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Recent (Conversations 1968 - 1975)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- February 1, 1968, Los Angeles:

Interviewer: Were there any followers before you came to this country?

Prabhupāda: No. In this country, of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, there was none. It is the first time. I have introduced. But in India it is very, very old, since the advent of Kṛṣṇa, and at least since last five thousand years. So Kṛṣṇa is very popular in India. In every home, Kṛṣṇa is worshiped, and there are many millions of temples of Kṛṣṇa in India and followers also. Followers means almost all Hindus are followers of Kṛṣṇa. They read this Bhagavad-gītā. So I have recently published Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. It is published by Macmillan Company, and this book is very nicely being received. It is being reviewed by several papers. I have got many others books. They are being gradually introduced. Perhaps you have seen in our counter. We have got books, magazines, calendar, and other literatures. So it is a very scientific movement. It is not a sentiment, bogus hoax. Anyone who wants to understand this movement philosophically, scientifically, they will be very much satisfied with this. The idea is that any religious movement without philosophical basis, it is simply sentiment or fanaticism. And philosophy without idea of God is simply mental speculation. Therefore religious principles combined with philosophy, that is perfect. So the younger section become attracted to this movement because we are giving some religious principle based on philosophy.

Interview -- February 1, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: They are doing nicely. They are making progress. They are understanding the philosophy. They are working for it. Now I am the only man who came from India, and still, I am one. I have no... There are many Indians, but I have no Indian follower here. Of course, in India we have got. That's a different thing. But these, all these American boys, they are cooperating with me. That means they are taking this movement very seriously. We have got two great papers, magazines, already, Back to Godhead. One is published from New York, and the other is published from Montreal. (break) In French language. Montreal it is published in French language, and they are well received. Recently I have received one letter from my disciple, Janardana. He is Janus Dambergs, M.A., he is the editor of that paper. He is a very good scholar in French language.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Reporter: ...about the movement, and it occurred to me...I was wondering if there were any religious people in this country that had any misgivings or thoughts about the trip around the moon. And whether there were any objections or opinions that would run contrary to the usual thought about traveling to the moon, and he said that in some of your recent lectures you had said that man would not be able to land on the moon because of, now these are his words, because of spiritual beings there or that there would be an impossibility or something along that line. I was wondering if you could elaborate on that or explain what you meant.

Prabhupāda: You are particularly interested with that subject matter?

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just try to understand, the inhabitants of India were called by the Muhammadans from Persia and other places, "Hindus." "Hindus" means the resident on the other side of the River Indus. You have heard the name of River Indus. So they cannot pronounce it Indus, they say "Hindus." From "Hindus," it has become "Hindu." So actually the residents of India were called "Hindus." And generally, at least in, say, three thousand years ago, all the inhabitants of India were strictly followers of Vedic principles. After the advent of Lord Buddha, a different religious system developed. Otherwise, before Lord Buddha, there was all the... Not only in India, in other parts of the world. They were followers of Vedic principles. So in that sense, you can say if followers of Vedic principles are called Hindus, then before Lord Buddha, everyone was Hindu all over the world. Not that particular part of India. So far we have got historical reference from Mahābhārata, Indo-European stock, they are also Hindus, the so-called Hindus, followers of Vedic principles. Yes. Gradually, they deviated. Just like recently there is division of Pakistan and India. Twenty years before, this Pakistan was part of India. Now, these Muhammadans, they did not come from outside.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Reporter: Considering that the people, say, the space program in the United States, was able to achieve its goals for this current flight they just finished and do what they wanted to do...

Prabhupāda: No, can you inform me... Recently you told me that they're within sixty miles from the moon planet? Is that a fact?

Reporter: I'm afraid I don't know. I don't know what the mileage was.

Hayagrīva: They circled it. They circled the moon at sixty miles.

Prabhupāda: So if they're, I mean to say, circumambulating within sixty miles, how they could not land? They could not go further sixty miles?

Reporter: Well, they didn't want to land at this time.

Prabhupāda: Why this?

Press Interview -- December 30, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Method is also same, but they are not teaching people to follow the method. I am teaching them practically how to follow and how to do it.

Journalist: Let me ask you something that we've run into a great deal just recently. We've just started a youth supplement for kids. And one of the most... What should I say? That particular thing which provides perhaps the biggest schism between man's, or at least American man's and woman's love of God or the following of the Ten Commandments, is the problem, how shall I put it, well, the sexual problem. We here in this country are taught, and we have the Puritan background, that sex is a bad thing. And hopefully we're coming out of it, but when young people, a person reaches the age of puberty... Here in this country, I don't know from other countries. He begins to have a terrible, obviously a terrible problem.

Press Interview -- December 30, 1968, Los Angeles:

Journalist: Well, I couldn't agree with you more. I'm sure you know and I'm certainly aware that it's only recently that, for example, a Catholic couldn't even come in here because of some other church. That's changed.

Prabhupāda: Now I have written one letter to Pope. You have seen that? Where is that paper?

Hayagrīva: It's in here.

Journalist: Oh, a letter to the Pope. Did he answer it?

Prabhupāda: No, I have not received any answer. Is it in this paper? No, not in this paper. Where is the latest? Who is there? Ask to bring one latest. Bring one latest, yes. So we just that letter, but unfortunately, I have received no reply. How is that?

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Pradyumna: Sadānandinī.

Prabhupāda: A very nice girl. Yes. Always chanting and dancing and always jolly. (chuckling) Very nice girl. You know her? No. She has recently joined. She is good devotee, good worker, very nice. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so nice. Anyone who comes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness immediately becomes beautiful in every respect. (Break)

Haṁsadūta: Puruṣottama.

Prabhupāda: How many rose trees Jayānanda has...

Puruṣottama: 108.

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: That we shall arrange, somebody to go. Yes.

Haṁsadūta: Maybe you remember Mr. Sini(?) in Montreal?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Haṁsadūta: Well, he approached me just recently. He wants to open a store, Indian store and goods, and he wants the boys in the temple to work there. He wants to make some arrangement so the temple will get some money.

Prabhupāda: He is very cunning man.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, I know. I don't trust him at all.

Prabhupāda: He wants to utilize our men.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: (aside:) (Bengali)

Allen Ginsberg: Namaste. (to Indian lady)

Prabhupāda: She is a Bengali lady recently come from London.

Allen Ginsberg: Ahh!

Prabhupāda: Lekha. (Bengali)

Indian Lady: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Allen Ginsberg: So, as the Kali-yuga became more intense and as attachment became deeper and more confusing...

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. But I know that you are not ordinary man.

Allen Ginsberg: Well... I've only recently stopped smoking, by the way, finally. With that car crash, I quit smoking. But I haven't stopped eating meat. So what is the intelligence of meat?

Prabhupāda: You remain with us at least for three months and you'll forget your... You remain with us for three months. (laughter) With your associates, you just come to Vṛndāvana. We shall live together.

Allen Ginsberg: You have a farm now?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

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

Prabhupāda: We have divided this planet in so many states. Actually this planet was not divided. From the history of Mahābhārata we understand. This planet, there was only one king, one emperor, in India, Hastinapur. Even up to five thousand years ago, there was only one king, Mahārāja Parīkṣit, one flag. And he came out for touring over his kingdom, and he found somebody near Sindh, a black man killing a cow. And he immediately arrested him: "Oh, in my kingdom you are killing cow?" So actually the whole planet was under one flag, one suzerainty. Gradually it has become small, small, small, small, small. Just like in our, very recently, twenty years ago, India became divided, Pakistan and Hindustan. Actually India was one, but we see now it is Pakistan. And some day another "stan" will be divided. So this is going on. So sarva-loka, in all planets, all the planets, actually that is God's place. Nobody's place. We come here empty-handed; we go empty-handed.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: So that means they are lacking. It may be as you say, or it may be as I say, but there must be a department of knowledge, what is the... Now, recently one cardiologist, a doctor, he has accepted that there is soul, in Montreal and Toronto. I had some correspondence with him. So he is strongly in belief that there is soul. So that is another point of view, but we accept knowledge from authority. Authority. Just like this statement is given by Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is accepted as the authority by all the ācāryas, in Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is studied amongst the scholarly circle and philosophical circle still, all over the world. And this statement is given by Kṛṣṇa:

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. But we had our saṅkīrtana festival for ten days, and people participated very wonderfully. We... Our gathering was not less than thirty thousand people daily, and they are so much interested in hearing about our... Lecture things, we are lecturing from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā. We are... Our preaching method is on the basis of Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So people are responding from every part of the world, especially the American boys. They are especially interested. And England also, and Germany, and France. From here I shall go to Paris. There we have got center. What is the name of that place? Paris? Recently they have taken.

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

Śyāmasundara: Eh?

Prabhupāda: Recently they have changed the...?

Śyāmasundara: Oh. In some suburb, Fontenay Rose, Fontenay aux Rose.

Prof. Kotovsky: Ah, near Paris?

Prabhupāda: Yes

Prof. Kotovsky: In Fontaine Bleau?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. They have taken a whole house, nice house. So our process is very simple. We ask our students to refrain from four prohibitive principles: no illi...

Television Interview -- July 29, 1971, Gainesville:

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Recently I was in India. I held two meetings continued for ten days everywhere, and 20 to 30 thousand people were attending daily. So India's position is that they are naturally Kṛṣṇa conscious, but at the present moment by the so-called leaders, they want to replace this Kṛṣṇa consciousness into material consciousness.

Interviewer: Is the Kṛṣṇa consciousness belief or philosophy compatible with the Hindu religion which...

Prabhupāda: With any religion.

Interview -- July 29, 1971, Gainesville:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Recently, I was in India. I held two meetings, I mean continued for ten days, everywhere, and twenty to thirty thousand people were attending daily. The India's position is that they're naturally Kṛṣṇa conscious, but, at the present moment, by the so-called leader, they want to replace this Kṛṣṇa consciousness into material consciousness.

Interviewer: Is the Kṛṣṇa consciousness belief or philosophy compatible with the Hindu religion, which is...

Prabhupāda: Any religion.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: He could not finish any one?

Haṁsadūta: No, not even the magazine was finished. The magazine before this recent one, I put it together myself from old magazines.

Prabhupāda: There are so many German students. They cannot do?

Haṁsadūta: They can do, but the thing is that you have said that he is the chief and unless it goes through him, it can't be printed.

Prabhupāda: No. No, no. No, no. No, no.

