Rice (Conversations - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"rice"

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: So Govinda dāsī, you are feeling all right? Like this atmosphere? So Caitya-guru, your program, that you are going to construct temple there? (break) Aiye (break) You must accept the standard way, then you'll get siddhi, you'll get sukha and parāṁ gati. Unless you follow the standard way, na sukhaṁ na parāṁ gatim. So if you have interest in bhakti-yoga, then you practice the bhakti-yoga properly. That will make you successful. Otherwise, teṣām asau kleśala eva śiṣyate, simply whatever labor you are doing, that is your profit and no other profit. Kleśala eva. Nānyad yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām. The example is tuṣa. Tuṣa you know? The skin of rice? Husk. Yes. So if there is paddy, if you beat it, you'll get rice. But if you beat on the husk, then...

Yogi Amrit Desai: You won't get anything.

Prabhupāda: But your gain is only that labor. So similarly, if you don't know what is the substance, you go on laboring, that laboring is your only achievement and nothing else.

Room Conversation with C.I.D. Chief -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And they are giving... Practically our temple is going on by the contribution of the Indians. They are giving goods. Rice, dāl, and ghee and our... No scarcity.

CID Chief: The Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Deity(?) which is close to most of the Indians. It's a common...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Sometimes they ask that "What is your position, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, in India?" And in India everyone is Kṛṣṇa conscious. Everyone.

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Mm. For the time being, no appetite. You can soak some little chipped rice in water.

Indian Lady: Which?

Devotee: Chipped rice.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) in water. Soak it. Maybe if I feel hungry I shall take it. This is the condition of material world, simply harassing, this all these big, big government (indistinct). How to harass. The more you learn this art, how to harass, you become a big politician. Not para-upakāra. Mandāḥ sumanda matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). Upadrutāḥ, disturbing. Adhibautika, one living entity is harassing another living entity, killing. So I have decided to construct a temple in Bhuvaneśvara. What do you think, shall I attempt?

Girirāja: Of course that is our business to construct temples.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Trivikrama: Cow ghee?

Prabhupāda: No, buffalo's... Cow ghee we were taking with rice. But it was not available in quantity.

Dr. Patel: Many was so very cheap then. After I graduated myself when I was university scholar, I was given seventy-five rupee scholarship per month and a free bungalow with servants and all these things. It was all right for me till I passed my M.D., seventy-five rupees only.

Prabhupāda: This cow's milk in Bengal, it is compulsory-before beginning your meal, little cow milk, er, ghee mixed with rice and smashed potato. It is very nice.

Dr. Patel: And then we do serve..., after that we take out a part of it for the cow back, and a little for...

Prabhupāda: Ālu bharte bharta. (?) In Bengal it is called ālu bharte bharta. If you don't have anything, just have smashed potato, little ghee and rice. That's it. It is sufficient, very nutritious. And at last, little milk. Very nutritious.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: I have. And I found that only bhakti is the real way. And to correct myself I read out all the Vaiṣṇava literature. I know this Sanskrit. And then I...

Prabhupāda: (aside) That's nice.(?) But first give me little cow's milk-cup—and put little flat rice, not too much, and little fruit. That's all.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Follow this policy. Just like govindāya namaḥ. When you see that the puffed rice is flying in the air, "All right, govindāya namaḥ. Govindāya namaḥ."

Girirāja: Offer it to Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Otherwise I'll not give to Govinda. Income tax officer will take: "Govindāya namaḥ." If you distribute prasādam of Govinda among the poor men... We have got already in Māyāpur. Increase that. There is... They are drum-beating, that "Anyone who is hungry, please come and take prasāda."

Girirāja: That they accept as charitable. They want charitable.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: First class. And they have got enough milk. When I went there, all nice milk preparation. Ghee, sweet rice, these sweets. Ample. All variety. And they have ghee. Then prepare kachori, samosa. Such nice thing. And how friendly the cows. Just like family members. And they're giving more economically. That's practical. More milk.

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

Prabhupāda: And rice also? No.

Gurudāsa: Once a day.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. Above all, manage. That's all right, nicely. The foodstuff must be palatable. That should not be rubbish thing.

Gurudāsa: No. How are we going to feed others if we are not feeding the devotees nicely?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now, yesterday we made simple cooking. How it was nice.

Gurudāsa: We're making soup at night, simple soup, and devotees like it 'cause it's not hurting their digestion. And I'm having some flat rice on hand for anyone who needs it. So, I'm trying to care for everything.

Prabhupāda: There is milk supply? No.

