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Power of... (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"power of" |"powers of"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: "power of" or "powers of" not "power of attorney" not "power of Krsna" not "power of Lord Krsna" not "power of God" not "power of the Purusa" not "power of the Supreme Godhead" not "power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead" not "power of the Lord" not "power of Visnu"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk at Stow Lake -- March 27, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa says that this is the abode of miseries and that also temporary. Because you can accept any miserable life. That is the spell of māyā. Just like this dog life. If somebody asked me, "Would you like to be a dog? I can make you," shall I agree? Why not? Because I know that's miserable life. But the dog is satisfied. By becoming a purchased slave, very much satisfied. He has no independence, always chained and always servant, eternal servant of a particular man. He can do any harmful thing by the order of the master, he's so faithful. But still, his life is miserable because he's dog. But he is satisfied. He thinks that "Oh, it is a very nice life." This is called covering power of māyā, illusion. Anyone in the most miserable condition of life he'll think, "Oh, I am very happy." Ask him, "How are you?" "Oh, very nice. Very nice." So there is no adjustment. A Kṛṣṇa conscious person should... He knows that here only adjustment is to live in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the only... If he's materially conscious... What is the difference between materially conscious man and Kṛṣṇa conscious man? Materially conscious person is thinking everything as his property or enjoyable thing.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Therefore he has a teacher. You cannot say that, or he has taken the techniques of other scientists and he has experimented. In the laboratory appliances he cannot say that he has, he invented the laboratory appliances.

Dr. Weir: No, but his power of observation was important.

Prabhupāda: That is all right. That is all right.

Dr. Weir: That's in him and nobody else.

Prabhupāda: But he, he has taken help from other scientists' method.

Śyāmasundara: In other words, everyone operates under a certain set of restrictions, controls that are not of their own choosing. Everyone is in that category. They may think, "I am the controller of my own destiny." But actually they are being pulled on every side.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Dai Nippon -- April 22, 1972, Tokyo:

Prabhupāda: ...so many assistants. Similarly, God can expand Himself for different... So Lord Buddha appeared to stop animal killing. Keśava dhṛta-buddha-śarīra jaya jagadīśa hare. This is Sanskrit. Lord Kṛṣṇa, Keśava, He was very much compassionate on the poor animals. "And now you have appeared as Lord Buddha," buddha-śarīra, "taking the body of Lord Buddha." Sadaya-hṛdaya darśita-paśu-ghātam. He was so much compassionate by seeing unnecessarily animal sacrifice. When there was too much animal sacrifice in India, Lord Buddha appeared. And in the Vedas there is recommendation for animal sacrifice in some sacrificial ceremony, not ordinarily. And that sacrifice is meant for testing the power of chanting mantra.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1972, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. That should be the attitude. That is the way of understanding. Upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ. Those who are Tattva-darśiḥ, those who have seen the truth, we have to take knowledge from them. That is the direction in the Bhagavad-gītā, not from the third-class men. One who has seen, one who has known, you have to take knowledge from him, tattva-darśiḥ. Tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). You have to understand by surrendering, by rendering service and by question, three things. You cannot question simply. There must be service and surrender; then question will be nice. And if all of a sudden you come and question, that answer will not be sufficient. So I am drinking this water because there is taste. At this time, if you can give me some other juice, I'll not like. I'll like to take, drink water, because there is particular taste that will satisfy my thirst. That thirst-quenching taste is Kṛṣṇa. So immediately you can remember Kṛṣṇa, "Here is Kṛṣṇa." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Raso 'ham apsu kaunteya (BG 7.8). There is no need of seeing Kṛṣṇa. You can perceive Kṛṣṇa while drinking water if you have got such power of perception. And the hints are already there in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1972, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Each says, but you have to judge. Just like when you go to purchase two shillings' worth goods, you go to different stores. Everyone says, "Oh, my thing is very nice." But you have to judge which one is best. That depends on you. If you are a fool, then somebody will cheat you. And if you are not a fool, then you will know... Just like these rascals, they call themselves God. Such a fool can cheat another fool only. But one who knows what is God, he'll not accept it. One who knows Kṛṣṇa, he'll not accept him as God. He'll immediately compare, "What you have done like Kṛṣṇa or better than Kṛṣṇa that I shall accept you God? We have already our God, Kṛṣṇa. Now you prove that you are better than Kṛṣṇa or equal to Kṛṣṇa." That he cannot, so why I shall accept him as God? Why shall I accept him as spiritual master? That depends on your intelligence. If you are less intelligent, then you'll be cheated by this false God. So everyone has got intelligence, individuality, power of understanding, so you should try to use them, and then you can understand.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Sir Alistair Hardy -- July 21, 1973, London:

Revatīnandana: He says, now how to find out the Divine Person from whom the flame comes? Just like you were talking about how God is a manifestation of power, in your statement. But the manifestation of power we always find in relation with a source of power. Just like the sunlight is a manifestation of the power, and this great power of the sunlight, they're tapping it for electricity and so many things now, but that sunlight is not an independent entity. It's dependent on the source.