Haṁsadūta: Everything is bottle-necked around him.

Prabhupāda: Now, the important subject, he may do slowly, but...

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

Mālatī: But the point is, we are..., he is taking from this country the greatest thing and giving. It is not like he is exploiting in some materialistic effort. Rather he is giving the greatest thing from this country.

Prabhupāda: Recently one paper has remarked that "such an important man is going unnoticed." They remarked like that.

Dr. Singh: Here?

Prabhupāda: No. Where it is?

Mālatī: Boston.

Prabhupāda: Boston. Also in Buffalo.

Mālatī: Buffalo, yes.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1971, Delhi:

Śyāmasundara: The knowledge that we have of Jesus was not direct, but it was written down up to a 100 or 200 years later in another language called Aramaic, and scholars recently have discovered that wherever Jesus refers to fish, distributing fish, that that word actually refers to a type of sea plant that grows in the Sea of Galilee which they make a type of bread out of. And it's not really fish but a type of vegetarian bread. This is what I read in an article. So, we don't have... (laughter)

Devotee (7) (lady): Śrīla Prabhupāda, there was a fish on Laksmi's hand yesterday. The Deity in the temple, where Laksmi had her hand up like this, there was a fish here across her hand. What is this?

Prabhupāda: That is a mark, mark.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation Including Discussion on SB 4.13.48 to SB 4.14.11 -- January 18, 1972, Jaipur:

Prabhupāda: We see practically in political field, the people are interested for capturing the power, but they are not interested... Formality. So they put their manifesto before the election, that we shall serve you in this way and that way. But because they are simply busy to keep their position in the political power...

Just like recently there was fight between two political parties, and represented by two big men, Viśvanātha Dās and Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahatattva. Both of them learned men, lawyers, but they are fighting like cats and dogs. So formerly therefore, there was no such thing as democracy. A king, there must be one king responsible. But he was guided by the ministers and learned brāhmaṇas, sages. There was a body to guide him, to train him. Therefore, the monarchical government was perfect. Now here is a story of Vena Maharaja. His father was very (indistinct) it is usual, very nice king. But his son, this Vena, born of a bad mother, he was not good.

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Bob: Can you tell me some more about chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa? I have for quite some time chanted, but never regularly, just a little bit here and there. I just got beads very recently. And once in a while I feel comfortable chanting, and once in a while not comfortable at all. And maybe I don't chant properly. I don't know.

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything has got process. You have to adopt the process.

Bob: The devotees tell me of the ecstasy they feel when chanting.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is when... More you become purified, you feel ecstasy. But this chanting process is purifying process.

Śyāmasundara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, this afternoon we were discussing about austerities.

Room Conversation -- March 12, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Bengali?

Dr. Kapoor: Hindi.

Prabhupāda: Hindi.

Dr. Kapoor: Hindi. One more manuscript. And, of course, there was some jewelry also because my son has been recently married, you see, and there was some jewelry also. That was not so material as this manuscript.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Kapoor: So I went to the station master, he failed to do anything. Then I ran back to the train. (break) (end)

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: This is the only way.

Ātreya Ṛṣi(?): This is the only way, but they are not willing to listen. Recently I was in Washington talking to the officials. Our company is making a project for the government, $7,000,000 to investigate what is the best way. And every way it costs thousands of dollars for each person, and it's not even guaranteed. And they take them out of heroin and they are putting them on methadone or some other chemical drug, and that's their method. They are spending thousands and thousands of dollars and the person goes back to addiction after several years. No success. Our program costs nothing, and the politicians don't want to listen.

Prabhupāda: No. Their policy is that they want to keep the people in that way-rascals and fools—then they'll vote and they'll enjoy the political power. That is their policy. Actually they do not want to see their countrymen elevated good character. They don't want to see. If the people become... Just like the British government in their time, they wanted to give education. Their education means A-B-C-D, half-mediocre, so that the government may be run on.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Devotee: In Bombay.

Prabhupāda: Recently.

Devotee: This is the first one.

Sumati Morarjee: Oh, because I have not seen it.

Devotee: This is the first issue.

Prabhupāda: This is the first issue. They have sent one copy. Yes.

Sumati Morarjee: So, Swamiji, can I take this?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes, you can take.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Yamunā: Prabhu, I looked for it, I couldn't find it.

Gurudāsa: Recently? I'll look again.

Prabhupāda: So we shall now go?

Gurudāsa: Yes, we can go now.

Prabhupāda: What's the time now? Six?

Gurudāsa: (indistinct) upstairs. Shall I get it?

Prabhupāda: No.

Gurudāsa: I should put it on. You're always asking me the time.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He has already made one record about our Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.

Gurudāsa: Really?

Prabhupāda: Yes, recent.

Gurudāsa: With talking on it, vocal?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Gurudāsa: With some talking on it.

Prabhupāda: That I do not know. Śyāmasundara is coming tomorrow. Where is that telegram?

Devotee (3): It's just here.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I don't think there is any vegetarian, because in the store you will get only meat. There is no vegetable, no fruit. Śyāmasundara had to spend two hours for collecting food. There is no rice, (indistinct), nothing. For vegetarians it is very, very difficult to live in Moscow.

Devotee (2): Just recently the Russians went to the United States and bought huge quantities of grains for Russia.

Prabhupāda: There are no grains.

Devotee (2): They bought some wheat.

Prabhupāda: It is a barren land, icy land, that's all. Huge land icy.

Devotee (3): They are being punished.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Ravan?

Pañca-draviḍa: Rava or something, a particular notation on the calendar, it corresponds to March or April, r—a something. I don't know the exact period of time, but by March, the government says they will completely..., they want to completely take over the control of wheat by this time. They have already taken over the control of atta and flour and now suji. They want to take over the control of wheat and the control of sugar completely. So all these things we are seeing is what they are doing, they are taking over control, they are rationing the items, but in the ration shop you can get 800 grams of the product and then you have to go out onto the market and buy at outrageous prices, because nobody can feed a family on 800 grams of sugar a month. It's very little for five people. The price of sugar has gone up over a rupee and a half since the government took over.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 28, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Three?

Devotee (1): Translations. Three editions by different authors in Indonesian language. The most recent, I will try to contact the author today, the man who translated it, I'll try to find him.

Prabhupāda: But unless one is realized soul how he can...

Devotee (1): No. It is impersonal interpretations.

Devotee (2): So we must encourage them to translate Prabhupāda's Bhagavad-gītā, because they're inclined. They like... They want subject matters. So why not translate Prabhupāda's books and let the government distribute them and introduce them.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Mostly they accept and there are some who are also very critical, what they're, what he's saying is really (indistinct) But those are very few. Mostly, most books are supporting.

Karandhara: Recently, there was an issue that some people wanted that the theory that God created the earth and the species to be taught in schools along with Darwin's theory.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Karandhara: But the, it was defeated because the scientists said: "If we make such a statement in our schools, everyone will take us as fools."

Prabhupāda: What is that? I could not follow. Eh?

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Recently I went to a lecture called "The origin of life." It was given by a well-known biochemist whose name is Professor Stanley Miller. He was talking about the origin of life.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So what is origin of life?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He said that there are twenty amino acids, twenty of them which are necessary for the maintenance of life, the living entities. So he was discussing how these amino acids are formed before the dawn of creation, and he had so many theories, all nonsense.

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Prabhupāda: George Harrison. So he's becoming, he's very intelligent, so he's becoming interested. Now recently he has given us a house in London which is fifty-five lakhs.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: Which is worth two hundred thousand pounds. Two hundred thousand pounds ordinarily, it is forty lakhs. And in the market value, because pound is selling in India thirty, twenty-eight, at least twenty-five, in that way...(break)

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Prabhupāda: ...Bhaktivedanta Book Fund account (Bengali). "Five thousand dollars. You take advance. Deposit. And take my orders." So I gave him order, "Books worth fifty-two thousands of dollars, advancing five thousand dollars." And they gradually supplied to India. And from U.S.A. we gradually, little by little, we paid. So that became the asset, of books. And I advised them that "You go and present these books to respectable gentlemen to become a member, and they'll become." And actually that plan became successful. Now the same members, they have not only paid eleven hundred. Now some of them, they're paying eleven thousand. Recently one gentleman belonging to the Birla family... Eh?

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Prabhupāda: Motor, motor, there is jerking.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...helicopter.

Prabhupāda: Now, now we, this, recently, before coming here, one of my students, Śyāmasundara, he took me from the airport on helicopter to my temple, and he spent one thousand pounds for that rascal thing. Unnecessarily. "Why you have spent unnecessarily?" No.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What this mundane man?

Indian: (Bengali) (end)

Room Conversation -- July 9, 1973, London:

Revatīnandana: His argument was "Well there's no point in talking about this matter. All of us accept this." He's saying: all big authorities, they accept this point of view, that this was recently written literature.

Prabhupāda: No, they don't know who are authorities.

Revatīnandana: That's right.

Prabhupāda: You manufacture your own authorities. You do not know. That is your misfortune. You do not know who is authority.

Devotee (2): They all smoke cigarettes and they think they're authorities. They're nonsense.

Room Conversation With David Wynne -- July 9, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: ...recently I've heard that the people in the airport protested against Indira Gandhi, that "Give us rain." Yes. That is Vedic civilization ideal. Why there is rain then no rain? The king should be responsible. One brāhmaṇa lost his son. He immediately went to the king and asked him that "The son has died before the death of the father; why this irregularity? You are responsible." You see? The ideal is that the king is representative of God, because we are all sons of God. We have come here in this material world for our proper guidance. The king is responsible, the spiritual master is responsible, the father is responsible, the elderly persons are responsible. Because you told me that we have to work for other. That other is Kṛṣṇa. If we utilize our intelligence for serving Kṛṣṇa under the guidance of the king or the spiritual master or the father, then the society is perfect. That is ideal civilization. What is your opinion about this? How do you think this ideal...

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

David Lawrence: It was interesting to see a recent television program in this country...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

David Lawrence: ...on farming, and it was talking about the so-called modern methods of farming which have destroyed the earth in this country, really, in great areas. And it showed an Englishman and his son who believe in the old methods with cows on the land. And he is not only doing better economically, but he was so happy, the two men were so happy.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Dr. Arnold Toynbee, Famous Historian, at his home or office -- July 22, 1973, London:

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: Suppose if somebody gives me... This is a fact. Recently one astrologer has said that one of the biggest politicians in India, he has now become a dog in Sweden. May be correct or not, but there is possibility. There is possibility.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: Because from the śāstra we understand, karmāṇa, by work, one has to... Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). By prakṛti, by nature, as we make... Just like if we eat little more, so by the laws of nature, immediately there is indigestion.

