Popular (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"popular" |"popularity" |"popularization" |"popularize" |"popularized" |"popularizing" |"popularly"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: The Mohammedans say. In the Koran it is written there, "From this day, no sex life with mother." In the modern philosophy they say, "What is the wrong? Why there should be discrimination?" John Lennon was follower of this. "Sex anyone. It doesn't matter. It is a bodily necessity. That's all." They learn this art from the hogs, hog philosophy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There is one popular music group in America called the Hog Farm. And what they do is they have their... When they are playing their music, just below the stage they have a big pen with many hogs in it, and at the end of the music they all jump down amongst the hogs, and then they do all kinds of nonsense things. And it's a very popular group.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) How they are bringing ruination. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). The blind men led by another blind man. It is not new. In the Bhāgavata therefore it is warned that "Don't follow hog philosophy." Viḍ-bhujāṁ ye. This kind of philosophy, that for sense gratification, laboring whole day and night, writing books, philosophizing and all these things, it is meant for the hogs, not for human being. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). This kind of civilization is meant for the hogs. So they are exhibiting that they are no better than hog.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We never even heard of him.

Prabhupāda: I have seen one road, street, "Gandhi Street," Mexico, and there is no other. Mexico, when there was trouble with the Americans, they adopted Gandhi's noncooperation movement. Therefore they regarded Gandhi. There is Gandhi's statue and Gandhi's name, one. Who had been Mexico, any of you? That I have seen. And I never seen Vivekananda Road, never. Or India, oh, so many, this, that. No Caitanya Mahāprabhu Road. Vivekananda Road. Propaganda. The other day I saw some stamp, postage, "Vivekananda." You have seen it? But never they will publish Kṛṣṇa or Caitanya Mahāprabhu. "Kṛṣṇa is fictitious." What is called? Mythology. "Kṛṣṇa is mythology." (Bengali) The government saw, especially the police department, and they became so popular. Within two, three years, thousands and thousands of men, not only Indian. Kichu āchen. All Europeans, American, Englishmen, they are following Rathayātrā. Jaya jagannātha, jaya hare kṛṣṇa.

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

rabhupāda: Recently we have published abridged edition of Bhagavad-gītā, 350,000... Three hundred and fifty hundred thousand.

Guḍākeśa: Three and a half lakhs.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Already, though, over half of it is sold out. In one month we've sold over half the printing.

Indian man (4): Even among Indians, it is so popular, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Which one?

Indian man (4): Your Bhagavad-gītā. All the Indians, in meeting they all come. Two or three times I have met. Some of them say, "You have got more? You have got more Bhagavad-gītā?"

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Why they look inquisitive? No commentary. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) Cent percent cheater beginning from the top. They have lost their own culture, Vedic civilization, and they are not competent to earn properly. They must be cheater. Beg, borrow, steal. They have lost their own culture; therefore they have no one honest. Formerly Indians were so honest that after one man's death, his son comes... Even we have seen it in childhood. "Sir, my father took from you the five thousand rupees. So now he is dead, so I have come to pay you." So he says, "I never seen my account that your father has taken five thousand rupees from me. I cannot take it." This is India. One man is offering him five thousand, that "We are debtor to you. Please take it." And he says, "No, I don't find in my account that your father took five thousand. I cannot take it." And now they are cheating. This is India's position. Even in our childhood I have see that Mr. C. R. Das, his father died insolvent some lakhs of rupees. So when he became a big barrister he called every one of them that "My father died insolvent. Now I have got money. You take it." This was India. And now they have become cheaters. This is svarāj, independence. Even in British times there was C. R. Das who liquidated the debts of his insolvent father. "My father died insolvent. He could not pay, so he declared insolvency in the court. Now I have got money. You take it." This was India.

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: In return.

Jayapatākā: But now the government is trying to teach the people that they should buy tractors and kill the calves.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Jayapatākā: They want to have..., make tractors popular and then...

Prabhupāda: Kill the bulls. They were criticizing us because in our gośālā we maintain the male calves.

Prabhupāda: No, when our Harikeśa was struck by a bull and he was taken in the hospital, the doctor was criticizing, "If you have killed the bulls, then this condition would not have come to you."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow. Karma.

Prabhupāda: No. There will be no accident because this..., the acci...You know that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I heard about the accident.

Prabhupāda: There was some accident, and he was taken to hospital. So he was advised, "Because you do not kill the bulls, therefore this is the accident." As if without killing..., by killing the bulls there is no accident. And they do not cite the accident by motorcar, greater bulls. Accident will be there.

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Hṛdayānanda: Yes. At the end of life this is his...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's the foremost Christian preacher in the world right now, Prabhupāda.

Hṛdayānanda: He said, "I accepted too many invitations to go preach. I should have spent time with my family."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That will make him more popular, and they'll say he's more religious.

Hṛdayānanda: (break) ...already left to preach.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. (break) Eh? Dhunvanti, aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ.(?) This is Kṛṣṇa. In one second He can make it purified. Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ (BG 18.66). Simply surrender.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It seems like our desire not to surrender is very powerful because Kṛṣṇa is so...

Prabhupāda: Not powerful. Yes, powerful.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kṛṣṇa is so powerful and yet our nonsense is so strong that we can resist such a powerful force as Kṛṣṇa's love.

Prabhupāda: Now the whole sky clear, hundreds of miles. (break) ...all right? Where is in-charge? (break) ...and clan spirit. Aborigines, they fight amongst their clans.

Morning Walk -- February 12, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. And one who follows His instruction, he also perfect. That we are pushing (indistinct) Kṛṣṇa conscious, everything will be all right. Everyone is fallen, I asked this question to Kotofsky. "Sir, you have got a leader, we have got a leader, so where is the difference?" And then I said, "Only you have got a fool leader, we have got intelligent leader." Otherwise you cannot avoid leadership, authority. That is not possible.

Dayānanda: They want to avoid but they... Impersonalists are catering to that desire, they want to avoid authority and so the impersonalists are encouraging that. So they are rascals, the...

Prabhupāda: No, it is not possible to give up authority. That is not possible.

Hṛdayānanda: Your interview, those articles that you had spoken about, against Communism, are very, very brilliant. Actually we were struck with wonder to see the different arguments. Very, very important for South America because there the Communism is popular among the young students.

Prabhupāda: They read it?

Hṛdayānanda: Yes, we just published it in our magazine.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So they like that argument?

Hṛdayānanda: Yes, the argument was so intelligent that no one has ever thought of such intelligent arguments against Communism. Also the article on Freud, I think that book is very, very important. It will actually satisfy the students. No one else would dare to call these people fools. (laughter) (end)

Morning Walk -- February 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) So if you can subdue him...

Yaśodānandana: We'll take care of that, Prabhupāda.

Acyutānanda: All right.

Prabhupāda: That will be great triumph. He's a nonsense. That's... But he's very popular at the same time.

Acyutānanda: Yes, because...

Prabhupāda: He is like Vivekananda.

Acyutānanda: He tells some jokes.

Yaśodānandana: He always tells nonsense jokes during his lectures. Therefore children and elderly widows are very much attracted to him for his flowery language and joking. But he has no substantial philosophy like yours.

Acyutānanda: We went to his program and sold books to the crowd.

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Morning Walk -- February 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Acyutānanda: ...when they do something for their sense gratification, but to sacrifice—"Oh, Kṛṣṇa has to tell me. Kṛṣṇa wills it." Then they don't... They say, "Why did Kṛṣṇa create evil?" Then there is a very peculiar question that comes sometimes: "If Kṛṣṇa knows that we were going to fall down, why didn't He save us?" or something like that.

Prabhupāda: He's saving you.

Sudāmā: In the West, that is a very popular question.

Prabhupāda: He's saving.

Sudāmā: Why didn't...

Prabhupāda: He's asking that "You... I'll save you. You surrender to Me."

Acyutānanda: But that means He knows everything in advance.

Prabhupāda: He knows. He knows that you are a rascal, you'll fall. Therefore He says that "Do this. You'll not fall."

Morning Walk -- February 28, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dayānanda: Yes.

Kīrtirāja: He said they have..., these translations of Aurobindo and Ramakrishna are modernized.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Kīrtirāja: I think they are modernized and compromised. That's why they are so popular, because you can do whatever you want...

Prabhupāda: It is not popular, not very.

Kīrtirāja: Yeah, and they aren't even popular, no.

Dayānanda: Popular amongst the mūḍhas.

Prabhupāda: They are mūḍhas. They do not know anything, and they write books.

Devotee: Didn't that Dr. Radhakrishnan go crazy at the end of life, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Satsvarūpa: "With all the books on Vedānta and bland neo-transcendentalism that are at present available to the English-speaking public, it is good to have on the popular market such an uncompromising statement of an opposing view from the pen of one who is as firmly rooted in a disciplic tradition, guru-paramparā, as Bhaktivedanta Swami."

Devotees: Haribol!

Ghanaśyāma: At this school, Śrīla Prabhupāda, they ordered two orders. They were so favorable, for their Theology Department Library and also for the main library, because there were so many professors like this one who were favorable, they wanted your books to be very easily accessible.

Devotee (1): This is the largest professor in Sanskrit in the whole United States, from Harvard University.

Satsvarūpa: Most distinguished of all men.

Ghanaśyāma: He never writes reviews for anyone, Śrīla Prabhupāda, but he wrote for you. He just refuses. He hides himself, you know.

Prabhupāda: What? Tell me. What does he say?

Satsvarūpa: "I can recommend Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta as a source of rich insights for every serious student of consciousness."

Prabhupāda: Allen Ginsberg.

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Hm. What does he say?

Satsvarūpa: "It is axiomatic that no book can be expected entirely to satisfy all its potential readers. Here is one, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, however, which can be said to come remarkably close to that ideal. Clearly this book is intended mainly for those who are interested in, or may become so, transcendental science and, more specifically, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. For them it could hardly be bettered, since the elaborate purports attached to each text explain elegantly and lucidly and in every possible detail the underlying meaning of the Sanskrit verses and their relevance to this increasingly popular philosophical outlook. The work is at the same time no less impressive to one who is a layman in the context of transcendental science. A student of Sanskrit or a general linguist with only a smattering of the language would gain much from going through this book and others in the set. That this is so is the result of the way the texts are presented. Each text in Devanāgarī is followed by an exact roman transliteration. This in turn followed by an English transliteration of each separate word. After this comes a translation in flowing English. The result is that with only a modest amount of effort one can succeed in reading and understanding the Sanskrit verses, and the experience is very rewarding. At the end of the book is appended a goodly amount of further helpful material. There is a glossary of important Sanskrit terms, a Sanskrit pronunciation guide, an index of Sanskrit verses in the whole of the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and a general index to the First Canto. In other words, we have here the ideal of what an edition of a Sanskrit text for a Western audience should be."

Devotees: Jaya! Haribol!

Devotee (1): (break) ...in Mexico, and he's been asked to actually take charge of the Oriental Studies, specifically on Hinduism. And he's done a review on the Spanish Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.

Prabhupāda: This is Spanish language?

Devotee (1): No, English.

Morning Walk -- April 21, 1976, Melbourne:

Guru-kṛpā: No, we are too much revolutionary for them, our lifestyle, everything.

Prabhupāda: That means they do not like this movement.

Guru-kṛpā: Just like those people who came yesterday. They could appreciate out movement, but if they felt that we jeopardized their job or something of that nature, then they would go against us, 'cause we are very small, but if we became very popular movement, so...

Prabhupāda: Then what to do?

Guru-kṛpā: Go on with our work.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guru-kṛpā: We are here to please Kṛṣṇa...

Prabhupāda: That's it.

Guru-kṛpā: ...not to please them.

Prabhupāda: One thing immediately inform Rāmeśvara. In the Bhagavad-gītā yesterday they have edited "cattle-raising." But not cattle-raising. Cattle-raising means to grow and killing. That is the.... Means the rascals, they have edited.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Guru-kṛpā: This flower is not intoxicating.

Prabhupāda: It is just like in your country, what is that fragrance? Scent. Scent.

Guru-kṛpā: Perfume?

Prabhupāda: Perfume is very popular.

Mr. Dixon: But I would have thought that in some ways it might have perform the same sort of function for some people as, say, smoking some cigarettes performs for others.

Prabhupāda: No.

Mr. Dixon: In other words, it...

Prabhupāda: That depends on the particular man, what kind of flavor he wants. That is another thing. But there are different varieties of incense. Generally we use rose flavor, sandalwood flavor. We offer to the Deity room to keep the atmosphere very favorable. Originally in India it was dhūpa. They used to put in the fire some flavored hulls, and it was very nice. That has been transferred into now stick incense.

Press Conference -- April 27, 1976, Auckland, New Zealand:

Interviewer: Well, what do you hope to achieve by your short visit here to New Zealand, where you don't have a very big following at all?

Prabhupāda: Just to encourage my disciples. They're also trying their best to spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So if I occasionally visit, they become encouraged. That's why.

Interviewer: Is your movement still growing? It was very popular here in the Beatles' era and so on and so forth.

Prabhupāda: Yes, George Harrison is a good boy. He likes me. He has given us a big house in London about 200,000 pounds' worth.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's 250,000 pounds.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Interviewer: So would it be true to say that perhaps without George Harrison of the Beatles the religion wouldn't be as well known as it is today?

Prabhupāda: No, not like that. That is not that. But in the Western countries nobody comes forward to give us some contribution. But this boy is very nice, he gives us sometimes some thing. He gives, and another boy, who is the great-grandson of Mr. Henry Ford—his name is Alfred—he also helps us. But mostly we get our income by selling these books. We are selling books daily about $200,000 daily. That is our main source of income. And I have made a trust will in which fifty percent of the collection is spent for reprinting the books, and fifty percent is spent for spreading this movement.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: That is the difficulty. Everyone sees that "Some way or other, I become guru. Then so many persons will offer me respect. Somehow or other, create some situation. Then I become guru." This is going on. Not bona fide guru. Bona fide guru is indicated by Caitanya, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā: "Become guru." Why ambition? Actually become guru. But how to become guru? Yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa-upadeśa' (CC Madhya 7.128). That's it, otherwise goru. So they will not take this simple method. They will drink, they will hunt after woman and have some attractive singing or dancing and become guru. What is meaning of guru, they do not know. Somehow or other become popular and become guru. This is going on. So with māyā you can attract these foolish rascals very easily. If you can manufacture.... You cannot, but if you can show some jugglery, then you become guru. People are after all these things, material things. They are not after Kṛṣṇa. They are after money and women. So if you give some mantra, then gold will be manufactured, and all women will be attracted, very first class.

Guru-kṛpā: You know, Śrīla Prabhupāda, they say that if anyone has power to induce anybody to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, therefore they must have some special power. Therefore that's their qualification.

Prabhupāda: That special power, that is said in the śāstras. But people do not want that.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: The thing is the spirit, real service of preaching, stopped. Formality is going on, but the real business.... Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement means āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa (CC Madhya 7.128). That is stopped. Do you follow? The formalities is there, but the real life of Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement is preaching. Otherwise why Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa. Tāra means preaching. Yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa-upadeśa' (CC Madhya 7.128). And that is stopped. They are satisfied if they could construct one temple and beg some rice from the neighborhood: "Sir, we have got some temple," that's all. They are satisfied. The spirit of preaching forward-pāpī tāpī jata chilo, hari-nāme uddhārilo—that is stopped. So by hari-nāma, by chanting, by this way, to live little peacefully in the temple and eat and sleep, that much they have got. If that is the success, that success they have got. And this was condemned by my Guru Mahārāja, that "To earn some money by showing Deity in the temple and eat and sleep—better you become a sweeper in the street and earn your honest livelihood and live." This is cheating. This was condemned. To construct a temple.... Just like the Vṛndāvana Gosvāmīs are doing. They thought that "This is our business. Some innocent people will come here and offer some.... Bas, that's our good income." According to the temple's popularity, they think, "This is our success." Therefore they are deteriorating. So that is not success. Success is his who is pushing forward the preaching method. That is his success. And if we think that "By showing a temple Deity we get some money and rice and cloth and just peacefully live here. Don't bother about going to Fiji and all over..." (laughs) That much success they have got. But that is not Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma, sarvatra pracāra. (CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126) What they are doing for that? That is point.

Room Conversation -- May 3, 1976, Fiji:

Guru-kṛpā: He's not living? He's dead?

Prabhupāda: No, he's dead means now he's old man. He's about my age or little older than me. Now his skin has become slackened and body is not so strong to dance. It requires exercise. Therefore he's retired, I think, maybe dead. But I don't hear his name. He was more or less known in Europe as Shankar. But he was so popular that one my doctor friend.... He was educated in London, a medical officer of Allahabad. So he told me that "I saw that in Paris, Udar Shankar's dancing was advertised, and hundreds and thousands of people from England going to Paris, crossing the Channel to see him dance." He showed me. He's so popular. And now nobody asks for him. (laughs)

Guru-kṛpā: Another bubble.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Guru-kṛpā: Another bubble. I remember when Ravi Shankar and George Harrison came to see you in Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guru-kṛpā: The first thing you asked them was "You are very famous, but what will you be next life? What is your guarantee for the next life?"

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guru-kṛpā: And I don't think any other guru would have asked that.