Gurudāsa: Yes. We have one man from Vṛndāvana who's bringing milk at 2.70 a kilo, a little costly, but Mela time, and they have to bring it from a far distance. Anyway, 2.70, kilo, cow's milk.

Prabhupāda: Cow's milk...

Hari-śauri: They say. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Cow's milk means buffalo with water.

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

Prabhupāda: Just rice, dahl, and vegetable. That's all, nothing extraordinary.

Gurudāsa: And you put lot of spice in it or not?

Prabhupāda: No.

Gurudāsa: So that's the secret. If someone cooks for themselves... Why don't you direct it but not cook?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I'm directing and nobody learns.

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

Gurudāsa: You can eat six thousand rupees' worth of rice yourself?

Dr. Patel: No, you can't. You have in the market. No, I cannot eat even this much because I can't bring it here to Bombay. There is a barrier. You can't export from one place to another. This is the government. And our rice is just like the (indistinct) quality.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Dr. Patel: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: You go and eat there. (laughter)

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

Prabhupāda: I am simply surprised when I compare British days and nowadays. My practical experience—one of my maternal uncles, he's a very big, rich man. He was; he is not existing. So he was doing business, rice exporting. So in Calcutta, Chetra side, he had big, big godown full of rice. Not only he, other merchants also. But now they are empty. Similarly, from Bombay the oil seeds are being exported.

Dr. Patel: Yes. Last year they exported so much of this groundnut. Groundnut oil is costlier than ghee.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh. So is there any remaining in...?

Hari-śauri: Puffed rice is finished. But he can't eat the samosa.

Prabhupāda: So you can eat. He can take this thing. Hand. Keep that paper and apply it in service. (sweeping noise) Yes. (sounds of door opening, closing, train starts again) The bathroom is free?

Hari-śauri: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa consciousness is real religion. Religion cannot be "your religion" and "our religion."

Rāmeśvara: Yes. They were saying in essence that only the Jew or the Christian, he can represent God. Hare Kṛṣṇa, he does not represent God.

Prabhupāda: Now let us talk why he cannot or why you are the only. First of all you have to ascertain what is religion. Then it will be decided who has got the stock. Let the Christian or the Jews answer this question: What is religion?

Rāmeśvara: They cannot answer.

Prabhupāda: Then you have no religion.

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

Prabhupāda: Nine thousand. And who has got nine thousand rupees' income?

Rāmeśvara: Per month?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That three hundred rupees is equal to nine thousand rupees now. Now, a middle class man, who has got nine thousand rupees' income? Maybe one thousand, two thousand... (break) ...same thing, thirty times. The same ghee is selling not less than twenty-five, up to thirty. Thirty times. Take anything, rice, dahl, wheat, two annas per seer. And now they charge two rupees, three rupees per kilo. So from two annas to two rupees, sixteen times more.

Rāmeśvara: America also...

Prabhupāda: No, sixteen, thirty-two times.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: Not usually.

Prabhupāda: No... So the today's standard is nice. So she must take instruction or you do it. This was all right. We shall continue this standard for the time being. Yes. So if he's not come back, then wherefrom they got this puffed rice?

Hari-śauri: Well, that man from Haridaspur went and got that. That Prabhu Svarūpa, he went and got the muri.

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom?

Hari-śauri: I don't know. I couldn't make head nor tail of what he was saying.

Prabhupāda: Ask him. Is it fresh?

Hari-śauri: He just said he went out and begged some from somewhere. I don't know.

Prabhupāda: Oh, begged from some house.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: That barter system. You have got rice; I have got something else. So I give you something; you give me something.

Hari-śauri: But isn't inflation possible even with coins? Even if you have gold coins, isn't inflation still possible?

Prabhupāda: No, gold is acceptable by everyone.

Rāmeśvara: The main point is the barter system.

Hari-śauri: Yes, well its value is recognized by its purchasing power.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversation During Massage -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Pakistan is finished, because the Bangladesh was supplying jute, rice, pan, great business.

Rāmeśvara: The government of Bangladesh was just murdered.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: They were all murdered.

Prabhupāda: It is due to this American CIA. Therefore I...

Rāmeśvara: Now they may again become lined up with Pakistan.

Prabhupāda: That is politics. Once you become strong; once I become... That is struggle. It will go on. You cannot stop.

Conversation During Massage -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Just see. One family came, and I gave them little prasādam, dahl bhatta only. How nicely they took. Yes.

Hari-śauri: Yes. Dahl and rice.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And they were fully satisfied. So in all our temple at least for ten men, twenty men.

Rāmeśvara: That the temple can support.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Water is there.

Pālikā: Ācchā.