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

Jesuit Priest: I think most of us do, too.

Prabhupāda: Now, in each of our centers we have got minimum fifty heads, maximum two hundred, 250. In Los Angeles, you see... Just we have got recent photograph. Bring the photograph from my room. You can bring. So we are giving them place, we are giving them food, we are giving them education.

Jesuit Priest: Yes.

Prabhupāda: In this way. So we invite anyone, everyone, without any distinction, without any discrimination. He may be Christian, he may be Hindu, he may be Mohammedan. "Come on. Live with us, and learn how to love." That is our mission.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. So that is our mission. Now, if you find it difficulty, you can come and join with us. That's all. Practically, in Europe and America, they are all coming from Christian group, Jewish group. So... Yes. This is a recent photograph of our Los Angeles center. They are regularly living in the temple, as they are living in the temple.

Mother: Hm.

Prabhupāda: And you'll also be surprised to know that this, this was a church, that building. It was a big church. So we have purchased it.

Jesuit Priest: Very nice.

Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: American, they cheated the Red Indians. They got the land. Now they are claiming, "It is my land." But where you got this land? You have cheated the Red Indians, and you claim now it is your land. "Nobody should come here." Everywhere that is there it belongs to... Napoleon, he thought, "France is mine." France is there. Where he has gone, the proprietor? Yes. And with this idea he fought so much. Now nobody knows what he has become, where he is living, either in France or in hell, maybe in heaven. But there are so many places and so many forms of life. And our Bhagavad-gītā says, tathā dehāntaraṁ prāptiḥ. Just like I am now in this body. Child is in this body. So all of us sometimes were in this body, childish. So where is that body? That body is not existing. But I am existing; you are existing. You know that you had such a body. You were also playing like this child. I also remember. So the body is not existing. I am existing. So I have got a different body now. So where is the difficulty to under-stand that when this body is also finished I get another body? Where is the difficulty? And Bhagavad-gītā says, tathā dehāntaraṁ prāptiḥ. As we are changing from one body to another, another, another, even within our experience, similarly, as soon as this body is finished, I get another body. Now I am working in this body as national, as Napoleon, as Gandhi, as you according to our own whims and ideas, and fighting in the UNESCO, everything, just like recently Pakistan representative, India... But as soon as the body is finished, just like Gandhi finished, Jinnah finished, now what kind of body he has got now? May not be Indian or Pakistani.

Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Just see. And therefore I say, "Cheater and cheated." Yes. Similarly, scientists also. Recently in Los Angeles, California University, one professor, a big scientist came. He's a Nobel Prize owner. He described, gave lecture. He has written one book, on which he has got Nobel Prize, Evolution of Chemicals. He wants to prove by chemical, combination of chemical, life has come into existence. That is his theory, like Darwin's theory, that life is from matter or chemical. So after hearing the lecture, there is a professor also, a student, yes. He is also Doctor of Chemistry. He is my disciple. He inquired that "If I give you all these chemicals, whether you can produce life?" At that time he said, "That I cannot say." Just see. He is proposing that "From these chemicals, life has begun," and when he is questioned whether by supplying these chemicals he can produce a life, he said, "That I cannot say." This is going on.

Room Conversation with British Man -- August 31, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (1): I have been seeking all my life, and I expect when I was about twenty-two I became a convert from Judaism to the Christian Church. And of recent years, as a result of a very serious illness, a heart attack, I began to get other experiences which took me right away from all this knowledge, but no wisdom. I gathered a lot of knowledge, to the extent that I was, well, I was getting nowhere. I knew all about God, but didn't know what He, who He was. I knew all about Him though. Then I was led to understand a lot of other things which did not come by reading. I couldn't tell you. They just came. Thoughts, from wherever they were, they came. So I am now currently at the stage where I acknowledge that the certainty of this world isn't worth knowing about.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not allow. I made correspondence with the government. The last reply was that "You can raise fund locally, but you cannot take money from here." Now who will pay...? Of course, these boys are paying me. We are getting... Now recently, one boy, you know his name, George Harrison. He's a very famous singer.

Ambassador: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So he has purchased for me one house, fifty-five lakhs worth. But what, no Indian could help me. At two hundred and twenty thousand pounds. So it is equivalent to fifty-five lakhs.

Room Conversation with Dr. Christian Hauser, Psychiatrist -- September 10, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: But that is going on. Recently it happened in Los Angeles, one big professor came to lecture there, and he has got Nobel Prize. I forgot his name. He has written one book, Chemical Evolution. So he was speaking on that Chemical Evolution, and his theory is life begins from four chemicals. So he gave lectures. After that, there is one student. He's also Doctor in Chemistry. He's my disciple. So he asked that professor that: "If I give you the chemicals, will you be able to produce life?" He replied: "That I cannot say." He says that life begins from these four chemicals. And he lectured hours. And when he was asked: "Suppose I give you these four chemicals, will you be able to produce life?" He answered, "That I cannot say." Just see. Is it not cheating? He's, he's saying that life is produced from these chemicals.

Room Conversation with Dr. Christian Hauser, Psychiatrist -- September 10, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: No human beings exists eternal. He's existing. But he accepting, he's accepting different situation.

Paramahaṁsa: There's proof of this in that recently there was a discovery in South America. I think it was in Kenya. Where they discovered a skeletal remains that were over hundreds of thousands of years old that was pre, what is it? Mag... What is it?

Haṁsadūta: Cro-magnon.

Paramahaṁsa: Cro-magnon, and it was the same human body as now, as we have now. They have discovered. And with this discovery, they say, completely all of Darwin's theories have been destroyed. This is a fact. Immediately see. He overlooked. He says: "I do not see any proof that human beings lived, millions of years ago. Therefore I think apes were existing." But what proof does he have? And how they have discovered bones and they have proven by tests that Cro-magnon era there was the same human body. It's a fact. And completely his, all his theories have been destroyed. Because he again, he was working with his illusory senses.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. People go to see. You'll, you'll drive your car. You'll find lions, elephants, or...

Śrutakīrti: Recently one of Brahmānanda's men had an accident by hitting some animal on the road. Large animal, I think it was.

Prabhupāda: Oh, what accident?

Śrutakīrti: One of the vans. One of the devotees ran into an animal on the road.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Śrutakīrti: I'm not sure what it was.

Prabhupāda: No, the national garden means there is arrangement. The animals are free, roaming. But you can go with your car and...

Morning Walk -- December 20, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's nice. We say also.

Karandhara: Except Paul Tillich was the ultimate rascal. He was a debaucher. He debauched women all over Europe.

Hṛdayānanda: He recently died.

Karandhara: There is a book about him, a very inflammatory book about how he would debauch all of his friends. He said he got all of his inspirations after having sex with other women. He said after having sex he would get his inspirations on theology.

Prabhupāda: Sometimes the drunkards say also like that. They get inspiration by drinking.

Morning Walk -- December 21, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Oh, they will not give place?

Jagajjīvana: They didn't let us in the country, but we have devotees there now. (break) We had an article in a magazine recently. I can show it to you later.

Prabhupāda: What does he say?

Jagajjīvana: Well, it's about that we weren't allowed into the Dominican Republic and they were stopping us from coming in, and that one million people buy our books and that millions of people buy our books and many people...

Prabhupāda: Spanish book?

Jagajjīvana: All types of books. Had some nice pictures. In the article there is a picture of us giving books to the governor of Puerto Rico. (break)

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 6, 1974, Mayapura:

Devotee: Recently, Prabhupāda, I saw one machine for...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: For rubbing the nails, there is a battery operated machine.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Machine for cleansing, so many things.

Devotee: And for nail rubbing also.

Prabhupāda: Yes. For massaging. Everything.

Siddha-svarūpānanda: They have for brushing the teeth.

Prabhupāda: Oh, very...

Siddha-svarūpānanda: You just hold the toothbrush and the machine makes it go up and down.

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Indian Man (1): ...recently what we read from the papers. There is so many... So far, nobody tells us that there is a moon-god over there. Although they have gone to particular one place only or two, three places only, not the whole moon, but still, nobody comes from. They say nobody is there and...

Prabhupāda: But these bodies are imperfect. They are not perfect. The moon may not be exposed to them, these rascals. Because a king is not exposed to the ordinary man... Unless one is fit to see him, king is not exposed. That does not mean there is no king. If some rascal says, "There is no president, there is no king," that is his rascaldom, not that there is no king, no president. He cannot see. He has not that qualification. Is that correct?

Indian Man (1): Yes.

Press Conference -- April 18, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (8): Within what time? Recent?

Prabhupāda: I think about two years. Yes. We have got African students also, many African students. And everywhere we are spreading this Hare Kṛṣṇa. We go village to village, they accept. In African village, with big, big earrings, they also dance in Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra.

Guest (8): How do they respond in China?

Prabhupāda: Yes, China also. They also receive very nicely. They are intel... Everywhere the people are always good. They are made bad by the leaders. That's all.

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

O'Grady: Oh, yes, but not this particular edition.

Yogeśvara: This we just recently published in German, a German edition. (Yogeśvara discusses books with O'Grady for a minute)

Bhagavān: All these books are illustrated by our artists in New York.

O'Grady: They illustrated this?

Bhagavān: Oh, yes, they are beautiful.

Bob Jackson(?): Some fantastic work. When you came to the house...

O'Grady: The text is in...

Bhagavān: There's original text in Bengali. This book is in Bengali.

O'Grady: And Sanskrit.

Bhagavān: Sanskrit, which Prabhupāda translates himself and gives the explanation and purport. Every night Śrīla Prabhupāda dictates into a dictaphone, and his secretaries type and edit. And then we have a press in New York which composes and prints.

O'Grady: It's a very nice edition, that Macmillan edition. Very nicely done.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they have fifth edition within two years. Five editions.