Prabhupāda: Where is guru? Goru, you say goru. When it is pronounced guru, I say, you say, don't say guru, but you say goru.

Morning Walk -- May 31, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Worship.

Devotee (1): ...still think that man can decide his own future. He can decide how the universe was made. That's the basic philosophy now, that man is actually the center of the universe. He can decide and make anything he wants. Initially there's no sense in worshiping God.

Devotee (2): There's another philosophy, though. It's called ecology, which is even more popular.

Prabhupāda: Zoology?

Devotee (2): Ecology. They say that man is part of the universe, and that we should take care of the environment because ultimately man will kill himself if he doesn't care for the environment properly.

Prabhupāda: What is the meaning?

Devotee (2): The meaning is that people have exploited the atmosphere and the earth so badly in the last two hundred years especially, that, practically speaking, man is on the verge of self-destruction.

Hari-śauri: They're getting scared because they put so much pollution in the atmosphere, into the water, into the earth, that now they're.... Everything's.... It's reacting against them now.

Devotee (2): In other words, they're seeing that they've become a problem.

Hari-śauri: I was telling you about that blob of garbage that was left out in the..., headed towards the harbor in New York. For the last fifty years they've dumped all the garbage in the sea, and now it's collected together, and it's coming back into the shore. They think that in about fifteen years time, if it travels at its present rate, it will be blocking the entire New York Harbor. So ecology means they have to try to find out ways and means of avoiding things like that.

Devotee (2): Useless waste products. They've discovered new ways in science how to use things which can be used and used again and again. For example, newspapers, instead of throwing them away, they can recycle them and make new newspapers.

Devotee (3): They also say they were going to recycle their own urine and stool and use it over and over.

Prabhupāda: How?

Devotee (3): Like in the spaceship. When they go to the moon they recycle their own urine and drink it over again. (laughing)

Devotee (2): Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the most popular philosophy is (inaudible).

Prabhupāda: Madman. (laughing)

Morning Walk -- May 31, 1976, Honolulu:

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). Bell metal, copper...

Hari-śauri: Aluminium is becoming very popular now, aren't they?

Prabhupāda: They don't use aluminium much. If they have got excess money, they invest in metal-gold, silver, copper, bell metal.... Immediate loan—you can mortgage the metal pots, the metal ornaments, you get money immediately. (break) ...in a year, that is a metal purchasing ceremony. Every family will purchase, according to his means, some metal pots once in a year. Dhantraivesi(?) (indistinct) means desire some funds. So if there's some extra money—not big, big men; middle class storeman—they invest in metal purchase. If there is a good business day, (unclear) all the utensils (unclear). You know Diwali, Diwali?

Devotee (2): Yes.

Prabhupāda: Just one day before Diwali.

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: One of the reasons why they did not want John Lennon to be allowed to stay in the United States is because they said that he had too much influence with the young people.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he spoiled these. They are already spoiled, and (static) that the government has done nice thing. What is his value? But because he has got money (static) popularity, he has become big man.

Rāmeśvara: So there is this theory that there is a conspiracy all over the world that the rich men to control.

Prabhupāda: That is, we say. If you have got money, you can make conspiracy or anything, whatever you like. Conspiracy I cannot make, I have no money, I cannot make conspiracy. But if I have got money, I can develop a conspiracy with my money. That one man asked, "Have you got any intelligence?" The man began to.... "Let me see." "What is that?" "I am seeing my pocket." "Why pocket?" "Intelligence means pocket." If there is money in my pocket, then there is intelligence. Otherwise, there is no intelligence. And Cāṇakya Paṇḍita also said, daridra-doṣo guṇa-rāśir nāśī. A man may be very, very big, qualified man, but if he's poor, everything's finished. Daridra-doṣo guṇa-rāśir nāśī.

Morning Walk -- June 6, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Forefathers ate ghee, so lick up your hand. My forefathers ate ghee.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All you have is dalda now,

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Why dalda? Your forefathers had ghee. You enjoy it now.

Rāmeśvara: Actually, if we introduce ghee in America, we'll be very famous. That will make us very popular.

Prabhupāda: Yes, do it. You have got enough milk, you can do it.

Rāmeśvara: I was thinking yesterday, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that as our movement becomes greater and greater, then taking Kṛṣṇa prasādam at a restaurant or at our Sunday feast will be like a national pastime.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: Everyone in the country.

Prabhupāda: And the Rathayātrā also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it will be like going to the ball game.

Prabhupāda: Rathayātrā, introduce in every city. You have already got some national holiday?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: So sleeping is waste of time. Therefore spiritual advancement means minimizing sleeping. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau **. About the Gosvāmīs' life it is said they conquered over nidrā-āhāra. If you eat extraordinarily, then you will sleep also extraordinarily. If you eat frugally, as much minimum required, then you can conquer over sleep. Eating, sleeping. Sleeping depends on eating. Atyāhāra. Atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca prajalpo niyamāgrahaḥ (NOI 2). The people in the material world.... Atyāhāra means collecting more than necessity. One, somebody has got millions of dollars; still, he is working hard day and night to increase the bank balance. Why? You have got sufficient money; now you engage your life for spiritual advancement and take little food. God has given you enough. Why you are wasting your time in collecting money and eating more? That is misuse. Therefore Rūpa Gosvāmī says, atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca prajalpo niyamāgrahaḥ. Āhāra means eating, and āhāra means collecting. So these are against bhakti principles. Collecting more than necessity or eating more than necessity. Atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca prajalpo niyamāgrahaḥ. Prayāsa, things which are not done very easily, I have to endeavor very, very hard, that kind of work should be avoided. Atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca prajalpaḥ, and talking nonsense. No use, you are talking together for hours, what is the use? Prajalpa, it is called prajalpa. And niyamāgrahaḥ, and, without any result, following the regulative principles—or not following the regulative principles. Niyama-agrahaḥ. Agrahaḥ means not to accept. That is also bad. That is bad, actually. And simply to see the regulative principles without any result, that is also bad. Atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca prajalpo niyamāgrahaḥ (NOI 2). Laulyam—greediness; jana-saṅgaś ca—and associating with unwanted men, jana-saṅgaḥ. We should not try to associate with nondevotees. You waste your time talking something. Ṣaḍbhir bhaktir vinaśyati. By these six principles one is loser in the matter of devotional service. Āhāra required. Just like we are reading this Bhāgavatam; it is proper utilization of time. Similarly, if we take some newspaper, some statement of the politics, and talk and argue and waste time, there is no need of such thing. I think in our institution there is no newspaper. That is one advantage. In the Western countries, newspaper is very popular thing, a huge bundle of newspaper. Although he'll not read, the newspapermen supplies huge bundle of newspaper. And wasting of paper, printing, unnecessarily cutting the trees, for running on the paper mill. This is sinful activity. They are not reading so many nonsense books and newspapers, but paper is required, there is demand. So paper mill requires cutting of the trees unnecessarily.

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

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily.

Interviewer: You feel that you can continue to make those serious travels?

Prabhupāda: Well, I began my traveling in foreign countries at very ripe old age, seventy years. Ten years I'm traveling. This is the fifteenth tour all over the world.

Interviewer: Are you surprised to see the popularity of your teachings in the last few years?

Prabhupāda: I think it is becoming popular.

Rāmeśvara: He was asking if you are surprised that it is being, that your books are selling so much and that so many devotees are coming.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Neither anybody has written so many books within ten years.

Guest: How many?

Prabhupāda: Now it is fifty-four. Bring books.

Rāmeśvara: I've shown him the books already. The universities and the scholars are also very appreciative. At least ninety percent of the universities in America have already ordered these books.

Prabhupāda: In India, also.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: That's what you wrote in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that communism is a movement of śūdras.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they're śūdras.

Hari-śauri: There's a very popular slogan now in Australia.

Prabhupāda: Equality.

Hari-śauri: No, "Make the rich pay."

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Hari-śauri: They are so much envious of those persons with more money.

Prabhupāda: India also, that.... "Make the rich pay."

Hari-śauri: In England also that's the prevalent theme now. That has accounted for the demolishing of the aristocracy in England more than anything, the government heavily taxing them so that anyone with money now is...

Prabhupāda: It is finished. In England aristocracy is finished.

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Why not our way of? If you want to enforce your way of life, why not I enforce my way of life? Then where is my independence? You cannot enforce your way of life. This is standard life.

Devotee: The neighbors around the farm, they like us.

Hari-śauri: Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja was saying that we're very popular with the neighbors there.

Prabhupāda: That is good sign.

Devotee: One farmer called his tractor the Hare Rāma tractor.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) They are getting daily fresh vegetable, fresh milk. It is very palatable.

Mādhavānanda: We wanted to have a cow here, but they won't allow one within the city limits.

Prabhupāda: That is the difficulty. The government is rākṣasa. So you have to take charge of the government. First of all make propaganda, the majority of population may (be) in favor of you. Then you'll get vote. This is the easiest process. If majority people likes, that "These Kṛṣṇa conscious men are very nice," then you make a candidate—"Vote for Kṛṣṇa conscious person, such and such." They'll vote. In this way, you'll capture the Senate, then government, then President's office. It is very.... At least, there must be majority of the people sympathizers of this movement. Then it will be successful. So you do everything exemplified, and people will vote. But it is difficult in this way, that "These people are prohibiting intoxication and gambling. How we can live without this?" That is the difficulty. They cannot imagine even that without these things one can live. Is it not?

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: By bending iron.

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

Prabhupāda: You may read that.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: All the money, he said, spent. Now they are asking for loan for purchasing one house. This money was collected for temple construction.... We were awaiting opportunity. In the meantime, money spent.

Jagadīśa: Have there been any complaints from Detroit? Have there been any similar complaints from Detroit?

Prabhupāda: In Detroit I have received complaint, that.... Many.... Govardhana was popular president.

Jagadīśa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Popular. Everyone liked him.

Jagadīśa: Yes, very gentle soul.

Prabhupāda: Ah. So this is complaint I received.

Jagadīśa: They don't like Mādhavānanda?

Prabhupāda: Some of them say.

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

Prabhupāda: Generally, they are engaged in education.

Hari-śauri: I know in England they all have responsible jobs. Doctors and like that.

Prabhupāda: There are many medical practitioners. I have, I learned that British people, they like Indian physicians.

Hari-śauri: Oh, yes, they're very popular.

Prabhupāda: They have got faith that these people treat carefully. One civil surgeon(?) is a Bengali in London. Civil surgeon(?). You have heard this Aurabindo? His father was a medical practitioner in England, and he was born there.

Hari-śauri: His mother was Indian also or...? No. (break)

Prabhupāda: Indian families, they are living for two, three generation. (break) ...teaching them how to make home comfortable, they'll be trained up to become prostitutes. How to kill time. (break)

Hari-śauri: I think Tamāla was saying in New York they need good cooks there. Tamāla was saying that in New York they don't have very good cooks there.

Prabhupāda: Nowhere there is good cook except here. (laughter) Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja is good cook.

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

Reporter: "So if we don't choose our leaders by popular election, how will society be governed?"

Prabhupāda: "You require brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras. Just as when you want to construct a building you require engineers. You don't want sweepers. Isn't that so? What will the sweeper do? No. There must be engineers. So if you follow the division of varṇāśrama, only kṣatriyas are allowed to govern. And for the legislative assembly, the senators, only qualified brāhmaṇas. Now the butcher is in the legislative assembly. What does he know about making laws? He is a butcher. But by winning votes he becomes a senator. At the present moment, by the principle of vox populi, a butcher goes to the legislature. So everything depends on training. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness society we are actually doing that. But in the case of politics they forget it. There cannot be just one class. That is foolishness. Because we have to engage different classes of men in different activities. If we do not know the art then we will fail, because unless there is a division of work there will be havoc. We have discussed all the responsibilities of the king in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The different classes in society should cooperate exactly as the different parts of the body do. Although each part is meant for a different purpose, they all work for one cause, to maintain the body properly."

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

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: So the bona fide guru does not claim to be God, but he gives knowledge of God, and he only deals with God.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is bona fide guru.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: A very common occurrence in the Western countries, they say that anyone can be guru. In fact, one Westerner who went to India and came back-he's very popular in the United States today—he says that everyone is guru and everyone is God.

Prabhupāda: And people accept that?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Now you discuss this point. Discuss this point.

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, in Bhagavad-gītā...

Prabhupāda: First of all, you discuss this point, everyone is God and everyone is guru.

Room Conversation -- July 1, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: They do not know what is bhakti, what is Vedānta. They do not know. Simply aspiring, all after women and money, that's all. First-class rogues. I know all of them, all first-class rogues, after money and women. Beginning from Vivekananda. But they are so popular, if you say openly... Satyam bruhet ma bruhet satyam apriyam(?). "You can speak truth, but don't speak which is unpalatable." But we speak in a different way. And directly we don't speak. People will be angry. They're already fools and rascals.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: All of the others are trying to make some compromise.

Prabhupāda: That is also bad. How we can make compromise? Here is gold, here is iron, how you can compromise? Can we accept iron as gold? All right, let us accept. (laughs) Where is the possibility?

Hari-śauri: They don't see that clearly. They are looking at their iron and thinking it's gold.

Prabhupāda: They are seeing... They're tested. I don't make any compromise. All my speaking is also no compromise. Here is guru, here is Kṛṣṇa, here is God, here is Vedānta. Real version they neglect, and they stick to the rascal's version, Śaṅkara's version, Śārīraka-bhāṣya. All over India, they are reading Śārīraka-bhāṣya.

Room Conversation -- July 1, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: And people, leaders of India, they are thinking, "Where is this Vedantist?" In foreign countries, what is their position?

Hari-śauri: Somehow or other, they seem to think that the Vedānta is something better than any of the other śāstra. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam doesn't seem to be so popular in India as Vedānta or something like that.

Prabhupāda: It is very popular amongst the Māyāvāda people. You speak also... Now the so-called Vedantists they are speaking on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, distorting. Akhoyananda, Akandananda, Karpatri, the rascals. Because they have no subject matter to speak, they are distorting the meaning of Bhāgavata. This boy appears to be nice, this fat boy.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Kīrtanānanda said he's the only local boy who has taken interest. He's from hereabouts.

Prabhupāda: He said that "I've wanted to see you since a long time." So, keep friendship with... Giving them prasādam?

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Devotee (1): How is it that these men are so attractive to the Indian people?

Prabhupāda: They have become fools. Fool's paradise, they have been made.

Dr. Sukla: Because Vivekananda became very popular in America, and...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Who became popular in America?

Dr. Sukla: Vivekananda.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No he didn't. That's just propaganda.

Dr. Sukla: That's propaganda, yes, but...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I never heard of Vivekananda until I went to Bengal.

Devotee (1): The Vedanta Society was formed...

Prabhupāda: No, no, the other day we spoke that... Now in Vṛndāvana, you know we have got our temple. So the Ramakrishna Mission, they have got their temple also. In our temple, thousands and thousands of these Americans came, and not a single one went here. If they had preached anything, then why these American boys and girls are not interested, "Let us see where the Ramakrishna Mission stays." They do not know even. There are many present here who went to Vṛndāvana, and none of them were interested to see. Why? lf there was any propaganda... This is practical proof. Why none of them were interested, "Oh, here is also Ramakrishna Mandir, let us go here"? Nobody. Is it practical?

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Guest: Yes, of course. Of course, even in India I don't think Vivekananda is that popular.

Dr. Sukla: Within one period, people who probably just had no good books to read, and they got some of his writings. I know my father brought some books and...

Prabhupāda: So where is your home?

Dr. Sukla: It's in Benares, Kāśī. So there were some books by Vivekananda, and he is emotionally against Vivekananda, so that's a little too much perhaps. So he brought those books so that I can read them, I was curious. And he said, "When you are through, give it to your cook." (laughter) That's the only functional use of those books.

Prabhupāda: For burning it in the fire?

Dr. Sukla: Yes, he said so that we can make our capatis, to have some use of those things. And Kṛṣṇa, of course, there's hardly a village in India where, whether knowingly or unknowingly, people are not aware what is Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: In India they know, everyone. They observe Janmāṣṭamī.

Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: They do it out of sentiment, but that is not very good.

Rūpānuga: Also they bump one another with the drum or with each other's bodies, they dance and they bump like this. That is not bona fide is it? It is very popular in our movement now.

Prabhupāda: They are inventing. What can I do? If you invent your own way...

Devotee: I have a question, Śrīla Prabhupāda. At what point is a householder to know when he should leave his family or her family?

Prabhupāda: After fifty years of age.

Rūpānuga: Fifty years old.

Prabhupāda: When he is fifty years old, then he can think of leaving household.

Devotee: What if the spouse is very antagonistic toward Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Antagonistic?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Opposed.

Prabhupāda: That is not the remedy, because afterwards he give up and become a sannyāsī, and then again become this gṛhastha. This is not good. Opposition is already there, especially in the Western countries; they will never agree. So why do you marry? That is understood. Huh? Both the boys and girls trained in such a way that there must be opposition. So that is expected, that in your married life there will be opposition. So why do you marry?