Prabhupāda: Lunchtime you'll make some cāpāṭi, very thin. I think I shall take cāpāṭis, a little rice. I'll give you instruction.

Pālikā: And what?

Prabhupāda: And at the time I shall tell you. Not any of the same thing. (chuckles) Everyone wants to cook for me.

Satsvarūpa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: But this girl, (laughs) she travels all over the world, spending her own money or society money?

Satsvarūpa: Society. She's the only one who's actually regular that is doing it good.

Prabhupāda: No, she is very responsible. Whatever I say, at least she tries to do it best. That is her qualification. Nei, everyone is doing.

Room Conversation with Two Indian Guests -- January 27, 1977, Jagannatha Puri:

Prabhupāda: When the Britishers saw, "Now the soldiers are coming in national movement. There is no hope. Better break this and go peacefully so that our business may not be disturbed, our relation may not be disturbed. Make a Commonwealth and so on, so on, hodgepodge. And do as much harm as possible dividing Pakistan and Hindustan, all the food in Pakistan, East Bengal and West Pakistan, gehun(?) and rice." And this Hindustan in starvation, because they were getting gehun(?) from Punjab and rice from East Bengal, and that is stopped. They very clever. Greatest harm they did. And in politics made in such a way that these two people, Hindustan and Pakistan, always fight. So they have gained. You have not gained. Gandhi wanted Hindu-Muslim unity. They made so bitter relationship that they will perpetually fight.

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No scarcity. Population increasing? You increase your food. So much land everywhere vacant, all over the world. But that they will not do. They will keep the cattles and eat. Cattle also, they want vegetables. Otherwise where you'll get cattle? But therefore in Bhagavad-gītā, annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). Produce food grains. Just like this is. How nice it is, from paddy. So you take the paddies, rice, eat, and the grass you can utilize in so many ways. Anywhere you can till the ground, you get paddy and the grass. Make your cottage. So shelter is there. And the animals also like this grass. You can make home. Where is the scarcity? Plain living, high thinking, and prepare for next life. Go back home, back to Godhead. Finish this hellish life of repeated birth and death. There is no knowledge. And when we try to give them this knowledge, they say, "You are brainwashed. You have imported some new way of life, style of life. Brainwash." So our European, American devotees, they like rice? No.

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: In this country rice is staple. Orissa, Bengal, Bihar. They take more rice.

Hari-śauri: Yes, big amount of rice, small sabji.

Prabhupāda: Japan also, same thing like Bengal and Orissa. They take rice and fish. That is their staple.

Hari-śauri: In the West they regard rice as the poor man's food.

Prabhupāda: But Japanese are very intelligent, Bengalis are intelligent, by taking fish and rice. In Bengal ninety percent people, they take fish. Here also, Orissa, cent percent, even the Jagannātha pūjārīs. In Bihar also, fifty percent. The more you go towards Western part of India, you get more wealthy province, just like Uttar Pradesh, very wealthy province, enlightened. All the big cities are there: Allahabad, Kanpur, Agra, Lucknow. Every hundred miles you get a very nice city in UP, the best province in India. All the holy places-Vṛndāvana, Prayāga, Hardwar, Ayodhyā, many celebrated holy places. Ganges and Yamunā flowing, two sacred rivers. Both of them through in Uttar Pradesh. And all the cities are either on the bank of the Yamunā or Ganges. And that is the best province, state, in India. It has got fifty districts. And fifty districts means fifty towns. Little more or less important. But the Kanpur is the third important city in India. First Calcutta, Bombay, and next, Kanpur.

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

Prabhupāda: Hm hm. (break) Cats also do not disturb. But everyone is fully fed and happy. The first problem is eating. So if you produce like tons, this corn alone can feed everyone. It is so nice food. Corn you can smash, and the powder portion you can use as flour, and the portion which is not powder, the hard portion, you can use as rice. And it is more nutritious than flour, wheat flour, and ordinary rice, and very cheap, cheaper than the ordinary rice and cheaper than the ordinary wheat. But you can utilize it—both dāl, bhāta. Vegetable and fat. From milk you get so much fat. Complete food.

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

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nine hundred.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Two, three.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At least. Then puris, cāpāṭi, then samosā or pakorā, kacuri...

Prabhupāda: Oh. (laughs) Sweet rice also?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sweet rice every day. Sweet rice, halavā.

Prabhupāda: Oh. It is all royal dishes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And then also dāl and a soup, vegetable soup. Some people like cream of vegetable soup. And salad, fresh salads, and drinks, orange juice, different kinds of juices. Cookies, cakes, breads.

