Road (Conversations 1976)

Expressions researched:
"road" |"roads" |"roadside" |"roadway" |"roadways"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: No, no. I see. Why it is not clean? It must have been clean. (break) (Bengali) Yes, but I don't see they are working at the gate. (break) ...theoretical.

Jayapatāka: They make every day the rice for the day.

Prabhupāda: So where they are doing? Today is no rice required?

Jayapatāka: They start when the schedule starts at 7:30.

Prabhupāda: What is the time now?

Jayapatāka: They're all waiting for you to...

Prabhupāda: Very punctual, 7:30. Not waiting.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're chanting japa.

Prabhupāda: Who is japping? Please be careful that this idle class in the name of japa...

Jayapatāka: There's no way here.

Prabhupāda: So which way we shall go?

Jayapatāka: Back on the road again. (break) Beet vegetable.

Prabhupāda: That's all. (break) ...made. This is not washed? (Bengali) (break) This growth stopped?

Jayapatāka: Here is the handloom production.

Prabhupāda: What service they do?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What does that man do?

Bhavānanda: He weeds all of the hedges under Tapomaya.

Prabhupāda: So why they are drying? They should water it. (break) (Bengali) They are doing rightly. There are so many men. Why this should be not taken care of? (break) ...not indulge to give shelter persons—in the name of so-called japa they take advantage of free boarding and lodging. You should be very careful. Everyone should be, according to capacity, must be engaged to some work. Don't allow this stupidity. (break) ...plants are grown properly you get so many fruits. They are drying. There is so much space. You can get the sak and the fruit also.

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...bus came here.

Bhavānanda: Down this road, turns here.

Prabhupāda: Oh. It goes to Krishnagar.

Sudāmā: Over here, Śrīla Prabhupāda, down below, there is the kitchen for cooking. And we have here small kuchulla(?) for coal cooking.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Can you open one of these boards, show Prabhupāda the... (break)

Jayapatāka: All is for storage.

Sudāmā: Underneath. You have to open.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Jayapatāka: They put all rice and everything there.

Prabhupāda: Stock.

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...can see tomorrow. Eh?

Jayapatāka: All right. We'll check it, make a path. See, that's the path.

Prabhupāda: (break) The road is rough.

Sudāmā: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So we shall go that way. If it is like this, we can go. Now, still, it is rough. (Bengali) (break) ...filling up the road? No. You have taken earth from here. (Bengali)

Jayapatāka: They're just leveling.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...whether they are being properly utilized.

Jayapatāka: Every land is being planted on. We made...

Prabhupāda: On the other side you have got some land?

Jayapatāka: Yes. We plan to put irrigation there. I have two diesel five-horsepower, seven-horsepower engine. One I put over there and they are irrigating. We have fourteen bīghās of wheat, very good wheat. And here in the back we've also purchased here another set and we're irrigating that, this unirrigated land, and it only gets some chick pea and things, very bad crop, minimum crop. So now we've got the irrigation, we're getting many more crops. (break)

Prabhupāda: That I want, that it must be properly utilized. Otherwise you purchase and there is no utility.

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: So many. So it is good land? No?

Jayapatāka: This is medium land. Across the road is considered good land. Our area here is considered good because of irrigation. This is medium. And the man wants to sell. But it doesn't go as far as our land. It only goes to this point. He's asking three thousand.

Prabhupāda: They are all expecting good price from us.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Before we came here...

Jayapatāka: Only in the back, still they are asking more reasonable: seventeen, sixteen, eighteen, four thousand.

Prabhupāda: Seventeen, sixteen?

Jayapatāka: They're asking in the back.

Prabhupāda: Seventeen hundred? That's all right.

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: This land?

Jayapatāka: This is not our land.

Prabhupāda: And this? Up to this...?

Bhavānanda: This is our land, and this is our land. This is not. (break)

Jayapatāka: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Would it be nice to have lampposts here? Little lampposts to light the road?

Prabhupāda: It is cold. (laughs) Bare? No. That's nice. Hike for(?) barefooted. It is there, up. (break) You have to make little shade like this, just like upon the wall the shade is there. You make to the walls so that the water may not spoil the painting.

Bhavānanda: Oh, on the front wall.

Jayapatāka: A little sunscreen.

Bhavānanda: Sun..., rain screen.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: No. As soon as atom bomb is..., everything is finished. There will be no opportunity. That is their thinking, "Who will drop the atom bomb first, he will be winner." That's all. In Russia they are adopting this means. They are releasing all the soldiers for other work. What is the use of keeping so many men idle without any work and maintain them, high salary, occupy big, big cantonment camps?

Harikesa: In America the army builds roads and bridges and things.

Prabhupāda: That's utilization. Why they should be paid for nothing?

Indian man: The small farmers who has a few acres of land, they are selling to a party, and they are getting a money. They knew that "After two or three years we will pose our set-up to the government that 'We are landless,' and the government will give us some money."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian man: "We will get the money now and we will also get the land."

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Morning Walk -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: They take gobar from here?

Bhavānanda: No.

Prabhupāda: Then why they are working here?

Bhavānanda: They collect along the road.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...all planner has stolen. And we have no such arrangement. Simply we are purchasing land; we do not know how to utilize it. (break) Whenever I come I see new bhalti, new lota, and the old is stolen. That every time I come I see, a new set. Here also. Who is looking after? Everything is open, no control.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This morning Jayapatāka Mahārāja was talking to me. On the boat program they're having? They want to show that Bengali movie, "Hare Kṛṣṇa People." They have no projector, so he wanted to know whether the money that I want to give him can be used for purchasing a projector rather than the land purchase.

Prabhupāda: Yes, projector is necessary.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Projector would be big preaching. Our money comes from, for preaching program. There is already a fund for land purchase, whereas there is no such fund for something like this.

Prabhupāda: So it can be purchased...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Cost, they say.... It costs today.... A 16 millimeter projector with sound is about ten thousand rupees, new. I have a projector in America but I don't know.... I'm going to bring it, anyway, but it's not at all new. I'm not even sure...

Prabhupāda: So why new? Old is no useful?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Frankly I don't know if the projector.... This projector was donated by someone and we have no purpose for it. That's why I don't know about it's condition. I keep it in the bus.

Prabhupāda: So let who is coming, let him bring it.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can get many... I think we could get many, many men that way.

Prabhupāda: The children, they are enjoying. In the morning they are... That is wanted.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, they're in ecstasy.

Bhavānanda: All day they enjoy. When they are sweeping the road, they don't know that there's difference between work and play.

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Bhavānanda: To them, sweeping the road is their play. They love it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: These children are much more hard working than the children in America. Like these few American boys that are here, they cannot compare with these Bengali boys.

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Their service attitude is much, much better. I think we should...

Prabhupāda: By association they will be also.

Bhavānanda: Yes, they have also improved.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: So make something like American which is wonderful for the world. So you are Americans. You must do something.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If we build this temple with escalators and the people go in the temple and they go up the escalator...

Harikeśa: They'll never come back.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Do you think that they're going to then go down the road to go into Śrī Caitanya Maṭha? Why would... What is the point of it after doing something like that? They'll never go.

Prabhupāda: And if you can arrange some... What is called, that? This helicopter.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Helicopter.

Prabhupāda: Bringing our men from Dum Dum airport to our roof.

Bhavānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: There are at least four roofs like this.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. The people will see. All the pilgrims will see. Like the demigods flying in.

Prabhupāda: At least we can make a show—it is coming twice in a day and going twice in a day. And they will see that "Oh, so many people are coming."

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: On every level. Even the people this invitation was issued to. But they come, and when they come on Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura's appearance day, they all come down the road to here to visit.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really.

Bhavānanda: Even he gives off so much energy inviting this one and that one, they all come. They all want to come down the road. They at least come down for darśana.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They do?

Bhavānanda: Yes, they have to. They've all been here. They all know it. They come with different personalities, different friends... In Krishnanagar, we are like the cinema in terms of entertainment. As soon as any man, any official, government official, his friends come from Calcutta, immediately they get in one of the government jeeps and they drive out here and come to see the ISKCON Maṭha, Māyāpur Chandrodaya Mandir. Immediately. So many men, they come all the time with their friends from Calcutta. Same thing in Navadvīpa. They come for an evening's...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhavānanda: Fully satisfied. The woman puts on her sari, the man dresses up in his kurta...

Prabhupāda: So our arrangement should be to give them some prasadam, very nice treatment.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We never heard of him in America.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Jayapatākā: They are saying that there, there are so many roads named after him. They are saying.

Prabhupāda: How propaganda, lies.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We never even heard of him.

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

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In San Francisco they made it a holiday.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) "Rival of Nelson Column..." (Bengali) (break) (Bengali) "It is hell." Actually that is. Always wet. No road you'll find it is dry. Always damp. Is it not?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, hellish.

Prabhupāda: And it is so damp that in the trees you will see, what is called? (Bengali) Moss, moss, moss. Yes.

Indian man (1): Gathered moss.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In every tree you will find. They do not get sufficient sunshine. (Bengali) We have got very nice lawn, but I cannot enjoy it. Hardly one day or two. You cannot sit there. It is cold.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And damp. It's about five after seven now, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break) ...last month?

Prabhupāda: No, they gave it, account up to December 12, week ending on December 12.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, there was a six-day period when they sold 650,000 pieces of literature, six days.

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

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So that means he is on the same level. (break) ...Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura on the gate is the proof how fool he is. He has not shown respect to Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura; he has disgraced.

Jayapatākā: Now the government is saying that they have to knock down those temples because of the encroaching on the roadside.

Prabhupāda: Now where Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura...?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Will go now? What was... What was your guru mahārāja's plan for where he...? I don't understand. I mean, did your guru mahārāja want a...

Prabhupāda: Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's statue was there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So why was...

Prabhupāda: Bhaktivinoda... Because it was their... My guru mahārāja never tried to bring him here.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So what happened?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So they did it?

Prabhupāda: No. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's picture was there, not that on the gateway.

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: At that time, we had no place. We were holding our classes on the garage and somewhere. Before coming to La Cienega...

Dayānanda: Hm, yes.

Prabhupāda: ...I was running on that road where there is tram-line. What is that road?

Hṛdayānanda: Which road?

Dayānanda: Melrose, I think?

Prabhupāda: Eh? Yes.

Hṛdayānanda: That was 1968.

Prabhupāda: 1969... I do not know.

Dayānanda: '69

Prabhupāda: '69, yes.

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Bengali culture was very much adored. Surendranath Bannerjee started the political movement, and he was so well known. Even in Parliament, the Englishmen, English M.P.'s, he... They were speaking of Surendranath. They used to say "Surrendered not." "Here is a person who is not 'Surrender not.' He'll never surrender. 'Surrender not.' " Actually, the British Empire was startled by the agitation of Surendranath Bannerjee. The Congress was started by Surendranath Bannerjee, this one Congress. Two Bengali and one Englishman started this Congress sometimes in 1887, 1867, like that. So in our childhood we used to see that Surendranath Bannerjee was being elected president of Congress almost every year. And Gandhi came into prominence when Surendranath Bannerjee surrendered. Formerly he was not surrendering. But the government gave him the first ministership, that "You become minister." So he became a government man. Then Gandhi came in prominence. Surendranath Bannerjee was the first minister in India. (break) ...in our childhood, if he would speak, thousands, thousands men will gather in Calcutta. (break) ...Surendranath Bannerjee Road.

Jayapatākā: Yes, very prominent road.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Where my nephews have shop, Surendranath Bannerjee Road.