Arrival Comments in Car to Temple -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: They think that we unnecessarily criticize. But we require everything. But just like a man. When he's alive his decoration, his nice dress, everything is very good. But if he's dead, then it is useless. Similarly, without spiritual consciousness we are dead. Because the body is dead. Because the spirit soul is there, therefore it is moving. The important point is the spirit soul. So if you are simply taking care of the body very nicely, that means you are decorating the dead body. What is the value of it? It is clear? The body is important because the soul is there. So long the life is there, if you decorate the body everyone will appreciate. But if you decorate the dead body, people will say "What a fool he is!" Aprāṇasya hi dehasya maṇḍanaṁ loka-rañjanam. That is simply a popular applause, "Ah, the dead body is decorated," but what is the value of it? Similarly, without spiritual knowledge, this dead civilization simply on the bodily concept of life, it is ludicrous. That we have to condemn. Take Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then everything is... Just like one, if there is zero, then it is ten. Another zero, hundred. But without one, simply zero; it is only useless.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Rādhāvallabha: They have another guru here, Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh.

Prabhupāda: He has also come?

Rādhāvallabha: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: His group is big here. He's very popular in America.

Rādhāvallabha: Eighteen thousand disciples. He says, "It does not matter to whom one surrenders. The relevance is in the act of surrendering. But because the human mind sees things in terms of relationships, surrender to a guru is often useful. The guru is a step toward the impersonal divine, a step toward surrender to the existence."

Hari-śauri: He makes a comment about sannyāsa as well, I think.

Rādhāvallabha: He initiates sannyāsa, they call themselves neo-sannyāsa. "At initiation a sannyāsī receives a new name, an ochre robe and a mālā, a string of beads holding a locket that frames a photograph of Bhagwan."

Morning Walk -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: This is that Vedic om or something like that?

Hari-śauri: I think so. It says "Om eternal."

Bali-mardana: Yes.

Prabhupāda: The om word is used in English?

Bali-mardana: Om is very popular in English language for a long time. When they think of mystical things, they think of om. The English, originally because they were in India, they thought to imitate some Indian words.

Prabhupāda: Many Indian words have been introduced in dictionary. And many English words is also introduced. That is natural. (break)

Bali-mardana: ...introduced Kṛṣṇa in the Western world.

Prabhupāda: No, it was in the dictionary.

Morning Walk -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: That is dog's life—the dog does not know.

Bali-mardana: They are two-legged dogs.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But there's a popular philosophy now that actually the dog is happy.

Prabhupāda: Yes, ignorance is bliss. It is folly to be wise. Fool's paradise. Anyone, like a child is happy. There is danger, but child does not care for it. But therefore it is called foolish. That is the difference between child and the child's father.

Bali-mardana: They may say that he is happy, but he may kill himself at any moment.

Rāmeśvara: They say it is impossible for any man to know what will happen to him after death. It is not possible, so why think about it?

Prabhupāda: But after all, there is death. So why you are afraid of death? Why you do not die peacefully? Why you protest against death? Huh? If I want to kill you, will you peacefully die?

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: On the fourth floor we're going to have doll projects. Doll exhibits. So there's an open balcony up there and I want to do something like that, see up there with the glass, the balcony?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I want to do that. Because there's an open balcony right on the street side, enclose it with glass, it would be very popular. After going to see the doll exhibits people can sit there comfortably take, you know, rest on the bench. And it can be seen from outside so it will be indirectly an advertisement. You'll see that there are people sitting there. (break)

Rāmeśvara: ...artists that work on your books, they have to train many devotees to paint because one day in all the government buildings there will be paintings of Kṛṣṇa. Just like now they have all these paintings of so-called...

Prabhupāda: If they are selling, you can sell these pictures.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Rāmeśvara: I think they will sell. (break) ...popular is that at colleges they like to have art shows come where they display the paintings and then they move on to another college. So we can do that with some of our art paintings also. They will give us one hall just to hang the paintings for some time.

Prabhupāda: So many trees have come. (break) ...from stone there is grass.

Rāmeśvara: They have no explanation for this. No one ever asks these questions, Śrīla Prabhupāda, why the grass is coming out of stone.

Prabhupāda: No. Our point is why even in moon planet there is stone only, and...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No living entities.

Prabhupāda: ...no living entities?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No life.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They say there is no air.

Hari-śauri: It's due to atmosphere, that's their reasoning.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say stone can be in both places but life, living entities cannot.

Bali-mardana: They classify organic and inorganic.

Prabhupāda: They may talk all rubbish, foolish things, we don't believe it.

Rāmeśvara: They say that on a planet like Jupiter the atmosphere is full of methane which is poisonous, so no life can live there.

Prabhupāda: Only here.

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

Interviewer: But the scriptures are the same, the Vedic scriptures are Hindu scriptures.

Prabhupāda: No, Hindu religion... Of course, the scripture is the Vedic principle, but the word is not Vedic. This word Hindu is not Vedic word.

Bali-mardana: Hindu is not Sanskrit, it's just a popular, general term.

Prabhupāda: Vedic, Vedas, Vedas, that is real, the word. But they have taken it in a different way. Actually the "Hindu," this name is given by the neighbor Muhammadans. There is a river called Sindhu. That river is still there, it is now in Pakistan. So outside the border of India, the Muhammadans, they used to call the inhabitants of the neighborhood of that river Sindhu, Hindu. Because they pronounce s as h. So this is the origin. So "Hindu" is a title given by the Muhammadan neighbors. It is not found in the Vedic literature.

Interviewer: I see, I see. That's like most religious names derived quite often out of ridicule or scorn. Like the Quakers, that was originally a title of scorn. And Methodists, they were the methodical ones, that was a title of scorn. And the Baptists were the baptizers.

Prabhupāda: Real Vedic principle is called varṇāśrama. Observing the principle of four varṇas. Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya. It is a very long science. Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. This is called varṇa. And brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. This is called āśrama. So the Vedic civilization is called varṇāśrama-dharma, not Hindu dharma. This is later contribution of the so-called scholars.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We haven't gotten all of the newspapers yet, but we did get some of them. This is the very popular Daily News. What is the circulation of the Daily News? Few millions, isn't it?

Bali-mardana: Millions.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's in the millions. It's the largest in New York. So they gave us the center section.

Bali-mardana: That's the big, the most popular section. This side.

Prabhupāda: "Fifth Avenue, Where East Meets West." Very good idea. Very good idea. Very nice.

Bali-mardana: The other pictures, I think some are from the Olympics.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very prominent. The center section is, next to the front page, the center section is very..., the most popular page in the paper, because it has interesting pictures.

Prabhupāda: You can send one, this cutting, to Mr. Bhajaj, "Fifth Avenue, Where East Meets West." Very good.

Hari-śauri: Send one to Māyāpur as well?

Prabhupāda: Huh? You can send to many place, but this title is very nice. This is the point, this is the point. East, as I say always, the lame man meets the blind man. Together they do wonderful. And different they cannot do anything. He is blind, he is lame. But they join together, Indian culture and American money, they will save the whole world. Here is the... Money required. (laughter)

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This one is not, it's not bad, but it's not so accurate. "In size it was dwarfed by 'Operation Sale.' In popular concern it was outweighed by the Democratic National Convention. But for hundreds of Hare Kṛṣṇa followers, including many Indian immigrants to New York, yesterday's Ratha-yātrā festival was by far the most important event in an eventful month. Pulling three brightly-colored chariots down Fifth Avenue from Central Park to Washington Square, the religious group's adherents were celebrating one of the oldest holy days of the Indian calendar, the feast of Jagannātha, the Lord of the Universe, according to Kṛṣṇa doctrine. Most of the participants in the parade were young Westerners, followers from as far away as Caracas and Montreal. But the crowd included hundreds of Indians who brought the basic Kṛṣṇa faith with them from Bombay and Calcutta."

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

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

Hari-śauri: Buick?

Prabhupāda: Buick, yes, very strong car. At that time, Ford, Chevrolet and Buick, these cars were very popular in India. Ford for the poorer class and Buick for the first class.

Hari-śauri: Your nephew was a taxi driver.

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

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

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

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Mrs. Sahani: We interpret it according to our own design.

Prabhupāda: Eh? You cannot, if you have own design, don't touch Bhagavad-gītā. You make your own design and preach otherwise. Why you take advantage of the Bhagavad-gītā? This is criminal. If you have got a different philosophy, you preach. Everyone has got the right. But why you misinterpret Bhagavad-gītā? When you take advantage of the popularity of Bhagavad-gītā and you speak nonsense, that is not good. That has murdered the whole thing. And practically we see that. Bhagavad-gītā as it is, you try to understand, you get the benefit and you life is successful. Besides that, interpretation when it is required. When things are understood directly, there is no question of interpretation. The law of interpretation is like this: when the things are not distinct, then you can interpret in your own way, I can interpret in my own way, but when the things are distinct, there is no question of interpretation.

Mrs. Sahani: If that's so, then we don't understand because we don't want to understand.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the folly. You don't want to understand.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Begins. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (CC Madhya 19.167), if there is any other motive, then immediately there is no (indistinct).

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ

jñāna-karmādy anāvṛtam

ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-

śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā

(Brs. 1.1.11)

Maybe little bhakti touch but uttama-bhakti, the definition is anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (CC Madhya 19.167). So it is very difficult for the actors and actresses to give up the commercial life. Anyā..., that is anyābhilāṣ, that by playing like this, I'll be popular, I'll get money, this is anyābhilāṣ. So to make it zero is very difficult. bhakti.

Guest (6): No (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Ah. But everything can be dovetailed, nirbandhe kṛṣṇa sambandhe yukta-vairāgyam ucyate. Just like our Sītā-Rāma(?), she wants to do some display to help Kṛṣṇa movement. That is very good.

Guest (7): She wanted to make the money.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guest (7): She wanted to make the money in this country. She would have the money, the richest artist in this country.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: So here is? (break)

Mahāṁśa: It was a touch-and-go thing. It was, when we finished, just enough for the opening, and afterwards the work could go on for another one month, finishing work. It was coming out very, very beautiful. Everyone who comes in, they like the whole, the hall is very big and massive, it's very ornamental, and it will be very, very popular. Oh, yes, already people all over Andhra Pradesh know about it. We have done some good publicity. The press has given us some good covering. Tomorrow is a press conference. Their press conference starts at five. We are going to have a film show for them and prasāda and all that before Your Grace goes there. And then afterwards there is a program at Muthilal Rao's house. We had a program there before in his garden, if you remember.

Prabhupāda: He is some ambassador?

Mahāṁśa: Yes, for Somalia. Now he has come back. He just, he's very, very favorable for you. Because, we were talking and he was blasting all the Śaṅkarācāryas, he was blasting all the different gurus and everyone, and he says the only guru is Śrīla Prabhupāda. He says he met our devotees in Africa, he's been to London and other temples in Europe.

Prabhupāda: Oh, he has seen our temples.

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

Interviewer (5): Swamiji, another doubt. In this mahā-mantra that you publicize, Hare Kṛṣṇa, it is Kṛṣṇa that is emphasized. (indistinct) emphasis His Bhāgavata and other things are popularized. Is it corresponding...

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is the origin of everything. If you have studied Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa says aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2). Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). So Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme. If you accept it that this is supreme name of God, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Rāma.

harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam

kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā

(CC Adi 17.21)

This is the Vedic injunction. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He said paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. In the Bhāgavata it is said kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet (SB 12.3.51). These things are there. It is not a manufactured program. It is based on śāstra. Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet. Kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ. These things are there. You have to accept some authority. If you don't accept authority, you speculate. That is your business, but we don't do. We accept the authority.

Interviewer (4): The same claim is made by Durgā also.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Interviewer (4): (indistinct)-śakti cult, they also give you the same...

Prabhupāda: Yes, Durgā, we say

sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā

chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni vibharti durgā

icchānurūpam api yasya ca ceṣṭate sā

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

(Bs. 5.44)

Durgā is all-powerful within this material world, but she is acting under the direction of Govinda. She is not acting independently. In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is said mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Under My supervision. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is the supreme authority. (break) ...but they go to the supreme person who can give spiritual knowledge. Durgā is not neglected.

Room Conversation -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: What is this?

Acyutānanda: That's an income tax form. I pasted these on the back.

Prabhupāda: That C.P.I. member, what does he say?

Acyutānanda: Well apparently they're a little bit envious because Māyāpur is becoming very popular amongst the local people. We get five thousand people now for the prasādam. And even the Congress leaders, they come here and eat with the people. They said, "This is wonderful."

Prabhupāda: Where is that?

Acyutānanda: At Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Acyutānanda: And Jayapatāka is going to the villages, I gave him one bus and he is selling about six to seven hundred Gītār Gāns a day.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: You'll run out of those pretty...

Jayapatāka: We'll be finished in two months with those thirty thousand.

Acyutānanda: And the response is wonderful within the villages. They all say, "Hare Kṛṣṇa," everywhere.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Acyutānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: How people are receiving this movement all over the world, even (indistinct) to the communist (indistinct). They are trying to kill God, and we are putting God (indistinct) educated families.

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So people were enthusiastic to come to our festival?

Saurabha: Oh, yes, very much.

Prabhupāda: That is wanted.

Saurabha: And this place, when it is finished, it will be the most popular temple in Bombay.

Prabhupāda: They have done.

Saurabha: It's already the biggest. So this is the building, (unfolding plans) and these three rooms—this is 32 by 32—is your sitting room where you can receive people. Then here is your bedroom, and here is the secretary room, here is kitchen, and here is servant room. So personally you have this, four rooms.

Prabhupāda: What are these?

Saurabha: This is the elevator.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Mahāṁśa Swami is nicely doing (?).

Hari-śauri: He's very sincere.

Prabhupāda: And everyone likes him.

Hari-śauri: Yes. He's very popular with the life members.

Prabhupāda: He has no enemy. Nobody has complained against him.

Hari-śauri: He's very even-tempered.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Neither he has complained against anybody. He does not complain, and nobody complains against him. His mother was very much sorry. Now she is very happy.

Hari-śauri: He joined in the West?

Prabhupāda: He is Parsee.

Hari-śauri: He's not Indian.

Prabhupāda: No, he is Indian. India, there is Parsee community. Indian Parsee means that originally they come from Iran. They are Iranian. But on account of Muhammadans forcibly standing within way... Aurangzeb came. Muhammadans they came, they fled from Iran and took shelter in the western part of India. They took shelter in Gujarat. Persia... I think Iran was known as Persia.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Anyway, our Gītār Gān is selling.

Jayapatākā: Yes. When we stopped at Burdwan, in one place, one boy sold 198 Bhagavad-gītās, Gītār Gān, without moving. So many Gītās... People were just crowding around taking Gītās so much that the local... There were some bookstores. They also came and they said that "We cannot get wholesale? We have never seen such a book sell so well."

Gargamuni: Even people come to the temple in Calcutta, they want ten, fifteen copies. Village people. Poor people. They come and say, "Gītār Gān, where is that? I have heard." And they take ten or fifteen copies, they wrap it in their cloth and bring it to the village. It is becoming very popular. Wherever you go, "Where is this Gītār Gān?"

Jayapatākā: I went to Writer's Building, I had four or five copies with me. I didn't go for selling. I went to see ministers. But all the peons, they were buying the Gītār Gāns from me. I sold out. People were coming up with rupees saying, "Gītār Gān." I didn't have any more.

Prabhupāda: Out of their own accord they...

Gargamuni: No, they've heard of it. It's becoming famous.

Jayapatākā: That's our inspiration, that if we can make Gītār Gān and Your Divine Grace famous all over Bengal, then we will feel that our mission...

Prabhupāda: Yes, I could not write any... I wrote some Bengali book, that is now... It can be collected from Devānanda Gauḍīya Maṭha. I continually wrote one book, Bhagavāner Kathā.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Why not engage him in simply...

Jayapatākā: He is translating now our...

Gargamuni: That's all he does.

Jayapatākā: That and he greets the guests. He's also good at membership.

Prabhupāda: Gītār Gān has become popular.

Gargamuni: Yes. That name has become very popular. Everyone is asking, "Where is this Gītār Gān?"

Prabhupāda: So you can register the name so that others may not...

Jayapatākā: Yes, otherwise they'll cash in on it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can register it the name. Patron registration. Copyright registration.

Gargamuni: It says it in the book.

Jayapatākā: It says, but you should make sure it's registered.

Gargamuni: Gopāla, he printed it. I don't know if he had it registered. It says in the book, "All Rights Reserved."

Prabhupāda: That is your statement. But it must be legally protected.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: 1950 or little before that. They have got their old Gauḍīyas.

Jayapatākā: They must have.

Prabhupāda: They were so popular, the report was that the readers of Gauḍīya were only hankering after that Bhagavāner Kathā, and after reading that they will throw away. Other articles, they were not interested.

Jayapatākā: So always your writing, people were attracted by.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is a fact. Even my teachers were attracted in school days.

Jayapatākā: Recently that..., some professor said that you are the veritable incarnation of Vyāsadeva for Lord Caitanya.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Some have said like that. In my matriculation class I wrote some essay and I got out of 100, 85 marks. But the teacher came to the class, "Who has written this?" So I stood up, and he thanked me, "Yes, it is very nice." He especially came to thank me for that essay.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Public singing?

Jayapatākā: When the public began to recite Gītār Gān at their functions, like they're doing this Tulasīdāsa Rāmāyaṇa, if they start that in Bengal, Gītār Gān, then it will be a big success.