Prabhupāda: All first class. You have got so many items here? (laughs)

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh, I think about 1928, long ago, because about twenty years ago there was centenary, hundred years. So the local produce was not exported. Everything was cheap in the village because you have to consume. Whatever is produced in the village you have to consume. And these Britishers, they introduced railway and drew everything in the village to the town. And they would not sell in the village because they would get good price in the city. Otherwise in the village, everything was very cheap, very, very cheap-milk, vegetables, rice, dāl, everything. And the Britishers, they had no food. They have got only the potato. In England what they produce? No food. So everything was exported. Their policy was to supply manufactured goods and take raw materials from India. So they supplied cotton goods. They saw that all Indians are using cotton cloth. Iron they introduced. They introduced railway line, all iron, the carriage, the wheel, the road. Everything was... In this way they became prosperous. And the Indian people, they saw... They were educated because they are fond of going to pilgrimage by walking. They would go... Suppose from here, Navadvīpa, one has to go to Vṛndāvana. He would make his will, because he does not know whether he'll come back or not. Long distance, thousand miles, you have to go by, on leg. They used to go. So they were advertised that "No. Now you'll have not to walk. The Company, they're making very easy going railway." So they received it, "Oh! (Hindi)" (laughs) But their idea was to draw all the raw materials from villages and send it to England.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: We were sleeping, father was doing ārati—"ding ding ding ding, ding."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You heard the bell.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Then he would take his night dinner and—not dinner. Some puris or paraṭā. He was also fond of this puffed rice. In later age he was simply taking puffed rice and milk. So, anyway, pūjā was his main business.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I found that our devotees who engage in business, they become a little spiritually weakened because we're not that advanced yet.

Prabhupāda: No, cent percent engagement in, that is hamper. There is no doubt. But to do business as a householder is not bad.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh. That is called... Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...and a little rice and half a popper. But it's not very filling, and it's not very nice.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Not first class.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. But yet it's packed with people. All the office people go there to eat there. And many office people get food brought to them in the office also, tiffins. You know...?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They're organized.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, they're highly organized. They have regular newsletters.

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Yes, one spoon more. Take. (break) Very strong opposition. (chuckling) This combination in your country is costly.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Peas, puffed rice and cucumber.

Prabhupāda: Puffed rice is costly!

Hari-śauri: I don't think... Not so...

Satsvarūpa: But you can't buy it nice and fresh. They buy it in a bag, like you say, three hundred years old. (Prabhupāda chuckles) Puffed rice is...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not like here.

Satsvarūpa: Stale.

Hari-śauri: They've never seen it like this, in this form, anyway.

Prabhupāda: You can learn how to make puffed rice. It's not difficult.

Hari-śauri: All our farms should learn.

Prabhupāda: The paddy has to be cooked, once boiled and fried, er, mean dried, again cooked, again dried. Then you take out the skin and mix with little salt and half baked, and then put into the hot sand. Oh, it will do... Little laboring.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We cannot grow rice in America.

Prabhupāda: Oh. There is no paddy?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Only place I know is down in Mississippi farm. They are trying to.

Prabhupāda: They can grow. There is no difficulty.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But other places, they cannot. You see, the weather.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: New Vrindaban they cannot do.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Rice cannot be grown.

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. They are very expert.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He said. He said, "In my house one day it is rice and dāl. Next day, it is khicuṛi."

Prabhupāda: That is the way. If you supply the same thing, it becomes hackneyed.

Hari-śauri: Yes. Even if it's first class, it still becomes boring.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And I think these woman can cook many varieties.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Just see.

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

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Give them.

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

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation 'GBC Resolutions' -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Pañcadraviḍa: One lakh on rice.

Haṁsadūta: The whole situation is very deteriorated.

Prabhupāda: So why he does not come?

Haṁsadūta: Both with money and men. His best men all want to leave. His staunchest support, they have all become just completely discouraged. They want to go away.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Haṁsadūta: They all want to go, his men. And the temple is very badly in debt, and it has not had a proper president for a very long time.

Prabhupāda: This cannot be.

Hṛdayānanda: It was suggested that he can preach in the area.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Or collect.

Rāmeśvara: Anyway, for this reason...

Prabhupāda: No why don't you call him to study the whole situation?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, the real point is that the GBC should meet with him...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees:Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Pañcadraviḍa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? I talked to... What's his name? Pañca-ratna. And he told me that they ordered everything to prepare khicuṛi, vegetable, sweet rice and tomato chutney for tomorrow.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Pañcadraviḍa: And also for the day after they'll be serving something, and everybody who comes will be getting in addition to prasādam distribution, some prasādam in the temple also.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. Very good.

