Āṭā can be purchased anywhere in the village. There is no need of carrying āṭā. So this preparation for tourists... Tourists, Indian tourists, means going to some holy place. They have no other sightseeing, no program. All villagers, they are still... The pilgrimage in holy places, now no educated man goes. Very rarely. All these villagers by thousands... They... You see this Tirupati, Tirumala. All the contribution by the villagers. By their hard-earned money they keep something for going. You have seen Tirupati, Tirumal...? Standing for hours to contribute in a line. Hundreds of people. They'll come, contribute something. Then they'll shave their head, see the Deity, have some bath in the adjoining lake. Then they'll take prasādam. That is very big tank. Everywhere. In India, wherever some famous temple is there, there is a tank. Now the haircutting, that lakhs of rupees are sold to foreign countries is hair. Heaps.

Morning Conversation -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. Of course, because they are paragraphs, I've also counted this. Otherwise, normally, there would be one line here. So this is better, eh? We're using better art paper, so now, with the reproduction, it will come out better. So this is your decision?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. So I'm not moving the press because it is very cheap for us for six rupees a page, a plate of forty rupees. I just had one other question on the BBT. Sometimes these... Sometimes the temples don't pay the BBT, and their bills climb up to sixty thousand, seventy thousand rupees, and...

Prabhupāda: Don't pay?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. My... I have told the temples that "BBT will give you as many books as you want, but once you sell, the cost must go to BBT and the profit goes to the temple." But sometimes the temples don't pay. So...

Prabhupāda: Why?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, they take it very easy, like they're doing in America also. So I wanted to stop sending them books or at least threaten them that I won't send them books.

Prabhupāda: No, if you have... Why threatening? You settle up with temples authorities.

Evening Darsana -- May 15, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Indian man (1): (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: This tīrtha-sthāna, this is recommended. General public is recommended to go to the tīrtha-sthāna so that he may have some spiritual atmosphere, saintly person. If somebody thinks that tīrtha-sthāna means—just like this Hrishikesh—to take bath in the Ganges and go away, that is also good, but that is not the purpose. Yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile. In every pilgrim, pilgrimage, there is Gaṅgā, there is Yamunā. At least in India we have got so many holy places on the bank of the pious rivers. But if we take simply the advantage of the pious river, yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile, but we don't care for the persons who are living there, very experienced, spiritually advanced persons, then we remain animals. "So we have gone to such holy place. I have taken bath in the Ganges and Yamunā. Bas. My business is finished." Then go to the shop, purchase some plate, toys, go back home. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13).

Conversations -- May 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...this Rādhā-Dāmodara temple.

Akṣayānanda: That would be nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Maybe tomorrow, if this Jayaśacīnandana goes the first time, I can go with him. I know Gauracānda a little bit, so I can, you know, just, as your secretary, send your greetings to him. He'll appreciate that.

Akṣayānanda: He'll appreciate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think what I'll do is I'll go at the time when I know they're supposed to be making that offering. That way, I'll see if it's being done. Little... Five or... What time is that offering made? Noontime?

Devotee: Yeah, noon.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Twelve? (pause)

Prabhupāda: Then you can bring little prasādam just from there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: From the plate that's offered to you?

Prabhupāda: Yes, some... (end)

Conversations -- May 31, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) (break) Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) Begin. If we make Hindi plate, Los Angeles, and send it to...

Rāmeśvara: We could do it in Los Angeles, but it would be more costly. Gopāla says that the main concern with the Hindi books is keeping the cost as low as possible so it can be sold in India.

Prabhupāda: No, plate-making, we have got all machine, so it will be cheaper.

Rāmeśvara: The price that he is getting in India is very cheap. He says that he can do twenty pages a day, composing. He's got one place in Vṛndāvana that he uses and another place in Delhi. So if each place is doing one different book, two books can be done simultaneously at twenty pages every day.

Prabhupāda: Twenty pages and cost?

Rāmeśvara: It costs about a dollar a page.

Prabhupāda: Where? In...?

Rāmeśvara: In India. To compose.

Prabhupāda: And there?