Jayapatākā: They did not knight him... (break)

Prabhupāda: His father was also very big man, Dr. Durgacaran Bannerjee. My sister hus..., Durgacaran Bannerjee, that is Surendranath Bannerjee father. He was a medical man.

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: It's a smaller road.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Doctor's land, Dr. Durgacaran Bannerjee Road, they belonged to very respectable family of that quarter, Bannerjee family. And Surendranath Bannerjee was the first I.C.S. I.C.S. He passed I.C.S. examination, Indian Civil Service, but he did not accept it. Aurobindo Ghosh was made by Surendranath Bannerjee. He was born in London. Aurobindo Ghosh's father, Manmohan Ghosh, he was a medical man in London. He was born... He's English birth. Well, later on, he became English-hater.

Jayapatākā: French-lover.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jayapatākā: Lover of the French.

Prabhupāda: He?

Jayapatākā: Aurobindo?

Prabhupāda: No, who says?

Jayapatākā: He always had some French people with him?

Prabhupāda: No, no. That... One French girl entrapped him. That woman spoiled him. He was actually practicing yoga very nice. After his release from political entanglement, actually he became a yogi, but this Frenchwoman, who became later on "Mother," she spoiled her ca..., his career. He became a bhogī then. (laughter) Instead of yogi... Otherwise, he was becoming yogi. You'll find from his photo. In the beginning, he was very lean and thin, and later on, when he died, he was very fatty. Means bhogī. (break) ...yogi bhogī, rogī. There are three.

Morning Walk -- March 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: And so long the festival goes on, we shall keep always ready one big pot of halavā. Anyone comes, give him this. Anyone comes to visit. While going, take in a leaf, what is called, leaf cup. Give him halavā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everyone on the way.

Prabhupāda: Everyone.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's up and down this road.

Prabhupāda: No. No, no. Anyone who comes within the temple...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I mean...

Guru-kṛpā: The devotees, and then the Deities, your private car...

Prabhupāda: But that is procession. In the temple...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Generally, cup with prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone should be given prasādam. Jaya. (kīrtana as Prabhupāda approaches temple) (end)

Morning Walk -- March 12, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Why? Nothing. Let them come and see. That's all.

Yaśodānandana: (break) Our Deity is not beggar.

Prabhupāda: No. He is bestower. He gives everything. If anyone voluntary gives, that's all right. You should not ask. (break) ...instead of doing this. (Bengali) He said like that. "By showing the Deity to earn livelihood is condemned. Better become a sweeper, municipal sweeper, and sweep the road and earn money." He said like that. That is better, honorable. He is working and getting money, instead of making a good show of Deity and earn money. This is not required. If you want to earn money, go, work according to your capacity and earn money. Don't cheat people. That is Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī.

Pañcadraviḍa: There was a big fight or difference of opinion, wasn't there?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Pañcadraviḍa: There was trouble in Nabadwip, wasn't there, when he advised the pilgrims not to pay money to go into the temples?

Prabhupāda: Yes. He was fight against it. All, Nabadwip, Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana is not so... But still, they have got rate. One thing, it is a question of heart, that a man should come and visit the temple—he must give something. Why he is to be asked? Voluntarily he should give that.

Morning Walk -- March 12, 1976, Mayapur:

Rāmeśvara: With our equipment, we can make these photos in any size.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. So do it. (break) ...Auckland?

Rādhāvallabha: Madhudviṣa?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Is the same house in Auckland and, New Zealand?

Rādhāvallabha: Gribblehurst Road.

Prabhupāda: Where I went?

Rāmeśvara: Yes, I can see it. Gribblehurst Road. Same house. This is the old temple in Houston. They're buying a new one.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Boston, oh, it is very nice.

Rāmeśvara: This is one of the best neighborhoods in all of Boston.

Prabhupāda: They are framework or brick?

Satsvarūpa: It's called brownstone.

Prabhupāda: Oh, brown... Stone it is. That is nice. (break) ...new temple? No.

Rādhāvallabha: That's Ottawa, Canada.

Prabhupāda: Canada.

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Devotees: Yes.

Prabhupāda: He has got ten lakhs of rupees because he collects the bribe from others and pay to the police. Everyone knows. There was one Mullik, now, on that Mahātmā Gandhi Road. His business was that. He was collecting. That quarter, our quarter, was full of pocket, pickpockets, guṇḍās. Pickpockets, gundas, in our childhood they were our neighborhood. (laughs) I remember when I was child I was coming, and the pickpocket was pickpocketing, and he was... He was doing like that: "Don't speak. Don't talk." I have seen all this. And whenever there was any riot, so we were accustomed to see everything. When there was Hindu-Muslim riot, one boyfriend told me, "Oh, don't go to your house. It is... A great riot is..." I thought, "Riot is going on daily." It was the same thing. (break) ...quarter. Induriya prakāra(?)

Bhāgavata: In New York one policeman admitted that when the police would capture the thieves with the stolen goods, then they would confiscate the goods and keep it privately in their homes and sell the stolen goods and get the money for themselves. They would not return it to the owner, but they would utilize it for making money. So they are also thieves.

Prabhupāda: So if this is the practice in a country which is so opulent, just imagine what is there in India.

Morning Walk -- March 16, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Why shall I accept a blind leader? If a blind... I am blind, and if a blind man says, "Come on, I shall guide you," why shall I accept that leader?

Madhudviṣa: Their contention is not that, though. Their contention is that Mao Tse Tung, along with being the political leader, is also the spiritual guide of the people.

Prabhupāda: Political, social is not. The leader must be perfect. If the leader is blind, how can I accept such blind leader? I am blind man. What is the use? I am blind; therefore I am asking, "Can you help me to cross the road?" Another blind, "Yes, yes, come on, I shall." Why shall I accept? First of all I shall ask, "You have got eyes?" "No, I am also blind." What is this nonsense?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Do they admit their leader to be blind?

Devotee: No. They use their leader's book as Bible.

Prabhupāda: Then why you change? Why you change?

Devotee: They don't change. They follow Mao.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They... They say there is necessity of revolution. The Communist theory they accept, that periodically there is need of revolution.

Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They'll come like that.

Hṛdayānanda: Jaya.

Trivikrama: The road must be bigger.

Devotee (1): Two lanes. They'll probably have...

Prabhupāda: Within that temple, there will be the tree of planetary system, electric bulb, and they'll move round. And upon that, sun will run. That requires electrical mechanism. (break) ...all side, other, different planets, Vaikuṇṭha-loka.... There will be escalator to go.

Yaśodānandana: I think in some of the Western countries they have these elevators with brass windows all around, so that one can, even though he's going up, he still sees all around. It would be very fascinating for these people.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What to speak of escalators?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What to speak of escalators?

Yaśodānandana: And that light system.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: People will pay just to get on that escalator every day. (laughter)

Pañca-draviḍa: In Los Angeles they have installed a speed walk at the airport, an escalator that you can walk on.

Prabhupāda: So you are not going to Calcutta? Calcutta?

Jayapatākā: I was going to go in a day or two.

Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This never before has happened?

Prabhupāda: No.

Guru-kṛpā: We realized last night our temple is too small.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughter)

Guru-kṛpā: And the road, you could not even walk down it. It took me fifteen minutes to get to the gate.

Prabhupāda: I therefore planned four buildings like that. You know. And that was my plan, four buildings like that besides temple and my house. That was the original plan.

Dharmādhyakṣa: There was one Kṛṣṇa-kṛpā Brahmacārī. You met him a few years ago, told him to come here, and he saw the prasāda room. He said he has never seen such a well-organized prasādam room, prasādam distribution. Everyone was very well disciplined and what-not. He was very impressed. He'll be coming today at five p.m. He was a physics professor at some college in Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: No, no, all this credit goes to Jayapatākā Mahārāja. Yes. He is struggling from the very beginning. Others who were in the beginning, they have all gone away.

Morning Walk -- March 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Pañca-draviḍa: Who was that prostitute? Prabhupāda: Why you are asking me? (laughter) As if I have to keep account of prostitute. (laughter) What is this nonsense? There was a big educationist, Visacandra Vidyasagara(?). So.... So to show compassion to the prostitutes, at night in a.... In India I have seen in our childhood, prostitute, they stand on the road. And in Paris I have seen. Haṁsadūta: Yeah, everywhere. Prabhupāda: Everywhere, they.... So, so they're standing—no customer at two o'clock. It is very cold. So Vidyasagara will take compassion: "All right, you take two rupees. Go home. Sleep." And that is in Vidyasagara's life, compassionate to the prostitute. By giving her two rupees, will she change her profession? But this learned man, he thought like that, that "She is standing in the severe cold. All right, let me.... Let me.... Let me give her two rupees. Then go home. Don't take so much..." He's Vidyasagara. The vidyā-sāgara means "ocean of education." And Haridāsa Ṭhākura—a prostitute came for three nights and converted her to a devotee. That's it. That is real compassion, not that "Take two rupees and go home." No. Turn her. That is real compassion, to turn everyone to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is the greatest welfare activity in the world. Otherwise there cannot be any peace or prosperity.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Hour.

Jayapatākā: But actually it's on the route to Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So we can.... But that will be very hastily. That.... The road is all right?

Jayapatākā: That.... The road to his place is all right. There's a shortcut from Krishnagara; if that's taken, then for a while, one kilometer, there's kacā road. After that, there's very, there's clear road with no traffic. Otherwise, if we.... We normally take that in the vans and in the jeep. We save about half an hour. But that way you have to go through one mile of kacā road. Otherwise, if you go by all pākā road, then it's a good road. Just takes a...

Prabhupāda: No, we shall go...

Jayapatākā: ...little longer.

Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter. We shall go by the pākā. Kacā road may damage the car.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Is that today or tomorrow, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No. On the way to Calcutta, talking will not be very serious because we'll be busy to go fast.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No damage on our car.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Last time when I went.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Last time, when Prabhupāda went.

Jayapatākā: Oh, no, since then they've improved the road. Oh, that road has been paved now. Pākā road.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Jayapatākā: (break) ...there, Śrīla Prabhupāda. They've got a mango orchard also. What time will you be leaving here tomorrow?

Prabhupāda: Early in the morning.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Five.

Prabhupāda: Or when...? As you like. I have no.... (break) They.... How we see the sun is fixed up? The sun is moving, we see, so quickly. And the moon is moving, but it does not move. It is fixed up. Mean regarding the time, you can see practically, the sun is moving. And they say it is fixed up. The fixed-up article is moving quickly, and the moving article is fixed up.

Talk at Radha-Govinda Mandir -- March 24, 1976, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. This is my inspiration, this Deity.

Abhirāma: Should we have some program with these Mulliks sometimes, visit?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Our house was here. I am coming almost daily, on every moment. I was playing here. They were all my playmates. The whole this, from that street to this street, that was our house, home. Here is the pharmacy, that Kailash Pharmacy. That was very old. Our limit was coming up to this road and up to that (indistinct) road.

Abhirāma: Your father would not let you go any farther than this?

Prabhupāda: In those days who cared for the father? We were coming and.... It was not so congested. There was a riot, Hindu-Muslim riot. This quarter is Muslim quarter. Oh, in 1911 that was a dangerous day. Perhaps I would have been killed. Riot. Very big riot. This was my school, here, this building. This was my school. And college was Scottish Churches. In this ground we used to play football. Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Hare Kṛṣṇa. You used to take Jagannātha right through the streets?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: How far would you carry Jagannātha?

Prabhupāda: From our house to this Thakurbari, Rādhā-Govinda's house, coming and going with procession of children and khola, karatāla and everything. Prasādam distribution, everything was there. My father used to encourage. And in those days if my father would spend twenty-five rupees, it was a great festival. Why not? In those days, fifty, sixty years ago, the money value was at least twenty times. So if my father was spending at that time twenty rupees, now it is at least four hundred rupees. So for a children's play four hundred rupees is not a small amount.