Room Conversation with Scientists, Svarupa Damodara, and Dr. Sharma -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: This is real socialism. God is the supreme father. Everyone has got right to live at the cost of the father's property. But you cannot take more than that. Then you are a thief. Take whatever you... And even by nature you will find. You just immediately throw one bag of rice, so many birds will come. And they will take one or two grain or something... They will go away. And the human being, oh, he will take five shares, he will take ten shares. And within one hour, ten mounds of rice will be finished. The birds and beasts will not do that.

Room Conversation about Harijanas -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Fish, ninety-nine percent people take fish in Bengal. Only few, they do not. When there is some, what is called, ceremony, fish must be there. (break) And fish is available. Now Bengal is divided. Otherwise, immense fish in Bengal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: From the east side of Bengal. And rice was coming from there too.

Prabhupāda: So their staple food is rice and fish.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: East Bengal is very wealthy from that point of view. Rice.

Prabhupāda: Pakistan was rich only on account of East Bengal. The pān. Practically it supplies pān to all over India. And betel nut.

Room Conversation -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is the duty of ācārya. Otherwise he is not... Not that three dozen ācāryas in Māyāpur. Each one has a temple and a few dozen... Not few dozen—one dozen disciples. Bring some rice and eat. They are ācārya. That day I said that, khāi laya khasi bhaja,(?) then everybody became angry. Collecting some money, taking to the holy place, collecting fifty rupees and keeping twenty rupees and spending thirty rupees. This is... In this way they are making livelihood, ācāryas. They say, "Whatever is in our capacity, we are doing." The capacity means when they are speaking that the cockroach is as good a bird as the Garuḍa. Cockroach is also a bird and Garuḍa is also a bird.

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

Prabhupāda: Somewhere or other. Things are there. The rice are there, the dāl is there, the cloth is there, but what he purchased at three hundred rupees, now you have to pay ten thousand.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That means they've introduced more and more notes without any gold in their banks. Very dangerous.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Talk -- April 25, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That's it. Very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And I told him, "Cow's milk?" He said, "Yes, we can arrange." Everything he has. They have basmati rice. He says, "That's all we eat is basmati rice." Nice āṭā, and everything they say...

Prabhupāda: No, their climate is very nice. So you could accept it. If such things are available, now you'll get appetite and your health will increase.

Morning Conversation -- April 29, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...mentally to keep the brain, little fruit, milk, is sufficient. So I may live only on fruit or milk. There is no difficulty. What is the use of taking cāpāṭis and rice?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Of course, when you have a taste for it, then you should take.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is practice. As food value, fruits and milk is sufficient.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Habit is there also.

Prabhupāda: All the great saintly persons in India, they used to live in forest. What food? Only fruits and milk. Sometimes they use to take grains. Otherwise milk and... Simple milk is all food, cow's milk. I want to take cow's milk. This is all rubbish.

Conversation with M.P., Shri Sita Ram Singh -- May 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Anywhere. Why you are speaking of India? What is spoken in the śāstra, that is not for India or for Bihar. It is for everywhere.

Sita Ram Singh: And the situation is going from bad to worse. Will it go...

Prabhupāda: Yes. And at the end there will be no wheat, no rice, no sugar, no milk, and you'll have to eat... I shall eat your flesh; you shall eat my flesh. They are eating already fetus of their own sons. What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In some countries in the West...

Prabhupāda: Do they not?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In some countries in the West they perform this operation for... What do they call it?

Indian man (1): Abortion.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Abortion. They have legalized abortion. So the unborn fetus, after it's aborted, they're eating as food.

Sita Ram Singh: They have devised also even in Indian also. I don't know about...

Prabhupāda: Therefore I said, "Why do you speak of this country?" This will happen everywhere.

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

Prabhupāda: That was in 1936. Rice has increased after 1940.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At least it was twenty thousand rupees' value now.

Prabhupāda: All of a sudden rice has increased in 1942 by Churchill's artificial increasing his bribe to recruit soldiers. I have seen. Within two hours the price of rice, from six rupees it came to fifty rupees.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Completely artificial.

Prabhupāda: I was in the grocer's shop purchasing, and all of a sudden the grocer says, "No, no, I am not going to sell any more." He got some information. So that time, six rupees per mound, first class...

Bhavānanda: Mound.

Prabhupāda: Per mound. Very first class rice. So he was not going to sell. A few hours after, I went to purchase-fifty rupees. From six rupees. Government appointed agents to purchase it and stock it. So people, being harassed, they'll come to military. This was Churchill's...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Those British were very clever.

Prabhupāda: Artificially created a famine in India. I have seen.