Room Conversation with Catholic Cardinal and Secretary to the Pope -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: This is graduate study. Then after this there is post-graduate study, this Caitanya-caritāmṛta. This book is in twelve volumes, and other book, Bhāgavatam, is sixty volumes. There are many other corollaries, just like Science of Devotion. Have you got this book? No. Nectar of Devotion. So we have already published about two dozen books of this nature. So people are accepting, especially in the western countries. Recently we have received report. Some of the learned scholar professors, they have ordered all the books. They have introducing in their class. Yale University, Temple University. And they are enlisting my books in the bibliography, of Indian philosophy, and they are distributing to the learned circles. And last year we have sold four millions pieces of literature in the western countries. So we are encouraged. And these boys, young boys, they have encouraged me by joining this movement. And one priest in Boston, he issued one pamphlet that "These boys are our boys. How is that? Before that, they did not come to church. They did not inquire what is God. And now why they are mad after God?" This was his remark. And some of the American public, they inquire from them, "Are you Americans?"

Room Conversation with Catholic Cardinal and Secretary to the Pope -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Recently some of our preachers, they have collected fifty-thousand dollars from the Japanese people. They wanted to contribute me for my Vṛndāvana temple, but the Japanese government will not allow to let the money go out. He wrote me. And I have seen personally, when I went... I went to Japan three, four times. These Japanese boys and girls, they are as good as these American, Europeans boys. And that is my practical... Or they, they are my students. They offer me respect so much. The Japanese boys, without being my students, they offer the same respect. So I thought that Japan is very good. Everywhere. That I told you already, that the love of Godhead is dormant in everyone. It doesn't matter what he is. It is the process to awaken that love of Godhead: That is first-class religion. The matter is already there. Simply we have to awaken. And now, that process which awakens very quickly, that is first-class religion. That is the first... And besides that, really understanding of God is very rarely found.

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhagavān: Now, recently, in the last war in the Middle East, Saudi Arabians raised the price of the oil over double now, I think, as a pressure to the western countries to do things in their favor. Now they realized that the market for oil is in such great demand that they don't have to lower the price after the war, but they are going to keep the price. And actually the price is still increasing. So this is causing inflation.

Prabhupāda: So this problem will be solved as soon as we are localized. Petrol is required for transport, but if you are localized, there is no question of transport. You don't require petrol. Suppose in New Vrindaban, we stay, we don't go anywhere. Then where is the need of petrol?

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Next war means atomic war. All these rascals will be killed automatically. I will kill you, you'll kill me. That's all.

Yogeśvara: Is that war to occur in the recent future? Or is that a long way off?

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

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

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

Room Conversation with Mr. C. Hennis of the International Labor Organization of the U.N. -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: What, his nonsense idea. From the result we see nobody is happy. What is this idea? They have big, big scientists, big, big politicians, big, big..., but where is it people are happy? They are simply fighting. Now, recently in Rome, Italy, the Communists and the Fascists fought, and six innocent person died. So where is the benefit of this United Nations? They do not have really brain. Manufacturing something, concocting something. That's all. Where is the brain? They have no discrimination between sinful activities and pious activities.

Yogeśvara: He admitted it.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no brain.

Karandhara: Prabhupāda, in a recent study by U.S. Agricultural officials, they found that it is really uneconomical to eat meat. It takes so much energy and man hours to raise and transport and slaughter the cows that it makes it very wasteful.

Prabhupāda: Wasteful, yes. Therefore I say they have no brain. All, they are rascals. Rascal leaders. A little labor in agriculture will be sufficient to produce the family's food stock for the whole year. You can stock. You work only three months, and you get sufficient food for your whole family. And less nine months, you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. But these rascals will not do that. They will work hard like ass simply for eating. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti (SB 5.5.4). They will not accept easy life.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhagavān: They think it's so horrible to eat another person, but...

Prabhupāda: Yes. And they are suffering. Therefore you'll find, in the recent history, every twenty-five years there is a big war, slaughter, mass slaughtering of the people. How nature will tolerate? Now India has learned, imitated the western countries. Now there is war between India and Pakistan. Otherwise there was no such thing. During two wars between the Pakistan and Hindustan, unnecessarily, without any profit, millions of people were killed.

Karandhara: Just recently India exploded an atomic bomb, and now Pakistan is hurrying to get an atomic bomb also.

Morning Walk -- June 6, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: She was arranging so many meetings. She was very intelligent girl. So churches, many churches, she... Some of the churches purchased my books.

Yogeśvara: Recently, one of our saṅkīrtana parties went to Butler, Pennsylvania, and one of the devotees met a priest on the street. He said: "Oh, yes, I remember your spiritual master. He was here."

Prabhupāda: So I was giving lectures. They have churches. That means God conscious persons there. I never criticized church, mosque, never. Because whatever it may be, at least there is God consciousness. So they're good. In details... But when they disobey... I criticize only these rascals, disobey the commandments. Otherwise, we have no... We don't criticize.

Room Conversation -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Māṁ sa. Māṁ sa khādati iti māṁsa.

Nitāi: That story begins on verse 220, and I only have up to 121 here. This is the most recent tape. She's probably typing it... She'll type it today or tomorrow.

Prabhupāda: There these things are discussed.

Yogeśvara: The story of Mṛgāri and...?

Prabhupāda: In connection with that, I have discussed the animal killing. So all these meat-eaters, they are responsible for killing the innocent cows.

Bhagavān: Many people today are discussing this topic of reincarnation, but they don't understand the significance of the effects...

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: No, I'll give you example that mass of people in Jagannātha Purī, in Vṛndāvana, many thousands, ten thousands, twenty thousands people, every day come, to worship Jagannātha, to worship Kṛṣṇa, but there is a Ramakrishna temple in Belurmath, or somewhere else—nobody goes. So how do you say the mass of people are attracted to Ramakrishna? And similarly, recently, our foreign students went to Vṛndāvana, went to Navadvīpa, by thousands, but nobody goes to Ramakrishna Mission temple. Then other point: Ramakrishna Mission is working in the western world almost one hundred years. Find out their disciples so many we have got. So your statement, "It is meant for the mass of people," it is false. I have given you proof from India and from here also. That means throughout the whole world. In India nobody cares for Ramakrishna. That I have given you proof. You go to Vṛndāvana. There nobody cares for Ramakrishna. You go to Jagannātha Purī, Haridvar, so many holy places. Nobody cares for Ramakrishna.

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Recently, there was a historical excavation that Jesus Christ did not die, and he, after crucification, he was taken to Kashmir.

Yogeśvara: Kashmir?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (French)

Yogeśvara: Where was this? In a newspaper?

Prabhupāda: Yes. In paper I saw. (French)

French Woman: But we are not under historical literally. We try to speak of mystical experience. This is exactly the subject of, that we did. We cannot discuss history because everybody has his own documentation.

Morning Walk -- June 21, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Misconception, yes. The majority of Indian population, they are personalists. Yes, majority. Either they worship God or demigod, but they are personalists. Recently the Māyāvādī philosophers, they have poisoned, the impersonalism, calamity. God is person. It is... In the Veda it is said, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). There are millions of persons. We are all persons. And God is the chief person. Just like in modern democracy, there is no monarch. But ultimately they have to select one president. Without person, there cannot be government. Why they do not remain without a president? Let it... Government, everything is government, impersonal. Why they select a president?

Room Conversation with Pater Emmanuel (A Benedictine Monk) -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Pater Emmanuel: Thank you very much. I am so too.

Prabhupāda: Recently we have published one booklet. It is written by one scientist, my student, The Scientific Basis of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Pater Emmanuel: Thank you very much. It is translated in German too.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes. This is just... I received a sample.

Devotee: (German)

Pater Emmanuel: Ah, yes, yes. Who is author, Svarūpa Dāmodara dāsa?

Prabhupāda: He is my disciple.

Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: But I think there is a book, "Miracles of Milk," written by one American gentleman. He has greatly valued the milk and milk products. Similarly, we Indians, we give very, very importance to milk and milk products.

Dr. Harrap: Yes, I think this is so, has always been so here, but in recent years there has been shown to be a relationship between the cholestrol level in the blood and the ratio between the saturated and polyunsaturated fat in the diet. The lower the level of polyunsaturated fat, the higher the level of cholestrol in the blood. And this has been associated with heart disease. So there is quite a move to, among many in the medical profession to prescribe diets which are low in saturated fats.

Morning Walk at Marina del Rey -- July 12, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Is there any process in the science? No. Then? That is called laghimā. Laghimā-siddhi. Laghimā-siddhi, you become so light that you can walk on the water, you can fly in the air.

Bali Mardana: There was one yogi who advertised just recently that he was going to walk on the water. And he sold tickets. So all the people came to see him walk on the water. Then when he got on the water he went straight down. (laughter)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In India?

Bali Mardana: It was in the West I think.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, there was one...

Bali Mardana: There was an article in the Los Angeles paper yesterday.

Morning Walk at Marina del Rey -- July 12, 1974, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There's all forms of species developing slowly.

Bali Mardana: No. Now they have just recently found a species of man three millions years ago, and it's similar to modern man. So scientists... So now they have concluded that there are more than one species, a lower species and a higher species existing at the same time.

Prabhupāda: This Darwin is a rascal. He cannot... He has taken some idea from this Padma Purāṇa, and he has developed in a befooling way. There are different types of human beings, four hundred thousand species. (pause) (break) ...is to conquer over the stringent laws of nature. Is it not?

Room Conversations -- September 10, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Bhaumāsura, something like that. They all of them became Kṛṣṇa's wife. They prayed to Kṛṣṇa to be rescued from the hands of... Then Kṛṣṇa rescued them, killed that Bhaumāsura, and excused them, then they were set free. Then their plea that "We are set free, that's all right, but we cannot go home because we were kidnapped. So we shall not be married. Nobody will accept us." "Then what do you want?" "You become our husband." "All right." Kṛṣṇa becomes (indistinct). This is going on. Somebody is thinking of money, somebody is thinking of woman. These two things, money and woman, and whole struggle (indistinct). The Musselman nawabs, they used to keep... That one nawab, they have got his quarters in Lucknow, he had 160 wives. Even in recent, you know this (name withheld)? His elder brother, (name withheld), practically he is the origin of the (name withheld) concern. So I was a guest of the (indistinct).

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Kirtirāja: We are trying to arrange that now. All of these different... There are so many magazines we are trying to get our books listed in them. Śrīla Prabhupāda, here's a magazine which one Christian press nearby has printed, very fancy magazine, and they were distributing it for free. They just recently printed a letter and then sent this. They have gone from this to this because they cannot afford to do it any more. No one is giving them donations any more, so they've gone from big fancy magazine to a small, plain paper. This people would like to see, but now this just looks like garbage. They won't even read it.