Morning Walk -- April 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He proved that "You are a rascal. One who puts this argument, he's a rascal."

Akṣayānanda: That was just an excuse to avoid fighting.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa clearly chastised him that "You are talking like a fool." Eh? Aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādān: (BG 2.11) "Talking like a very learned man, but you are a fool. No learned man speaks like that." Why they have kept this nice road within this forest? What is the idea?

Hari-śauri: There's some village on the other side?

Akṣayānanda: I don't know.

Prabhupāda: No, for village the government is not going to keep such nice road. This government department, forest department.... The government policy is to develop these places for industry in future. This industry is the cause of falldown of the human society—industry. So the reaction is.... The industry, two things required—four things required: land, labor, capital, and organization. So now the industry is going on, and the capitalists and labor, there is fight. The laborers, they are finding out that "We are working. Why the capitalists will take the profit?" This is communism. Is it not?

Akṣayānanda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- April 10, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Why Nṛsiṁha should be confined: "He was here"? He is everywhere. And as He is everywhere, He is here also. That's all. Finish the business. And you are without...? (shoes?)

Yaśodānandana: I missed it. I could not get my cappalas (sandals) off in time. They were lost. But that is okay.

Prabhupāda: No, no, it is not okay. It is not at all okay. Then you go and sit down. Don't.... That is very risky. Then let us go to the road. (break) Maybe.

Jayādvaita: (break) ...that just as a capitalist sees money everywhere and a lusty person sees sex life everywhere, devotee sees Kṛṣṇa everywhere, even in a pillar.

Nalinī-kānta: I've been reading a lot in the different books about envy. You say that people kill cows only out of envy. I was wondering if you could give a definition of what envy is. I don't understand why they would kill animals out of envy.

Prabhupāda: Envy means the cow has got right to live. He does not allow the cow to live. That is envy. You cannot understand this? Suppose you are walking. You have got right to walk, I have got, and if I kill you, you cannot walk. That is envious. Everyone has got right to live. Just like the camel. God has given their food. They are accustomed to eat these thorny twigs. So Kṛṣṇa has given that. Let them eat and live. Why should you interfere with his living condition? (break) Do not interfere with others' right. Why should you? (break) ...think we shall take the car in Bombay?

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: And one on the day you were in London.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: I was told.

Prabhupāda: There also, packed up, so many. Now our temple is going first, even the other temples are so old.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It was so crowded that you could not even walk on the road coming into our temple.

Prabhupāda: And it was a barren place.

Dr. Patel: They all come to see the devotees. These foreign devotees, they are enchanted to see them. All these times we were seeing the foreign, foreign, those padres, the Christians. Now we are seeing the sanātana...

Prabhupāda: And another the thing is that Ramakrishna Mission has constructed temple of Ramakrishna. Nobody goes there. It is lying barren.

Dr. Patel: You were planning to raise a temple in Kurukṣetra?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have applied to the government for land, twenty-five acres land.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: The child can understand, "Now, two finger and two finger, it becomes four finger." In this way we have to learn it. Therefore there are so many books. It is for the human being to learn. But if we simply remain civilized like cats and dog, then what is your advancement of civilization? There is no advancement. If you sit on this chair, and the others, they are sitting on the floor, sitting purpose is served. But if you say, "Sitting on the chair is civilized, and that is uncivilized," that is mental concoction. You have to serve your purpose. If by sitting on the floor you can understand what you are, that is civilization. And without understanding yourself, if you waste your time for manufacturing a chair, that is cats' and dogs' civilization. So that is going on. They are busy in manufacturing chairs, how to sit comfortably, without any knowledge that what is the value of life and what is life. This is going on. They are thinking that constructing big, big skyscraper building and motorcars and high roads and so many, so many, unnecessary things, that is advancement of civilization. No. Advancement of civilization is there when you know what you are. That is advancement of.... You can.... There is no prohibition. The materialistic way of civilization, constructing big, big house, there is no.... You don't stop it, but if you forget yourself—you do not know what you are—then it is wasting time because the human life is specially meant for understanding "What I am?" The cats and dogs, they cannot do. Therefore this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, to enlighten people actually what he is, what is the aim of life and how his life will be successful, how at the present moment he is living, how he is spoiling his valuable life. These are the subject matter dealt in these books.

Morning Walk -- May 26, 1976, Honolulu:

Devotee (2): When the government comes they may have so many health rules and regulations that if someone has a little hut, they will not let them stay there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They set fire. They set fire. "Let them become without home, then they will work for my shop."

Devotee (2): There were so many mangoes here that were dropping to the ground, and they've gotten rid of some of the mango trees because they said that the people were stopping on the side of the road picking up the mangoes, it was causing a traffic hazard.

Prabhupāda: Causing what is that?

Devotee (2): They were causing traffic disturbance. So therefore they took away the mango trees. There were much more mango trees in Hawaii than there are now. Anyone could go and take mangoes off the ground.

Prabhupāda: They don't want natural things.

Devotee: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Chanting produce plain living, high thinking. The modern leaders, they don't want.

Hari-śauri: We're a threat to the society.

Prabhupāda: Their policy is "High living and poor thinking." They live in skyscraper but don't care for where they are going to next life, as a cat and dog. Never mind. Now live in skyscraper. Poor thinking. High living, poor thinking (laughter). No, that "Now I am living in the skyscraper building on the twenty-fifth story, and next life I'm going to be cockroaches here." (everyone laughs) They don't know that. He doesn't inquire, "Wherefrom the cockroaches coming?" (everyone laughs) He has got attachment for this twenty-fourth story, so, but he's working so that he'll become a cockroach. So Kṛṣṇa has given chance, "All right. You live in the twenty-fourth story as cockroach." And then you'll be again killed by some.... What is called?

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Reporter: Ah. How is..., how will this be achieved?

Prabhupāda: Misery. Misery is caused due to ignorance. They admit or not. The more we are kept in darkness of knowledge, we suffer. What is the difference between ah..., what is called? Developed nations and not developed nations. This America belonged to the Red Indians. And because they are not developed, their condition was developed, ah, different from the present America. They could not construct such big, big house, and big, big roads, and like that because they are in ignorance. That is the difference. Prosperity, no prosperity. Happiness, not happiness. They are ignorance and knowledge.

Reporter: They have.... Is it that they have confused materialism with happiness?

Prabhupāda: Not Material, I mean, I mean to say. Happiness is knowledge.

Reporter: Hmm.

Prabhupāda: Happiness is knowledge. Man who is in ignorance, he is suffering, and that you say material and spiritually. A person who is not in developed consciousness, he is suffering. And they commit sinful acts also.

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

Rāmeśvara: On a long-term basis.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I won't even, for New York, I won't even take a loan.

Prabhupāda: No, we can forward loan if it is absolutely necessary.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I won't need it. We have the money.

Prabhupāda: Oh, this side also road is becoming...

Rāmeśvara: All the way down from the beach to downtown Los Angeles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fixing it.

Rāmeśvara: This is going to be one of the main streets in Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's great.

Prabhupāda: (japa) (end)

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

Prabhupāda: Nature's law is not like that, that you suffer for me. No. I suffer for my. It is magnanimity that I'll suffer. Sometimes they do so, but actually nature's law is different. If you have committed theft, you will suffer; why I shall suffer? Even if I say in the court that "I'll go to jail," he'll not go. (break) ...city in the world except in America, such nice roads.

Hari-śauri: The Americans are expert at building highways.

Prabhupāda: They have got money and all these.... They want to do it (laughs) (unclear) money.

Rāmeśvara: They use these arguments that they are civilized, that they are making progress.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Rāmeśvara: Americans.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that I say also. That you are fortunate. Take Kṛṣṇa consciousness and be the best nation in the world. Simply you take Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Morning Walk -- June 7, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: "The white man's burden," they called it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (pause) Prabhupāda, wherever you walk, the water turns off.

Candanācārya: The entire Golden Gate park was cultivated by men.

Rādhāvallabha: Instead of planting grass by the roads, they are now putting green rocks. They figure it looks the same, and it saves money.

Kīrtirāja: They are also planting plastic grass in the middle of the road.

Hṛdayānanda: No opulence.

Rādhāvallabha: In Russia now they have declared one..., that it is a big crisis. Because their grains did not grow properly, they are not able to produce as much meat, so now one day a week everyone is forced to eat fish. So they are lamenting. They were describing how..., about the good old days were when you could go and buy an entire carcass.

Candanācārya: (break) ...country, build cities and then spend billions of dollars to make the city look like the country.

Prabhupāda: Carvita-carvaṇānām. Chewing the chewed, again and again. This is their position. (japa) (break)

Rāmeśvara: On the calendar it says it is Bhīma-ekādaśī.

Prabhupāda: Bhīma-ekādaśī, yes.

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

Kīrtanānanda: Is that the Reuther girl?

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And our Ford, Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, he also...

Hari-śauri: They have some fresh pineapples and a juicing machine just across the road, so someone has gone for some now. It'll be five minutes.

Prabhupāda: You have seen the new publication?

Kīrtanānanda: Which?

Prabhupāda: Of Bhāgavatam.

Kīrtanānanda: I was just looking at it. He was saying that you had two copies, and I said, "Ask for one."

Prabhupāda: Yes, you may take.

Kīrtanānanda: They are getting better and better.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And our Rāmeśvara Mahārāja is guiding them.

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

Bharadvāja: What is some example of that?

Prabhupāda: Just like you create a motorcar for easy transportation, and you have experience: the power problem, the accident problem. If there is no power problem, you get more petrol, and you commit more accidents. And you stop car, then you are unable to move, because you now you have created city. If you want to go to consult a doctor, you have to go thirty miles from your residence. You require doctor, but because you have now car, you have big, big roads. So your doctor, medical consultant, is living thirty miles off. So you have to ride on cars to go to the market, to go to the office, to go to the medical man. So car is required. And as soon as car is there, the accident is there, and there is, power shortage is there, you require big, big roads, so on, so on, so on.

Hari-śauri: Pollution.

Prabhupāda: So where is the solution of your problems? It has created more problems.

Kīrtanānanda: So village life is best.

Prabhupāda: That is the best life. That you develop. It will be an ideal thing. You haven't got to go office fifty miles off. Just get little vegetables and milk, bas, your problem is solved. It is practical. Why you should go fifty miles off?

Rādhā-vallabha: In New York, to go to work, they go into the subway car, and there are so many people...

Prabhupāda: That... Not only, the ferry, steamer, bus, train, subway, cars, there are so many things. I've seen it. They start for going to the office early in the morning, and they come back at eleven o'clock at night. And few hours, that is their family life. And that hours are wasted by sleeping and by sex. This is their life. And to forget all these miserable conditions, drink. This is civilization.

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

Rādhā-vallabha: I think all Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja ever thinks of is when you are coming.

Prabhupāda: I am also thinking of their fresh vegetables and fresh milk. (devotees laugh) Which is not avail...

Hayagrīva: Remember the first time you came out, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Hayagrīva: Remember the first time you came? You walked up the road. Our car, we tried to take you in the car, but it didn't work, it broke. Power wagon.

Kīrtanānanda: It got stuck.

Prabhupāda: All fresh vegetable, fresh milk, this is celestial. Who has got the opportunity in the city? Automatically. (noise like drums in background)

Devotee: Some kind of parade.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Mādhavānanda: Now everyone wants to travel by air. In some large cities, the airports are so crowded, there is so much traffic overhead, that now they have to develop means of...