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

Jayapatākā: I don't think he's seen him. Now the main manager has been handed authority. We've seen him. He's also favorable. But the people who are holding the main power, they are also favorable, so they've given us. Good facility for boat program. I went to a village by boat one day, and the villagers, they were very receptive also. They held a whole festival. Everyone, five hundred people, stopped their work, and they all came and chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa, and we cooked a big pot of... Official(?) said, "Everyone has provided ḍāl and rice. We don't eat at home today." And he cooked up khicuḍi and we gave everyone prasāda. And they said, "Please, if you could come every two weeks or every month, we could have a festival."

Prabhupāda: Naturally so much good reception... So organize. These people will not give.

Jayapatākā: Who?

Prabhupāda: These rascals, Gauḍīya Maṭha.

Jayapatākā: No. But they don't have any... They don't have any sādhu to go there.

Prabhupāda: They have nothing. Still, they have got... That is called in Bengali, bisnai kulavane cakra(?). There is no poison, but the hood is: "Arrhh." (laughs) That is their... Even this bite, there is no poison. But they are showing kulavana cakra(?). Still, it is bhayaṅkara. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says, maṇinā bhūṣitaḥ sarpaḥ kim asau na bhayaṅkaraḥ: "A snake..." Sometimes snake has got some jewel on the hood. So he can go in the darkness by the light of the hood. If somebody thinks, "Oh, here is a snake with jewel. Let me embrace him," no, no, no, it is very ferocious. Even it is jewel there, it is ferocious. Similarly, these people are envious. Although they have become so-called Vaiṣṇava, they are ferocious. They have not acquired the qualification of Vaiṣṇava.

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

Prabhupāda: And whole Bangladesh is a picture.

Jayapatākā: It's just so green, all rivers. And everywhere I saw rice field and jackfruit and mango, everywhere filled with fruits, very luscious.

Prabhupāda: And cow's milk.

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

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

Srila Prabhupada Vigil -- May 28-29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That from paddy, rice is taken away by beating.

Bhavānanda: (whispering) That's the...

Prabhupāda: In your country there is no such thing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In Māyāpur we have seen.

Prabhupāda: It is called ḍheṅki.

Bhavānanda: Ḍheṅki.

Prabhupāda: That is Indian. (Bengali) Ḍheṅki? (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatākā must know.

Prabhupāda: Jayapatākā must know.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) Make āṭā, kneading very nicely, just like you do for cāpāṭi, but make lump, round balls, around the fire. The same fire upon, one pot rice, one pot ḍāl. And down, these small, round āṭā. Just like you make for cāpāṭi. Go on. Then, after sometimes, you see, everything is prepared. Boil very nicely. Then these ball should be put into ghee, and the ḍāl should be chaunce. It will be first-class.

Upendra: These āṭā balls, they...

Prabhupāda: Just like you knead āṭā. Same.

Upendra: And they're put into the mixture, I mean to say, the...

Prabhupāda: Make in the kandi(?) fire. Kandi fire is like this.

Upendra: Oh, yeah.

Prabhupāda: So upon the top there is one pot rice, one pot... And round that fire put these balls.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Or in Bengal it is called ghuṅṭiyā. Ghuṅṭiyā.

Upendra: Ghuṅṭiyā. Kandi or ghuṅṭiyā. And that's rice, ḍāl and... What are these balls? They have a special name?

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is called laktha. Laktha.(?)

Upendra: Laktha.

Prabhupāda: Laktha.

Upendra: Laktha.

Prabhupāda: This is the foodstuff for the tourists.

Upendra: For the tourists?

Prabhupāda: A man is working. Now he has got with him rice, ḍāl, āṭā. Now anywhere he can collect this dry gobar and set fire. And he has got his loṭā, and he's cooking. Very palatable and digestive.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Upendra: No? Just open on the ground?

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

Upendra: Rice, ḍāl and laktha.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Laktha. You can make experiment.

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Upendra: With His mother.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So earthen pot is so nice. Jagannātha Purī, they cook it in earthen pot and throw it away. It is very palatable. You can try an earthen pot.

Upendra: Yes. (aside:) I will make rice, ḍāl, and preparation called laktha, bread balls that go around a cow dung fire, in an earthen pot.

Prabhupāda: You can begin experiment, one, two, three, and become perfect.

Upendra: Yes.

Prabhupāda: It is very digestive, very palatable and suitable for me, this kind of food. Yes. It will automatically increase appetite. It is so nice.

Upendra: It all sounds very natural and wholesome, clay pot...

Prabhupāda: So you can try.