Prabhupāda: So it has degraded.

Kirtirāja: Yes. We have gone from this to fancy.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is our catalog.

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

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Rāmeśvara: We have just recently given Satsvarūpa a new car. So now he has four vans and a station wagon car.

Prabhupāda: Four vans?

Rāmeśvara: Four vans and one station wagon car, so he's able to cover so many universities very quickly.

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Rāmeśvara: This is Hṛdayānanda Swami's office.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Spanish office.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, other Guests and Disciples -- February 12, 1975, Mexico:

Guest (4) (Indian man): Recently I was reading article in a science magazine and a space scientist, he has calculated that after 67,000 million years the universe contracts. And then I started calculating in terms of the yugas and the division which is mentioned. With the help of an astronomer I reached the conclusion that both figures coincide. So do you mean to say that when it was mentioned that after four yugas they will collide. Then it was a kind of vision, or might have been calculated by this...

Prabhupāda: Means calculation. It is going on, regulated way. Just like everyone knows that this month is February. In the month of June the summer will begin. Everyone knows. It is not conclusion; it is experience. There is no need of calculating. So one who has got better experience, he can say like that. Calculation and experience. Just like if somebody says, "Two plus two plus two plus two," somebody says immediately, "Six." And another calculates, "Two plus two plus..., six." So experience and calculation. Lacks experience, he calculates. One who has better experience, he doesn't calculate. One who knows past, present, and future, he doesn't require to make calculation. He knows everything. So God knows past, present, and future, and others who are favored by God, he also knows by the grace of God.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- February 28, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: Therefore you are rascal. You do not know what is that chemical, and still you say that some chemical is missing. This is going on, bluffing, cheating. This should be stopped. You do not know what is that chemical missing; still, you say, "Some chemical missing. Why do you say like that?"

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Recently there were some journals that came out. The title is called "The Origin of Life." I will bring in school when we discuss... It started about from last year. And they have got an international association of scientists, and they discuss about the origin of life. And then... I wrote a letter to the editor of that journal, and they replied me that they're going to have another meeting, international meeting, in Japan in 1977. And there will be several meetings in Europe in the coming years. So their aim and object is to prove that life started from chemicals. It is a big group, all international scientists. So he asked me to become a member of a research group.

Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: He gave me first money for publishing Kṛṣṇa book, $19,000. He is a good boy. He is a good boy, and he has got good regard for me.

Devotee (3): He just recently went on a concert tour around the country, and he was having the young people chant Kṛṣṇa's names in the concert. And because of the concert tour, many, many, many books were distributed, unlimited.

Prabhupāda: Oh, his song, "Kṛṣṇa..." I have forgotten that. That record?

Tripurāri: Yes. And he went on a tour of the United States, playing at different cities, concerts, and he would ask people in the audience to chant, "Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: He was asking?

Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: No, the university?

Doug: In the university? I haven't been with them in a year and a half, but they recently bought a college, and they have part of a college in Santa Barbara, the University of California there. So they're pretty well established educationally. But it's losing its potency actually. I think it's actually reached its peak and left, because when I was with Maharishi also I noticed that it seemed that a lot of his potency seemed to diminish, his charisma, over the years. Seemed to me he'd get more and more depressed if people weren't actually reaching the states that he was talking of. It didn't seem like he was satisfied with the advancement people were making. And certainly he wasn't answering the questions, because all that time I was asking him "What is the highest truth."

Room Conversation with Bernard Manischewitz -- March 5, 1975, New York:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Saturday.

Prabhupāda: Now recently I have got one news from one German scientist. His name...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Von Braun.

Prabhupāda: Von Braun. He is comparing there is God. He is scientist. He is thinking like us exactly. He is a very well known scientist, German scientist, Von Braun. Yes.

Bernard Manischewitz: I have some questions.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Bernard Manischewitz -- March 5, 1975, New York:

Bernard Manischewitz: You say in these times. How recent is this? How recent?

Prabhupāda: Say about five thousand years. Kali-yuga has begun since five thousand years, and it will continue for 427,000 years still.

Bernard Manischewitz: I have another question. May I ask it?

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

Bernard Manischewitz: There seems to be a determination on the part of most of the devotees to eliminate from their lives all news except that dealing with Kṛṣṇa. It seems..., it seems to me if they are to bring Kṛṣṇa to the world that it would be an important thing for them to have news, to know, to be able to communicate with people. Is there some actual prohibition against (indistinct)?

Room Conversation with Reporter -- March 9, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: Reading Bhagavad-gītā is also taking lesson from the teacher. Teacher—Kṛṣṇa is personally the teacher, and you read Bhagavad-gītā means you take lessons from teacher, the supreme teacher.

Reporter: I read a news report recently that you had said in Paris that you no longer taught your followers to chant simply the name of, the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, because the name of God could be chanted in any form. Is that so?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Chanting of the holy name... We are broadcasting that you, in this age, you begin for God realization. Chant His holy name. Very simple thing.

Reporter: So this holy name can be in different forms for a Christian or a Hindu.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: Some astrologer told that "This boy, for executing his purpose, he will enter into the fire." Yes. (break) ...recently, in our Bombay affair, it was fight with the fire. Is it not?

Brahmānanda: Yes. Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: And we have come out victorious.

Brahmānanda: Yes. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So much obstacle, still going on. Now the governor is cornered.

Brahmānanda: The governor of Maharastra.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Bombay. If he says yes, that is also dangerous; if he says no, that is also dangerous. (break)

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- March 13, 1975, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: So do that. Don't approach the cheater guru, bluffer guru, and be cheated. Stop this business. This has spoiled the whole spiritual atmosphere of the world. Take guru, the supreme guru, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, when in Mahābhārata when Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira performed rājasūya yajña, in the rājasūya yajña one person is elected the chief guest. So in that yajña many big, big demigods were present, and Bhīṣmadeva was present, Vyāsadeva was present, and many, many other saintly person, brāhmaṇa, from the whole universe were present. And Kṛṣṇa was decided to be accepted as the... Everyone agreed to accept Him as the chief guest. And the Śiśupāla, he protested. Then everyone was angry to kill him. So Kṛṣṇa is accepted the guru by everyone. By our ācāryas, recent ācāryas, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya... I am not speaking of the loafer class, but those who are recognized ācāryas, Śaṅkarācārya...

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

Prabhupāda: Āhus tvāṁ ṛṣayaḥ sarve: "All the ṛṣis, great saintly persons, they have accepted You." And some of them are named: Asita, Devala, Vyāsa. They are very great authority, ṛṣis: Vyāsadeva, who has compiled the whole Vedic literature; Nārada, the spiritual master of Vyāsadeva; similarly, Asita, Devala, very, very big, big stalwart, they have accepted. So apart from all these ṛṣis, recently, within, say, thousand years, great ācāryas just like Śaṅkarācārya, Madhvācārya, Rāmānujācārya, Nimbārka, Viṣṇu Svāmī, Lord Caitanya, they have all accepted Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme. And India's Vedic culture is practically dependent on all these ācāryas. So we are follower of these ācārya, so we accept, following the footsteps of the ācārya. Ācāryavān puruṣo veda. One who has ācārya, guidance... Just like if anyone is going to be doctor of philosophy, he is guided by three ācāryas. That is the system in India. I think the same here, is it not?

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

Prabhupāda: ...involve himself in the...

Rūpānuga: Well, for example, in New York...

Prabhupāda: ...internal management?

Rūpānuga: Well, in New York, for example, I just recently signed with Gopī-jana-vallabha Prabhu the papers on the farm. I signed conjointly with him on the farm because the officers had to sign, and we just recently had a thing in New York, ISKCON, Los Angeles, New York.

Prabhupāda: No, no, "sign" another thing. That I have signed, many.

Rūpānuga: So that's all right.

Prabhupāda: The one thing is that GBC is wandering. If the checks are to be signed, then where is the GBC?

Conversation with Devotees -- March 31, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Say, about four, five years ago. No, about ten to fifteen years ago.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Recently.

Acyutānanda: Who represented the Gauḍīya...?

Prabhupāda: Nobody, but from the history it was found that it belonged to Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava. That... In Delhi one lawyer is there. He knows. He told me. (long pause)

Morning Walk -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Nobody would be king. Everyone is king and fight. That's all. Nobody is king. Everyone is a dog. And they are simply barking.

Devotee (1): In Africa, recently, one of the leaders has taken all the mūrtis and crucifixes from the churches and put his own statue.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Devotee (1): He has banned all religions.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Devotee (1): He put his own statue there, that the people should worship him. He's a disciple of Mao.

Prabhupāda: And because there is no king, therefore he is flourishing.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: But if you..., then you are also moving. Everything is moving because you are on the earth. When the train moves, everything moves. But how it moves, train? That you have to search out. Train is not automatically moving. Some power, engine, is moving it. That is blind vision, that "Train is moving." How the train is moving? You have to see. That is childish. Train is not moving. The engine is moving the train. And how the engine is moving? The coal, fire, is moving. Then wherefrom the coal come? In this way, you have to search out. You'll find, ultimately, the supreme cause is Kṛṣṇa. Nothing is moving without Kṛṣṇa's indication. That is the explanation,

Mayādhyakṣeṇa: (BG 9.10) "Under My superintendence..." When Kṛṣṇa desires, this big, big chunk will move in the air. Recently, Madhudviṣa Mahārāja said, the buses were flying in the sky.

Morning Walk -- (World War III) -- April 4, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Viṣṇujana: They let the young men come into the U.S.A. to learn how to use the missiles and everything.

Pañcadraviḍa: Recently, this Bhutto of Pakistan, he was very happy because they were talking about lifting a ten-year holding on arms from the United States, and now, they say, Pakistan will soon get arms from America.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they are getting. They are already getting. The Pakistan will start the war with India. And then everything will be...

Devotees: Oh! Whew!

Devotee: Pakistan will start a war... (devotees talking among themselves.)

Pañcadraviḍa: They have started the war maybe eight times.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They are industrious, and they have got resources.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they have developed more recently, I think. They were not colonizing.

Prabhupāda: No, the colonizing propaganda was amongst these three nation. France, English...

Dhanañjaya: Spanish and Portuguese. Spanish also.

Prabhupāda: Ah, that side, is, means Western side.

Guru-kṛpa: Spanish went to South America.

Morning Walk -- April 23, 1975, Vrndavana:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We just recently went to Govardhana Hill. Several years ago the grass at Govardhana Hill was very nice and long and green. This year, though, it didn't seem so green. It was very brown and...