Prabhupāda: All accident takes place while coming down. Or while going up. On the sky there is no danger.

Devotee: They call it traffic control system in the sky. Just like there is traffic on the road, they call it the traffic control system. They have so much traffic in the air.

Prabhupāda: What they control?

Hari-śauri: They keep them flying around the airport until there's room for them to come in.

Prabhupāda: That already they are doing. When there is no space, they send news, that "Don't come down." So they come like this.

Devotee: They have been known to hit in the air.

Mādhavānanda: Māyā-sukhāya.

Prabhupāda: So the airport is also becoming a problem.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Hari-śauri: Everything's a problem without Kṛṣṇa.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: When we are traveling on the road we see so much land not used. And we think "Why not take everyone out of the factories, let them plant fruit and flower trees along the roads all over the country and build beautiful ponds. So everyone can bathe when they walk, for refreshment." Just like in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. I think Nṛsiṁha Brahmacārī, he was building a road for Lord Caitanya, very nicely.

Prabhupāda: No, they will create slaughterhouse, brothel, then liquor shop, gambling house. That's all.

Mādhavānanda: This is our biggest book distributor of the men-Pañca-tattva dāsa. One day in the airport he distributed three hundred Śrīmad-Bhāgavatams in one day. That is the record.

Prabhupāda: Hardbound Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam?

Pañca-tattva: Yes.

Prabhupāda: How did you sell so many? Unless you have got supernatural power.

Mādhavānanda: Kṛṣṇa empowered him.

Prabhupāda: Actually, it is not.... It is uncommon.

Morning Walk -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, I was noticing as we walk that there are so many trash cans, but no one throws their trash in the can. There are so many trash cans, but none of the karmīs are throwing their trash in the can. They just don't care. They throw it along the road.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Śrīla Prabhupāda was pointing out that at seven o'clock in the morning you'll see everyone in the liquor stores, but they don't organize them to come and clean. You were mentioning that everyone is lining up to buy liquor in the morning with their money from the government. They don't work. But instead the government should have them working cleaning the parks, but they are not expert managers. (break) ...in the early hours the people are sweeping the streets, cleaning.

Devotee (1): People in America, they don't care, they don't care to even walk five steps to drop a paper in a can.

Makhanlāl: In the Upadeśāmṛta, in the eleventh verse, it says that if one takes his bath even once in the Rādhākuṇḍa he immediately awakens his love for Kṛṣṇa. I was wondering, some of those who have had the opportunity to take bath in Rādhākuṇḍa, it seems though it may take some time. I was wondering, is that because we don't see time in the proper perspective?

Prabhupāda: Why do you go to Rādhākuṇḍa? Unless there is some awakening of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. (break)

Devotee (1): ...he's a rich man's son, but he's walking without shoes just like a sādhu. (break)

Satsvarūpa: ...was the president of Ann Arbor temple. I told him what you were thinking. You think you really want to go to Ann Arbor?

Prabhupāda: Not necessary.

Morning Walk -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Salt?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: When it snows on the highways, trucks come and they pour salt so it keeps the snow melting. More friction on the road for the tires.

Prabhupāda: Wine and cigarettes, just like here you can purchase by slot. What is called?

Hari-śauri: Machine.

Prabhupāda: Machine. Yes. You pay and get cigarette and tin can. There are many boxes like that on the street, public street. And they pass urine on the road. There is no restriction, standing apart.

Hari-śauri: Like dogs and cats.

Prabhupāda: Every few steps, there is a shop, young girls, wine, and a man is sitting.

Hari-śauri: Germany is very famous for its beer festivals. Germany. It's very famous for it's beer festivals.

Prabhupāda: Beer. Yes. Sadānanda told me. He was drinking beer in barrels. (laughs) He told me.

Hari-śauri: They even have a mug so big that it takes one gallon of beer at a time.

Prabhupāda: And they drink.

Hari-śauri: Yes. It's possible in the summer season, one of the big tourist attraction is to go to these big beer festivals. And you can go, they last about a fortnight, one week or a fortnight, and you can travel down the Rhine Valley and move every week to a new beer festival, like that, all through the summer. It's a big tourist thing. (end)

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. There were others, they have left. That Mr. Green.

Kīrtanānanda: Jagannātha dāsa. I think you named him Jagannātha.

Prabhupāda: And Ravīndra-svarūpa.

Kīrtanānanda: Carl, Carl.

Prabhupāda: Carl, yes. He has left. Washington directly? This road?

Kīrtanānanda: Not Washington, D.C., this is Washington, Pennsylvania.

Prabhupāda: This is Pennsylvania state?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. The girls were saying that today at the airport was the most demoniac day they ever had.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Kīrtanānanda: Today was the most demoniac day at the airport they've ever had. They're getting very, very nasty. Every time they talked to someone, they come up and they say, "Don't take it. Don't take it. They're ripping you off. They're 'Moon' people."

Prabhupāda: "Moon people"? What is that?

Kīrtanānanda: You know there's a lot of publicity right now about this Korean so-called spiritual master, Moon.

Hari-śauri: We just read one article in the U.S. News, shows a picture, that man it describes.

Kīrtanānanda: It is causing a big stir, these "Moon" people. He has just bought the hotel in New York for five millions dollars.

Prabhupāda: He is also against our movement?

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

Prabhupāda: Unknown, yes. The Ramakrishna Mission published one Bhāgavatam commentary. You know that? Farce. They, these Ramakrishna Mission people have done the greatest harm to the Vedic culture. Of course it is not taken very seriously, Ramakrishna Mission.

Hari-śauri: Not in the West.

Prabhupāda: But they publicized in India that they have made all, everyone In India they were doing like that. "Vivekananda Road," "Vivekananda Square," and rascals, they do not inquire even what is Vivekananda's contribution. Pradulika(?) prabhāva.

Hari-śauri: You made a good point about why although now thousands of American boys and girls are coming to India, no one is going to the Ramakrishna Mission, so what kind of impact has he had?

Prabhupāda: In Vṛndāvana they have got hospital and Ramakrishna temple. Who is going there? This is practical example. In our temple, thousands and thousands of foreign boys and girls are coming, and who is going there? It is because actually, if they did something, they should at least gone there out of inquisitiveness: "Oh, where is Vivekananda?" Nobody going. Not even to pass urine there. (laughter)

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

Prabhupāda: He'll be corrected. There is no hopelessness.

Kīrtanānanda: I've always felt that, but it makes it difficult to live with him in the meantime. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). Is that railway line? No. (break) There are some roads in Los Angeles (indistinct) That is America. Everywhere.

Kīrtanānanda: Big cars and big roads.

Prabhupāda: Opulence.

Hari-śauri: America seems to be one big highway.

Prabhupāda: They have got cars and they have got roads also. Very good. That's all right. But why they should give up the real business of life?

Hari-śauri: I don't think it's so much that they gave it up; they didn't ever know what it was.

Prabhupāda: There was no preaching. There was no education on this subject. The Christian priests, they are unable to...

Kīrtanānanda: They have no knowledge themselves. How they can teach?

Hari-śauri: They are all giving up out of hopelessness themselves.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are now asking... In Melbourne the priest asked me, "Swamiji, why Christian religion is dwindling? What we have done?" I told them, "What you have not done?" (laughs) They were little insulted.

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Kīrtanānanda: This is a dog's business.

Prabhupāda: Dog's business. Without any fault, they'll chastise. We have no fault, still they are chastising. Durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma. You have got this independence. Little independence, more than the animals.

Kīrtanānanda: It's the end of the road, so I think we can turn here.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break).... in the kitchen, this wood or gas?

Kīrtanānanda: Both. Mostly wood.

Prabhupāda: There are so many jungles, we can use wood.

Kīrtanānanda: Actually we like it better.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, it is better, nice.

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Unnecessarily you should not cut. When it is necessary for Kṛṣṇa, then you cut. This is also living entity. We cannot kill them without any sufficient reason. (sings) Śrī kṛṣṇa caitanya. This is our property?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Oh. This side also.

Kīrtanānanda: This side. Goes down to that road there.

Prabhupāda: All this land can be planted. There is some graveyard?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. You want to ride any further?

Prabhupāda: No. Harer nāma harer nāma harer (CC Adi 17.21). (break)

Kīrtanānanda: ...can be seen in one direction at least a couple of miles away, several, no, three directions. This is the capital that will go in the courtyard here in the assembly area. On those columns, this will go at the top.

Prabhupāda: Very nice. Thank you. This is plastic?

Kīrtanānanda: This is what they make the mold from. This one is in plaster. Now they will cast more. Below that the...

Prabhupāda: They can do Deity also, they can.

Room Conversation -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: By car?

Kīrtanānanda: By truck.

Prabhupāda: By truck? (laughter) Cannot go by car? Difficult.

Kīrtanānanda: I wouldn't want to try it in a car. Might get, the road is not bad, but it is not quite good enough for a car.

Prabhupāda: The same way we have to go?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, but the road has been improved.

Prabhupāda: So one day we can go.

Kīrtanānanda: When it dries up.

Prabhupāda: You father is an architect, I see.

Kulaśekhara: No, he's working on the docks.

Prabhupāda: Oh. His father came to see me in London.

Room Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: I think I shall not be able to go for walks. This morning my heart was beating too much.

Hari-śauri: It's very strenuous.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Best would be, then, to rest, perhaps up until at least until Washington and see, because in Washington there may be a very suitable situation. It's hard to walk on these roads also. They are very rough, and the altitude is high.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That we will do. Yes.

Rādhāvallabha: This is the story of King Indradyumna, when Agastya Muni cursed him to take birth as an elephant.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Rādhāvallabha: When King Indradyumna was meditating and Agastya Muni came, and so he cursed him to take birth as an elephant.

Prabhupāda: He became an elephant.

Arrival Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Rūpānuga: You gave the example of a gold pot and an iron pot and a diamond pot. A diamond pot was a demigod, and the gold pot was a human being, and the iron pot the animal. But they are thinking that the food is more palatable in a different pot. But it is still the same food.

Prabhupāda: But they are simply interested with the pots. External. Bahir-artha-māninaḥ. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye... (SB 7.5.31). They are thinking by changing the pot the advancement of civilization will increase. And that is going on. Just like America. You have got very big, big roads, nice cars, everything. You are changing the pot, but the eatable is the same.

Vipina: I heard a nice example given the other day about how living entities are suffering. A black widow, male and female black widow spiders, have sex life. After the sex life the female spider consumes the male spider, eats him alive.

Prabhupāda: What's that? Spider.

Vipina: Black widow. She will eat him after sex, kill him.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) So we are also killing by and by, and she kills immediately. That is the difference.

Vipina: Yes, little by little. (laughter)

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: In Vṛndāvana. Who was there?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Empty. Completely no one.

Hari-śauri: They didn't even have any of their own men living there.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They had to unlock the Deity.

Prabhupāda: And that is on the prominent roadside. And our temple is off. Still, so many people are coming. Neither there were inhabitants nor their outsider, visitors. Gate was closed, we had to open and then enter. And he constructed temple at least for the last twenty years.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They have no vision of expanding, except maybe their...

Prabhupāda: They make this money-making machine. They do not know the money will automatically come you are sincere. You haven't got to make it a machine. Money Kṛṣṇa will send. But they have no faith in Kṛṣṇa. They have faith in their own ability. "Yes, we shall earn money in this way, by showing the Deity." They don't recognize Kṛṣṇa's everything. They think "By high-court judgement, if we capture this place, then money will come."

Morning Walk -- July 4, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Nonphysical... Just like axiomatic truth point has no length, no breadth, but it has length and breadth. You cannot measure it.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But does this not imply—one ten-thousandth the size—does that not imply measurement, that it can be measured?