Upendra: ...cow dung fire, rice, ḍāl, bread.

Prabhupāda: So? When you are going?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whenever you're ready, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: I am ready.

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

Prabhupāda: Acchā? (break) ...I want.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Neither would simply just begging some rice and dāl to feed ourselves.

Prabhupāda: Now Kṛṣṇa is (indistinct) (break) Do you think that the..., if the scientists attend meeting, they are interested? Or they feeling dry?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I think they are very interested, very much. Otherwise they won't take time to discuss. In fact, some of them feel that it's very unique.

Prabhupāda: Unique it is. There was no such proposal before. They have taken God as something mystic, imagination. Especially this rascal Darwin's theory, "People are animals," and they accept that "We are animals. My father was monkey." Very easy. This rascal has convinced them that "Your father, grandfather, were monkeys, and you are Sir Walton Rose(?)." "How I became a Sir Walton Rose, the son of a monkey?" This is their business. How much bluff. Disgusted learning and jump. A monkey has become man. Body's changed.

Morning Talk -- June 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In Bengal a first eating hot rice with little ghee, salt and this lime flavor, it becomes so palatable, with smashed potato.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Smashed?

Prabhupāda: Potato. With little chili. Oh, you can eat half the quantity of rice immediately.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sounds very nice.

Prabhupāda: They do that, especially in villages. (pause) (break) If I would have possessed the lands, money, I would have developed.

Room Conversation with Mr. Myer -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So you show by example. Bring these brahmacārīs. Teach them, and gradually... Just like our organization not all of a sudden has become so big. I was... For more than one year I was simply loitering on the street of New York like a vagabond. Who was hearing me? Still, I am going once in a month to the ship company that "When your next ship is coming to go to India?" So the manager: "Swamiji, you are coming. When you are going away?" I said, "Yes, I have no business practically here. But still, I want to stay and see if things can be pushed." Therefore I am writing. Otherwise I am useless. I am simply loitering and seeing the Fifth Avenue and the... And within the subway station, after taking my lunch I used to go by bus here and there, in the subway, anywhere go, it stops. No shelter. I was cooking, myself, in a friend's house. So he took it as a free cook he has got. And two men, of course, we... Sometimes some guest would... And I would be very glad. And ten, twenty, I'll feed them. And they would like very much ḍāl, cāpāṭi, and one vegetable. First-class... Everyone would like. That was going on, ḍāl, cāpāṭi, and one vegetable. I'll take pleasure. Sometimes somebody would come to assist me. He wanted to eat immediately. And "No, that you cannot. After I have finished, when it is offered to Kṛṣṇa, then I'll give you sumptuous prasādam, not before." So there was no... And little rice. Ḍāl, cāpāṭi, rice, vegetable, bas. Oh, it was so nice. Everyone would praise. The same thing, when I took my own apartment I did the same thing, distributed prasādam. Then, gradually, they came forward to assist me. First came Kīrtanānanda. He is the first cook. Then Acyutānanda. Brahmānanda was washing dish. He could not help the cooking.

Room Conversation With Son (Vrindavan De) -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I rejected immediately. What is this nonsense? Why shall I refer to it? "Probably." Finished, one word. Tāvac ca śobhate mūrkho yāvat kiñcin na bhāṣate:(?) "A mūrkha, a rascal, is beautiful so long he does not speak. As soon as he speaks, we understand where he is." Bas. Just like you're cooking rice. You take one rice and press it. If it is not soft, oh, whole rice is not. If it is not soft, it is not yet cooked. Similarly, one word will give his identity. As soon as he says "Probably," finished. Why shall I take trouble?

Upendra: In all of your books there's not that word.

Śatadhanya: That way we avoid wasting time.

Prabhupāda: Yes. "Probably," "maybe," "in millions of years."

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

Prabhupāda: Today I passed stool again before going to the temple. (pause) So many... Actually we enjoyed life in our childhood. Although we were not very nicely dressed and not very comfortable, the so-called comfortable. We could sleep anywhere. We did not require any nice dress or nice food. My mother used to prepare very nice food. We were glad in that way. Nice paraṭā, nice vegetable, ācāra, so many things she used to prepare. Always preparing some food. Puffed rice.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

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

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "However, the collections are poor. Only sixty-five rupees. I was wondering if we could also get some of the Food Relief money being sent to India to Śrī Lanka."

Prabhupāda: Why not? Oh, yes. America's money collect and send. So that is my proposal, American money and give this culture. They are squandering so much money. Channelize to spend through this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Their money will be properly utilized and our Kṛṣṇa consciousness will be spread.