Prabhupāda: Yes, from Kṛṣṇa's time the Govardhana grass was being supplied to the cows. Therefore Kṛṣṇa recommended, "Better worship Govardhana Hill. Why you are going to Indra?"

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So that means that it is possible for long green grasses to grow in this area.

Prabhupāda: Yes, everywhere. The only difficulty is there is no water, no supply of water. In the rainy season this will be all green immediately, immediately, without any delay. So, the only difficulty—there is no water.

Evening Discussion -- May 6, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: They're saying that this Bal Yogeshwara, people ask him "Can you show what is God," and he says, "Oh, yes," then he shows them.

Prabhupāda: Where he is now, this Bal Yogeshwara?

Paramahaṁsa: I don't know where he is. There was one article about him recently, but they didn't say where he was. I think he was rejected. Maybe he is trying to start his own movement. But as far as his Divine Light Mission, he is kicked out.

Prabhupāda: Kicked out by whom? By mother.

Paramahaṁsa: Yes, mother.

Prabhupāda: Mother is authority.

Paramahaṁsa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Morning Walk -- May 7, 1975, Perth:

Amogha: Recently we have shown the film and spoken in several Catholic schools in Melbourne. They have comparative religion classes, and they ask us to come to their high schools to teach comparative religion so the students can see what other religions think. Usually they...

Prabhupāda: There is no other religion. All bogus. Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo. Only religion is to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. That is religion.

Amogha: They think that if they sin it's all right, because man is imperfect. So they think we should believe in Jesus.

Prabhupāda: Every animal is imperfect, but man—animal can become perfect. If he likes. So it is very important life.

Śrutakīrti: They say it's not possible to become perfect, that that's saying "I can become God."

Prabhupāda: What?

Morning Walk -- May 7, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: They have no idea what is spiritual. Buddhist religion is not a spiritual. It is material. If you kill me then I feel pain; therefore I shall not kill you. This is.

Amogha: Recently we received a letter from a Chinese man in Singapore. He wants all of your books. He wants to know how much.

Prabhupāda: Oh? You have supplied?

Amogha: Well I just received it. I will answer him and tell him the cost. I will supply him, yes.

Prabhupāda: Chinese man from?

Amogha: Singapore.

Prabhupāda: Singapore.

Morning Walk -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Yes, all the Leninists and Stalinists, they kill. It is a country of terrorism. That's all. The government men, they are simply terrorists. That's all.

Paramahaṁsa: Just like in Cambodia they just, the new Communist government, they executed tens and thousands of people just recently.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Paramahaṁsa: People who were working for the old government. They just killed them all. So this what the people are afraid of.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Terrorism. This Communism means terrorism. (aside:) Thank you.

Amogha: I have a garland, but it's not finished. Almost...

Morning Walk -- May 10, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Vested interest.

Amogha: Vested interest. Yes. So then there was conflict between the lower and the higher and it broke down. So what we're teaching is not actually the caste system as it is now or it was recently, but...

Prabhupāda: You have also caste system in the Western countries. You are not without caste system. There is a priestly class. So there are politicians, there are industrialists, merchants, and ordinary laborer. Where is...? How you can say there is no caste system in your country?

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: They say if they feed them a special diet they have found it changes the cholesterol level in the beef, so if they eat it, they won't get heart attack like they used to. And it says, "The director of the National Heart Foundation, Ralph Reeder, said he believed the process was one of the most significant contributions in recent years toward controlling heart disease. 'It should not be taken lightly by skeptics. It is a world's first,' he said."

Amogha: Now they are also thinking that different types of meat cause cancer, not only heart disease but cancer.

Gaṇeśa: What have the scientists got to gain by bluffing?

Prabhupāda: Position. Material world means they want some material gain, some adoration, and some fame. That's all. This is material world. So if by bluffing you I get some material profit and adoration and fame, why shall I not do it? Everyone is doing that.

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: All right, you become very good bluffer. That's all. We don't accept you. All the ācāryas, they did not accept, those who are authorities. Vyāsadeva, he did not accept these foolish theories. Nārada never accepted. Recent ācāryas, Madhvācārya, Rāmānujācārya, Caitanya. Why shall I accept these third-class professors? Kick on their face. We have got authority to support this.

Gaṇeśa: I think they want to interpret Bhagavad-gītā because they do not want to surrender to Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: That is the idea. That is the real purpose. They want to kill Kṛṣṇa. That is the endeavor of Hiranyakasipu, Kamsa, that "We shall kill Kṛṣṇa." And ultimately they become killed. Their faith is like that.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: In one science magazine they have published recently there's an article by a man who says we must eat meat because the plants don't have any fatty tissues for making brain tissue, so they say...

Prabhupāda: Rascal. So your brain is causing disaster; still you are developing brain? (laughter) Your brain is causing bankruptcy, and still you want to develop this rubbish brain? Begging money, "You give us money so that we can maintain"? And what is the use of this brain? Burn this brain. Advise him that "You better burn your brain so that you may not create any more disaster." To keep his brain, one animal must be sacrificed. And the brain work is this, that they are creating disaster. What is the use of this brain?

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

Prabhupāda: So practically the entire human society is now becoming godless. That is very dangerous position. And we have already come to that dangerous position. There are so many problems, and recently we have heard that New York City, the most important city in the world, they are in a problem, that they cannot keep the city very nicely maintained and clean, and they asked for help, some millions of dollars, and the federal government has refused. In this way the godless society will have to meet so many problems of life, and if they want solution of all these problems, they must take to God consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So that is our sum and substance of the movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. So we are trying to... It is very simple method. Anyone can accept it by chanting and dancing and eating. And if one does not like this method—he wants to understand the philosophy—we have got fifty books of four hundred pages, you can see all these books.

Morning Walk -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Hari-śauri: They were simply approximating. They said from recent discoveries and examination of fossils and like this...

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Hari-śauri: ...they made their calculation.

Prabhupāda: Why there are varieties?

Amogha: They say originally there was just a cell, and by adaptation in some circumstances, one kind would live and another would die. So all these varieties adapted to different conditions.

Prabhupāda: Who adapted this? Who managed?

Amogha: Well they just... accidentally.

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

Prabhupāda: More.

Dr. Copeland: Do you have more temples there than here?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. We have got very... Recently we have very big temple. There are many other temples in Vṛndāvana.

Dr. Copeland: And what is your relationship with, say, the Ramakrishna Mission?

Prabhupāda: Oh, we have no relationship. We don't accept them as any authority.

Dr. Copeland: Why not?

Prabhupāda: Because they are not doing according to śāstra. They are doing whimsically.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh, oh.

Yogi Bhajan: So I am very recent here. But I go to Hare Kṛṣṇa...

Prabhupāda: Where is your address in Los Angeles?

Yogi Bhajan: Yeah. They all come Sunday. They come to our Guru Dvara on every Sunday. People participate. We have our magazine, and this was our anniversary renaisance, which we issued... Rather, I was planning if some of your ācārya can come and I can give them a program for Kṛṣṇa consciousness development and authoritative human aspects of Gītā, which I teach in UCLA, they can participate and start courses in that. Because everybody is special in certain areas, and I thought that was a better idea. However...

Morning Walk -- June 16, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: No.

Siddha-svarūpa: Then how is it they had a fire in one? They had a fire in one recently.

Bali-mardana: Sometimes a fire starts in the kitchen or...

Prabhupāda: Kitchen, yes.

Bali-mardana: Because there's gas. And the furniture...

Prabhupāda: Not in the house. Wooden houses, they are just like match box. (break) ...Australia, they like cottage house. They don't like this skyscraper.

Bali-mardana: Yeah, they like brick house, many brick houses, spread out.

Prabhupāda: Small, one storied. They are aristocratic. They do not go to the skyscraper, common man.

Morning Walks -- June 18-19, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Siddha-svarūpa: Yes. (break) In the recent food crisis in the United States, 18% of the people started eating dog food because there's so much... They use such high quality beef and based on so many grains and everything. And they use grains themselves. Milk products. (break) They're even learning how to eat dog food. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...dogs in the beach, you cannot walk without seeing dog. More footprints of the dogs than human being. (break)

Siddha-svarūpa: ...actually give dogs more rights also, in a sense. For instance, if you... (break) ...and a human being, every time you walked, if there was a human being yelling at everyone who walked by and was going, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! You get away! Get away! Get away!" then soon the man would be arrested for being a nuisance or a threat to people. But a dog is allowed to do that. He can stay there and yell and yell at everybody... (break)

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What benefit he has done?

Revatīnandana: Well, he's recently said... He retired, and he said now he thinks the only purpose of life is to research about God, to find out about God. He's very famous, so...

Prabhupāda: That is good. They have finished already science. Now if they do not come to God, then they are finished. They have nothing to say any more. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. That is Vedānta. Now they have finished all their so-called talent. Now they have to come to brahma-jijñāsā, inquiry about the Supreme. That is their concern now. Now they have cheated public and bluffed them, they are going to this, going to this, but they are all failures. Now they are anxious how to keep their position. That is the problem.

Morning Walk -- June 25, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: They are very happy. Some of them come to me to give me thanks.

Dr. Judah: Yes, I'm sure that is the case.

Brahmānanda: We've had recently just some of our devotees... There was one boy, senior man, he left the movement for awhile, and his mother told him to go back.

Dr. Judah: She did?

Brahmānanda: Yes. Now he is back, and he is very thankful to his mother.

Dr. Judah: That's interesting.

Jayatīrtha: She said, "When you were in the movement, you were a very nice boy, soft spoken, didn't have any bad habits. Now you've left and you've become a debaucher, drunkard. You should go back." (break)

Morning Walk -- June 28, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: A man who hasn't affectionate mother at home, neither very good wife, so he should immediately give up that home and go to the forest because for him it is as good, either you remain in forest or in home." (chuckles) How intelligent.

māṭā yasya gṛhe nāsti
bhāryā cāpriya-vādinī
aranyaṁ tena gantavyaṁ
yathāranyaṁ tathā gṛham

(break) ...formerly at least one expected love from mother. That is also being finished. This is the advancement of civilization. Even mother is also not reliable, what to speak of others. A small child sleeps very sound on the lap of the mother because it thinks, "Now I am safe." And the mother is killing child. This is the advancement of civilization. (break) ...has been many cases, a polluted woman has killed his child on account of paramour. In India there have been many cases, killed a grown up child. In recently one of our Godbrother's wife. You know that?