Rāmeśvara: If we did it in America, it would not be less expensive. It might be even more expensive, because you have to order a special font for the Hindi alphabet. I've gone over this with Gopāla, and he says that so far, he is able to keep up with the translators. He is just now in Bombay, giving some more books in Hindi to the printer. Bhāgavatam 1.3 and Bhagavad-gītā in Hindi are going to the printer. And the translator is just still working on the first volume of Second Canto. As far as printing, this printer in Bombay called Usha is giving us very good service at a very low price. So it's a good place to print the books, the Hindi books. (pause) There's no question of buying equipment in India because it's too expensive for us to buy our own equipment.

Prabhupāda: No, that is...

Rāmeśvara: Plus it will not be repaired when it breaks.

Prabhupāda: That is very risky.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Upendra: And we put it in the clay stoves, the clay, the clay fire pot.

Prabhupāda: No.

Upendra: No? Just open on the ground?

Prabhupāda: Yes. No fire pot required. Simply gather together and set fire. That smoke is fire. It will increase. Just in a plate you can do it. This plate, the washing plate, that will do. It can contain four, five big kandi. That is sufficient.

Upendra: Rice, ḍāl and laktha.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Laktha. You can make experiment.

Upendra: Yes. I would like that. Sometimes we might find ourselves having to walk in...

Prabhupāda: First of all purchase some kandi. And keep it in corners of... In this veranda keep it.

Upendra: It keeps... I see the farmers. They keep it in...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No different store, no different...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No different store?

Prabhupāda: Two servants always cleansing. As soon as somebody eats, the servant cleanses the place, take the plates and washes, return to kitchen. You have seen cut rows, wood. Devotees have seen. You can purchase. Engage one wood cutter. Then that will be... Everything can be arranged. Simply good management. Sleeping management will not help. And everyone... Such a big hall. Everyone should eat.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Such a big dining hall. The other day they were showing, "Here is the sign. Here is the si..." So let them be utilized. Simply showing?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (loud clanking in background) This kind of sound spoils the whole peacefulness of this guesthouse, this kitchen. And it starts from early in the morning, at 5:30.

Prabhupāda: No, it is disturbing to me. Where is guest?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually they do have a number of guests here. They're having about twenty...

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Welcome. But no cooking there.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You said that a high-class person should be served where he's...

Prabhupāda: No, who is high class, low class? Everyone...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If they can bring the prasāda from the cooking arrangement there to over here, it's all right if they serve them here? 'Cause I think the guests prefer that they can eat in this guesthouse.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that plates can be brought.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. So we'll see to that first of all.

Prabhupāda: One store, one kitchen, one dining room. Bas. Not separate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not separate dining room.

Prabhupāda: That is not management. Such a big hall, such a big kitchen, sufficient. If some special per..., it can be done in that kitchen.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In that big kitchen.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Conversation with Surendra Kumar and O.B.L. Kapoor -- June 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśodānandana: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Prabhupāda: You open the door and close. And keep open. Why it is... (break) They will close the closet, and I'll open the door. Close it and go on, open and go on, throne, this... (Hindi) Very well. (break) There is a agent preparing the stolen papers.(?) That now...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Every time I go to the marketplace... (break)

Prabhupāda: And well done, to the next fair(?). What I have got? In the Deity room silver stand, silver lamp, silver plate. I do not find this. (break) ...is known there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. Seems like more varieties of living entities take birth in Bhāratavarṣa than anywhere else. I don't find... So many different kinds of bugs are there. Here every day a new bug comes out, new type of bug.

Prabhupāda: Not new. You see new. They are all existing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They hatch. (end)

Talk About Varnasrama, S.B. 2.1.1-5 -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, formerly there was no bank practically. Now they... Generally, ordinary man, whatever little saving is there, they will invest in metal utensils, in ornament, in Benarsi sari, like that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Benarsi sari also considered very valuable.

Prabhupāda: It is golden, gold border. You can... When you want to..., mean an old Benarsi sari..., you can go. There are persons, they'll take it, and they'll burn it, and the borders will take care, either silver or gold. Still in Delhi we find. Any investment were... Not this plastic plate and paper plate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. Whenever they buy something, it must have value.

Prabhupāda: Must have value. That is Indian investment.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's the opposite of the Western.