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

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Yaśomatīnandana: But then, once we have developed, then we can have rice and wheat and then distribute free prasāda to everyone. Because every inch of the land is cultivatable.

Prabhupāda: I have given so much for... Try to repay.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda wants you to engage the local people in farming that land. Can you do that?

Yaśomatīnandana: Well, we are doing it as...

Prabhupāda: Gradually.

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

Yaśomatīnandana: What we'll do is we'll grow the food and then distribute the food. And if someone is ready to come and live on the farm, then we'll give him the facility. Because Bhogilal's farm is just next door, and he's getting fifty mounds of rice in every bighā. Fifty mounds.

Prabhupāda: Why not our farm?

Yaśomatīnandana: Just now this is the first year, and it has not been used for three, four... It is not that fertile. It is not too much fertile. For rice you have to prepare the ground. Some part of it is there. Once we develop, then we can develop it for rice. That area is doing maximum rice. Bhogilal's men grows fifteen lakhs' worth of crops every year. He has thousand acres, and most of it is even unfertile. Only in certain part of it, fifteen lakhs.

Prabhupāda: So why not our farm?

Yaśomatīnandana: We cannot get that much. But we can easily go up to two lakhs.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Per year.

Yaśomatīnandana: Per year. This is at least.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And he donated it free. Yaśomatīnandana said Bhogilal will be coming here for Janmāṣṭamī to be with you.

Yaśomatīnandana: We invited him for Janmāṣṭamī. So he said, "If you come, I'll go." He wants me to accompany him.

Prabhupāda: He's godly man. And he's religious, honest, ideal man.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: Right now? Soak a little rice?

Prabhupāda: Rice water required. So what is the time now?

Hari-śauri: Almost ten past two. Ten minutes past two.

Prabhupāda: So in a small pot just soak rice water, little. And after two hours use that water. Let me.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A little extra strength. Rice water will give you a little extra strength?

Prabhupāda: Yes. One globule, little honey and little rice water. Let me try.

Hari-śauri: A full cardamom?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You know. But this must be smashed very nicely.

Room Conversation -- October 9, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tejiyas: We're harvesting the mung and the rice.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Harvesting the mung and rice.

Tejiyas: They've got some new cows also. One cow is giving twenty liters of milk.

Prabhupāda: So rice and mung.

Tejiyas: Also corn, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Corn.

Prabhupāda: From corn you can make two things: ruṭi and bhāta.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hm. From corn you can make two things: ruṭi, cāpāṭis, and bhāta, or like rice.

Prabhupāda: The villagers will like it very much. You smash it by that ḍheṅki. You know that machine?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The ladies jump on it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So as much as it is powdered, make it ruṭi, and the hard portion make rice. The kṛṣāṇas will like, and it is very nutritious.

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: Oh. In the restaurant there is cāpāṭis, nice ḍāl, two sabjis. Rice is a very favorite food of Persians, so rice is there, and some sweet, usually some pudding, some sweet rice, and some fruit juice and fruit. These things all come as part of the meal.

Prabhupāda: They like it.

Room Conversation -- October 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

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

Prabhupāda: One thāli?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: One full thāli.

Hari-śauri: Plate.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

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

Prabhupāda: They like it.

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

Prabhupāda: They are both intelligent.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhakti-caru: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I cooked some boiled rice, boiled it for a long time, and some plantain. (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's good for stopping diarrhea. I think you should take some, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Instead of taking the medicine, take a little of this prasādam. Is that all right?

Prabhupāda: All right, I'll try to take.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One thing I've seen is that although you're passing stool more, you're not passing out more, too much in sense of total amount of... Urine is less now. You're passing less urine. Stool is coming more, but urine is less.

Prabhupāda: No, that is natural.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's natural.

Prabhupāda: If you pass stool, there will be less urine.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

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

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

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "No dearth of crows."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They'll come by the bunches.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It seems like there's a Bengali proverb for practically everything, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Ektu bhauma bhauma deśa tabu raṅge bara.(?) Explain this.

Bhakti-caru: That "Bengal has been divided into so many different parts, but still it's full of rasas and humor."

Prabhupāda: Bengali people are easy-going. So therefore they can manufacture all these humors. (laughter)

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: How can I say?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. You can feel that it's loose. That's different. Isn't there some... I know that like sometimes if I have this problem, there's certain things that one can take which make it, the bowel tightened up. Like I know I would take sometimes rice and plantain. It wouldn't have a good effect?

Prabhupāda: Rice I cannot touch even. If I hear about rice, any solid food, immediately...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Vomiting tendency. Hm. Then fasting?

Prabhupāda: What can be done?