Prabhupāda: And Veda also, points out, yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante. So your New York going is suspended now?

Mukunda: No, I'm still going.

Prabhupāda: When you are going?

Room Conversation with Reporter from Researchers Magazine -- July 24, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yeah, that's all right, that's all right.

Reporter: (laughs) Yes. And especially today in the society we are all living in, nuclear age where all the power of destruction in the hands of those who are not devotees of Kṛṣṇa is...

Prabhupāda: That is hiṁsā.

Reporter: That is hiṁsā.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Reporter: Yeah. Therefore we are trying to make how you can, I mean...

Prabhupāda: That you have understood. That is my point.

Morning Walk -- December 2, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes. Prāpti-siddhi. Now we are flying by aeroplane. A yogi can fly without any instrument. As Durvāsā Muni, he went even Vaikuṇṭha-loka. Not Vaikuṇṭha-loka. Within this planet, there is one planet where, Śvetadvīpa, Lord Viṣṇu lives. He went there and saw Lord Viṣṇu personally to request him to save him. He refused, "No, I cannot. You go to Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, beg pardon of him. If he pardons, then you will be saved." So to a devotee, innocent devotee, he had to fall down on his lotus feet, "Please save me." So what is the power of yogi?

Devotee: Is the pure devotee more merciful than Kṛṣṇa?

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Because it was not done before, so they want to show it to the people. They want to show the power of science.

Prabhupāda: Power of science means imitating the barking of the dog. That's all. Dog is already barking, but they imitate and they become scientists. That's all. This is their power. How to imitate. That's all.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But they will say, "We are more advanced." So they can imitate.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's all right. But we are not so fools that we shall waste our time for imitation. We have got already real thing. Why shall I go to the imitation.

Morning Walk -- December 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Why one soul has got this body, dog's body, and why one soul has got a human body? Everything is being done by prakṛti, by nature. Now in this human form of body, you get that discrimination, "What should I do?" If you act like cats and dogs in this life, then you are missing the chance. You do not take advantage of the power of discrimination. Bhagavad-gītā says, dehāntaram: "Another body one gets." So another body... And next body I can get this dog's body. But you have... In human form of life you have got the discriminating power not to get the dog's body, but you can get the body of a god. That you can do. Now it is our discrimination, "Whether I am going to get a dog's body or god's body." That you can do. This is human form of body. A dog cannot not do. He has no such discrimination power.

Morning Walk -- December 18, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Therefore this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Just like children. They are animals, just like animals. They have no fixed program. Whatever they like, they are doing. Whatever they like, they are speaking. Simply they are interested in eating. So at the present moment, because they have lost all their power of reasoning and understanding, they are all animals. "All of a sudden there is an explosion." How explosion can take place like that? Any sane human being will ask that "How is that?" Same example: If there is some explosion in the park, a rascal will say, "All of a sudden there is explosion." But the government, police department, immediately inquire, "How this bomb came? Wherefrom? Who placed it?" That is humanity. That is human reasoning. "And all of a sudden there is explosion," you have to accept that. You accept that?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Guest (1): In the absolute sense the soul is always pure, there is no impurity. But when man is in ignorance, as māyā... Śrī Kṛṣṇa's yogamāyā, His power of delusion, He can...., He makes you think, He makes you see impurity. You see suffering in the world.

Prabhupāda: So wherefrom the māyā comes?

Guest (1): From... I don't know, I can't answer that. It's, it's, it's God's nature, it's His līlā.

Guru dāsa: You stated that Kṛṣṇa makes us see impurity. Is this correct Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Morning Walk -- April 4, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: How one can see? Suppose I am seeing this material sky. I cannot see what are there, not even the stars at the present moment, although we know there are millions and trillions of stars. So this is my power of seeing. So how can I see all the universes in the body of..., unless he gets a special power from Kṛṣṇa to see.