Morning Walk -- June 28, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Recently, within ten years. And he committed suicide, this my God brother. Everyone is, every father is affectionate to the son, and when he saw, "This is my wife, and she has killed my son." And the son saw the paramours were coming, and he says, "Who are these men, coming?" You see? This question is also dangerous.

Harikeśa: There was a big scandal in Gujarat.

Prabhupāda: That boy who was with me... What is his name? In the beginning he went with me, San Francisco?

Morning Walk -- June 29, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: You are waiting for getting that life. Wait a few years more. You will get that life. Yes.

Brahmatīrtha: One scientist recently did a study on mosquitoes. They found out that all mosquitoes do is have sex and eat. And he was lamenting, he said, "Oh, these mosquitoes..."

Prabhupāda: Sex and eat.

Brahmatīrtha: That's all they do. He was amazed that they have so much sex life, mosquitoes. So then the scientist he was lamenting. He was thinking, "Oh, these mosquitoes, they probably do not enjoy the sex life." And he sounded as if he wished he was a mosquito to find out.

Morning Walk -- July 1, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: Why he stopped? (break) ...without car? (Brahmānanda laughs) (break) ...Nixon's home.

Brahmānanda: He has in Florida, Key Biscayne. He had two homes, one in Florida, one in California. But now he's staying in Florida. Recently he went to New York and testified before a committee. It's the first time that he has spoken publicly since his...

Prabhupāda: What is that committee?

Brahmānanda: They were investigating the Watergate.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, he had to present himself.

Brahmānanda: Yes. It's the first time any ex-chief executive has ever testified.

Prabhupāda: So he is not out of danger.

Morning Walk -- July 1, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: That means they are manufacturing their own way of life. That's not good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One of our best devotees, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he recently left our association. And one of the... I know the biggest reason is that he was fasting completely from almost all foods for thirty days.

Prabhupāda: But fasting is good. If one can fast, that is good. That is tapasya.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. But see, they read these books in addition.

Prabhupāda: Fasting is not bad. If one can fast, that is very good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Total fast, you mean?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Prosperous. The business is slaughterhouse. All butchers. (laughs)

Brahmānanda: The butcher community.

Jagadīśa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we were recently looking at a very big house in Detroit. It's a mansion. It's got much already onyx, marble. They say to build it again today would cost six million dollars. They are just asking for 350,000 dollars. It has...

Prabhupāda: Why?

Jagadīśa: Why? Because it's such a huge place and it's not in a very exclusive neighborhood. It's surrounded by a six foot high stone wall. It's on four acres of land. And in the room that...

Room Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Wax, Writer and Editing Manager of Playboy Magazine -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Devotee: Blasphemy.

Jayatīrtha: Recently we got a conviction against him. He got six months in prison. In Los Angeles we got to convict him for this kind of activity. So he is being stopped.

Guest (Indian man): Also he can't come to Canada any more, can't cross the border.

Jayatīrtha: Oh, he's been barred.

Guest: He is barred from coming to Canada.

Brahmānanda: He was put into the Denver county jail also when we were in Denver. He's out on bail now.

Mrs. Wax: Not only kidnapping devotees, Kṛṣṇa devotees, but all religious movements. He can't stand them.

Prabhupāda: And the parents are taking help from him.

Morning Walk -- July 16, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Ignorance.

Citsukhānanda: Your teachings, the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā as it is, had not come here before. So these people are misled. So just recently you have presented. So in a sense it is not their fault because they have had not the chance to hear Bhagavad-gītā as it is. They have got many Bhagavad-gītā, but they were not able to understand. But now by your grace, maybe we'll see the reaction in a few years. Maybe all this will change.

Prabhupāda: Do they say like that or you are saying?

Citsukhānanda: Well, some people have said. Not widely yet. The work must go on. There's much to go. (break)

Morning Walk -- July 16, 1975, San Francisco:

Dharmādhyakṣa: In modern psychology, Śrīla Prabhupāda, only until very recently, they did not even want to talk about consciousness. There was no mention of consciousness because it was not a scientific thing that they could observe.

Prabhupāda: Scientific... It is the most crude thing. Everyone knows. Even the animal, even the ant, they have got consciousness.

Dharmādhyakṣa: Well, it embarrassed them that they know everyone has consciousness but there was no way they could measure it or, according to gross science, get some factual information about it. So it embarrassed them so much, they tried to avoid the subject, hush it up, not speak about it.

Prabhupāda: That is their disease. When they cannot make any solution, they avoid it. (break) ...touch the real point, that why there is death. Nobody will touch because they cannot make any solution. Why do they not have a department?

Morning Walk -- July 17, 1975, San Francisco:

Dharmādhyakṣa: He recently retired, and he was lamenting how young people are shunning science now. Young people are not so interested in science. He was also very disappointed that the new scientists were not as well trained as the old scientists and did not have the same desire to serve science.

Prabhupāda: What they will do by serving science? The birth, death is already there. So they are becoming saner, that "What is the use of wasting time in this way? We cannot solve any problem." That is sense. They cannot solve any... He is still alive or died?

Dharmādhyakṣa: He's alive.

Morning Walk -- July 21, 1975, San Francisco:

Devotee (1): One of his devotees has recently said that if he really wanted spiritual knowledge that they should come to you.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee (1): One of Yogi Bhajan's devotees has said that Yogi Bhajan recently said if you really want spiritual knowledge to come to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Devotee (2): That's intelligent.

Prabhupāda: That Mahesh Yogi also says like that. (chuckles) And that, what is called, Satchitananda? He also says that.

Room Conversation With Yogi Bhajan and Jain Muni -- July 21, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: You can take the address.

Devotee: We have their phone number.

Yogi Bhajan: We won that... Recently he won a very big case. This is our daily fight, but it comes on you sometimes. We fight it daily. We fight before it happens to us. If I was to buy this temple I would have insured the title in a suit case, and I would have filed the suit myself, but on the neighborhood.

Devotee: Yes, well they had approved our moving in.

Yogi Bhajan: That is something later, but I have talked with. That is simple. I would have sued this area. I have heard that I can be damaged, I would have sued them five million dollars, all this area, vicinity. I could have proved it because I would have done it. Moment they would have filed the case, proof was there. I had not to prove. Their own document would have proved it. But you know that attorney they had.

Morning Walk -- July 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Not dredging.

Brahmānanda: Is that...? They're cleaning the...?

Jayatīrtha: I don't know. They came there recently. It wasn't there a few months... Oh, they're tearing down that pier. They're tearing down that amusement park. (break)

Jayādvaita: The scientists say that material nature is supreme, but because we're unable to accept nature as the supreme entity, different cultures have gotten different ideas of God. They've made these things up. The Greeks had one idea, the Romans had another idea, the Indians had one idea. So we've accepted that instead of accepting nature, although nature is actually the supreme.

Prabhupāda: No, God is realized only by the devotees. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). So actually, God is realized through devotion. There is no other way. So in the proportion of one's development of devotional spirit, one realizes God. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). The proportion, devotion, required. But real process is devotion.

Morning Walk -- July 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Six months equal to one day. Such ten thousand years.

Paramahaṁsa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, another field of study that Werner Von Braun is considering is unidentified flying objects. Now, this previously was not acknowledged by scientists, but he recently stated that when they have sent rockets into outer space they filmed objects that there's no explanation for. They think that they're spaceships from other planets.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's... There is Siddhaloka—without any aeroplane they can go from one planet to another. They are so perfect.

Paramahaṁsa: So these, what they think are spaceships, perhaps are demigods?

Prabhupāda: Spaceships there are in every planet.

Paramahaṁsa: On every planet.

Morning Walk -- July 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Paramahaṁsa: As far as these unidentified flying objects that Werner Von Braun was recently mentioning, he says that previously they've had many sightings. They've seen these and filmed these, but they're afraid to release them or the government is afraid to acknowledge them because they're afraid it would cause a panic amongst the world.

Prabhupāda: What is that panic?

Paramahaṁsa: A panic that everyone would be frightened with the fact that there is people from other planets.

Prabhupāda: And they are not frightened? Without this knowledge they are not frightened, as if they are safe. (laughter) Are they safe without that knowledge? They are frightened of your atomic bomb. Who is not frightened? Who is that rascal who is not frightened? Is there any person who is not frightened?

Car Conversation -- August 3, 1975, Detroit:

Brahmānanda: And they received the benefit.

Prabhupāda: That means they are commanding.

Brahmānanda: Recently one famous author came to America. He was a freedom fighter, freedom author.

Satsvarūpa: Prabhupāda knows about him.

Jagadīśa: Solzhenitsyn.

Brahmānanda: Solzhenitsyn. Did you see him when you went to Moscow? Śyāmasundara was saying.

Prabhupāda: No. There was proposal.

Brahmānanda: He talks so much, Śyāmasundara. He told a whole story, that you went outside Moscow to some colony, artist colony. He was living there.

Prabhupāda: I think Śyāmasundara went to see him.

Morning Walk -- August 6, 1975, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: By the neighbors.

Ādi-keśava: Yes. (break)

Brahmānanda: ...heard one report that the mayor of this city, he prevented a race riot. He personally prevented there being a race riot. Recently one white man killed a black man. So the blacks then were attacking his shop, and the mayor personally came and subdued the crowd. He was able to prevent the riot.

Prabhupāda: Recently?

Brahmānanda: Yes. (break)

Morning Walk -- August 7, 1975, Toronto:

Indian Man (2): In Hardwar I have been recently, and I met one of my uncle's wife. My uncle's father was a very big mahanta. He was having quite in a big numbers, maybe in lakhs or you can say million, half million to million disciples. And what he was using in whole life, the disciple's money, for his own pleasure or his wife and children's. And at the end of it he took his sannyāsa. Only just few years after that, he died. And I found there in a lot of mahantas, they have a temples, they are using there lot of jewels, gold, and money, and they have a business, like that. And thousand of educated people visit, and they believe that this is all they are doing, show off, and there is no God. This is bewildering everybody's mind. Is there any... we have some system that we can conquer those people by means to... Those young generation of their children, they really looking for the truth. I met one mahanta, his son. He is very educated boy. He met impersonalist leader, and he misguided, and they are leading their life just like a, you can say, I don't want to use bad word, like pigs. They are eating and sleeping and mating, same as there are other people doing.