Prabhupāda: Yes, measurement, measurement is there. This is closed?

Vipina: Yes, this is the service road, but up here is a very nice way to look at the waterfall. (break)

Prabhupāda:

keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya

śatadhā kalpitasya ca

bhāgo jīvaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ

sa cānantyāya kalpate

(CC Madhya 19.140)

In the microbe there is soul. If it is not so small, how in the microbe there can be soul?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, it is small.

Prabhupāda: This is the falls?

Devotee: Yes.

Vipina: Manmade waterfalls.

Prabhupāda: Manmade?

Rūpānuga: This is the dam part. The other part, this is manmade dam here. There's other parts where it flows freely.

Prabhupāda: Airplanes. (laughter)

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: You can make, by arrangement, artificial, cross-breeding.

Hari-śauri: But that cannot be counted as one of the 8,400,000 forms. I was thinking last night when we were coming down this road that it's very nice and smooth, but then I thought you were saying the other morning that in the heavenly planets they are made from coral and so many different things. Here we're using tarmac.

Prabhupāda: The more you go higher planetary system, the standard of living is many, many thousand times better than this. Many, many thousand times.

Rūpānuga: We can't even imagine it now.

Hari-śauri: What to speak of the spiritual world.

Prabhupāda: Just suppose here are stones, there are pearls. You cannot imagine.

Hari-śauri: Lying on the roadside. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...Western scientists, philosophers, they are all Dr. Frogs. They simply calculating three feet water, that's all. As soon as you speak to them about Atlantic Ocean, they say, "Oh, it is impossible." Froggish brain. (break) ...word has come, kūpa-māṇḍūkya-nyāya, the frog in the well.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. So actually the Vedas must have known these techniques, because otherwise they cannot get this gold so easily.

Prabhupāda: No, there are gold mountains also.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Mount Sumeru?

Prabhupāda: There are gold mountains, silver mountains, iron mountains, copper road, everything is there. What is that?

Devotee (1): This is a new picture of Mars, just came in the Washington Post today. Here is what the scientists say the mountains are on Mars. Big crater they are talking about. This is a recent photo.

Prabhupāda: So? What do they say?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Says it's a Grand Canyon. Just like in Arizona there's a canyon called Grand Canyon.

Prabhupāda: So might be from Arizona? (laughter) Like Arizona, that means Arizona.

Rūpānuga: Just like Arizona, the same rocks you find in Arizona.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Dubhai, yes, in Vṛndāvana.

Mr. Boyd: You know him, and Himāvatī. I told them I'd see you pretty soon. I thought maybe you might be interested in seeing a few pictures? She said she was your friend, and you were her very good friend, and sent her regards to you. (laughter) That's quite a temple in Vṛndāvana. Very impressive.

Prabhupāda: Oh, you liked it?

Mr. Boyd: Yes, it was quite startling to come up the roadway there, and things looked pretty desolate, and all of a sudden here's this beautiful temple sitting here, and it was a real experience.

Prabhupāda: Oh, here is Mr. Dubhai's picture.

Mr. Boyd: Yes. (laughter) He was quite a gentleman.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You stayed in the guesthouse there too?

Mr. Boyd: No, I was just there a short time, I had to come back. We were only down there about four days. We had to bring back Barbara, she was in pretty rough shape. She had gotten malaria, only she wasn't doing too well.

Prabhupāda: What is this picture?

Mr. Boyd: That's just down the street from Mr. Dubhai, that's a big tree, it's an Indian tree, I don't know what it is, it grows up and down both. It happened to be in his yard. (laughter) Another highlight of the day.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Demigod means just like you or me, ordinary living being, but they are very pious. On account of their piety they have got very good post. Just like janma... There are four: to get birth in very high, aristocratic family; to become very learned scholar; to become beautiful in bodily feature. Janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrī (SB 1.8.26): high parentage, birth, to take birth in aristocratic family, in brāhmaṇa family, or very exalted royal family. This is janma. And śruta, to become very learned scholar. Janma, aiśvarya, to become very rich. Janmaiśvarya-śruta, śruta means education, and śrī, bodily beauty. These things are obtained on account of piety, pious activities. And just the opposite, low-class family, lowborn, no money, always poverty-stricken, no education, no bodily beauty, these are the results of impious activities. So the demigods means on account of their pious activities they get the situation in higher planet where the duration of life is ten thousands of years, and their one day is equal to our six months. Such ten thousands of years. Very beautiful body, facilities. There... The other day I was reading about the bodily construction of woman there. They are ever-young, the chest is very hard. (laughs) It is stated, yes. So such class of women is there, and aiśvarya, nandana-kānana, so many things. The roads are paved with pearls and jewels, not these pebbles. In the higher planetary system there is facility for higher standard of material comforts. So they get there birth and enjoy for ten thousand of years. But it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, kṣīṇe puṇye punar martya-lokaṁ viśanti. As soon as they spend up their resultant action of pious activities, then again drop down, kṣīṇe puṇye punar martya-lokaṁ viśanti. And again begins life from the grass. They fall down with rains, and then they grow as grass. Then evolutional life begins, from plant life to insect life, to insect life to bird's life.

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

Rāmeśvara: Same height.

Prabhupāda: Same height, huh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The rent, this is the middle of Manhattan, only one block from the temple, so we got it for about $3.75 a square foot, very cheap, and on a three year lease, which is also very good.

Prabhupāda: What is this road?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Tenth Avenue.

Prabhupāda: Our temple is between Eighth and Ninth?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Jayānanda has been working very faithfully.

Prabhupāda: They've come to see what they are doing here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Blow the horn. You want to get out, Prabhupāda? (walking)

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

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

Hari-śauri: State of New York Memorial to Theodore Roosevelt.

Prabhupāda: Who is this gentleman on the horse?

Rāmeśvara: That's one of the former presidents, Theodore Roosevelt.

Prabhupāda: This road is very infamous.

Hari-śauri: Very infamous?

Prabhupāda: Yes, means notorious. They say that black men, they capture white women.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes, I've seen it. When I was very young I saw it. I was playing in the park, because I lived next to Central Park, and this, these... We were playing with my friend and his sister, and this black man jumped and grabbed her and raped her right in Central Park. I was only about six years old.

Prabhupāda: And what was the age of the girl?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: About twelve. So I have personal experience. Especially in the upper part of this park, about Eighty, Ninetieth, Hundredth Street, there it's very dangerous. Where we are on Fifty-ninth street, it's not very dangerous. And on the east side down here it's not that dangerous.

Prabhupāda: Just see these black men living in such a highly rich country, and civilized men, but their nature is not changed. Angara satatau tena(?), but they can be changed only in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. No other way. Kirāta-hūṇāndhra-pulinda-pulkaśā... (SB 2.4.18).

Evening Darsana -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Our men's productive. There must be food production, otherwise how the society will live. That is also a requirement. Good direction required, good government required, good production required, and good worker required. You can explain that there is no understanding of spiritual life. That they are missing the opportunity of human life.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a spiritual culture, and basically speaking the human society begins from dharma, or accepting the principle of God. Dharma begins with this acceptance of the principle of God, that human beings, their activities, have to be regulated. Just like in human society there is marriage. This is according to scripture. Every scripture regulates there must be marriage. This is dharma. It regulates certain activities that should be done, certain activities that should not be done. And basically speaking this is the beginning of human civilization; otherwise, they're simply living in a civilization of gross sense gratification which is in reality no different or no better than the society of animals. So from dharma, human society begins and generally... You can see practically that dharma generally focuses... People are taking that dharma is for the basis of economic development. This is proven practically because in pioneer times in America for example, people they were simple going to churches and synagogues, and temples and all kinds of things, what have you. And economic development was going on very nicely, in fact, economic development could not have gone on unless there was this principle of religion. People were very, practically speaking... In a pioneer situation people are very barbaric, struggle for existence—you know, you're in the country, there is no road, there's no cities—everyone is very, simply interested to maintain themselves. But by churches and things of this nature, people saw the need for a civilized give-and-take way of living—economic development. Then gradually, the ideas developed further and further, but in modern days we can see that people are having economic developments and there's no need for God, they think at least. In other words, people are no longer attending churches, synagogues, things of this nature, because they are making sufficient money without the need of religion. Therefore, the basic principle is being missed that human life is not simply meant for economic development. Human life—we analyze, we can say that...

Prabhupāda: Human life is meant for making a solution of all material problems.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Morning Walk -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: On this planet we have certain elements, like iron, water, or sand. Could there be other elements on other planets, new elements?

Prabhupāda: No. No.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Same elements.

Prabhupāda: More or less. Just like in the heavenly planets it is said that the roads are built with pearls. So there is more pearl. Here is also. The pearl quantity is there. Therefore they pave on the road.

Hari-śauri: You told us, in Hawaii, they had emeralds as big as huge boulders.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Hari-śauri: Yes, big rocks, like this, when we were walking in Hawaii.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: And the beaches are made of gems.

Prabhupāda: Yes, so what is the difficulty? This is also stone; that is also stone. That is valuable stone, that's all-valuable in your eye.

Morning Walk -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Still, that is some protection. The husband is there. The woman means her husband must be there. Which one? Our car?

Hari-śauri: He's bringing it. He's bringing it up to this road here, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...dogs and cats.

Prabhupāda: Not cows.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no, cows are meant for eating, for food. It's all about dogs.

Rāmeśvara: So no woman who is married should work with the Deities unless her husband is right there? What if the husband is a book distributor? (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That walking place?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

George Harrison: Just on my own.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

George Harrison: It took me a while to find it. They're always building new roads everywhere and change the whole countryside. So I got a little lost.

Prabhupāda: You came here twice, right?

George Harrison: Yes, I've been here three times. Where will you be in India when you go back to India?

Prabhupāda: Most probably in Bombay. You have been in my Bombay?

George Harrison: I was going to go to Bombay. Yes, Bombay and Vṛndāvana when they were just building.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Vṛndāvana, if you come there, stay for some time.

George Harrison: Yes, well, ah, this December...

Prabhupāda: We have got very nice houses, both in Bombay and Vṛndāvana. And Māyāpur also. Wherever you like. You will not be very uncomfortable.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Harikeśa: It's his nature.

Prabhupāda: No, he has to live in that way. That is his destiny. You cannot change it by artificial ways. Even if he has got all the facilities, he will have to live like that. That is nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma yoniṣu (BG 13.22). This is... So therefore there is no use of so-called improvement. And you cannot do it. This is a fact. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayeteta kovido. Find out this verse. Na labhyate yad bhramatām upary. Your standard of happiness and distress must be there because you are destined by the laws of nature. You have to suffer although you are born in America. In New York you can get very comfortable life there; still, you have lie down on the bench, lie down. Although you are born of a rich man's family, you have to become hippies, lie down here. Who can check this? What is that law. Do they know it? But there is a law. There will be a first class, second class, third class, fourth class. You cannot check it. Huh? New York City? So cared for? Nasty road, streets. And always, every moment-dung dung dung dung dung dung dung dung, gu gu gu gu gu gu gu-fire. Saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka **. Fire is blazing. Despite all arrangement, fire is blazing. How can you stop it? Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura said saṁsāra-biṣānale, dibaniśi hiya jvale. The blazing fire of poison is always going on. Taribāre nā kāinu upāya. And one has to make ways how to get out of this fire. That is intelligence.

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

Hari-śauri: Yes. Simply increasing their miseries.

Prabhupāda: That's all. Problems.

Hari-śauri: The bigger the buildings, the more anxiety they're in.