Prabhupāda: Tulasīdāsa. Tulasīdāsa Rāmāyaṇa is very popular. Because the Hindis, they have no literature. There is no literature.

Jayapatākā: If some Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava could rewrite that according to siddhānta, then it would be very good.

Prabhupāda: Which one?

Jayapatākā: His Rāmāyaṇa has got many philosophical errors in it.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Jayapatākā: If a Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava could write that properly...

Prabhupāda: Why? Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava has immense literature. Why they should bother with Tulasīdāsa? By reading Tulasīdāsa's Rāma-carita-mānasa in my experience I've not seen a single man has come to the spiritual platform. I have not seen a single man.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Go on.

Maṇihāra: ISKCON, which is a worldwide nonsectarian movement dedicated to propagating the message of the Vedas for the benefit of mankind. The society was founded in 1966 by Swami Prabhupāda, who had come to the United States a year earlier on the order of his spiritual master to teach Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the Western world. Over the years ISKCON has steadily grown in popularity and influence, and today it is widely recognized by theologians, scholars and laymen as a genuine and important spiritual movement."

Prabhupāda: This is "theologians, scholars," and they, he said... Just see. Go on.

Maṇihāra: "At present there are 108 ISKCON centers in 30 countries throughout the world. These centers enable full-time members to live in close association, following the principles of Vedic life, and also provide a place where interested visitors can learn about the philosophy and culture of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and participate in its various functions. The basis of the movement is the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. The chanting of this mantra is the most recommended means for spiritual progress in this age, as it cleanses the mind and enables one to transcend the temporary designations of race, religion, and nationality and to understand one's true identity as an eternal spiritual being. In other words, simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa one can directly experience self-realization and lead a blissful life. The devotees experience divine ecstasy in singing the holy names of God to the accompaniment of musical instruments. The Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees, as a prerequisite for the serious pursuit of spiritual life, voluntarily abstain from meat-eating, illicit sex, intoxication, and gambling. The Kṛṣṇa conscious life style is based on the principles of simple living and high thinking. The devotees rise very early, about 3:30 a.m., and spend the morning hours in meditation and study. During the day, the main activity is preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Many devotees go out to public places to distribute the Society's books and its official journal, Back to Godhead magazine, which has a monthly circulation more than a million copies in fourteen different languages. In addition to book distribution, devotees engage in a variety of activities, including teaching, artistic pursuits and farming. The qualification in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not what kind of work one performs, but that it be done in the spirit of devotion to God. For the first time, Swami Prabhupāda has introduced Ratha-yātrā of Lord Jagannātha of Purī in the Western world. This festival is now being conducted in the major cities of the world like San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, London, Paris, etc. Millions of people relish the taste of pulling the transcendental ratha and partake of Kṛṣṇa prasāda. Another of ISKCON's projects is New Vrindaban, a model thousand-acre Kṛṣṇa conscious community farm in the hills of West Virginia. This is ISKCON's first venture in protecting cows from going to the slaughterhouses."

Prabhupāda: Take care of the cows, and?

Maṇihāra: It says, "This is ISKCON's first venture in protecting cows from going to slaughterhouses. Over four hundred cows give twelve hundred litres of milk daily, providing natural, healthy products like butter, ghee, etc. And especially milk sweets like gulabjamon, rasagullā, etc."

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Pradyumna: Just the names of those...

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Enclose this quote.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: "Point ten. Blitz: It has started taking interest in politics. It has started a political party in U.S.A. called "In God We Trust" party. ISKCON: ISKCON is not involved in politics at all anywhere in the world. Two American devotees did contest some civic elections for which a party called 'In God We Trust' was formed. The purpose of that campaign was to remind everyone to remember the Lord at all times, as everything belongs to God. Our spiritual master dissolved In God We Trust party in U.S.A. four years ago. Furthermore, there were never any plans to set up In God We Trust in India. We challenge Blitz to show us any evidence to support their claim. Point eleven. Blitz: As far back as 1971, the Maharastra government has taken action against the foreign devotees who have chosen to overstay in Bombay and elsewhere. ISKCON: This statement is also incorrect. The Maharastra government has never taken any action against our devotees. Point twelve. Blitz: The government has decided to stop specialized facilities rendered to foreign devotees seeking to popularize Kṛṣṇa in India. ISKCON: We are very grateful to the government of India for giving us facilities for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The government has not withdrawn any special facilities that have been given to us earlier. So I'm sure you can see by now the extent to which Blitz has misreported ISKCON activities in India. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that one day in every town and village of the world this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement would be spread. The Vedic culture is India's real heritage and we want to popularize it in every corner of the world. Even in black Africa we have locals that have joined."

Prabhupāda: Every corner of the world for world peace.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, for "world peace." Do you have a pen? No.

Hari-śauri: You don't have any light.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I need my pen. It's missing. I found it.

Prabhupāda: Because this is the only platform for united nations which is practically demonstrated.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is the only platform for...

Prabhupāda: United Nations which is practically demonstrated.

Room Conversation -- September 16, 1976, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: No encouragement.

Prabhupāda: No encouragement. They are simply staying somehow or other in their original culture, but there is no encouragement by the leaders. But the leaders have lost. This is the position. Just like Jawaharlal Nehru, he was a complete rascal about Indian culture. He did not think that Indian culture has any value. Therefore he wrote the book, "Discovery of India." You know that? He has... It is little popular. "Discovery of India." So long India was not discovered by opiate or something like, as the Russians say. Now it is now discovered. And that its leaders have to become Anglicized or Europeanized. Industry, the Western way of living, eating, and everything. Pollution. Everything.

Harikeśa: Abortion.

Prabhupāda: Yes, also. Otherwise, we have seen in our childhood how happy people were. They were. Simple. If one has five rupees income per month he's happy. I've seen it. Husband, wife, a small family. If he has got five rupees income, they can maintain very nicely, happily. Why not? Suppose he has got five rupees income. The rice was selling at four rupees. So two person, say one-fourth kg., one-fourth share each. A gentleman cannot eat more than that. So means half a share. And the whole month, fifteen share. It is about one rupee eight annas. And further, one rupees eight annas add for vegetables and other things. With three rupees they can maintain, the husband and wife. And two rupees still there. He can spend for other purposes. I have seen it. Fresh vegetables, rice, this and... Just like with banana leaf. The pots were of earthen, the wife is cooking and she's utilizing dry foliage as fuel, a little temperature, everything is cooked. The husband takes one banana leaf and spreads, and the wife gives sufficient rice, vegetables. And things were so cheap. I have seen it. And fresh.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: The same thing happened to Jesus. Because so many people would follow him the government became very...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That what do you call it? Crucified?

Haṁsadūta: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: He was becoming very popular. So...

Haṁsadūta: And at least according to Bible, it appeared that the Jewish priests, they went to the governor or the chief man at that time, and they demanded that he has to do something about this man.

Prabhupāda: They have proposed it. That Houston politician, "It is spreading like epidemic." Hm? Come. "It is spreading like epidemic. Something must be done." Otherwise one day they'll capture our government." That's a fact. If so many young men join this movement, they will vote. Because your country is democratic. (conchshell blows) Do this what I suggested.

Haṁsadūta: Yeah. You see them...

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) (break) "What is this pressure?" "Sir is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. (laughter) And very bad." Some day somebody says, "No it is good." (laughter) But Kṛṣṇa pressure.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Just like you are a philosopher. So you should not make only theories, "perhaps." But actually, by your philosophy, you establish the existence of God. Then you are philosopher. Idaṁ hi puṁsas tapasaḥ śrutasya vā sviṣṭasya sūktasya... (SB 1.5.22). Find out this verse in the Bhāgavata. Avicyuto 'rthaḥ kavibhir nirūpito yad-uttamaśloka. If by your philosophical knowledge you prove, "Yes, there is God," then your philosophy study is perfect. And if you philosophize, "There is no God," that is useless waste of time. To gain popularity, if you make philosophy like... In your country there are so many rascals philosophers, Darwin, Freud. They are all rascals. They are predominant.

Dr. Kneupper: I think there is some misunderstanding that many Americans may have about the teaching that you have. Maybe you can clarify it.

Prabhupāda: So you clarify it. It is your duty. You are philosopher.

Dr. Kneupper: Well, that's why I am trying to understand it.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Jagadīśa: "...International Society for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The two should cooperate. The blind man should carry his lame companion, and the lame man should give guidance to his blind friend. In this way both will benefit. Similarly, the wealthier Western countries should assist the materially exploited East, and the East, particularly India, should help the spiritually blind West to understand scientifically the actual higher purpose of human life. To offer India's transcendental science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness to the West, Prabhupāda sailed from Bombay to New York City in 1965. After a year of great personal struggle, he established the first center of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. In the next few years he attracted hundreds of sincere disciples and opened centers in dozens of American and European cities. He also established gurukula schools and farming communities based on the ancient Indian patterns. In 1970 Prabhupāda returned to India and with the assistance of many Indian gentleman and some of his disciples, he established ISKCON centers in Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Madras, and the rural holy spots of Vṛndāvana, Lord Kṛṣṇa's place, and Māyāpur, West Bengal, the birth place of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Soon he attracted many Indian disciples as well, who opened centers in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, and in several rural areas. Today ISKCON has about one hundred āśramas, gurukula schools, temples and farming communities around the world. But according to Prabhupāda, his books are his most important contribution. In the last ten years he has published over eighty volumes in sixteen languages. Scholars in India and abroad have praised Prabhupāda's books as classics, scholarly and authoritative. Literally crores of his literatures are sold annually, and this figure is almost doubling every year. How is it possible to sell so many books about Kṛṣṇa? Girirāja, president of the ISKCON center in Bombay, answers, 'People all over the world are looking to India for transcendental knowledge. They know that India's ancient Sanskrit literature speaks of lasting happiness beyond the frustration of material life. They are eager to buy our books because they know that we are presenting the genuine Vedic culture. In fact, many Westerners come here to discover the real India for themselves, (indistinct) life experience. For this reason we are building a model Vedic community at our Juhu center in Bombay, providing all the modern amenities for scholars, students, and sophisticated inquirers from abroad as well as from India who can study the original Indian culture and practice. The center will include a Vedic library, theater, prasādam restaurant, gurukula school, an international guesthouse, as well as a temple and āśrama.' ISKCON is also building a model Vedic community in Māyāpur near Calcutta based on cottage industry and agriculture. The important principle is that everyone must be gainfully employed. In ISKCON's Māyāpur project hundreds of persons operate spinning wheels and more than a dozen handlooms, dye the cloth, and (indistinct) popular design, process rice and dāl by hand, crush sugar cane for sugar products, and manufacture by hand, wooden shoes and other items of daily use. On twenty-five acres of agricultural land in Māyāpur, ISKCON is developing and demonstrating scientific farming procedures such as crop rotation, organic fertilization, and using improved strains. ISKCON is also cross-breeding cattle from Canada and Australia with Indian cows to increase milk production. Thus the community provides (indistinct) daily needs, acts as an agricultural development and demonstration center, and additionally feeds thousands of people twice every week. Within the next ten years, according to ISKCON's plans, the Māyāpur project will extend into a complete Vedic city with fifty thousand..."

Prabhupāda: We have applied for 350 acres of land from the government. The process is going on. If we get, then we shall spend crores of rupees for... The description is...

Jagadīśa: "Within the next ten years, according to ISKCON plans, the Māyāpur project will extend to a complete Vedic city with fifty thousand inhabitants, its own university, airport, and stadium. It will also claim the world's largest planetarium with 410 foot high Temple of Understanding..." (break) ...civilization.

Dr. Kneupper: It sounds like a beautiful project. That is near Bombay, now?

Prabhupāda: No, that is near Calcutta.

Room Conversation -- November 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Good idea.

Surabhi: It has lost its popularity now.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Surabhi: It is not very popular now.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Surabhi: In fact, in India they have ordered to leave practically.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Surabhi: They say they had some connection with the CIA.

Prabhupāda: That is politics.

Surabhi: Yes, but...

Prabhupāda: He was a politician. That you cannot blame. Politics require all these things. A politician cannot be a saintly person. That is not possible. For politics he has to do so many things. That is necessary. Just like Arjuna wanted to be a nonviolent. Immediately it was condemned by Kṛṣṇa, "What is this nonsense? You are a military man. Nonviolent." And similarly, politicians, they require all this. Businessman must deal in black market. It is inevitable. Otherwise he cannot improve. Because the world is bad, you, if you become honest, then you cannot make pros..., cannot become prosperous. Sate sārtham samācaret.(?) Brāhmaṇa's dealing must be very straight and honest. They are not meant for politics or business. They are for transcendental knowledge. Kṛṣṇa conscious person should be all-inclusive. He must be a politician, he must be a brāhmaṇa, he must be a kṣatriya, he must be a śūdra—everything. All-inclusive. Because he is transcendental. In otherwise he is neither a brāhmaṇa, neither a śūdra, neither a... Yes. Nāhaṁ vipro na ca nara-patir na yatir vā. Neither of these. In other side he is everything. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious. As Kṛṣṇa is sometimes cowherd boy, politician, sometimes dancing with, artist—He is everything, not one-sided. So all food is finished?

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: He has a cassette which you can listen to some time if you want.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I can listen. Play it.

Devotee: You would like to hear something?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Hari-śauri: It's done to like modern popular music.

Prabhupāda: Mm.

Hari-śauri: With the lyrics about Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Why don't you keep one record player.

Hari-śauri: Well record players are a bit bulky to carry. They have it on cassette.

Prabhupāda: No, this time anyone comes, ask them to bring one record player. Japanese record player is very cheap.

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Mr. Saxena: (Hindi conversation)

Prabhupāda: Who said this?

Mr. Saxena: I don't remember.

Prabhupāda: Then it is very popular phrase.

Mr. Saxena: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: The thing is anyone who may accept. That means he did not believe in the Deity worship. That is a fact. So how a real devotee can condemn Deity worship?

Mr. Saxena: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Nārakī-buddhi. This has been described, arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-matir vaiṣṇave jāti buddhir. Nārakī-buddhi.

Mr. Saxena: Nārakī.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Morning Walk -- November 17, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh, they are envious.

Mahākṣa: They are envious. Very envious.

Prabhupāda: Why you joined them?

Mahākṣa: I did not know. I thought it would be a good opportunity. They promised me they would give us a good program and good accommodation. When we got there, they did not like that we were very popular. (tape breaks up throughout) Then Mr. Bishop (indistinct) brother, T.C. (break) ...tour, he is a good man. He came with... (break) He is one of the most respected men in Bareilly. He forced them to put the program back again. So we did again the same evening. The people there love our program. They are all supposed... They have pictures of Caitanya Mahāprabhu on the stage and they're supposed to be following Him but they sing all these sahajiyā sort of songs and they sit down and it's all gṛhasthas. There's no, There's no real...

Prabhupāda: They want business.

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

Guest (1): Unfortunately, he has... There are not very silent...

Prabhupāda: Take for example satyagraha. Satyagraha... What is the satyagraha? That is the child's play. Just like a child, he wants something. You are not giving him. He'll cry. He'll force you. So is there any śāstric injunction? Now these things have become popular. Real thing rejected, and some false thing presented by childish attempt, that is accepted.

Guest (1): But sir, would you not agree that in order to appeal to the masses or to make masses into any movement...

Prabhupāda: No, it is... You see... It is not... If you want to become an educated man or if you want to give first-class education, it is not for the mass. It is for the leader. Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas tat tad evetaro janaḥ (BG 3.21). If the leaders are educated, then others will follow. But if the leaders are not educated, what the others will do? That is the difficulty. And the so-called leaders, without being educated, they become leader.

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

Guest (1): Their promotion in local language would be very helpful.

Prabhupāda: No, in India will purchase English magazine, he knows English.

Guest (1): Yes he knows, but the popularity will be much more in the Hindi and Gujarati and Marathi speaking people, Bengali speaking.

Prabhupāda: That is not possible. That is for you, Indians. But you have no time. You are busy with your daughter's marriage, and you simply advise.

Guest (1): I am busy?

Prabhupāda: Yes, everyone. Every Indian is busy with his own affair, he'll come and advise. That's all. Advise gratis. But he will not do himself.

Guest (1): No, but...

Prabhupāda: No, this is going... I have got full experience, that Indians, they will come and give some advice, and go away for daughter's marriage. That's all.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm, very good.

Indian man: They cannot speak in English. That's the whole difficulty, they are speaking Hindi and Gujarati. They are very, feeling very shy. And he's very great expert in growing this wheat grass which has become very popular. Everybody likes very much. Your devotees are also liking. He's an expert in this. He's a very good music teacher, he has a very good tape recordist. Puppeteer, also he's making these puppet for last twenty years. He's expert in making puppets. We can make kṛṣṇa-kathā puppets also for our theater. And he can train our young boys for the same thing. Video tape and everything, he knows about this audio-visual communication...

Prabhupāda: Everyone has got some talent. So svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya. That is wanted. Whatever talent you have got you can utilize for Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Indian man: ...a portion which says that when she went there and...

Prabhupāda: So that may be, whatever is there, but Rūpa Gosvāmī had no reason to refuse seeing a woman.

Indian man: No, but, that... Which Gosvāmī?