Girirāja: (completes synonyms) "Translation: But you cannot see Me with your present eyes. Therefore I give to you divine eyes by which you can behold My mystic opulence."

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He is a rascal. He is not fit to be seen by the great personality. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ (BG 7.25). You cannot see the sun-god. Does it mean there is no sun-god? What is the value of your eyes? It is imperfect. You are seeing the sun just like a disc, but it is fourteen hundred thousands of times bigger than this earth. Can you see it? Then what is the power of your seeing? Whatever you are seeing, that is defective. So don't be proud of seeing. What is your eyes? What is the value of your eyes? You cannot see even the eyelid. Can you see the eyelid? Although it is attached to your eyeball. So what is the power? Why you are so much proud of seeing? First of all, understand that "I am so defective, I cannot see perfectly, properly." And you want to see God with these defective eyes?

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

Prabhupāda: Therefore Vedic instruction is tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). In order to get first-class experience of the perfection of life, you must approach guru. That is the Vedic injunction. Samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham. Now, who is guru? Whom shall I approach? So the next line explains that approach such guru, śrotriyam, who has heard from his guru perfectly, that guru. Who had no chance of hearing from perfect guru, he is not guru. This is called guru-paramparā, disciplic succession. I hear from a perfect person, and I distribute the knowledge the same way, without any change. So Kṛṣṇa gives us knowledge in the Bhagavad-gītā. We are distributing the same knowledge. It is not by our... (aside:) Water is not required. Water I don't want. There is water. So I am always inexperienced because my power of understanding is very little. Therefore I must get experience from a person who is perfect.

Reporters Interview -- June 29, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (3): ...it's like the human finite form merging with the infinite, and then it acquires the powers of infinite...

Prabhupāda: Mixes means... Just like, the example is given: just like a green bird enters into a tree which is also green. So if... To my eyes it appears that the bird is mixed up, but actually that is not fact. Suppose an aeroplane, you see aeroplane is going on. Then, after some time you see there is no aeroplane. It is the same sky. It has mixed up. It has not mixed up. Your eyes are defective. It appears like mixed up. But it cannot mix up. The airplane is keeping its identity. The bird is keeping its identity.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: No, that is not possible, because only the fortunate persons will take.

Devotee (1): I mean, but will the power of the kṣatriyas will be in the hands of the Kṛṣṇa conscious persons sometime during this Kali-yuga?

Prabhupāda: Provided you become very expert to preach. Unless you preach, how they will take? (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Towards the end of the Kali-yuga isn't there a description in the Bhāgavatam that one will not be able to see the sun or the moon?

Prabhupāda: During the end of Kali-yuga?

Evening Discussion -- May 6, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is not important. Because, actually both of them the same, the Supreme. That example we give that candle, two candles, that so far the power of lighting is concerned, both of them equal. Now, you may say this is first candle, I say if it is first candle. But so far the power is concerned, there is no difference of opinion. If I love somebody, I'll say he is first. And if you love somebody, you'll say he is first. But both of them same. Just like devotees, some devotees are very... Hanumanji, he'll never accept Kṛṣṇa. And the gopīs will never accept Rāma or Viṣṇu. So far the Kṛṣṇa and Viṣṇu, they are all the same. What do you think?

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

Jesuit: There's no form of passivity in God, there's no form of change in God, there's no, no limitations of any sort. Matter has limitations. The soul is immortal because it has no principle of corruption in it. Aristotle would say that matter has parts, outside parts, and so it can, it has in itself the power of dissolving and it would break up, corrupts. The soul never does.

Prabhupāda: We have got this material body and spiritual soul. That is in this material condition there is distinction between the spirit and matter. As soon as the spirit goes from this material body, it has no value.

Jesuit: No life, true.

Prabhupāda: It is matter only, lump of matter, combination of matter. Therefore the spirit is important even in this life.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1975, Philadelphia:

Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, modern philosophy is teaching that the forces of greed and lust and these things are greater than man, that actually... This concept that we are eternal, full of knowledge and bliss, they cannot accept that or understand that. They're thinking that the powers of evil are much greater, and we're just controlled by these things.