Prabhupāda: Well, this is want of knowledge, jñānam.

Morning Walk -- August 24, 1975, Delhi:

Bhāgavata: There was one man in Calcutta. You stayed in his house just before you left for America, and later he became a sannyāsī. He sings bhajans. He became a sannyāsī later. He knew you very well. You had written him a letter, and he just recently became a patron, and he is reading your books now also. I have forgotten his name, but he knew you very, very well. He used to sing bhajans. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...dranatha statue? (break) ...some contribution through that... What is that temple? No, no, Chandi Chowk?

Tejas: Ācchā. Gauri Shankar.

Prabhupāda: Gauri Shankar. I think, that Sita Ram? Sita Ram? He is living or not?

Tejas: Which Sita Ram?

Morning Walk -- August 27, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Just see. He advertises. Mahesh Yogi.

Indian man: Mahesh Yogi, yes. Followers, they are taking everything.

Prabhupāda: He says, "There is no restriction, or no philosophy, no faith." (Hindi conversation) Recently one book was published by Professor Judah. He has studied this movement for five years. He came to India. So he has written one book, Hare Kṛṣṇa and Counterculture, but scholarly. (Hindi) He appreciated. (Hindi) ...and the fifty books I have, four hundred pages each. And we

are selling twenty lakhs' worth monthly. (Hindi) (break) ...it is up to that?

Akṣayānanda: Nobody knows your limit, Prabhupāda. Nobody knows your limit.

Prabhupāda: No, generally. Who remembers?

Morning Walk -- August 29, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm? Damodar?

Brahmānanda: Damodar Chanrai from Nigeria.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He was in Nigeria recently.

Brahmānanda: He follows him.

Passerby: Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Hindi) Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that if somebody remembers Kṛṣṇa by seeing somebody, that somebody is Vaiṣṇava. He remembers immediately Kṛṣṇa.

Brahmānanda: That's a test.

Prabhupāda: That is the test.

Morning Walk -- September 6, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Gradually they'll become ... understand that this is not good. Therefore gṛhastha āśrama is allowed under rules and regulation. The purpose is to restrict sex life.

Brahmānanda: The wife of the President, she recently said that sex life before marriage is good because it will reduce the divorce rate.

Prabhupāda: Yes. If everyone is prostitute then where is the question of divorce? (laughter)

Nitāi: There's also no question of marriage.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And that is going on.

Morning Walk -- September 9, 1975, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda? You mention in your book that recently they have begun some demigod worship in Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not recently. Since very long time. These gosvāmīs.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Caste gosvāmīs. But originally this was not the fact.

Prabhupāda: Originally there was Rūpa Gosvāmī. Now they are imitating. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (end)

Morning Walk -- September 29, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. It cannot be. You cannot stop the sex unless you are fully in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is not possible. And that is the material bondage. In the material prisonhouse they have got so many means-big, big walls, handcuff, chain—but nature is so perfect that simply give you a beautiful woman, and you are all prisoner. Big wall, handcuff and chain—everything is complete. I think I have discussed in my recent purports.

Harikeśa: Oh, yes, yes.

Indian man (2): Even in case of mother Desai, it was a classic incident, that his wife came one day to Gandhiji, that "This man is your personal writer but he is going on with another woman in your camp."

Press Conference -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Brahmānanda: Well, not unless they follow our movement. But those who have followed our movement... Recently there was one study that was published by a very eminent sociologist in America from the University of California, the (sic:) Union Theological Center, and he stated in that book that the members of this movement, formerly they were drug-addicted hippies, and now they have become servants of Kṛṣṇa and humanity, loving servants. So he has given proof through intensive interviews that one who follows and joins this movement, dramatically his life becomes changed.

Prabhupāda: Perfect. He is a big professor, and his books are being sold in higher circles. Professor Judah. And he has studied this movement for five years. And... You have got that book?

Morning Walk -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Indian man (3): We are not so sure.

Cyavana: Recently it came up?

Indian man (3): No, we are not so sure because before human settlement in Mauritius.

Indian boy (2): No, but it is... (break) ...please tell us about the creation of the earth.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Indian boy (2): Creation, how... About the creation. I have read it from Bible too, about Adam and Eve. Do you think that it's true?

Prabhupāda: What is the idea of Adam?

Indian boy (2): God has created him.

Morning Walk -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, the 1975 Nobel Peace Award was awarded to a leading scientist who helped the nuclear weapon, who created the H-bomb. Just recently it was awarded to him.

Harikeśa: Peace prize? (laughing)

Devotee (1): Yes. Nobel Peace Prize in Russia, Oslo.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, you are giving the real peace formula.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Unless they stop their sinful life, they have to suffer.

Prabhupāda: I am not giving. Kṛṣṇa is giving. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasam sarva-loka-maheśvaram, suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 5.29). There is... (break) ...formula, if you want to make peaceful the dog society, is it possible?

Morning Walk -- October 25, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Now recently some European astronomers, they said comet is coming, but he did not come. Just see. But no Indian astronomer said that comet is coming, no Indian astronomer. So he became a fool. So much arrangement was made: "Comet is coming." Nobody came. And in our childhood we saw one comet, and Indian astrologers, they very particularly said, "It will begin from this corner. It will rise like this," in this... Exactly it was done. The comet came, and as it is stated, "From this corner it will come," it happened so, everything correct. (break) ...comet did not come, what people said to this astronomer? Nothing?

Harikeśa: Nobody knows if it came or not.

Morning Walk -- October 25, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: One kind or another kind, disease is disease. Disease is disease. It is foolish for the person to think, "If I would have gotten that disease, it was better for me." This is foolish, another foolishness. Disease is disease. Disease means suffering. You have to suffer, that's all, this disease or that disease.

Brahmānanda: The man who owns this house, his wife died recently from cancer. He sent her to London for special treatment, very costly, and they could not do anything.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Just see. Where is this? That is their science? Take money and do nothing.

Room Conversation -- October 29, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: Ferocious.

Cyavana: Oh yes, very.

Brahmānanda: And it just happened recently, one political opposition leader, he was brought to some place near Nairobi and he was... His genitals were cut off, his eyes were...

Prabhupāda: Plucked out.

Cyavana: Then he was shot.

Brahmānanda: Then he was shot.

Prabhupāda: African?

Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay:

Brahmānanda: These particles that they have just recently found, the life-span is incredibly small, one-millionth of a trillionth of a second.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Brahmānanda: That's their life-span.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Life...

Dr. Patel: How they measured it?

Prabhupāda: Whatever they say, we have to believe. That's all. (laughter) Except Kṛṣṇa, we shall believe everything. When Kṛṣṇa says something: "No, no, these are all fictitious. There is no Kṛṣṇa, and these are all imagination." And as a rascal says, "Oh, this is scientific." This is going on. So we are not so fools that we shall believe these scientific rascals. We believe Kṛṣṇa. That's all. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are not going to believe the scientific rascals.

Morning Walk -- November 13, 1975, Bombay:

Brahmānanda: Everyone has a different opinion.

Prabhupāda: That's it.

Devotee (2): Recently they had a big questioning in the... (too faint) ...newspapers what the outcome would be.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee (2): And your Godbrother Swāmī Bon?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I know that. He is also one of them.

Devotee (2): He established... (too faint)

Prabhupāda: Others, they do not accept. So...

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Recent history is that he did not die. He came to Kashmir.

Dr. Patel: Came to Kashmir. There is a tomb in Kashmir. I read some literature about it. His resurrection... They say that they smuggled him out of that cave. It is possible. When he was on the cross, he...

Prabhupāda: No, even by yoga system...

Dr. Patel: He must have gone in a trance.

Prabhupāda: He lived by trance.

Dr. Patel: He was a great devotee. There is no doubt about it.

Prabhupāda: By trance.

Morning Walk -- November 21, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, cooperation on the basis of Bhagavad-gītā. If they are actually serious preaching Bhagavad-gītā, then there is cooperation.

Mahāṁsa: Recently Chinmayananda had a big program in Hyderabad for twelve days. He spoke on the twelfth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, but he never mentioned the name of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Mahāṁsa: And last year when he had come, he said in his first lecture that "We will accept those verses now which are suitable, and those which are not suitable, we will reject them." He wants to reject Kṛṣṇa's authority.

Morning Walk -- November 29, 1975, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Oh. (laughter) What is that "Women in the World"?

Ambarīṣa: Sixteen-ounce brain, I think.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They had a world conference of women in Mexico recently, where every country sent a delegation of women.

Prabhupāda: To become man? (laughter)

Harikeśa: Yes, nowadays we're doing that also.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (laughter) So you become woman. (break) ...here. Kalā, kalā?

Tejās: Stones.

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So simple, yes. (Bengali) Nāmāśraya kari, thākaha āpana karye. "Go on with your duty, prescribed duty, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." (break)

Akṣayānanda: I was recently told by one devotee that the ācārya does not have to be a pure devotee.

Prabhupāda: What?

Akṣayānanda: That the ācārya does not have to be a pure devotee.

Prabhupāda: Who is that rascal?

Akṣayānanda: Well, he said it. Who said it?

Prabhupāda: Who said? Who is that rascal? The ācārya does not require to be a pure devotee?

Morning Walk -- December 19, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: In London I have seen almost all the churches are vacant.

Dr. Patel: On Sundays? I don't know now. When I was a student I used to see them full, overflowing practically. Because they were beaten down by war very recently, they did not forget God then.

Harikeśa: On Sundays they're pretty full. For a couple of hours they're pretty full.

Dr. Patel: In the morning.

Harikeśa: Then in the afternoon they're vacant. That's when they get their big collection, big collection on Sunday.

Dr. Patel: Sir, everywhere it is the church which has actually distorted the message.

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1975, Sandau:

Prabhupāda: No, no, he is very nice boy. I have studied. Very good boy, George. He showed me in Bombay. He came to see me in Bombay.

Haṁsadūta: Just recently?

Prabhupāda: No, last year.

Haṁsadūta: Two years ago.

Prabhupāda: He is keeping Jagannātha within his beadbag and chanting.

Haṁsadūta: Just before I came to India, Mukunda met him for about two hours. He said he was very friendly, and he would arrange a ninety-nine-year lease for us, give us the right to the Bhaktivedanta Manor.

Prabhupāda: No, he's our well-wisher, good boy. What is the time now?

Page Title:Recent (Conversations 1968 - 1975)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:26 of Feb, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=144, Let=0
No. of Quotes:144