Prabhupāda: No, any Gosvāmī. Because the Gosvāmīs were so popular that amongst the villagers, when there was some disagreement between family members they used to come to him and say to him, "Bābā, (Hindi)." That means in that way he had to see many women many times. Why he should refuse? And what is the meaning of refusing if one, anybody... Even Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not refuse, but women used to offer their respect from little distance, not very near. That was Caitanya Mahāprabhu's restriction. But in our association there is no such thing as refusing anyone the opportunity. Kṛṣṇa does not say. Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ striyaḥ śūdrās tathā vaiśyāḥ (BG 9.32). He does not make any... And so far my institute is concerned, we do not make such thing. Everyone should be given chance. But we have restriction that we should mix with women very cautiously. You should not have any illicit sex. These things are there.

Morning Walk -- December 30, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That every road is there. We have no such thing. (Hindi) But he's not recognized in... Wherefrom he has got the advertisement that in America he has done tremendous work. What they have done?

Girirāja: The government may like to popularize him because he preached the cult of "work hard."

Prabhupāda: What "work hard" he has... (indistinct)

Devotee: Other day one man was telling me they bought two of your Bhāgavatams, Ramakrishna Mission. He said that one Ranganath Swami from South India, from Hyderabad was lecturing there but he was... When he was lecturing he had your Bhāgavatam, First Canto, Part One in his hand and he was speaking from there. (laughter) I said it is very good.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Give him prasāda. (Hindi)

Devotee: Many ācāryas, they imitate you. They read your books and take some of this part and what is useful for them they use on their lecture. How we should stop them? (break)

Hari-śauri: At least part of the lecture's going to be all right.

Prabhupāda: They cannot utilize my writing in their favor.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: They are showing some magic. Just like this child was being treated. So he could not check the process of death. Neither it is possible to stop the process of death. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha... Our real unhappiness is this-janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. So otherwise why there is knowledge? He does not know what is the miserable condition of life. Everyone knows that he is going to die. He has taken birth; he has become old; he has suffered diseases. Then where is the solution? In America this yoga practice is very popular, and they want some solution of the miseries. But here it is said, "Where is the solution?" Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi is there. Where is your solution? You cannot stop death. Then where is the solution? This is cheating, that "I shall make solution of your suffering." But a intelligent man will say, "Can you make a solution of my death, of my old age, of my disease, of my birth?" That is knowledge. But they are poor fellows. They have no knowledge and they cheat. That's all. Where is solution? Solution is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), it is said. Otherwise cheating.

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

Prabhupāda: No, if it can be sold at two rupees, you spend little more. Yes.

Indian: That's what I said.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I selected the most popular pictures for covers because people buy in India on the basis of covers.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is very nicely selected. Both pictures are very nice.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: All the three books, I think, the pictures have come out quite nice.

Prabhupāda: There are others also?

Indian: I went to the printing press, and I asked him "Why don't you print like the other books you have, Easy Journey to Other Planets?" So he said that "We have done little mistake, and the next printing it will be better."

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.

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

Girirāja: I know Mr. Bajoria in Calcutta, he told me that in the beginning the Indians would not purchase tea because they considered it was sinful, and the British had to make a big propaganda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, tea sets(?) committee. All the tea gardeners, all, they were mostly Britishers. They paid money for maintaining a department, tea sets(?) committee, and their only business was to make propaganda village to village how tea becomes popular. Similarly, drinking, meat-eating... And it became a fashion among the richer class to keep prostitutes, go to the garden weekend with prostitutes and wine, freely use them, intoxicated. It was a prestigious position to keep a prostitute. A rich man having a garden and one prostitute, they were... Anything in demand... I have seen it. Now I think, "How things are going on, that...?" You have seen that Mullik's house?

Girirāja: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So that day is nice?

Pradyumna: February 2nd. It is Wednesday, Bhudvar. There is one good... (?)

Prabhupāda: So in Orissa you'll be also there?

Rāmeśvara: They want me to go back to Los Angeles for that concert, because the governor is coming. That popular Hindu singer, Lata Mangeskar, she's giving a benefit concert in Los Angeles on January 30th.

Prabhupāda: So who will be the big ticket purchaser?

Rāmeśvara: Satsvarūpa. Oh. You mean in Los Angeles?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The Hindus.

Rāmeśvara: There are approximately eight thousand Hindus living in Los Angeles, and we have rented one auditorium that seats six thousand people. So if they only sell two thousand seats, it does not cost any money. It covers all the expenses. Anything over two thousand seats is profit for ISKCON.

Prabhupāda: So how many Indians are there?

Rāmeśvara: Altogether in Los Angeles, eight thousand. Plus Indians from San Francisco will come to this concert because she is very popular. Gopāla sent one devotee, Jagat-puruṣa, to manage the ticket selling.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he is expert.

Arrival of BBT Manager -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That example you gave of the dead husband... Prabhupāda gave an analogy, it is very good. To indicate who is being brainwashed. The example was a dead husband is calling his wife. That is very good example.

Rāmeśvara: They're actually doing service because they are forcing all these newspapers...

Prabhupāda: That is... Hare Kṛṣṇa—this name has become popular all over the...

Rāmeśvara: Yes. (to Gopāla?) You have experience. (laughs) The learned people in America are very concerned that we are being...

Prabhupāda: Harassed.

Rāmeśvara: ...harassed, and they are organizing groups to defend us. In Harvard University...

Prabhupāda: That is very good.

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

Prabhupāda: Intimate with...

Rāmeśvara: And there's also a chance to meet government leaders.

Prabhupāda: Someway or other, it is becoming popular. (chuckles) Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, should we be thinking in our minds that one day the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will have to manage the cities and the nations of the world?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Rāmeśvara: So there are so many different departments in managing such a big thing. It requires a lot of...

Prabhupāda: No, no. We shall... If people become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then the so many nonsense departments will be reduced.

Hari-śauri: Simplified.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The department, the sinful departments, illicit sex, meat-eating, this will be closed, and that will make simple.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Rāmeśvara: So that means that in the beginning we may be very powerful in government, but still, the masses of people will be karmīs still.

Prabhupāda: No. You can introduce in such a way that they will become devotees. Suppose in big, big factories we shall introduce this prasāda distribution and chanting. They'll immediately be popular. Everything will be... Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12).

Jagadīśa: In order for us to get power, by that time the illumination and knowledge of Kṛṣṇa consciousness will be widespread.

Rāmeśvara: That's what I'm wondering. I was thinking that it wouldn't be. There would be...

Jagadīśa: Otherwise how can we get through? What is the use of having one politician?

Rāmeśvara: Many revolutions have been victorious with a very small minority of people behind them because they're so well organized. Russia, Germany, all these revolutions.

Prabhupāda: That's a fact.

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

Prabhupāda: They may think. It is not the fact. It is a culture.

Rāmeśvara: For example, this group, this new record, Golden Avatar record...

Prabhupāda: That may be for a certain class.

Rāmeśvara: It can become very popular, but if they find out it is Hare Kṛṣṇa, they will think it is religion and they will not buy it. But if we do not mention that it is Hare Kṛṣṇa right at the beginning...

Prabhupāda: Either you mention or not mention, unless they realize that it is good...

Rāmeśvara: Well, that they'll realize when they hear it. Just like our book distributors. They're not dressing as Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees; therefore they are successful. As soon as the people see that they are Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees, they do not want religion.

Prabhupāda: No... Suppose a military dress... Then there are different dresses. When it is understood properly, dress is immaterial. The military dress... Everyone knows that their business is to kill. That does not mean they are hated. Similarly, people see, and when they understand, that is the process.

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

Rāmeśvara: So I'm encouraging them to make more records like the "Change of Heart."

Prabhupāda: We are not dry, simply talking philosophy. "Take prasāda. Eat sumptuously."

Rāmeśvara: In America, Śrīla Prabhupāda, if people become followers of a particular music group, then they take their message and their life-style very seriously. Just like when the people were following the Beatles, and then the Beatles became involved with meditation, so this made it very popular in America. If the group becomes... If the music group becomes popular, then whatever they do, everyone follows. So I am thinking that we can make this music group, Golden Avatar, very popular. Then everyone will find out that they believe in reincarnation and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and everyone will follow.

Prabhupāda: Yes, something "Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa" music must be there.

Rāmeśvara: Now, to make this group very popular, they have to have Western dress.

Prabhupāda: Never mind.

Rāmeśvara: That's no problem.

Prabhupāda: No.

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

Prabhupāda: That must be there.

Rāmeśvara: But when they make public appearances, they have to be in disguise.

Prabhupāda: Make public to become gentlemen. Formerly they had no long hairs. They dressed like gentlemen. That we cannot do.

Rāmeśvara: So it doesn't have to be very long. But I don't think it will become popular unless they are in disguise, wearing Western clothes and a little bit of hair.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's all right. But formerly your father, grandfather, they had no long hair.

Rāmeśvara: No, they will not dress like hippie. They will dress nicely.

Prabhupāda: Then that is allowed. But we cannot imitate the hippies.

Rāmeśvara: No. I'm just saying that it is a little difficult if they wear their dhotī.

Prabhupāda: No, dhotī, I don't say. You have nice coat-pant. I don't say that you have to... I never said that. You have adopted it. (laughs) I never said that "You put on dhotī." But those who are sannyāsīs, brahmacārīs, their dress is different. But it doesn't require that one has to become a sannyāsī.

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

Prabhupāda: Enechi auṣadhi māyā nāśibāra lāgi. Our message is to kill the māyā. This is wonderful message, undoubtedly. Enechi auṣadhi māyā nāśibāra lāgi, hari-nāma mahā-mantra lao tumi māgi: "Take this hari-nāma." It is very important message.

Rāmeśvara: In America, say a music group becomes popular, very popular. Then automatically, every time they make their record album, one million people will buy it in the stores without any salesmen. Automatically one million. It's considered very popular.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So make records "Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa."

Rāmeśvara: And for each record our profit is $2.50. So $2.50 times one million records becomes millions of dollars.

Prabhupāda: Spend it for prasāda distribution. Don't squander it. Every cent should be utilized for Kṛṣṇa, not for sense gratification.

Rāmeśvara: Now, some of the money could be sent to India for ISKCON Food Relief.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

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

Rāmeśvara: Now, some of the money could be sent to India for ISKCON Food Relief.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Rāmeśvara: That would be very good.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. That will make our movement very popular in India.

Rāmeśvara: They're always complaining that there's not enough money for food distribution in India.

Prabhupāda: So kindly send me as much as possible. Therefore these farming projects will be very nice.

Rāmeśvara: That'll be great, if we can use the money... Do you think I should set up a separate account for the records, so that all the profit is used for food distribution?

Prabhupāda: Why not? Very good idea.

Rāmeśvara: So that will be a special means of raising money for prasāda.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

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

Rāmeśvara: This idea will be very popular with the devotees.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. So now you can distribute...

Hari-śauri: Take prasāda... (indistinct) (break) (train stops)

Rāmeśvara: That's the British propaganda, that they came to India and made India more civilized.

Prabhupāda: This is civilization, that running, congested, hanging on. These rascals...

Rāmeśvara: Their famous phrase was "The white man's burden."

Prabhupāda: Unless they made such propaganda, how they could stay? They must give some plea that "I am staying for their benefit." That was the propaganda all through. And any Indian who would agree to say in the League of Nations and when there is conference, "Yes, we are so much benefited," he would be made secretary, governor. The flatterer, he would be made governor.

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

Prabhupāda: Naked? Fully naked?

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Hari-śauri: They would hold the festivals sometimes in the hills with a stream. It was very popular; everybody would go to the stream and bathe naked. And then the TV would come and film. There was one big one that they had in England, and the front pages on all the newspapers was one hippie couple that... Someone had spread some foam everywhere, and in the middle of the foam this hippie couple were naked having sex, and they put the picture in all the papers. This was love and peace.

Prabhupāda: I have seen John...

Hari-śauri: John Lennon.

Prabhupāda: ...naked.

Rāmeśvara: Naked. With his wife.

Prabhupāda: That picture is in his sitting room. I was talking with him in his sitting room, and fireplace and... Of course, that Chandler Place(?), a very big and glorious picture.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: This is imagination.

Rāmeśvara: ...like a battery.

Prabhupāda: "Young Frankenstein." Oh, I have seen that picture. (laughter)

Rāmeśvara: But actually people all over the Western world then became convinced that one day science will create life. This popularized the idea.

Prabhupāda: How rascal they have been educated. Mūḍha.

Rāmeśvara: And the only problem was he had the wrong brain.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Rāmeśvara: They took the brain from a known criminal and put it inside the dead man. So when he came back to life he was a demon. That's their only problem, they say. If they'd only taken a brain from a dead body who was a good man, then everything would have been all right.

Prabhupāda: Why do you not take the brain of scientist and make another scientist? Why you should, they should regret "That this scientist is dead"?

Rāmeśvara: That's their goal. That is their goal.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: We could have very big prasādam distribution there, in Purī. Right on the beach we could set up a whole prasāda distribution.

Prabhupāda: If you arrange for prasāda distribution, you become very popular.

Rāmeśvara: None of the tourists who are Westerners ever takes Jagannātha prasādam, do they?

Prabhupāda: No, if there is good prasādam, they'll take.

Gargamuni: Tourists... We'll send in the sweet shops, but...

Prabhupāda: If they understand they are very palatable.

Gargamuni: But that beachfront, if we're on there, we can use that beach as a place to feed thousands of people.

Rāmeśvara: Of course, all the pilgrims that come to Purī for the temple festivals, they'll also come to our temple if it is very big.

Prabhupāda: Yes, naturally.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: Actually there is a new movie in America which shows that Jesus was not even religious. He was a political revolutionary trying to overthrow the Roman government, and his followers created the myth. And this is becoming a popular idea.

Hari-śauri: That is another concoction too.

Gargamuni: Nobody knows, because there's no disciplic ācārya.

Rāmeśvara: The real point of that movie is there's no way to know anymore. Any theory now can be presented.

Hari-śauri: But at least if you look at what's there, in most of the Bibles anyway, the beginnings of Christ's movement are just like our own movement. All these men gave up all their material possessions. They went out and preached. And that was his general teaching too, that they should not worry for anything because God is supplying to everyone, even the birds and beasts. So why should they worry? Just go out and preach. That was his basic teaching to his twelve apostles.

Prabhupāda: That is faithfulness in God. Why a preacher should be bothered about maintaining himself?

Rāmeśvara: Actually there is some good lessons to learn from them, because they were persecuted, they were killed by the government even. But they didn't give up their faith. They remained very faithful, the early Christians.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: Little bit of concoction. But practically no one had every heard of yoga or anything. It was just beginning to get popular when you came to America. It coincided with your visit. So it seems that there must be some...

Hari-śauri: Some kind of a bug there, an ant.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Rāmeśvara: So it seems that there must be some...

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa's plan.

Rāmeśvara: ...effect. By just your coming to America, the whole place is transformed. Sometimes we think that when you look at these dates that Lord Caitanya came to the world, it coincides with a period in the Western world called the Renaissance. During this period of the Renaissance there was the highest development of art and literature and so many other cultural things. So we sometimes wonder there must be some...

Prabhupāda: Does it mean that before that, the Europeans were uncivilized?

Rāmeśvara: They were, actually considered themselves to be in the Dark Ages. They call it the Dark Ages. And then, all of a sudden, there was what they call the Renaissance, where man's intelligence became greater, expanded. He became interested in finer things.

Prabhupāda: Not man, but the Westerners.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Dog fighting.

Rāmeśvara: And even the most popular sport in America now is football. It is more popular than baseball, and it's based on men jumping on each other. While one team is carrying the ball, every... A very violent sport.

Hari-śauri: And boxing also. So many different sports.

Rāmeśvara: They are fascinated by pain and fighting.

Prabhupāda: Torture. They like to see that somebody is tortured by another.

Hari-śauri: All the movies are becoming increasingly more violent. And on TV.

Rāmeśvara: Yes, actually there is... I was just told. There is one movie now which is breaking all the records for attendance. It is called "The Omen," and it is about a prophecy in the Bible called the Antichrist. This idea is that the Devil comes from hell to the planet earth, and he impregnates one woman, and then his son is born. So the son is called Antichrist, son of the Devil. And he is very powerful with mystic power, very evil, and he takes over the whole world. So there's a movie now about this, and it's breaking all the sales records. And in the movie they have all sorts of ghastly things happening. This is what people like to see. They like to be scared. Horror movies are also very popular. People go to the movie, and they come out, and they have nightmares for a week. It is so frightening with special effects, and that is... They are paying money to be frightened.

Prabhupāda: While sometimes the movies that are demonstrated in the plane, I close my eyes. I do not like to see them because that impression carries. It is a very disturbing fact to me.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: While sometimes the movies that are demonstrated in the plane, I close my eyes. I do not like to see them because that impression carries. It is a very disturbing fact to me.

Hari-śauri: Yes. It's very disturbing. Those night flights are horrible. You can't sleep or anything.

Rāmeśvara: Even this movie that we have just been involved with called "Audrey Rose," about reincarnation, in order to make it popular, they have made it very, very frightening. In order to get people to come, they have to have that element of terror.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Rāmeśvara: So they concoct different arrangements. Because people are willing to spend money to torture their own minds. No one is happy. They are very disturbed when they leave the movie theater. They are frightened. And at night they cannot sleep peacefully after seeing such movies. And they are paying money to go to these things.