Prabhupāda: Not only many cars, they construct new roads, new... Increasing business, in the hope of happiness. But there is no happiness.

Hari-śauri: Happiness is the last consideration.

Prabhupāda: They are thinking that "In this way we shall be happy."

Hari-śauri: Get more money.

Prabhupāda: First of all, paved way, then flyway, then another flyway, then another flyway, in this way. Bahir-artha-māninaḥ.

Hari-śauri: They're always striving for happiness, that's all. They never achieve it, they never get there.

Prabhupāda: No. That is called māyā. Just like the animal is running after the mirage, water, but there is no water.

Hari-śauri: He simply runs until he dies.

Prabhupāda: That's all. This is going on.

Room Conversation -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Bhagavān: Children?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhagavān: I'll tell them... (to devotee outside) Those children out there, their terrible screaming's disturbing Prabhupāda.

Harikeśa: They're all the way down the road.

Bhagavān: Get them all off the road.

Prabhupāda: This is the trap of māyā, to keep them captivated by sex attraction. All these living entities who are in this material world, beginning from the higher planetary system down to the ants and germs and flies. This is the primary enjoyment, sex. The central attraction is sex. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). The human being, the same sex desire, they decorate it in a different way. But the central point is the same. "So all right, why? It is enjoyment, why you are forbidding?" Saintly persons say, yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tucchaṁ kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham. It is a pleasure of itching sensation. Itching sensation, when you itch, it is very pleasing. But bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ (SB 7.9.45). Aftereffect is very bad, suffering. Itching, if you itch more, it aggravates, sometimes causes so many other by-products and so on, so on. That is fact. But everyone knows it, that "I may enjoy sex pleasure now; the aftereffect will be very bad." Bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. But why people do it again and again? Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. Those who are kṛpaṇa-kṛpaṇa means not brāhmaṇa—those who are not trained up as a brāhmaṇa, they cannot tolerate this itching sensation. They become victimized and the aftereffect is very, very bad. So either illicit or not illicit... They know it. The modern civilization, they have adopted the means of killing. First of all, they try to stop pregnancy by contraceptive method, and still if it is not stopped, then kill. And if he's still born, then again they put up in a box and go away. You know this?

Harikeśa: Yes, the baby, they put it in a closet and lock the door and walk out.

Morning Walk at Niavaran Park -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Every one of us, we are attached to the body, and on account of being attached to the body the material activities are going on. These motorcars are running, karmīs are going here and there, what is the purpose? To maintain the road? Divasa śarīra-sāje. Miche nida-baśe gelo re rāti divasa śarīra-sāje. The body is given rest at night to revive, and daytime the activities for the matter of maintaining the body. But despite my all endeavor to maintain this body, it will not stay. It will give up my company and I'll have to accept another. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). So Bali Mahārāja says "What is the use of such endeavor?" Therefore big, big saintly persons, they do not care for the body. Lie down anywhere. But they are very serious about spiritual advancement. And people in general, they are interested in maintaining the body. It is not that we should be neglectful to the body. That example is also there. Just like we require fruits and flowers. So if we neglect the tree, there will be no fruits and flower. If we cut the tree, it will dry up and there will be no fruits and flowers. The fruits and flowers, this human body, the fruits and flowers mean self-realization. Bali Mahārāja analyzes the family. He says family means rogues and thieves. Whatever you want, they'll take away. The pickpocket takes from your pocket and he becomes a criminal, and when the wife takes thousand dollars from your pocket, you do not consider her to be criminal. You laugh, "Oh, you have taken the money?" "Yes, I've taken." The business is a pickpocket. But in one case we say "criminal," and one case we say "friend." The business is the same. Svajanākhya-dasyu. Actually thieves and rogues, but we have named them "relatives."

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Ali: What I'm practicing now is that I'm battling against my nafs—the commanding self, as it's known in dervishism. And it amazes me, the way it acts, so mischievous, so dishonest, so many faces that I can only catch out very few, very few. It's always a bit late, after anger, I recognize the presence of anger.

Prabhupāda: Yes, any process you adopt, it doesn't matter, provided it helps you to the platform of loving God, that is approved. Because without coming to the platform of loving God, you cannot be satisfied. That is not possible. So you can adopt any process, it doesn't matter. If it brings you to the platform of loving God, then you'll be happy. We do not say that this process is bona fide, that process is not bona fide. We say any process you adopt, it doesn't matter, if it helps you to bring to the platform of loving God.

Ali: True, because the road is the same, the goal is the same.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is our philosophy. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhakti... (SB 1.2.6). Because unless you come to the platform of loving God, then you cannot be happy. And so long we have got the tendency to love something other than God, then we shall not be happy. That is the test.

Ali: What is the purpose of this internal dialogue? Internal dialogue, we talk to ourselves all the time, we can't be silent.

Prabhupāda: You talk with whom? There must be second person. When you talk, you are one person, and another person must be there. Who is that other person? With whom you talk?

Ali: With the self.

Prabhupāda: Then you are lunatic. Just like a lunatic, he talks alone.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Why He gives up? He has made for His enjoyment. Why should He give up?

Hari-śauri: They say that He's made for our enjoyment and it's for us to divide and enjoy.

Prabhupāda: No. Therefore you are rascal. Everything is done by somebody. Suppose if you organize one business. That is for your enjoyment. God has created anything, that is for His enjoyment. But you are sons of God, you can enjoy the property of the father as far as you require. Not more than, you cannot take more than that. Then other sons will claim and there will be fight. You live. You are son of God, you live at the expense of God. God has sufficient supply. But don't try to take more and stock. That is folly. You eat, you live very nicely. There is no prohibition. But you cannot take more than what you require. This is Bhāgavata communism. If you take more, you'll be punished. (break) ...our philosophy, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1). The Indians are trained up like that. He is happy in whatever condition of life he is placed. He doesn't protest. Any Indian villager, he'll say "God has given me this position, that's all right." Therefore the modern man is complaining that in India, this God consciousness has made them lethargic. They do not do... They believe on the destiny. Actually they do. Actually they do. Therefore from the very beginning you'll find so nice philosophy, literature, but you won't find the modernized economic development. Big, big house, big, big road, no. There was no such attempt.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Pradyumna: Jñānagamya said that on Mars they found something like a crater with a house. Looked like a... Or a bombed-out thing. This Jñānagamya was working with a, he works with some information service, U.S. Information Service. So he was in charge of designing something here for Fourth of July. Some program. So he got this information from this U.S. Information Service which generally..., sometimes it isn't made public. It's just in their U.S. service. They'd seen some kind of a crater with...

Parivrājakācārya: Roads in it as well.

Pradyumna: Yes, something with roads in it or something.

Hari-śauri: The way they test for life is they take some soil and mix certain things with it, and then they wait and see if there is some life development from that.

Prabhupāda: That is nonsense.

Hari-śauri: Yes. They mix ammonia and...

Prabhupāda: Chemical theory. Why do they not in the end mix something and see if life is coming? They are all rascals, speaking one after another, rascals.

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: So enjoy life. "I have no money." Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet. "Beg, borrow, steal, bring ghee, and prepare nice preparation and enjoy." Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet, yāvāj jivet sukhaṁ jivet. So long you live, enjoy. "I'll become a debtor. Then I'll act sinfully." Bhasmi bhūtasya dehasya kutaḥ punar agamano bhavet. Your body will be burnt and everything finished. This philosophy is going on. But Kṛṣṇa says: na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), the body is burned, don't think that you are burned. You are living. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Who is caring for that? Nobody cares. And still they are passing as paṇḍita, philosopher, scientist. This is misfortune of the present civilization. A person who is equal to go-kharaḥ, he is the teacher, he is the philosopher, he is leader.

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ

durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ

andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās

te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ

(SB 7.5.31)

People are running like anything in the street, bahir-artha-māninaḥ. They are thinking that this civilization, having nice roads and streets and number of cars and running here and there, this is... Bahir-artha-māninaḥ. They do not know what is the goal of life. And if you ask the goal of life, "What is goal of life?" "After death everything is finished," that's all. "Let me enjoy." Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet.(?) Beg borrow, steal, bring money and enjoy. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). If by his activities he's going to be a lower animal next life, then what is the value of his so much business and activities? Therefore they do not believe in next life. Close the eyes. Never mind, where is the danger in front.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: It is, actually, it was our house. Just three, four house after.

Hari-śauri: Rādhā-Govinda were the only Deities in the neighborhood?

Prabhupāda: No, only Deity, yes. And Rādhā-Govinda has big property. In front of the Deity house there is a very big building.

Hari-śauri: Just across the road? That one?

Prabhupāda: Yes, just opposite. That is His building. Very good income. Besides that, He has many other lands. They have got very good income.

Hari-śauri: They're very well looked after.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They're one of the oldest aristocratic families of Calcutta, Mulliks. The whole, from Howrah Bridge up to that street, all belongs to their property. Very rich men.

Hari-śauri: Now they don't own so much.

Prabhupāda: No, the Deity has got income. So they have got terms for worshiping the Deity. So one who gets the term for worshiping, he takes the income.

Morning Walk -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Why?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't know the reason, but apparently Indira Gandhi doesn't like big buildings. So actually according to the new law we have already built more than what the legal limit is. So what we did...

Prabhupāda: No, we have got some assetship(?) for the road? We have left over? Where is Saurabha?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Saurabha is in the front. Shall I call him?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...quite nice place for walking. Why it is drying? The leaf?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: People are coming just to see the building now.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: When it is built it will be I think just like Vṛndāvana. Many people think that the temple is these two towers. They think that the actual temple are these towers.

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is included in the... (break)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...watch the drama tonight also? They're going to have a drama also.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (counting floors) One, two, three, four, five, six? No?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's five, including the ground floor it comes to six.

Harikeśa: One, two, three, four, five, six. From the ground floor it's twice as high.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. (all chant japa) (break)

Prabhupāda: We are, some space is due to us on account of giving up the road?

Saurabha: That is already calculated. That is given to us already.

Prabhupāda: Given?

Saurabha: F.S.I. (effasai?)

Prabhupāda: F.S.I.

Saurabha: That we have already. We have used that in that building. We have used it in the building that is coming up here.

Prabhupāda: Oh. It is already. You have submitted the plan?

Saurabha: Yes.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Guest: (Bengali) We decide a date, and take... Not too... We have no means for having too many people, but about dozen people, or ten people can come. And they will have all facility. We can arrange a station wagon and everything there. You have to come up to Kore Canal(?) Road Station. And if you like we shall arrange for your departure from Madras. We will come with you. We will accompany you all the way. (Bengali conversation interspersed) When you come there I'll get everything ready. It is settled you are coming at there earliest.

Prabhupāda: Yes. When they'll make program, conveniently.

Guest: I'm leaving on 29th morning. If you can give me a word by tomorrow evening. Not 29th, 19th. Today is 17th.

Prabhupāda: They cannot decide so soon. Janmāṣṭamī kare, another program is that we are going that side during (indistinct). So we have to see. You also send this.

Mahāṁśa: Yes, I have to take little time.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Please come in.

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So best. Whoever gives the best.

Saurabha: And then one year in advance payment?

Prabhupāda: Yes, if we get from...

Saurabha: Of course, the location is excellent. It is... This is... There's two towers, and here is the road. Here is that, our road, going to our land in the back. Here is the main entry. Here is the temple in the back. So these two on the ground floor are meant for bank. So people can come right from here, and here is an entry. So place is the best for the bank. So they all want that place. So you think State Bank of India is the best?

Prabhupāda: No, as you think?