Prabhupāda: And whatever you manufacture, you can show back. Suppose this tape recorder. If it is working, it has value. What is the use of it? Who cares for you? If it is in working order, it has value. Otherwise, (taps microphone) who cares for it? But if you have got gold, silver, metal... There was a small banker's. You require... I am poor man. I require only two rupees, but I have no money. You take one utensil and go to a small banker. He will keep this pot. "Give me two rupees." The pot is only five rupees' worth, so he'll keep it. He'll give you two rupees. So your immediate necessity is... This way, Indian economics.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Like in our temples. Really?

Prabhupāda: Dress, jewelry, and foodstuff, oh... Would offer kacuris, very big, first-class, and luci, all very crispy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ah, crispy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And ghee and rābṛi and similarly other... In the plate, you see?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow!

Prabhupāda: And it was the custom of the Mulliks, daily prasādam, they should not eat all of them. Keep something as a balance—some neighborhood men, they will sell. This was...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Distribution of prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Distribution.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Practically you learned all these things in those early days...

Prabhupāda: Hm. Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...at Rādhā-Govinda Temple.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that was the training in the childhood. This Ratha-yātrā, Rādhā-Govinda sevā, prasāda distribution. Only the new thing I am doing-writing of books by the order of Guru Mahārāja. Otherwise, whatever I have introduced, I was trained up in childhood. I simply imitated. I am simply surprised. Now nowadays, even a low class... Formerly all our maidservant and neighborhood maidservant, they had two business, one prostitute and one maidservant. Otherwise they could not maintain. Simply by becoming maidservant, no sufficient income. We were paying them for not whole time three rupees.

Room Conversation Varnasrama -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't see any benefit. I see that they only get trouble.

Prabhupāda: In India the caste system was very good. From the very beginning the children would learn the technology of their paternal. Just like potter. You'll see the children of the potter, they are also making a small bird, a small fruit, and they would be sold. A small playing utensils-small glass, small plate—they're also sold. Other children would purchase. The whole family used to earn something. Nowadays they're sent to school, wasting time, and then unemployment and idle brain. What is the use of sending a potter's son to school?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, everything he needs to know, he can learn at home.

Prabhupāda: That's what I... Similarly, weaver, that cloth weaving, "kat, kat." The wife is spinning, her husband is weaving, the children is weaving, and combinedly at the end of the day there is a cloth. And people were satisfied with simple necessities. They would not charge very much for the labor. And one nice cloth requires half a pound cotton. Half a pound cotton means maybe one rupee. Another one rupee for the labor. So now they are paying twenty to thirty rupees. Unnecessarily he has to earn this money and pay to the millionaires, and he will keep three dozen motorcars, so another man will be engaged in motorcar industry. In this way time is being wasted without any search after spiritual realization. Time is wasted in such so-called technology advancement. And the real purpose of life, jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā, that is missing. And when you present that "This is the most important business of life," they say, "It is brainwashing." And they fight to check us, Communists and others, that "It is useless, God consciousness." (break) (long pause) So... Jāniyā śuniyā biṣa khāinu. Because they are missing the aim of life, they are committing suicide. And this varṇāśrama-dharma was planned in such a way that everyone would be spiritually advanced. The weaver will get, the potter will get, the blacksmith will get, the brāhmaṇa is already there, kṣatriya will get—everyone. For them, lower-class men, demigod worship. At least they are accepting there is some higher authority. Among the blacksmith there is viśvakarma-pūjā. One day they will wash all the instruments of blacksmith. Somehow or other, all are cleaned. And with the fruit, with flower, candana, they'll worship.

Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The cow horns were sometimes with gold on the end.

Prabhupāda: That means gold and silver and jewels and cloth sump..., more than... Milk products, grains. This was richness.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now all there is is tin and plastic. Tin can. Food is in the tin cans, and you eat it off of plastic.

Prabhupāda: And paper plate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I always use the example that whenever a great personality in the Vedic time, when Kṛṣṇa was there, whenever..., there was shower of flowers from the demigods. Now, when the astronauts went, they throw confetti.

Prabhupāda: Where they went? All bogus.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they were rewarded by people throwing cut-up newspaper on their heads. That's considered a great... When someone gets this... It's called ticker-tape parade.

Prabhupāda: Purposely the Western money has been taken. What is the meaning of?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think Jayādvaita has called their number in the Back to Godhead article: demons. Right out he calls them demons.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We have to describe the demon very nicely.

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

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Translator? Anyway, it is the teachings.