Prabhupāda: And again they will take tranquilizer. Just see (laughing) how thankless task. Create something disturbing and again try to... Yesterday some men came, the Communistic temple.

Room Conversation with Sannyasis -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: This is a very good one, from the University of Helsinki. That's right near the Russian border, in Finland. He's a professor of Indian studies, the Department of Asian and African Studies, Professor extraordinarious, Penti Alto. "The Bhagavad-gītā is no doubt the most important and the best known work in the whole of Indian literature. The magnificence of its spiritual concepts and the sublimity of its thinking have secured a great popularity everywhere. It has been edited and commented countless times. The meaning of the text, at least in its main lines, is obvious and clear. The justification of a new interpretation is there, for in my opinion, dependent on the message conveyed by the commentary. The translator and commentator, Swami Bhaktivedanta, represents the Gauḍīya-Vaiṣṇava school, and thus interprets the message of the Gītā 'from the inside.' For example, Shankara in Canto Two"—he means Chapter Two—"verse twelve, interprets the plurality of the being enumerated to be only conventional. And according to the Māyāvādīns, the individuals after liberation merge into the impersonal Brahman. Swami Bhaktivedanta states that Kṛṣṇa here authoritatively emphasizes the eternity of the individuality."

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

Satsvarūpa: "The transcendental form of God can be immediately experienced by a person who is duly prepared, as it is told in Chapter Eleven. Just these two points are, I think, the reason for the interest in the Gītā among persons with a searching spirit. Swami Bhaktivedanta's translation and commentary do deliver this message very convincingly indeed."

Rāmeśvara: Jaya!

Prabhupāda: He is a big professor.

Evening Darsana -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: You read Bhagavad-gītā as it is. You read Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Because Gandhi or Vinobha or Vivekananda or Aurobindo, they did not come in the paramparā system. They have made themselves important by their own ideas. That we want to check. Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. You cannot make any amendment or correction in the Bhagavad-gītā. But these people, unfortunately, they take advantage of the popularity of Bhagavad-gītā and give their own comment.

Mr. Pandiya: To suit their purposes.

Prabhupāda: That's all. This is the dangerous... And they are considered as big men, and people follow, and they are misled. Otherwise, in India, so much fallen condition due to these rascal leaders. That I am speaking repeatedly, although it may be very harsh. But we have to say that. Everyone has distorted. Gandhi says Kurukṣetra, "this body." Where is the chance of talking of "this body," the Kurukṣetra? Has he not?

Guest (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: Where is the dictionary, "the body means Kurukṣetra, and Kurukṣetra means the body."

Guest (1): He has told, karma-kṣetra. Kuru-karma.

Prabhupāda: So you can drag some meaning. That is another thing. But Kurukṣetra is there still.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: And from the stoutness and strongness it will live another seven thousand years. Does it...? Is it living, worth living, to stand up very stout and strong in a place for fourteen thousands of years? Is that life? Hm? I have spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness within ten years, and he is standing eight thousand years. So credit goes to him or to me? Better to live for ten years than to live for ten thousand years in that condition. And therefore they are ass, mūḍha. They do not know what is life. What improvement they have made?

Gurukṛpā: Their only improvement now is abortion and homosex. That is the most popular thing.

Prabhupāda: Tch tch. Just see.

Gurukṛpā: They feel that if you are not... If you are inhibited in your sex life, if you only choose women, then you are not progressive. You must become liberated from these moral or, they call it, "hang-up" feeling. This is not correct. Now they drive their children to the homosex dance, the parents, and let the boy out, and he goes into the homosex dance. Only men allowed. They take them there.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Gurukṛpā: Yes. In Los Angeles. They have only for boys, young men, age seventeen, sixteen, eighteen, nine... Their parents take them, and they let them out of the car, and they pick them up later on in the night.

Prabhupāda: Advancement.

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: Most things are done in America are on credit.

Satsvarūpa: "Book of the Month Club," they have. Very popular.

Prabhupāda: So you... We have to organize like that. And actually this is greater valuable for their life, changing life.

Hari-śauri: Yes. These book clubs are very big.

Prabhupāda: So now you all GBC make a plan how to introduce the books in every home. The same policy in other languages also. America is English language. Similarly, we can do here also in Hindi language, in Oriya language, or in Europe. So we have got much work ahead. Don't think our business is finished. No. Simply very intelligent we have to do it.

Hari-śauri: Practically speaking, we've hardly got any books translated into any other languages except for English.

Prabhupāda: No. We shall gradually do. When the English language there, from English you can do any language.

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

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is summary study of the Tenth Canto. That is also very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh.

Hari-śauri: Kṛṣṇa book stories are wonderful.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Most popular book.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, they love that. Of course, Bhagavad-gītā is the most well known, but people enjoy that Kṛṣṇa book. From the Kṛṣṇa book they get the clear idea who Kṛṣṇa is.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That was my... "Let them know at least what is Kṛṣṇa." That is selling nicely.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Very nicely. I would say that the lay public, that is to say the people who attend our temples but are not becoming the full-time devotees, they especially read Kṛṣṇa book and Gītā.

Prabhupāda: And that theologian, he says, "I want to support Kṛṣṇa." He said?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. "It must be Kṛṣṇa's name; otherwise I'm not..."

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Then he has become devotee.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: As other things are giving brain. Just like a dull, a dull child is educated and he passes M.A. examination. He becomes very intelligent person by education. This is their education. Even if you have no brain, I can give you brain. So it is not brainwashing; it is brain-giving. But because you are rascal, you'll not accept.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This will not be very popular with the common people, to be told...

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: People will not very much appreciate being told they have no brains.

Prabhupāda: Actually it is that. "No intelligence" you can say.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No intelligence. That'll be...

Ādi-keśava: But we can say that... Their accusation is that one loses identity. They say we are brainwashing, lose our identity.

Prabhupāda: Then you do not know what is your identity.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, he's a sweet man. He has no restaurant.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There are many hotels in Hyderabad.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Vṛndāvana hotel in our quar...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. That's a good... That will be very popular, restaurants, especially prasādam restaurant. If they know it is... If it is pure... Because I know. I was eating in many restaurants in different cities before you told us that we shouldn't do that, and people go there because there's nowhere else to go. But it's never that clean, nor is it very good. But the office people, they have to eat somewhere.

Prabhupāda: Formerly they used to be, because that was not restaurant. Restaurant in Indian style, they were selling paraṭā. In Delhi there are many. So those who were interested with paraṭā, they'll sit down and they will supply first-class paraṭā and vegetables.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hm. That's not there anymore. In Bombay the only good restaurant... There is a Marwari restaurant where they have this dower(?) system. But there's only one, and it's in Kalpadevi, so hardly anyone will go there anyway. No office people go there. Only the Marwaris go there.

Prabhupāda: No, Bombay there are so many restaurants.

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Make it simplified. At the present moment, especially in the Western countries, it is not possible to follow very elaborate program, but what I have given already, that is sufficient, six times worshiping, ārati, just like here going on, just like the same program. Not to make it difficult thing, because with the advancement of Kali-yuga, more difficulties are coming. So simple, things should be simplified. That is wanted. (break) Go on preaching from one place to another, another place. Mahā-vicalanam. Mahātmās should walk. Vicalanam, "movement." Just like I was in Vṛndāvana. If I had not moved, then this movement would not have been started. Because I moved at the age of seventy years, something is now tangible. So similarly, every sannyāsī should move from place to place. Parivrājakācārya, that is... Ācārya means teacher, and parivrāja, movement. Bhavānanda Mahārāja has become very popular in Bengal. You can move from village to village. People will like you. You can speak little Bengali?

Bhavānanda: Little bit.

Prabhupāda: That is all right.

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. It doesn't matter how they are opposing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think the book sales will tremendously increase this year in India especially.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Yes. And India, if we are popular, oh, then government will see.

Hari-śauri: There's tremendous potential for book distribution in India.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I say, take five lakhs and print and distribute. All languages.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Someone was giving me the report today that in Delhi the boys go out, and each man sells eighty to a hundred rupees' worth of books.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: And took up this tune. I was repeating. They were chanting within the car while coming from Conway Hall to... That is intelligence.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not to do anything new, simply to explain in one's own way.

Prabhupāda: This song was favorite to me since very, very long time. This album was very popular in Europe and America.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. It was not quite as popular as the first record, "Hare Kṛṣṇa." That was...

Prabhupāda: Which I sung.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. And also the "Hare Kṛṣṇa" which they sung, you remember, in London, that was very popular. Even in Communist countries it was popular.

Jayapatākā: There was a headline in the newspaper, Hare Kṛṣṇa rock... (break) ...and put this in our exhibit. That will go a long way for making the people more Kṛṣṇa conscious. They really... The only thing...

Prabhupāda: You give your mother. She can utilize it. She's very intelligent girl.

Evening Darsana -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Independence.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Independence from Great Britain. So that is not a very popular matter. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So that's actually a fact. There are a number of articles occasionally which are more American orientated. He felt that that was a strong point.

Hṛdayānanda: Also it's cheaper.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's cheaper.

Hṛdayānanda: He's printing twenty-four pages only. So Britain House...

Prabhupāda: No, it is very nicely done, very nice.

Arrival of Devotees -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The back cover is very good also, the heading.

Rāmeśvara: It says, "Eighteen age-old secrets of inner peace and fulfillment." These are the popular themes in America. Everyone is wanting this. Now we're telling people that "This chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa...," we are describing it using the language of the modern psychologists, that "This will give you inner fulfillment. It will enable you to handle more stress and the pressures of daily life. If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, you get a stronger sense of your real identity. You feel more in control of your life." By using scientific descriptions, everyone appreciates it.

Prabhupāda: Recent printing, how many?

Rāmeśvara: This printing was 300,000, and that brought it over one million copies.

Prabhupāda: All together.

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is very bad offense.

Hari-śauri: So we're actually advertising the process of devotional service, not just simply haphazard chanting.

Prabhupāda: First of all we are chanting just to make him little attracted. Ādau śraddhā.

Rāmeśvara: Just to popularize it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's it. Then, if the heart is little cleansed, then they will understand. It will be effective, but when it is done properly it will give real effect. Outsider, those who are chanting, we don't discourage him.

Rāmeśvara: We want then to chant more.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But we must... They must know the science also.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The big thing now in America, the most popular shop, is called "Adult Books." "Adult Bookshop."

Hari-śauri: "Adult cinema," "adult this," "adult that."

Prabhupāda: Topless, bottomless. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tucchaṁ kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham, tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ (SB 7.9.45). Bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. Kṛpaṇa. The rascals. Kṛpaṇa means non-brāhmaṇa, without any spiritual knowledge. They are never satisfied, the vagina business. Tṛpyanti neha kṛp—although it is followed by so much miserable condition—bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ kaṇḍūtivan manasijaṁ viṣaheta dhīraḥ. One who is dhīra, sober, he tolerates little itching sensation: "What this nonsense?" And if you practice toleration, there will be no more. Finished. You become liberated. Therefore, from the very beginning of life, childhood, this teach him, that "Don't be a vagina-smelling animal." Brahmacārī. Brahmacārī guru-gṛhe vasan dāntaḥ. To learn how to control the senses, that is brahmacārī. Where is that civilization? So establish. Give them food. Give them shelter. Give them knowledge. That is para-upakāra, doing welfare to others. But don't be entangled in vagina civilization. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukham (SB 7.9.45). It is most abominable civilization, tuccham, condemned civilization.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The people are envious of Bombay, especially this man, Sada. He's head of the Trombay that I talked. He was the... Everybody knew about our temple.

Prabhupāda: That is a good advertisement.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's not even complete yet, but already everybody knows about it, so popular.

Prabhupāda: And there is a big history behind this. (laughs) They wanted to throw away Rādhā-Rāsa-vihārījī. And I prayed always, "If you are thrown away, then it is..., my life is thrown away. You must stay here. It is a great insult." So He has not moved an inch.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I've taken all the parts of the picture of the temple because I want to show to Manipur ministers, so that...

Prabhupāda: So, first thing make your headquarter in Bombay, and make Manipur a Vaiṣṇava state. And recruit all scientists. And then attack these rascals, big animals. Shoot them, big animals.

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That is also good.

Girirāja: Because, I mean, if your health permits and if you could come every day, then we could arrange very leading people for all of those days...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Girirāja: ...and it would enthuse them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bombay is good place for propaganda, for making any movement popular.

Girirāja: Yes. People are very modern and advanced. In Delhi they're all...

Prabhupāda: Servant of.

Girirāja: Too much afraid of the government.

Prabhupāda: Servant class. They are not independent. (break) So I am very seriously thinking about organizing your institute. So how much hopeful it is?

Room Conversation with GBC members -- March 2-3, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: All right.

Satsvarūpa: A legal committee of Balavanta, Ādi-keśava, and Rāmeśvara will investigate whether certain techniques are legal or illegal according to the laws. Then one of the popular means to distribute books is by women's party. A party of women will travel under the care of a man devotee. But in taking care of the women, we have noted that some of these parties have been preaching a false philosophy of the relationship of the man who's taking care of the women, and that philosophy is that the saṅkīrtana leader is the eternal husband and protector of the women in the party. We want that this philosophy should be rejected. If a man is taking care of a number of women in a saṅkīrtana party, he should be regarded as the son as well as a representative of the spiritual master, of Śrīla Prabhupāda, and not the husband of these women.

Prabhupāda: Husband, but why he does not marry them? (laughter)

Satsvarūpa: Well, sometimes there may be as many as twenty women in a party.

Kīrtanānanda: They would like to.

Prabhupāda: We have no objection if one marries more than one wife. That I have stated. But law does not allow it. So do the needful.

Room Conversation -- March 26, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Not only that. They are anxious to read from Indian literature. They know there is substance in these books. That they know.

Gargamuni: In some of the libraries where we left books, we have gone back, and the librarians have said that your books are very heavily read. They are taken out and read. We have gone back, because I wanted to find out, to see how many, and they said, "Oh, they are very popular. They are always being taken out." We asked some librarians. So they are definitely being used.

Śrīdhara: Tell him about that one vice-chancellor.

Gargamuni: Yeah, I did. I told him. Even your old Bhāgavatams, we looked in the back. One boy looked in the back where they have the check-outs, and they were heavily used for many years. At least thirty times they were taken out in last few years. The old Bhāgavatams. (break)

Prabhupāda: Now you have got science background, book background, knowledge background—everything is there strong. Make this movement... Art also. Art, literature, science, philosophy, religion, culture, character—everything, strong background. Let everyone come. You have to try to fashion this. Nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve na kutaścana bibhyati. If you have got Nārāyaṇa background, then what is the cause of being afraid?

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda (Member of Parliament) -- March 27, 1977, Bombay:

Mr. Rajda: In Juhu.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Cooperate with us. It is scientific. Last night our Dr. Svarūpa Dāmodara presented very scientifically. We can challenge any scientist, any philosopher. So if you become serious, if you cooperate with us, this institution can set a great example, not only in India, but to the whole world. So you are so kind, you have come to see me. You have got desire. So let us take it seriously.

Mr. Rajda: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Correct.

Prabhupāda: It is serious, but nobody has taken it seriously. Bhagavad-gītā is popular book. Everyone takes the Bhagavad-gītā and says, "I am student of Bhagavad-gītā." It is very simple thing. And if the leaders of the society, they set example, others will follow.

Mr. Rajda: Correct. That's correct. Serious effort should be made. Only lip service will not help. That is correct. No, I fully agree, and we shall definitely apply our mind to that. I am connected with this or I came into contact with this movement when the Juhu temple was demolished, and at that time, under standing committee and ten set of demands.(?) Ah, yes. Then Girirāja and some friends had come to me for cooperation.

Prabhupāda: So you have given a great service. Now it is not only demolished, it is standing there.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Science is for everyone. There is no such thing as Communist science. "Two plus two equal to four," that is both for the Communists and capitalists. That's a fact. Because I am Communist, I cannot say "Two plus two equal to five." It is four. So science means fact.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That theatrical group will also be popular in Communist countries. That drama group will also be popular.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, drama group also. That is from artistic side. And from scientific side. And gradually we are making Bombay as the headquarters. So occasionally you come and go, and if possible tackle these men and find money to be spent.

Guru dāsa: Yes, visa.

Prabhupāda: We are doing with so many temples. That is Indian property.

Guru dāsa: Yes. Now I think I should go and see a bigger man than him.

Prabhupāda: At least give permanent residence for one hundred men. Then we can manage.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So Bhavānanda can go. For my bodily comforts, preaching should not suffer. This can be done somebody else. Preaching is our first program.

Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we have decided last night that when Upendra comes... We sent them a telegram. I'll train him up for a few days and then...

Prabhupāda: That's all, that's all. That will be very nice. So call him. You are now popular in Bengal, avatāra. (laughter)

Gargamuni: That's common in Bengal. I was seeing in Bangladesh many men were bringing this pamphlet saying, "Oh, this man is the incarnation of Nitāi and Gaura. This man is the incarnation of..."

Prabhupāda: Very good. Keep that position. When you meet them, "No, no, I am servant of Nitāi-Gaura."