Prabhupāda: Therefore they are fools. When a man's lusty desire is very strong, he commits, what is called, rape, and he becomes complicated in criminal activities. Kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ. Why one is forced to do that? The cause is lusty desires, anger, greediness. So we are thinking we are master of this material world, but actually you are servant of these desires, kāma, krodha, lobha, mohaḥ. And that is māyā. He is acting as servant, but he's thinking, "I am master." That is māyā, which is not the fact.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 9, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No. If the society chants Hare Kṛṣṇa seriously, then it is all right. Never mind whatever is done. It doesn't matter. Pāpī tāpī jata chilo, hari-nāme uddhārilo. This is the power of hari-saṅkīrtana. If one is absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all benefit is there. So long in the bodily concept of life, we require this varṇāśrama-dharma. Otherwise there is no necessity.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Caitanya Mahāprabhu you have read in the eighth chapter, Madhya-līlā, talk between Rāmānanda Rāya and Caitanya Mahāprabhu? So "Perfectional life how begins?" This question was raised by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and Rāmānanda replied, "It begins with the varṇāśrama-dharma, regulated social life."

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: First of all you try to understand yourself. Then talk of God. If you do not understand yourself, how you'll understand God? That is a big thing. Try to understand the small thing, that you are not this body. Talk on this subject matter, that as.... When you understand that "I, the proprietor of the body, I am different from this body," then you will understand God also, very easily. Because you are the proprietor of this body and you are given the controlling power of the body by thinking, feeling, willing, by acting.... You have got this body. You are sitting here. You can say, "Now I am going away." The body is under your control. You can do that. Similarly, when you understand this fully, then you'll understand that in this huge, gigantic body, material cosmic manifestation, there is a controller, easily.

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

Prabhupāda: And bodily strength. Bodily strength... In India we, in our childhood, I have seen when British rule was there, all the Europeans were coming, very tall and stout and strong. Now such Europeans are not coming. Even bodily strength reduced. Then?

Pradyumna: Smṛtiḥ.

Prabhupāda: And memory. It will reduce. Just see, compare everything, religiosity and the power of mercifulness, pardoning, truthfulness, cleanliness, bodily strength, duration of life—they're all reduced. Now who can say it is not reduced? Can you say? This is called tri-kala-jñā. Tatas, what is that? Cānu-dinaṁ rājan?

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

Prabhupāda: Who is the creator?

Bill Sauer: Well, there is a creative force. The power of life is light, and you say (laughs) Godhead is light, nescience is darkness. I believe it, it's trite and very true, in my understanding.

Vipina: He thinks everything comes from light, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Bill Sauer: Now all the religions refer to God as light. Most of the religions, and science agrees. Light is that very fugitive bit of energy that allows life to be possible.

Prabhupāda: Unless there is fire, wherefrom the light comes?

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

Prabhupāda: ...from the petr..., of the motor car. The motor car without petrol cannot work. Similarly, the driver without food cannot work. But the food of the driver and the power of the motor car different.

Bali-mardana: The needs of the body and soul are different.

Prabhupāda: So we are supplying the needs of the soul, and they are supplying the needs of the motor car. Therefore they find difference. They are thinking, "They are not supplying petrol to this man for eating." That is the difference. They are crying, "Oh, they are not giving petrol for eating to the driver."

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: If you deposit five lakhs now, it will decrease value in five, ten months. The purchasing power of money is decreasing. Now what you can purchase with five lakhs of rupees, after five years you'll require ten lakhs. So your money will decrease. And if you invest that money in land, after five years it will increase to its full extent (?). So why should we waste our money? What is the benefit?

Gargamuni: The farmers don't keep their money in the banks. The government is trying to force the farmers to keep their money in the bank. The farmers don't want to do it.

Letter to Sai Baba -- September 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna: Putaparti is in Andhra. "His contemporary avatāra rests in the trinity of Sirti Baba, Sai Baba, and Prem Baba to come. So Satya Sai Baba, the second of the triple incarnation, asserted in the course of a marathon interview to add, 'In my present avatāra, I have come armed with the fullness of the power of the formless God to save humanity.' "

Prabhupāda: So, to whom we shall address this letter?

Pradyumna: Well, it depends where we want to send it for publishing. To this or to another magazine.

Prabhupāda: He says that "I'm avatāra." So therefore it should be addressed to him. He says. So address to Satya Sai Baba. Where is he, at Bombay?

Letter to Sai Baba -- September 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, no. What he has written.

Pradyumna: "In my present avatāra I have come armed with the fullness of the power of the formless God to save humanity."

Prabhupāda: So you have claimed to... What is that? Again read it.

Pradyumna: "I have come armed with the fullness of the power of the formless God to save humanity."