Yaśomatīnandana: (reads Sanskrit verse, Hindi translation)

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Plus, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we're getting ready to print the Gujarati, Hindi and Tamil Gītās. We're going to do the color plates together.

Prabhupāda: Next you make Gujarati.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we're doing the Gujarati Gītā. We have five books ready, and London has already ordered five thousand copies.

Prabhupāda: So why not print?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We are.

Yaśomatīnandana: Just we have to... The titles are being printed in Bombay.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. (indistinct) And Bombay is not far away.

Room Conversation -- October 9, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: His wife also helps in the kitchen. She spends the whole day working in the kitchen at the restaurant. And the two girls, they help as waitresses, serving the food and taking the plates.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Muslims come to eat there?

Prabhupāda: They are all Muslim. That quarter is very busy where the house, restaurant.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. It's only about five minutes from the Senate and the main Parliament buildings. Also the biggest museums are very nearby. Very good location. And one man has also joined, a local man who is very intelligent. And he has begun translating Bhagavad-gītā into Parsi. And in three months' time his translation of the entire Bhagavad-gītā will be completed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Did he come recently to India with Ātreya Ṛṣi?

Rāmeśvara: That's a different man.

Prabhupāda: It will be locally published.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Locally published.

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Brahmānanda: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break) Ātreya Ṛṣi and Parivrājakācārya Swami are here.

Hari-śauri: They brought you a big plate of fruits and things, from Tehran.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: This is sweet lemon.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: It is sweet lemon. The juice is very sweet.

Prabhupāda: Now give me.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: These are plums. They could be skinned and the drink is very good for you, soft.

Upendra: Juice comes from them?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes. It's very, very good for digestion.

Prabhupāda: Sit down.

Parivrājakācārya: Śrīla Prabhupāda? This is a pre-publication copy of our first magazine in Persian language.

Prabhupāda: This is Persian language?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Parsi, Parsi.

Brahmānanda: This is the name of it here?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes. The name is "Bhakti."

Prabhupāda: I understand that you go to the royal family and talk with them for hours. So it is very good sign.

Room Conversation -- October 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: We give them one thāli-two vegetables, ḍāl, rice, salad...

Prabhupāda: One thāli?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: One full thāli.

Hari-śauri: Plate.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Thāli of prasādam. And sweet. And then we give them some herbal tea and dessert and sometimes fruits.

Prabhupāda: They like it.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: They like it very much. Nandarāṇī Prabhu and Dayānanda Prabhu are managing.

Prabhupāda: They are both intelligent.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes. They are working very hard.

Prabhupāda: And they are very sincere. What do you charge?

Parivrājakācārya: About sixteen rupees, fifteen tomands(?). It is very little price. It's very small.

Prabhupāda: For one plate?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: One plate. Very reasonable price. But many people give donations. And many of them take the books. We have your books. They take, and they read it, and they love it.

Prabhupāda: Success.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'll get the water ready. Okay. (kīrtana)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...arrangements have been made. First I saw where they are taking prasādam, first class, all long tables in a big room, long tables, tablecloths, and proper plates, knife, fork, spoon. Perfect for them. Nice fans, very gorgeous-looking curtains. Everything real...

Prabhupāda: So why...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...proper.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really high class. And serving kacuris, hot jalebis, all nice preparations. And our men, they look very, very scientific. They're wearing shirt, coat and pants. Svarūpa Dāmodara looks like a scientist now. He has transformed himself. All of them, Mādhava..., they all look, Sadāpūta and Jñāna dāsa, they all look very ...

Prabhupāda: Elegant.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: All right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't want you to be disturbed about it. So should I go or not go, Śrīla Prabhupāda, to Bhagatji's?

Prabhupāda: That you make your choice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "You have to make your choice." (laughs) I think Bhagatji wants to send you over a plate of prasādam also. I'll inform Svarūpa Dāmodara to come and see you right after his lecture is over, Śrīla Prabhupāda. All right? (break)

Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Svarūpa Dāmodara is here.