Gargamuni: No, that wasn't referring to myself. They were bringing pamphlets of others.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Morning Talk -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ācchā. Then, according to that, there is verse. Immediately everything will be arranged. The history. He will not ask, "Give me the history." He'll study the history from the pulse. That is Ayurvedic. So that is gone. To study Āyur-veda is now lost. Nobody seriously takes Āyur-veda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There is not much big money in it, I think.

Prabhupāda: Thing is allopathic is so popular now, nobody goes to Āyur-veda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, there is no... You can't make a living very much.

Prabhupāda: They can give immediately, take. Although that is not very good, still, by lecture and by some strong medicine they can give him immediately. People like that. And Āyur-veda is long term, and people cannot wait.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. The cure is very slow.

Prabhupāda: And that is also not very sure, because the Ayurvedic physicians, they have not taken many cases. They cannot experience. Everything requires experience. These are the difficulties in Āyur-veda. Still, some of the patent medicines, they are effective. Just like cyavana-prāśa, nava-yogendra, yogendra-rasa.(?) If they are properly prepared.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Everyone bluffer. The transcendental meditation.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We are going to meet a lot of them. They were telling me yesterday, some of Gargamuni's men had been in Kashmir and Srinagar. They said that now is the time coming up, all of the big movie stars, everybody goes to Srinagar, very popular. Most popular resort place in all of India.

Prabhupāda: Our this philosophy will not appeal to these rascals.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I was thinking that also.

Prabhupāda: They want to be bluffed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was thinking that if we were to open a center there...

Prabhupāda: No, we will go on opening our centers.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But we cannot... I mean, we will attract those who are sincere. That's what I was thinking. We cannot change our philosophy simply for followers or money.

Prabhupāda: Just like we invited that Lata, and he was living like that.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: These rascals, wherever they go, they create trouble.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (reading:) "Why she was silent." This is from the Readers View column. "In the farewell talk she gave to the outgoing Communist Party members of Parliament, Mrs. Indira Gandhi is reported to have told them that she was to blame for the rout, but she does not mention what is common talk among people everywhere, and especially among the village folk: her connivance at the build-up of her son Sanjay Gandhi as the probable future prime minister of India. Mrs. Indira Gandhi's refusal throughout the last two years to face the facts about her son's inordinate ambitions has shocked most of her admirers. Could she not see that this get-rich-quick son of a mother who swore by Garibihato, as the person running the maruti,(?) was playing ducks and drakes with money taken in advance from motor agents for a people's car which has still to come on the road? Was she unaware that he was put next to the late president of India on the flagship of the Indian navy at the naval parade, though he has no position in the government of our country? And is it possible that she did not know of his interference from her own house in the exercise of executive authority in many matters of appointments? Did she not see newspaper reports of vast gatherings often paid for and brought to the pandals by her chief ministers to provide an audience and popular build-up for the Raj Kumar, as he came to be called? Those of us who knew her father are sanguined that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru could never have allowed himself to entertain a dynastic order."

Prabhupāda: He wanted.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Future prime minister.

Prabhupāda: That everyone will say.

Bhakti-caru: (break) "And is it possible that she did not know of his interference from her own house in exercise of executive authority in many matters appointments? Did she not see newspaper reports of vast gatherings often paid for and brought to her family by her chief minister to provide an audience and popular build-up for the Raj Kumar, as he came to be called. Those of us who knew her father are sanguined at Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru could never have allowed himself to entertain a dynastic order. When Mrs. Gandhi was elected president of the Congress, we recall that her father first disapproved of the proposal made by S. K. Patila at a Bombay meeting." (break)

Prabhupāda: ...is to bring her in limelight again, Indira.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now it's purposely there. Actually, that's a fact. It seems like now they are purposely not...

Prabhupāda: Mentioned.

Room Conversation -- April 13, 1977, Bombay:

Girirāja: He's asked us to have a column in his newspaper every week for questions or answers, so that the readers can send their questions and then we will give our answer. He will pay. He wants to make a regular weekly feature. It's called The Bombay Times.

Prabhupāda: Newly started?

Girirāja: I don't know how old it is, but now they're making a big push to make it popular.

Prabhupāda: At least one day or two day in a week important men may come here, live here. You hold meeting in that auditorium.

Girirāja: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Make friends with them about real knowledge.

Girirāja: And then Mr. Bajaj... Mr. Bajaj was on the same plane going to Poona.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Female.

Girirāja: Probably. I didn't know. Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's very popular in America. Prabhupāda: Muktananda? Hm. Girirāja: And, you know, he's such a rascal that he loves dogs. He keeps dogs in his āśrama, and they're... Prabhupāda: Ordinary man. Girirāja: Yeah, right, ordinary man, that's right. In a different dress, an ordinary man. Prabhupāda: And our is ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhrami..., kona bhāgyavān jīva. It is not for ordinary. Anyone who understands thoroughly Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he's not ordinary man. He's liberated man. It is not for ordinary man. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, kona bhāgyavān: "Somebody very fortunate." Not for ordinary man. Still, we are trying to give to the mass of people as far as possible.

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Why don't you read other? Read it loudly.

Bhakti-caru: "Chief Minister lauds Krishna movement. Kṛṣṇa consciousness was the essence of every faith and belonged to the world, Maharastra Chief Minister Mr. M. P. Chawan said at the Third International Hare Krishna Festival at the Cross Maidan in Bombay on Wednesday. Mr. Chawan lauded the work done by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. He said that Swami was responsible for popularizing Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over the world. Speaking after the chief minister, Swami Prabhupāda emphasized the need for scientific understanding of the Bhagavad-gītā to solve the problems confronting humanity. 'When human society is without dharma,' he said, 'it becomes animal society.' The festival, scheduled to end on Tuesday, has been extended another five days."

Prabhupāda: So his wife also...

Mr. Rajda: But now, poor fellow, he's also going. That is his fate.

Prabhupāda: That's all. This is political struggle. It doesn't matter. A man is what he is. That's all. And to come to this field of activities, one has to become free from all designation. "I am the chief minister" or this or that, that is designation. So I have to give up.

Room Conversation Meeting with Dr. Sharma (from Russia) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: George Harrison of the Beatle group.

Dr. Sharma: Beatle group, oh. Rex Harrison is an actor...

Guest (2): They are singers.

Dr. Sharma: No, that's a different. Because Harrison is more popular in Europe and West than Lata Mangeskar. Raj Kapoor they know. They know, I think more than George Harrison(?), Raj Kapoor is a most popular man in Soviet Union because of his films. And second is Jawaharlal Nehru. So they can make anybody popular or unpopular. Because there is only one paper. They write whatever they want. Unfortunately, the whole thing is in the hands of those (indistinct). They publish whatever they want. So this type of popularity is not real popularity. You cannot take the face value popularity. So I think this type of creating a drama or taking a film for educating about God, and then there will be some sort of a scientific discourse as if intellectual level that...

Prabhupāda: Scientific research...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How about that new film that Yadubara has just made? That's presenting everything as seemingly unreligious way. What is it called? "A Spark of Life" it's called. A new film. Are you going to be showing it here tonight, Yadubara?

Yadubara: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Maybe we could see it. That would be nice.

Dr. Sharma: I would like to know some such film they would popularize these things.

Prabhupāda: So why don't you show some film? Is it possible now?

Conversations -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: "His city"?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: What is that? "Asked..."?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Says, "Asked whether his city would not meet the same fate as Auroville..." It's not his city.

Prabhupāda: He can say that he has taken sannyāsa for his popularization?(?) (Surabhīr Abhipālayantam enters, offers obeisances) Did you consult this article with others' consultation or by whimsical joke?

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: It could be...

Prabhupāda: This article...

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Did you publish it by consulting your other colleagues, or whimsically you have published?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda's asking whether this article was published in consultation with other, with your Godbrothers, or how it came about that you got this article published.

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: Well, it was in... I think he went to different newspapers, just like the Indian Express and this one, and they wanted to speak with him.

Prabhupāda: So such an important article, there are so many discrepancies, and you have published without consulting others?

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: I haven't seen it.

Room Conversation -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That's nice. Where it will be?

Girirāja: In the city, at... It's a vegetarian restaurant.

Prabhupāda: Never mind. Talk with them.

Girirāja: It's a popular place for press conferences.

Prabhupāda: So they know that the scientific...?

Girirāja: Oh, yeah, yeah. It's on the basis of science.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Girirāja: Scientific.

Prabhupāda: Now our commonsense reasoning, that there is children, there is mother—where is the father? We are laymen. Can you say, without father, the children is born?

Girirāja: No.

Prabhupāda: Can you say?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Impossible.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That's not possible.

Morning Conversation -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, it is not made by scientific men. Layman-made. (laughs)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We discussed some point before he made movie, but we made very good point, but he didn't include any of those, what we suggested. At the beginning he has started. Then everything was some sort of a popularization of...

Girirāja: I thought it was like the new style of Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Girirāja: Many attractive photos to appeal to the public taste, but less philosophy.

Prabhupāda: We want now philosophy and science.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We can make a better one.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Short Dissertations -- May 24-25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And cow's milk.

Jayapatākā: Oh, oh, no buffalo. Only cow's milk. And pure ghee there is six rupees per ser.

Prabhupāda: Those who are fish-eaters, they can eat sumptuously fish. There is no scarcity.

Jayapatākā: Most of all, they're liking your books, Śrīla Prabhupāda. They like the books. Everyone is very eager for books. When we bring out this Gītā, that will also be very, very popular. Whatever books we bring there, as soon as we're there, they are immediately sold. I had no books. We had sold out all the books, so I only kept one copy to show, and I said, "We can't give you the book. You buy it by subscription, and we'll send it to you later." Ninety people took subscription, without giving any book, just on the basis of seeing one book. They're so eager.

Prabhupāda: Which one? Bhagavad-gītā?

Jayapatākā: That was for the magazine, yearly subscription to the magazine. When I showed the cinema, then many of the people, they had... In the villages especially they're very isolated, and so they're always being told by the Muhammadans that "Your religion is just very..., only situated within India. It has no broad scope. Over the whole world Islam has spread. Why you are worshiping Deity? Why...? This..." They are always giving them so many challenges. So when they saw how Kṛṣṇa consciousness is spread over the world, when they saw us chanting, it was as if new life had been given to them. They said, "Now we see that sanātana-dharma has spread throughout the whole world. We are just..."

Prabhupāda: And Deity worship.

Short Dissertations -- May 24-25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Here also, Mādhava Mahārāja temple, nobody goes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is this his temple here, in Vṛndāvana?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is always closed. They are cooking.

Bhavānanda: And the photo exhibit is very popular. Everyone goes.

Prabhupāda: To see.

Bhavānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: There is... Within, there is fan?

Bhavānanda: No fans, but it's cool. It's very cool.

Prabhupāda: It is down.

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

Prabhupāda: (laughs) King Kong. They are producing chemical laboratory, yes, studio, and the monkey played...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, they showed him going up and down the Empire State Building in a movie.

Prabhupāda: And it was so interesting, it gathered so many public to see.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now they have another one, "King Kong Returns." Still it's very popular.

Prabhupāda: So they can do these things.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They made another one where they go into the human body. They make the man very small, and then they send him on a trip through the human body, and he's fighting with germs. He gets attacked by germs, and the whole thing is very believable.

Prabhupāda: That Frankenstein?

Devotees: Frankenstein.

Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They like prasādam.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, very much. Because vegetarian is becoming now a very popular thing. People are thinking that it is more healthy to eat vegetarian. They call it health food. It's called health food. In fact, they have places called "health food bar." Instead of getting a whiskey, they get carrot juice, like that. People come... They comes sometimes just for one glass of juice. They'll pay dollar and a half, any price. They'll pay anything in America. If you know how to sell it, you can ask any price. Now, this month of June, now the prasādam carts will be doing more and more, all day long, because New York...

Prabhupāda: No, I have seen. They are always busy. Always.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In our New York building we have two elevators. And that impresses people when they come there to see. If you own a building with two elevators in it, it's a big thing.

Prabhupāda: It goes up to the roof.

Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes people say... There's couple people that even went to your place on 26 Second Avenue. They say, "So this movement has come a long way in ten years, from Second Avenue." They remember you sitting there. On Sundays in New York they have the Love Feast. So the average, they get about seven hundred people come. Six to eight hundred is an average crowd on a Sunday. And they serve the... They have simultaneously activities on the five different floors, four different floors. In the basement they have the restaurant. That is where the Life Members take prasāda. And very nicely dressed people, they go down there and they sit at the tables. And we have a group of devotees chanting bhajana, and they take prasādam and we serve them right at the table. Then, on the next floor, there is all the time kīrtana and ārati, throughout the Love Feast. It starts from five in the evening till nine. So they have continuously kīrtana and ārati. And also the store. We have a very good store. It's a very big sized store, and it has all kinds of devotional paraphernalias, all instruments, mūrtis, things to make people take part in Kṛṣṇa consciousness in their homes. And another very popular thing we have, just in front of the temple room we have a big table where we sell flowers and oils that people can purchase to offer to the Deities. And even mukuṭas for the people... Even though we would have bought them for the Deities anyway, but this way we put them there and the people buy them and then they come and offer them to Rādhā-Govinda, so it's a... We don't have to purchase ourselves. And then we sell prasādam. People take home. They like dessert. We sell in box. We have cardboard boxes the same as they have in bakeries where they put bread. We put different types of pastries and other things that have been offered to the Deity as mahā-prasādam. People purchase this. Then on the next floor up there is a lecture room, so there someone's always giving lectures, constantly giving lectures. And then there's different offices there, Life Membership office so we're enrolling members there. Then the floor after that they have a big lounge, and there we show all the time movies from the cassettes, so people can come in all the time and see movies. Plus there's prasādam. All young people, sitting on the floor, taking prasādam in all the different rooms.

Prabhupāda: They enjoy.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Those two men are both in Los Angeles now.

Prabhupāda: So write them immediately that "The rascal editors, they are doing havoc, and they are being maintained by Rāmeśvara and party."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes there's a fear that some word will be unpopular, and on account of desire to gain popularity or acceptance, they lessen the strength of the word. They change the word. They choose a word which is more so-called acceptable.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Same thing is with the Back to Godhead. Just publish some photo, try to change so many things in order to make it popularized. They have been doing that even with the philosophy. (pause)

Śatadhanya: I remember when Rāmeśvara was here, he had mentioned that in one article you had denounced the Christians strongly, so he said he left one part out because he was afraid there would be a bad reaction from the Christians in America.

Prabhupāda: That is possible. That is possible. He should be careful. Then?

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

Prabhupāda: What is the special feature of restaurant?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I haven't figured that out. I know what it is though. The special feature is this, Śrīla Prabhupāda. There's a number of things. One thing, there's no other place in Vṛndāvana where you can sit in such a good atmosphere. That room is very large. The tables are first class, marble. There are very nice decorations, and the service is very good. And they serve ice water. And the prasādam is also better than at the Jaipuria guesthouse or most of the other guesthouses. And it's very inexpensive, four rupees for as much as you want to eat, palatable. And it's right in our own guesthouse. The people live here, and then they don't have to go anywhere. They just walk down to the dining room, and they get very good prasādam, good service, inexpensive, good atmosphere. It's become a very popular place. But it's too hot for me. I have difficulty eating the sabji because it's very spicy, but I think it's liked by the Indian people.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I know, in New York, that is one of their complaints, the Indian people, that we don't cook spicy enough. Too bland for their palate. And we're not accustomed to that so much, hot spices. They like.

Prabhupāda: Without spices, Indians should not cook.

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

Prabhupāda: No, they must. In the evening, at the time...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They do give. I have seen. Big buckets.

Prabhupāda: Manage nicely.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And this big gurukula as well, if we can organize that, phew!

Prabhupāda: The whole Vṛndāvana Gosai, they are perturbed that this temple is becoming very popular.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How are they feeling about it, the Vṛndāvana Gosais?

Prabhupāda: Envious. They know the future. This will be the first-class temple. This is already.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This temple will be more important than Bankabihari.

Prabhupāda: Hm, hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'm sure.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are simply exploiting, and our mission is to give. That is the difference. They know their deficiency, that their business will have to... Common sense.

Room Conversation about Mayapura Attack Talk with Vrindavan De -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Very wretched place. I told some television reporter. "Here is hell."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When you landed there you said that?

Prabhupāda: No. There was television girl. "What is the description of hell?" "Now, here is, London."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whew! That must not have been a very popular statement.

Prabhupāda: No, he stopped immediately. Simply outwardly decorated, and it is hell. I told him. Actually that is, everywhere. No... Only cloud and that mist.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say that the sun never sets in the British Empire.

Prabhupāda: But is always sets in London.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It never rose.

Prabhupāda: Setting of sunshine is monopolized by London.