Prabhupāda: So you have claimed to take a form of the formless God. But we see in the Bhagavad-gītā that God is never formless. Find out this verse, avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ manyante mām abuddhayaḥ.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Mr. Malhotra: Viṣṇu can give the power of bhakti also.

Prabhupāda: Everything. Yes, bhakti is, generally He gives bhakti. If you want something other than bhakti, you can get it.

Mr. Malhotra: This is the center of M.R.A., Moral rearmament. I phoned them for yesterday, so that Rajmohan Gandhi is away, not here. But the other people are here. We will visit this some time during the day. These days one conference is going on. There are 130 countries. Some conference.

Devotee: There?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Rāmeśvara: "There are two legal cases in progress at this time that we must support—one in New York and one in Los Angeles. In New York the two ISKCON leaders have been indicted by the Queens County Grand Jury for unlawful imprisonment and attempted grand larceny. In Los Angeles, ISKCON and Madonna Slavin have accused her family of kidnapping, and charges of unlawful imprisonment have been entered against the mother and several other members of the Slavin family and two friends." These two friends are the professional deprogrammers. Then it says, "As in nearly all of these cases, the media will greatly influence the outcome. Do not underestimate the power of the media. We therefore must tell our story..."

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa's already become media.

Conversation and Instruction On New Movie -- January 13, 1977, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. "Why it is happening? Why we have given everything. Our father, mother, our home, our comforts, our ideas, stereotyped, our religion, culture—everything we have given up. So don't you see the power of chanting? You may think it is bad, but see the power. Similarly, these diseased person, if they chant, it has got power to bring him in the normal condition. The power is there. It is already proved. You say it is brainwash, but the power is there. Reaction is there. That's a fact. You are admitting. So now, whether this reaction is good or bad, that you cannot judge because you are bad. But impersonally, if you judge, you see how the power is, that we were drunkards, we were woman-hunter, we were meat-eaters—we have given up.

Evening Conversation -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: ...perception. That is experience. Why do you give on seeing only? By seeing one mango you cannot understand what quality it is, but you have to touch with your tongue. Therefore in chemical laboratory the characteristics are there: "This is the color. This is the taste. This is the reaction." So you have to gather experience like that, not by simply seeing. That... I gave the example. Now you take one egg. What is there? Some white and some yellow substance. So you make one egg with white and yellow and bring life. So what is the power of your seeing? A small egg. Take a small egg. The covering, some celluloid, within, some white substance, some yellow substance. Or make further analysis and give some chemicals of the same taste, same color, same characteristic—now bring life. But the same thing. You put under the feather of the chicken.

Morning Walk -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: But if you follow... Then leader is a wrong person. You cannot follow. You must follow the right leader.

Hari-śauri: One cannot say that he does not believe in the power of the state.

Prabhupāda: Then that is not leadership. That is misleader. These are very intelligent questions, nice. King means he has to see that the citizens are doing nicely, and that is king's duty.

Bhāgavata: The king is like a father.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is stated. Lord Rāmacandra treated His subjects as sons and they also treated Lord Rāmacandra as father. That is the relationship between the citizens and the king-father and son.

Morning Walk -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not by enviousness. Chastisement means correction. He's in the wrong way; he is corrected to the right way. So gradually you have to take the power of the king to correct the whole human society. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). That is Kṛṣṇa's business, to give protection to the right person and to chastise the wrong person, two things required, side by side. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām. And dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya. Three, another. By chastising the wrongdoer and by giving protection to the right man, and then establish what is real religion. And then Kṛṣṇa's mission, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is perfect. Three things: paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām, dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya yuge yuge sambhavāmi. This is Kṛṣṇa's business. (break) ...Bhagavad-gītā, everything will be nice, everything.

Conversation on Roof -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Formerly they used to stock huge stock in Calcutta. Burma Sale. And new tin, if you exchange the container, then six annas less. Not very costly. Of course, in those days it was costly, taking consideration of the purchasing power of money. Four rupees, I remember, a few annas. My father did not like to purchase anything retail. For his daily necessity he'll purchase, he would purchase potato, one bag. So one bag means, maybe, one rupee, eight annas. (laughs) One anna per seer, kilo, I have purchased. Rice, fifteen mounds he will purchase. And what is the price? Three rupees, four annas. First-class rice. Coal, this coal, coke. Five annas per mound, purchase one cart load, fifteen mounds. The other day I was calculating. My father's income was, utmost, three hundred rupees per month in those days.