Saurabha: I don't know very much, but Gopāla said that the Indian Overseas Bank is an upcoming bank as well as Syndicate Bank, so they may be more eager for this.

Prabhupāda: Syndicate Bank is not very...

Saurabha: I also think to have a big bank is better.

Prabhupāda: Big bank is better. And who pays the best price.

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: ISKCON Juhu? That is sufficient address?

Saurabha: Well, this was hand-delivered. It would be nice if... I think now it is sufficient. Many letters come like that now.

Prabhupāda: No, we are famous now, Juhu.

Saurabha: But your official letters, the name of the street is called A. B. Nyer Road. I never knew that. I thought it was the road in the back.

Prabhupāda: No, they said Gandhi, Juhu Road?

Saurabha: No. Now on the latest letter that I got from the government it was written A. B. Nyer Road. Maybe it was an old letter, I don't know. When we submitted the new plans for the gurukula building, there was a letter I had to sign about the work, that we have given to the architect, an official letter so that we can get the permission. And it was written that the plot was on the A. B. Nyer Road, our land. So I inquired, and they said, "Yes, that's the name of that road."

Prabhupāda: Is there any signboard, A. B. Nyer Road?

Saurabha: No.

Prabhupāda: Then?

Saurabha: That is only in the back near that new hotel, that Holiday Inn Hotel. This one portion says A. B. Nyer Road. So that road goes like this-here is the Juhu Market and the road goes...

Prabhupāda: No, we go on as Hare Krishna Land, Juhu.

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Then?

Saurabha: That is only in the back near that new hotel, that Holiday Inn Hotel. This one portion says A. B. Nyer Road. So that road goes like this-here is the Juhu Market and the road goes...

Prabhupāda: No, we go on as Hare Krishna Land, Juhu.

Saurabha: Yes, that is... You don't have to say the road.

Prabhupāda: Hare Krishna Land, Juhu.

Saurabha: Yes. Everyone knows. It's no problem. Now, the altar of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, I sent you a picture that showed four columns—one here, one here, one here, and then the top. Here is Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, and here is Lalitā-Viśākhā. Those columns here, they're not in the front but they're in the back only. In front it is open.

Prabhupāda: Open. That's nice.

Saurabha: So then that is all right to use that one?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Nephew, nephew of Ford, that's a fact. Alfred is from the daughter's side. So the present Mr. Ford, his nephew, certainly, because daughter's side. His mother is the daughter, granddaughter of Henry Ford. Alfred's mother is the granddaughter of Henry Ford. Therefore the present Ford is the maternal uncle of Alfred.

Maṇihāra: "This will be a cultural gateway of India for the people of the world. Hyderabad is the South Indian headquarters for ISKCON in India. The magnificent Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Madana-mohana temple at Nampally Station Road, inaugurated by Swami Prabhupāda, will serve as a center of the cultural, spiritual, educational and social activities given to uplift the lives of people here. According to Śrī Mahāṁśa Swami, the president of the Society here, the devotees will hold seminars in colleges, factories, business centers, universities, schools, etc., to teach the techniques of spiritualizing the day-to-day life. Deity worship accompanied by the constant chanting of the holy names will be a special feature at the center. Besides, there will be daily classes in Sanskrit, Bhagavad-gītā, Bhāgavatam, and the Upaniṣads. There will be a Vedic library consisting of Swami Prabhupāda's books and various books on comparative study of religion. A cassette library will be a special feature here. Devotees will travel into towns and villages and do saṅkīrtana for the uplift of the masses. ISKCON Hyderabad is introducing for the first time in South India its major 600 acre community farming project, 40 kilometers from Hyderabad, to benefit about 20,000 villages. Besides regular free nutritional food distribution program, ISKCON is also planning to set up a model high-yielding 600-cow dairy farm, handloom centers, nature-cure hospital, and gurukula school project. Swami Prabhupāda's most substantial contribution, however, is to be found in his books, a veritable storehouse of knowledge and wisdom. He has written more than 50 books so far, explaining the principles of Kṛṣṇa or God consciousness in a logical, practical, and scientific way. Through his books people are understanding the eternal wisdom of the ancient Indian scriptures. That ISKCON has made a significant contribution to the intellectual, cultural, and spiritual life of contemporary man is obvious from the fact that people of all ages and..."

Prabhupāda: A very important article.

Morning Walk Conversation About Bombay -- August 29, 1976, Delhi:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda just returned from his fifteenth world tour. (break)

Prabhupāda: We have got now...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: A new house, Feroz Gandhi Road.

Indian man: Feroz Gandhi Marg (Hindi) Lajpat Nagar number three. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...place in the car. This way?

Indian man: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Indian man: These children, they are coming from which place?

Hari-śauri: France and...

Prabhupāda: The smaller one from France and the bigger one from America. International.

Indian man: And their parents also there.

Prabhupāda: They are also here. We are a society, so the gṛhasthas are there, brahmacārīs, sannyāsīs, vānaprastha. All status of life. Missionaries, they have got only sannyāsīs. We have got all.

Indian man: The other missionaries?

Prabhupāda: Just like Ramakrishna Mission. They have got only sannyāsīs. No gṛhasthas. But we have got gṛhasthas also.

Morning Walk Conversation About Bombay -- August 29, 1976, Delhi:

Hari-śauri: Don't annoy it. Otherwise, it might not be so friendly.

Prabhupāda: Oh, you have to walk, why you are getting?

Hari-śauri: There's no room. Prabhupāda said you have to walk. You have to stay in the park.

Children: No!

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a straight road.

Hari-śauri: Come on, let's go. Let's lock the door. (break) (in the car)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: His father's the head pūjārī.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Very good pūjārī.

Children: You know the dress that was yesterday? Deity's dress? The same as your birthday dress.

Girirāja: The dress that was put yesterday was the same as the birthday dress?

Child: Of Prabhupāda.

Hari-śauri: No, the Vyāsa-pūjā dress.

Girirāja: Oh, the Vyāsa-pūjā dress.

Prabhupāda: What is that? You know?

Girirāja: What is Vyāsa-pūjā? (end)

Evening Darsana -- September 1, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: They have made program to go to Chandigarh.

Indian man (1): Chandigarh. (indistinct) The route is almost the same distance from here to Vṛndāvana. 5 miles, 8 miles difference. Not much difference mileage-wise.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No. The road is okay. You said we should go to Vṛndāvana via Aligarh?

Indian man (2): In my opinion you should. That road is very bad. Five or six kilometers they have raised the road by about six or seven feet and all this is all mud and muck and the car skids. In my opinion you go via Aligarh.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Or we can come to Aligarh from Vṛndāvana.

Indian man (2): Suggest to go back to Vṛndāvana and then come. (Hindi) (Gopāla Kṛṣṇa converses with Indians about which road to take)

Pradyumna: Purport: Samādhi means "fixed mind." The Vedic dictionary, the Nirukti, says, samyag ādhīyate 'sminn ātmatattva-yāthātmyam: "When the mind is fixed for understanding the self, it is called samādhi. "Samādhi is never possible for persons interested in material sense enjoyment, nor for those who are bewildered by such temporary things. They are more or less condemned by the process of material energy.

Evening Darsana -- September 1, 1976, Delhi:

Indian man (3): ...we are going there after Parliament session tomorrow. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: They spend so much money for the roadways, still it is not good.

Indian man (3): Draining is different levels arising water (indistinct) in excessive in quantity, and the natural drains are not efficient enough to take it out. I was told that...

Prabhupāda: There is no sufficient outlet.

Indian man (3): Yes. But some of those āśrama, Mathurā, it's very deep, that four feet water in the āśramas. Three-four feet water.

Prabhupāda: Within the āśramas?

Indian man (3): And temple.

Pradyumna: Our temple is all right. Raman Reti is not flooded where we are. It's almost up to Fogel Ashram in the back, Yamunā, but it has not come to our Raman Reti.

Indian man (3): And now you will remain here in India for some time?

Prabhupāda: That I do not know. I, actually, now it is little troublesome for me to travel all the year.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They eat?

Hari-śauri: Yes. The eyeball. They think it's a great delicacy.

Prabhupāda: Now their delicacy their own children. (break) ...big stack of bricks, iron. Left over.

Hari-śauri: Sometimes they don't even finish the buildings they're building. That building across the road from our temple in New York, that's been there five years like that, half-completed.

Prabhupāda: Now things are deteriorating. And fire is always... (Siren bell sound:) dungdung dungdungdungdungdung-gawaawaawaa. Saṁsāra-dāvānala. Still they think that they are advanced. In one hour three times fire, still he is advanced. Therefore he is mūḍha. At least, in small city such disturbances are not... It is always gawaagawaagawaa.

Hari-śauri: Police, ambulance, fires.

Prabhupāda: How the city life is attractive we cannot understand.

Hari-śauri: (laughs) Ask him. He's always telling us how New York is the best place in the world.

Prabhupāda: You were born in New York?

Devotee: No.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Interviewer: One American professor who is a teacher of Hinduism there, in some of the universities you mentioned, she said, I asked him a question about ISKCON, and she said, "Well this thing is creating a bad impression in the sense that people are accosted everywhere, in the streets, on the airport, at the bus stand. They accost you and force you to buy their literature, to buy their books. And this is creating a revulsion.

Prabhupāda: So why you are forced? Suppose as preaching work... In our childhood we saw the Christian preachers were also standing on the road. So if we stand on the road and preach and sell our books what is the fault?

Interviewer: I put that. He said you are doing what the Christian... (break)

Prabhupāda: No. The government allowed them, the Christian people. The government is allowing us also. Then where is the fault?

Interviewer: The fault is...

Prabhupāda: That is your imagination, fault.

Interviewer: It's not a legal fault.

Prabhupāda: Well, that's all right. We are preacher, we must preach in every way. We shall go everyone, that "Here is Kṛṣṇa consciousness literature. Kindly take it." That is our business. The government does not object to this. There are many cases in the court and the court allowed, "Yes. They should sell."

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh, hm. (break) ...just in front of our house, attached to our house. That means the house belonged to one of our relatives and her son, stepson, he sold the whole house to a Marwari without the knowledge of this, my, she was in relation grandmother. So when the house was sold in those days, about say about 100 years ago, not 100 years, about 90 years. In Mahatma Gandhi road, most important, that Mullik's house you have seen? That was one of the Mullik's house, for 12,000 rupees. One bighā of land and grand building. So it was unknown to the stepmother, the stepson sold it. Then she appealed to the high-court that, "I belong to a respectable family and this my spoiled stepson has sold the house without my knowledge, then where shall I go?" The high-court considered that, "The drunkard son has sold at a cheap price, and she's belongs to a respectable family, where she'll go?" And the high-court order was, "The half of the house shall be used by this lady. During her lifetime, you cannot take possession," the Marwari who purchased. So under that grandmother, we used to live. Therefore this half portion of the house was a Marwari school. So it is just like our temple and this. So my father first admitted me in that Marwari school. So I learned this devanāgarī there, for a few days I was going. I was the only Bengali student there. Because I was little, my father thought that instead of going outside the house, within the house there is a school, get him admitted. The school name was Visuddhana(?) Marwari Vijnala(?), something like that, and later on they constructed huge building Visuddhana(?). Then the house was vacated. So in the beginning I was admitted in a Marwari school and I learned a little Hindi there, that's all.

Room Conversation -- November 20, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: No?

Prabhupāda: No. There is a big building, Bharat Maharaja, yes, Bharatpur, just by the side of that house. It is in the corner. The door is in the corner. The road is going this way in the corner. It is stone. Face is stone. Good building, but... (break) ...in thought of Kṛṣṇa, outside cleaning by oil and soap. Soap. Bāhyābhyantara-śuciḥ. This is quite comfortable, not very chilly, within this room.