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

Prabhupāda: Some sort of worship is there and instruction, many narratives. Women were advised to worship the Yamarāja, Sāvitrī, Satyavān. Then there was saṁskāras, purificatory method, out of which the higher class will be sacred thread ceremony. Always something spiritual, according to the... And actually learning Vedic knowledge, that was by the brāhmaṇas. They would give advice; people will follow. Brāhmaṇo jagato guruḥ. Just like Gargamuni came to Nanda Mahārāja. He took advantage of Gargamuni and performed some purificatory ceremony of Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. Why these big, big institutions for wasting time and dating between girls and boys, and then they learn expert how to kill child, how to make abortion? Expert. Simply concentration on sex. Then become hippie. Frustration. Worship hog. Do they not?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, actually there's a group, a musical group. And as part of their performance... They keep a pen of hogs in front of them. And as part of the performance they all take off their clothes and jump in and play with the hogs. And all the people applaud, and some of them jump in also. Very popular group.

Prabhupāda: The hippies are nothing but a group of madmen, that's all. A madman, they..., means publicly sex, that's all. This Allen Ginsberg's movement is that, homosex, public sex. Ginsberg was very proud that he had introduced homosex. He was telling me.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "This coming weekend we have a two-day festival in Colombo. We expect about two thousand people per night."

Prabhupāda: Oh!

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "The Sunday feast here has become so popular that whereas before only fifty people would come, now at least three hundred came yesterday."

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "And all of them got full prasādam-halavā, purīs, samosā, sweetballs, sweet rice, rice, vegetables..."

Prabhupāda: I want to eat, but I cannot. Very good. Very good. Although I cannot eat, simply hearing the names, I am satisfied. Very good. He's doing nice.

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

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Also we are now going to have big distributors who are ready to take on our books, and we're going to have them distribute our Hindi, Gujarati books all over India. Plus, you know, those railway stands? We're going to come out with a plastic, small bag type, with six pockets in it, and it's going to say, "Bhaktivedanta Yoga Library." We're going to have Beyond Birth and Death, Perfection of Yoga, in Hindi, and in Gujarati areas, Gujarati books. We'll have a complete selection of yoga books. I've been speaking to many distributors, and yoga books are very popular in India. I was also thinking, I have this book all ready, The Scientific Basis of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. I wanted to change the name to The Scientific Basis of Bhakti-yoga in Hindi. Just by replacing "Kṛṣṇa Consciousness" with "Bhakti-yoga," the appeal will broaden because people are buying books just...

Prabhupāda: You can.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Can I do it?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I have it all ready. So all I have to do is just change the front page, The Scientific Basis of Bhakti...

Prabhupāda: You consult among you. So I want to see simply distribution of books in any language. That I want.

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And the other?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The other one stops once, I guess, but I'm not certain of the place. Between here and Bombay it makes one stop, so far I know. I'm not sure what is that stop. They're very popular trains. They run only about twice a week. But the train we were on was quite quick also. But not so quick as this. The train we were on took about twenty-two hours, Bombay-Delhi. But Rajdhani, I think, takes seventeen. It's about five hours faster.

Prabhupāda: They are also very fast. No?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That one we were on?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it was very good. And it was very much on time. (end)

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: It appears that she's becoming popular again with the public.

Bhagatji: On 2nd of October she went to Agra, Śrīla Prabhupāda. She went to Agra. When you got down from the train at 7:30, she was coming on nine o'clock on Taj Express from Delhi. After that, there was so much of crowd going on for her. In Agra there were fifty or sixty thousand people waiting for her, too.

Haṁsadūta: She's becoming popular again.

Bhagatji: The question is about this dearness, these costly things, going, prices higher and higher.

Bali-mardana: Yes. The prices are going up, so the people are becoming dissatisfied with this Janata government.

Haṁsadūta: Just prior to her being arrested, a few days, she has publicly announced that "The government doesn't have the guts to arrest me." She said, "The government doesn't have the guts to arrest me." So this arresting her will make her more popular. She is very intelligent lady. And her little sister, this Shreemav Badranayiki, she was the prime minister of Shree Lanka. She is also coming back. These two women went to school together. They were in the same class.

Bhagatji: From Ceylon.

Haṁsadūta: Yes. It's an amazing coincidence. This woman prime minister of Śrī Lanka, she follows everything Indira does. When Indira Gandhi held elections, she also held elections. She lost; she lost. She's coming back; she's coming back. They're very friendly, two ladies running these two countries. Sometimes when preaching I tell the public, "What kind of country is this? The land of the rājarṣis and some lady is running the government."

Prabhupāda: Hm, don't touch politics.

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Bengalis have no money. (laughter)

Bhavānanda: Now that the flood waters have receded, in about three-four weeks it will be time to send the boat out again. Nice program. Tapomaya Prabhu will take charge of the boat. The boat is very popular. Up and down the Gaṅgā from Calcutta to Māyāpur everyone knows the Hare Kṛṣṇa Naukā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hare Kṛṣṇa Naukā. That's what they call it. What does that mean?

Bhavānanda: Boat.

Indian devotee: (indistinct) ...one boat is passing through the river like that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How is the translation work going? How is the publication going?

Bhavānanda: That is Bhakti-caru Swami's work.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're doing nicely?

Bhavānanda: Yes. Subhaga is here.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Subhaga is here, Śrīla Prabhupāda. He came to see you. This seems like... When Lord Caitanya was in Jagannātha Purī, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the residents of Māyāpur used to come to visit Him. Now all the residents of Māyāpur are coming to visit you here in Vṛndāvana, your headquarters here.

Prabhupāda: Gītār Gān, (Bengali).

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Gītār Gān, (Bengali).

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali about popularity of Gītār Gān)

Subhaga: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Subhaga: Muhammadan arrested? No.

Bhavānanda: They're going to be arrested.

Subhaga: They're going to be arrested, Prabhupāda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? How would you like to drink something?

Prabhupāda: I have no thirst.

Visit From Allopathic Doctor -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: By seeing the picture they sell.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: People will buy just from seeing. (Prabhupāda laughs)

Harikeśa: In Germany pictures like on the back, they're very popular.

Prabhupāda: What price you are selling?

Harikeśa: We sell these for about eight or nine marks or ten marks. That's somewhere between $3.50 and $4.00. Sometimes a little more.

Prabhupāda: They pay that.

Room Conversation -- October 12, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Print more books.

Hṛdayānanda: Yes. Also in Brazil the Bhāgavatam is very, very popular.

Prabhupāda: This is life. This material world and the bones... The bones are not our... This is life. We are not concerned with bones and stones. Our real concern is the living force. Apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parām, jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat (BG 7.5). The living force which is sustaining the bones... Bone is not important. It may remain; it may go. It doesn't matter. Real life, what is sustaining the bone, is steady. We have got history that there was a ṛṣi, he had only bones. So there is a science by which you can sustain life—only bones. Hiraṇyakaśipu did it, practically.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You are also doing it, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Room Conversation -- October 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Dr. Ghosh: (Bengali) Regular lecture about health and disease in popular language with demonstrations by charts, models, projectors, and cinematography. (Bengali) Maintaining health cards for children. Every six months have their height, weight... (Bengali) Building health science museum. (Bengali) ... models, charts, shows various parts of the body... (Bengali) ...for propagating health science amongst the inmates of Gurukula and the public. (Bengali)... gymnasium for health. (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Dr. Ghosh: If you approve, then we can go on.

Prabhupāda: Āmādera spiritual... (Bengali)

Dr. Ghosh: (Bengali) ...should be taken care of, 'cause this is God's temple.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Dr. Ghosh: Our people are steeped in ignorance about the laws of health. In the most impressionable age... (Bengali) ...young, the most impressionable age... (Bengali) He can have a little glucose in water?

Bhavānanda: Taking glucose in juice.

Upendra: We have lunch ready. Getting ready.

Dr. Ghosh: Glucose in water.

Bhavānanda: He's been taking glucose in fruit juices. He hasn't taken today very much.

Dr. Ghosh: Every hour, a sip, sip. If he can't take at one time, let just him sip every half an hour a teaspoon. Otherwise it is very low.

Prabhupāda: Teaspoonful I can take. Teaspoon I can take.

Room Conversation -- October 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Very good news. Now can see. This material body may remain or not remain. This movement will push on.(?) That is wanted. Where is such thing throughout the whole world? Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There aren't, except in our temples. He says, "By Kṛṣṇa's grace the most wonderful Janmāṣṭamī celebration was held at the big farm āśrama in South Africa. The celebration included the opening of a new temple and prasādam facility, two new life membership cottages and three overnight guest rooms, initiation of four new devotees and two brāhmaṇa initiations, a play, a massive prasādam distribution, go-pūjā, a transcendental treasure hunt for the children, ecstatic chanting by all, and distribution of books, records, posters and tapes. We enclose pictures of the various events, as well as newspaper articles. The newspapers were all one-hundred-percent favorable, and one even had a four-page article on ISKCON. The Gujarati ladies from Durban and Pietermaritzburg all came early to help cook puris and halavā. They cooked about one quarter ton of halavā (Prabhupāda chuckles) and over eight thousand puris, all of which were distributed. At least fifteen thousand people attended the two-day festival, and all of the most important big Indian businessmen and millionaires attended. Two days before the event, a large marquee, able to hold twenty-five hundred people, was erected, and the initiations and the play were held inside. The play especially was most successful, as the top Indian stage and lighting men in South Africa were giving us technical assistance. It was so nice that even some of the ladies were in tears during the performance. The go-pūjā was also a massively popular event, as none of the local people had ever seen such a thing before. In fact, many people came up to the devotees and were saying things like, 'We left India thirty years ago, and I never saw anything like this before.' So far, the Indian community..." (break)

Bhavānanda: And the other one is that Ādi-keśava Mahārāja, he has a friend in Delhi named Chandi Das. He's a big yogi, I think?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, he's from America.

Bhavānanda: He has quite a bit of money. And so Ādi-keśava called him up, and he had a kavirāja in the Rāmānuja-sampradāya. And Chandi Das went to see his kavirāja, and his kavirāja had just gotten finished mixing makara-dhvaja medicine. He'd been preparing it for the past ten days. And Śatadhanya Mahārāja and Ādi-keśava were just now going over to see this kavirāja. That Chandi Das has purchased seven tolās of the medicine for Your Divine Grace as a gift. They are going over to pick it up.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Just see. Kṛṣṇa arranges. Just see.

Trivikrama: Kṛṣṇa's so kind.

Prabhupāda: Very good. No, I saw somebody, Rāmānuja-sampradāya. He is preparing for me. This is all Kṛṣṇa's plan. It is being prepared in Delhi, and He is giving information and doing. So very good news.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So, in the temple everything is going on?

Guest (1): Yes, it's going on.

Prabhupāda: People are coming?

Guest (1): Yes, many people are coming. It has become very...

Prabhupāda: Popular.

Guest (1): It is already popular.

Prabhupāda: No, sevā-pūjā will...

Guest (1): Everybody is concerned about your health.

Prabhupāda: And sevā-pūjā is brilliant?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sevā-pūjā is very nice?

Guest (1): Yes, everything is very, very much regulated now.

Prabhupāda: Execute. Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṇgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau **. Here it was vacant, my lot. Now, by Kṛṣṇa's grace, so many people are coming. Prasādam distribution is going there?

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, that stopped. That's the main thing. That was the disturbance. The stool was passing. So many people are coming to the temple here, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Many pilgrims. The temple is full of people all the time. Lots of pilgrims coming. Devotees were saying that in other temples there's not so much activity. Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma are attracting all of the people of the land. Everyone is attracted to Them. But it seems like Rādhā-Śyāmasundara are equally popular. People like Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa very much, and especially in Vṛndāvana. But Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma is unique. I hear them exclaiming. They are at once surprised and pleased to see the two brothers together.

Bhakti-caru: And the śṛṅgāra is so unique here. It's the best.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, everyone says the śṛṅgāra is the best. But for flowers we have not yet the best. So we have to make that. Bhavānanda Mahārāja was suggesting a program, Śrīla Prabhupāda. He was suggesting that in that open land on the side of the Gurukula, that we could build a prasādam pavilion, and we could serve the public every day free prasādam at noon time. That might become very popular in Vṛndāvana. Ḍāl and cāpāṭis. All the sādhus would come. I don't know if it's a good idea, but he was suggesting.

Prabhupāda: Good idea. Very good idea.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Good idea. Very good idea.

Nayanābhirāma: We used to serve them khicuṛi in the morning. Then they discontinued.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I mean so many pilgrims come, and there are already so many sādhus living in Vṛndāvana. This would make our temple very, very popular additionally, even more popular than now. So many pilgrims come. I see them. And they're farmers and things, you know. And if we gave that, probably they would be inclined, even some of the farmers would bring a little of their..., you know, thinking to offer something also to the Deities, because they would see that we're giving things.

Prabhupāda: If you distribute prasādam, there will be no scarcity of participants. Bhāta ei kāke āra.(?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What does that mean, Śrīla Prabhupāda? What does that?

Bhakti-caru: "If you scatter rice, then there's no dearth of crows." (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "No dearth of crows."

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Brahmānanda: Bon Mahārāja, he had this idea for making this center in Vṛndāvana, and now, after so many years, it's practically closed. Everything's shut down. Ghost town. Just in two-three, three years our temple is now the most popular.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) Jaya Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now we will pay them our (indistinct) but we will go on watching. That we want. As long as you're watching them, we will (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: They haven't got (indistinct).

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) (indistinct)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no. He's definitely impersonalist. But he's not very serious, caught in family life. He associates with these people. I mean his philosophy's Caitanya Mahāprabhu...

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Jayādvaita?

Jayādvaita: I agree. This...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just like our Back to Godhead magazine. For a while it was becoming very compromised. Actually it was becoming a little compromised. And just because we wanted... The editors were thinking that they should make it more popular, more acceptable. But our conclusion of all the GBC men was: "Popular or not, we are trying to present the ideal for the topmost men. There must be some ideal institution in the world." So we should keep it pure. And those who want the pure product, they will come and take. And others, at least they will know this is pure.

Jayādvaita: Everybody else is already a hodgepodge, so they'll allow anyone to speak because they don't have any scruples. But if we are very strict, if we don't allow anyone who's not strictly following...

Prabhupāda: Where is Brahmānanda?

Jayādvaita: Brahmānanda? Brahmānanda is resting.

Prabhupāda: So, I am on the deathbed. I may go away at any moment. Then... Now it is up to you to give protection to the sanctity of our institution. Who else is there from the GBC?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Svarūpa Dāmodara, Jagadīśa.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Tamāla Kṛṣṇa? Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. I mean I'm more concerned about Bombay, because there in Bombay I feel that... I don't think that there's a proper understanding on the part of some of the leaders there about the danger of this. I think that the leaders there are not very clear on this point. I'm a little worried about Bombay. I think that they're... They're going to compromise. There's a danger for compromisation there.

Jayādvaita: To be popular.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. To be popular and profitable, they're approaching it on a very businesslike basis. And also the other point is that they're afraid that... In Bombay they've made this hall, such a beautiful hall. So they don't want it to lie vacant or empty, and they just can't think of what can be done inside that hall every single day of the year. It's a fact that hall should be used every day of the year.

Bhavānanda: By us.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: By us. But since they feel that there's not going to be any constant use from our side, they're thinking that it doesn't make sense to have built and spent so much money on such a good hall and not utilize it daily, which from the business point of view is a fact. But that means that you're going to have to invite all kinds of semi... It's not even Kṛṣṇa conscious. I wanted to say semi-Kṛṣṇa conscious, but they're going to have to invite different theater people, entertaining people.

Bhavānanda: So the Kṛṣṇa conscious solution is to utilize the hall every night for our own purposes. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is unlimited. There's so many dramas, so many lectures, so many symposiums.

Prabhupāda: No, suppose you construct some house and rent out. Then they can do as they like. So similarly, if that hall is made, constructed for making some money, then the money will not come if we don't rent out to the cinema actors, actresses. It is just like... What is called? Village house. Hm? The hall is called? When one pays, marriage ceremony... For making some money you have made.

Room Conversation -- November 7, 1977, Vrndavana:

Jayapatākā: That was supposed to be done this year, but then Bombay took all the funds. Prabhupāda sanctioned it already last year. It was a good idea. But Māyāpur has become very popular. This is all due to your effort, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Simply due to your efforts Māyāpur and Navadvīpa is becoming so much more famous and popular. We want to make the Māyāpur temple so beautiful and make the city so nice that not only the Queen of England and the President of United States, but even the Russian and Chinese leaders, they'll all have to come to see this. They can't avoid. Will that please Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura? If all the leaders, all these presidents and kings would come and visit the temple at Māyāpur, that would please Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Seems like your activities, Śrīla Prabhupāda, are so much pleasing to the previous ācāryas.

Jayapatākā: This is the secret you are showing, working towards satisfying the desires of the previous ācāryas.

Prabhupāda: Tāṅdera caraṇa-sebi-bhakta-sane bās. So you are all bhaktas. To live with you, to serve the lotus feet of the ācāryas, that's good...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We've already become famous as spiritual United Nations.

Jayapatākā: You've given the secret for success. (break)

Prabhupāda: If possible, make some improvement in Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's birthplace.

Room Conversation -- November 7, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: At least repair it nicely, without any claim of our...

Jayapatākā: From the Bhaktivedanta Charity Trust.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust will be very popular, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatākā: Amongst the Vaiṣṇavas.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everyone will glorify your name. It will be a great pleasure to give them funds from this Trust.

Jayapatākā: Sometime in the future we can, if they are ever agreeable, if we can take the sevā of that birthplace, then we should do so.

Prabhupāda: Yes.