Evening Darsana -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Former paisa, when sixty-four paisa was one rupee. Now hundred equal to one. The purchasing power of money was big. Now thirty percent has gone up, but people's income has not gone up so much. Thirty percent, thirty times. Formerly gold was priced twenty rupees per tolā. Now it is six hundred rupees. So thirty times. But people have not increased their income thirty times. My father was earning two hundred fifty to three hundred per month. So we were middle class. So now thirty times of three hundred means nine thousand. So which middle-class man has increased so much? Middle class man now, if he's earning one thousand rupees he's considered very well-to-do.

Room Conversation -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. And when the brāhmaṇas did not approve, they had the power of brahma-tejaḥ. Just like with Veṇa. Even in our own society, if someone is not doing nicely, then the others may, they come together and they say, "This person is not keeping standard." It is not that because I have power or something, one can maintain his position.

Prabhupāda: Whole thing is spoiled, vitiated. And ultimately this human form of life, it is a chance given by nature. Tathā dehāntara, you become a dog, next. Finished. And you wait millions of years again to come, take the human form. What can I do? These are nature's law. And they are also prepared. "Oh, what is the wrong there, if I become dog?" This civilization. Just imagine how much spoiled it is.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (reading) "Handicapped though, these foursome make a cheerful group as they paddle along on three wheelers every day from their homes in the King George Memorial Infirmary on Jagtap Marga, Maha-Lakshmi." Some invalids. "Mr. Jaya Prakash Narayan in a statement on Sunday came out strongly against the attempts of some people to lobby through him for personal favors and advancements from the Janata party government center." He doesn't like it. Everyone is going to him now. (pause) "The aim and object of the 42nd constitutional amendment was stated to be to establish the supremacy of the legislature, but in fact it was designed to establish the absolute authority of the executive as personified by the Prime Minister, according to Mr. C. K. Dapteri, former attorney general of India. Mr. Dapteri said, 'Everyone knows that misuse to which the power of preventative detention has been put in the last eighteen months. It is not necessary to recall or relay instances. But the power itself is so easily capable of being put to wrong use that it is unsafe to leave it in the hands of the executive government.' "

Prabhupāda: This will be amended now.

Room Conversation -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Bhakti-caru: Charan Singh (Hindi) "Ninety murders in one district. 'There was a constitutional breakdown in the states,' he said. The chief minister of Maratha states had admitted to him that his government's reach was no longer running the way it had done earlier. He was receiving many complaints from the U.P., Rajasthan, and Haryana. Fifty murders have been committed in one district in Bihar in one week. Mr. Charan Singh's statement, which was preceded by the (indistinct) meeting earlier in the morning, led to a spate of questions. He was asked whether he was going counter to the spirit of the federal structure which permitted different ruling parties and centers and states, whether the ruling party M.P. would be asked to resign if a state..., if the states they came from turned down his party government and whether the central government would not invoke the power of an article which stated by the Constitution despite capitalism in the Janata party election manifesto."

Prabhupāda: So what is this yoga? (laughs) Sanjay Gandhi's yoga, just see. A rogue, devil, he is practicing yoga. His mother was practicing also yoga, the same.

Morning Talk -- April 25, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is... He has done. Like this Nanda has done this. And he's sticking to his whimsical policy. I wanted to mix with him, and I thought that he'll be useful. Useless. Mānava-dharma "man's religion" I asked him several times that "Is there any dog's religion? You have manufactured that." Religion means man's religion. That much he can do. Mānava-dharma. He is educated, intelligent, buddhi—with no brain. I have studied. And he's a good man also, but no intelligence. I have studied all these rascals. So long they are in office, by the power of office they are useful. Otherwise they are useless. Just like my books they are appreciating. They have never seen me. Not that because I am guru of some temple... They appreciate my work. That is real appreciation. "What you have done? What remains behind? All for the...(?)" Anyway, do something. Do. People are... (break)

Room Conversation about Grhasthas -- July 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, if he marries, why he should not take responsibility of maintaining? Why he should marry if he has no power of maintaining?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What does that mean, "power of maintaining," Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: He must maintain his wife, children nicely. Otherwise why he should marry?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He shouldn't expect the temple to maintain him.

Prabhupāda: That is not possible.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Of course, he might be thinking, "Well, I'm a pūjārī, so the temple should pay me money to maintain my family."

Page Title:Power of... (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:12 of Dec, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=41, Let=0
No. of Quotes:41