Prabhupāda: So? How things are going on?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Things are going nicely, though we didn't have too many guests today, Śrīla Prabhupāda. A little more than fifty came. Most of them will be coming tomorrow, and Sunday will be all full. 'Cause today is still Friday, and in Delhi all the schools are still open. But we came, quite a few interesting scientists from Delhi. And one had only one question. Otherwise nobody had anything. I spoke for about two hours on the difference between life and matter, and we showed that the science, modern science, actually does not study life. They only study inanimate matter, atoms and molecules. So they think that life could also be just atoms and molecules. But we showed that that is wrong, and they shouldn't propagate this false idea. Especially in India, I especially made a request to all the scholars, saying that "You should take this very seriously, and should try to expose this in genuine spirit of knowledge all over the world, because the Western science and technology, we tend to think that everything is the absolute truth because science is coming from the West, but we're saying that that is too narrow-minded. We should be a little broad-minded and we should also consider other possible alternatives." And we demonstrated that modern science actually cannot explain about the nature of life. So we requested that in the coming two days we'll establish this on a more scientific basis, that this is not just religious dogma; it is based on complete, genuine, scientific knowledge.

Prabhupāda: So where they are staying?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They're staying all in the guesthouse.

Prabhupāda: And their food?

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Don't depend on one printer.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Actually Jayapatākā is very enthusiastic for printing also. It's pretty easy to print at two different places, because once you have the plates, they can simply be... You know, the photos, offset machines. Once you have the negatives, you can simply send them, and they can be printed anywhere.

Hṛdayānanda: Anywhere in the world.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And especially you can send them from Bombay to Calcutta. There's no hindrance. (Girirāja whispering)

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Girirāja: Well, I wrote a prayer to Lord Kṛṣṇa for your health. So I was... It's in the next room. I was thinking of bringing it and reading it.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- October 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: News from Bombay? (break)

Girirāja: ...activities are going on. Haridāsa promised that he would, you know, maintain the collections for maintenance. So he's doing that with the help of one or two other boys. And I asked about the attendance at the morning and evening programs, and they wrote back that the attendance at the morning program is very good, maṅgala-ārati and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And it's fair attendance in the evening. And then the construction is going on. It's in the final stages. And then you probably know we had a meeting to discuss the plans for the opening and the management of the new guesthouse and restaurant and theater. So I think the plans are very good. Actually last night we were discussing that the cullis pieces which go on the top of the domes, that those are ordered in, I think, brass or copper like here. But those become black very quickly. So we decided that we would try to plate them in gold. So we had also decided that we would not try to have more men donate for rooms, because we want to make sure we have enough rooms available for outside guests that might be coming. So some of the big men who might have donated for that, I could approach them to get donations so that we could gold plate... (break) So we decided that we want to open around January so that we could take advantage of the facilities immediately, so that the building doesn't lie vacant for two months.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Subhasya(?) śīghram. As early as possible.

Girirāja: Yes. So the reason we selected January 8th was because many of the important devotees like Yaśodānandana Swami, they're going out of India for collecting during the (indistinct) time, so they felt that it would be easier for them to be back by January 8th.

Prabhupāda: No, no. It cannot remain vacant. Consult with Jayatīrtha.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Nava-yogendra? The presentation which you have brought may not be required here. Better sell them and engage there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sell them and engage there in Mombassa.

Nava-yogendra: What? Which I brought here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You mean those plates and things, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Anything, presentation, for the time being there is no need. Better invest the money there to develop.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda wants you to invest whatever... 'Cause he's not eating so much, he says. So better to use the money and invest it in Mombassa for development there. That temple is very good, I think.

Prabhupāda: Kaviraji's medicine was helping stop the passing of...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kaviraji's medicine is what, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Helping through medicine passing of urine. Of course, I'll drink, but what is the use of then the allopathic?

Room Conversation -- November 7, 1977, Vrndavana:

Pañca-draviḍa: ...everything was together. But when you add up our sales, whole zones put together, then they're as big as New York and the other areas now. They are doing nicely. They've also brought you some gifts, one sweater and some warm socks and a scarf for the winter here in Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: So keep it. I shall use it.

Pañca-draviḍa: He also brought one wooden bowl for eating. They brought one wooden plate for eating also.

Bhakti-caru: Where did they put them at?

Pañca-draviḍa: In the office.

Bhakti-caru: That's all right. Someone has got to go and get it.

Pañca-draviḍa: I can bring it. He also said Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja, he is in Brazil, but he is returning in a little while.

Jagadīśa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, would you like us to have kīrtana?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we've brought some juice, grape juice.

Page Title:Plate (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:10 of Mar, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=97, Let=0
No. of Quotes:97