Hari-śauri: Yes, this retains the heat nicely.

Prabhupāda: People are so misled. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). We have to change this body. There is no preparation. "As sure as death." Death will take place, and you have to accept another body. Who understands this philosophy? Nobody. They are so dull-headed. This body finished, everything finished. All big, big leaders, scholars, they say. One gentleman, his name is... He was Rabindranath Tagore's brother, artist. So in a meeting he was saying, "We are so fool. Thinking of next life, next life, we are spoiling this life." He said like that long, long ago when we were children, young men, about eighteen years, twenty years. So I remember distinctly, he is saying in the meeting that "Simply thinking of next life, we are spoiling this life." He said. That was his explanation. So at that time we were young boys: "Yes, why we should think of, so much of next life?" Of course, I was not very much convinced, but naturally... I think his name Aurobindo Tagore, like that. Rabindranath Tagore. He is good artist. Artist means latest fashion, like this, like that, like that.

Morning Walk Excerpt -- December 4, 1976, Hyderabad:

Haṁsadūta: ...to Bombay.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Haṁsadūta: The roadway is always difficult. It's better if you travel by air. (break)

Prabhupāda: They are dangerous road.

Devotee (1): The roads are not very good.

Haṁsadūta: Tribhuvanath is in Gujarat, is that right?

Devotee (1): Gujarat, right.

Haṁsadūta: He's collecting to get the bus fixed. (break) Another one, a small one. (break) The day Your Divine Grace... (break) ...so much danger with these machines. Not a... (break)

Devotee (1): It's very old. Many Arabs are here.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Mahāṁśa: ...plant more trees, orchards for fruits and flowers, flower garden. So there will be plenty of flowers for the altar in Hyderabad every day and for the programs here. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...walking road.

Mahāṁśa: Yes. This road also, we want to extend it all the way to the end of the land.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Mahāṁśa: The same road. That's where the dioramas will be. (break)

Devotee (1): ...having lunch with the cowherd boys on this rocky place and then people can come and sit here also.

Prabhupāda: Later on. First of all grow vegetable. Let us eat first of all. Immediately grow vegetables sufficient. And this is good idea, we shall do that, but first of all let us organize the vegetables, fruits. What are these trees?

Mahāṁśa: These are nimbu (lemon) trees which Badrukas have planted and were neglected. They have become very stunted. We dug them out, and we put some cow dung just last, two, three months back. We're going to bring them up, but they will not be very good now. They've already been stunted.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Mahāṁśa: They have been neglected in the beginning, so they have become stunted. So it will help a little by manuring, and some places it has to be grafted and cut off. Some of the trees are good. We get... How many nimbus did we get this year?

Prabhupāda: Make nimbu-ācāra (lemon pickle).

Mahāṁśa: Oh yes, we made... Acyutagaja isn't here. One devotee here, he knows how to make it. He made very nice nimbu-ācāra.

Prabhupāda: Simply salt and lemon juice. Cut some pieces into half and soak it in lemon juice and put sufficient salt. In due course it will be very nice, thick. Very digestible. (break) Not yet utilized. So you have to do that.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Devotee (3): We were planning to have our temple site located here at this corner of the land.

Prabhupāda: Oh. That's nice. Flat land. This is flat land?

Devotee (3): Yes.

Mahāṁśa: We didn't want to put it this side because then people would come into the living area, so we put it right on the road, on this side, with a prasādam hall.

Prabhupāda: Very good. (break)

Devotee (4): ...some pottery made here.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee (4): The devotees staying here, living here, they may make some pottery, set of potter's wheel, make clay pots.

Prabhupāda: What? What you'll use, pots? Here pottery is very cheap. We are not for arts. We are simply bare necessities of life and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is explained. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt (SB 7.5.5). Because he has accepted something which is asat... Asat means which will not endure, such things, on account of this, he is always full of anxieties. Asat, this body is asat. Asad-grahāt. Because we have accepted this material body, we must be always full of anxieties. Asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). Although this body is temporary, still so long the body is there, we will suffer. Kleśada, kleśada means always giving trouble. This trouble, that trouble, this trouble, that trouble.

Mr. Malhotra: This road straight leads to Bangalore, Madras. This road goes to south, entire south. You can go by this road only to Kanyākumārī.

Prabhupāda: Oh!

Mr. Malhotra: Yes, Cape Comorin, right up to Calicut.

Prabhupāda: And all the tīrthas are on the four sides. Very good road?

Mr. Malhotra: Last year in the month of December I went to Rāmeśvaram.

Prabhupāda: On this road?

Mr. Malhotra: On this road. Of course, I went by air to Bangalore and from there we went by car. But this road goes straight. (break) ...by car, to Calcutta by air, then from there to that Bhuvaneśvara by train, and then from there by car like that. (break) It is very small place, Dvārakā, it is very small place, and in that leak was, an entire area was destroyed completely. Even communications could not be restored for three months. But Dvārakā itself was untouched completely. But on the way we found, because we went by car from here, we found roads, everything was destroyed completely. You could see demolished, the tops of houses gone away in the cyclone.

Prabhupāda: Maharastra Province is rich? I don't think so.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. But they enjoy very much. They enjoy very much. Those who are even not my students, they also come to me, "Thank you, Prabhupāda. Thank you, Prabhupāda." They say like that. They enjoy very much. Dance like anything. When the Ratha-yātrā goes. They say, "It is life." They are dancing. "This is life. We do not know what is happening, but we are dancing." They say like that.

Mr. Malhotra: Dancing, this ballroom dancing?

Prabhupāda: No, around the road, Hare Kṛṣṇa dancing. (laughter) There is no need of ballroom. They become mad dancing. Kṛṣṇotkīrtana-gāna-nartana-parau. That is ecstasy. So when the ecstasy is there, they understand this is life. (break)

Mr. Malhotra: Mr. Biani, Biani. He is just Birla's tea (indistinct) looking after tea. Last time I was in Delhi about two months back, so I just talked about you that I had to meet you and we could go to Vṛndāvana. Because at that time I was told that you were there. So he knew you very well, he had been to your discourses, Mr. Biani. He's Marwari. They are in Calcutta. Tea business, export tea business. We agreed on one thing, that it is very easy, rather, to make Indians understand the spiritual teachings of Lord Kṛṣṇa, because in homes, in houses, forefathers, grandmothers, mothers, they are doing, I mean, always. But to, I mean, impart this knowledge to the...

Prabhupāda: Foreigners.

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

Prabhupāda: Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). This is the process of cleansing the heart. So if it is done properly, everyone becomes cleansed of all dirty things. Naturally he becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Mr. Malhotra: I was rather very much surprised when I first met, Prabhupāda, about four or five devotees on the streets of this Honolulu. Because I went from this side, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, and then entered in America through Honolulu, Hawaii. So when I went I was just in the morning, I was trying to get the tourist bus moving in the whole city to see. And then on the main road, you know that main road, have you been to Honolulu?

Prabhupāda: No. He has gone.

Mr. Malhotra: Ācchā. You have been to Honolulu?

Hari-śauri: Yeah.

Mr. Malhotra: Five devotees were having drums, this khola, they were dancing like, I mean, in their own mood, you know. So then I had a curiosity. I just stopped one of them and I said, "Well, Mr. I would like to know about all this." He said, "Yes, you come to our temple in the morning and we'll tell you all about it." But I said that "What you are doing?" "We are playing kīrtana." I said "Well, why you are out on the streets." "Because these all demons. These are all demons you know. So those who do not have any spiritual knowledge, so we want to penetrate in their ears, and through their ears in their hearts, the name of Kṛṣṇa. So that even if they don't like it, well, the Kṛṣṇa name should enter in their hearts."

Prabhupāda: That is... This mantra...

Mr. Malhotra: "So that is what we are doing. So even if they don't like it we are doing. So whosoever is passing by he will have at least his ears will be accustomed to hear the name of Lord Kṛṣṇa." I said, "But in Gītā it is said that those who do not wish to know the true knowledge, well, it is forbidden for the devotees or for the followers to tell them anything about spiritual knowledge." "So that, sir, we are not imparting knowledge to each individual by catching them. We are just playing ourselves. So whosoever likes it, he can stand by us. Otherwise we are not..." So they replied also correctly to this also.

Prabhupāda: Yes, and Kṛṣṇa says...

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

Prabhupāda: May not. Because Kumbha-mela is there. (break)

Mr. Malhotra: ...at auditorium. This road goes to Bangalore straight, and we go to Mahabalesvara. This side.

Prabhupāda: Bangalore how many miles?

Mr. Malhotra: Total, from Poona, 520 miles. And you go from here on this road only to Goa also. To go to Madras, you go also on this road (break) ...dolak.(?) Some (indistinct) will give... I mean sounds are different, you know, instruments are music.

Prabhupāda: This is called musical science, Jala-taraṅga. Jala, taraṅga means vibration, different vibrations. Still there are, among the musicians, there are artists, they'll put vials and make the different tunes by filling it with water. (SP makes sound dn dn dn dn dn) (break)

Mr. Malhotra: This place is full of tourists from Bombay, from all of Gujarat. (break) Pancagani is one place, and 12 miles difference Mahabalesvara. Also it is twin city like Secunderabad, Hyderabad. (break) In the morning when you go for walk you will find local ladies getting load of food collected from the forests and taking. Very old, old type of life (break) ...this place. I visited Switzerland and I visited almost every hill station of the country, and almost practically entire world. But I find this place of a different solace, (break) ...and second, it is very neat and clean.

Prabhupāda: Maharastrians are very neat and clean. Upper class, they are very. (break) ...karmī.

Mr. Malhotra: Good man.

Prabhupāda: Good man from worldly point of view, but from spiritual point of view, in the lowest stage. Karmī is the lowest stage. Then jñānī, then yogi, then bhakta.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, karmī means this how to enjoy this world. Whole life they have struggled how to enjoy this, how to enjoy myself, how to allow my men to enjoy. This is karmī platform. Everyone is doing that. Everyone is working hard for himself, for his family, and expand the family, for society, and expand the society, for the nation. Here is karmī plan. Gandhi, Birla they are all... There is no question of spiritual life.

Mr. Malhotra: Now this is the Kṛṣṇā River. You just see how small it is, and how big it becomes later on. In the rainy season this road is closed because this all water comes up, you know. Now it is just a small rivulet. This is Kṛṣṇā river. And it comes just opposite our place, from where it starts, from the mountain. Here is the place called Haya (?). This was also one of the biggest Sanskrit University in the older time like that of Teksasila. And Sarnatha, near Sarnatha, what is that place? Not Sarnatha, up in Bihar, that was also very big university, no?

Prabhupāda: Oh, Taksila.

Mr. Malhotra: No Taksila was in Punjab, that side. In Bengal, Bihar, that...

Prabhupāda: Tarbanga.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Indian man: Railway may be going, but even that will be zigzag.

Prabhupāda: Simla, er, Darjeeling is not so zigzag but big, big loops (?).

Indian man: Loops are big. Roads are very difficult. Kodekana there is no train. In Ootacamund there is a train.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Kodekana there is no train at all?

Prabhupāda: No, there is train from Madras.

Indian man: Kodekana you'll have to change and then go by motor car.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Indian man: That inquire.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I can inquire.

Indian man: When you come in Ootacamund there is a direct train. (Prabhupāda rings bell)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: You want Jagadīśa or Hari-śauri?

Prabhupāda: Anyone. He can take this.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: I like that place Hyderabad.

Morning Walk -- December 28, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Private house. This is organized function you ask them a place to show our books. If they deny then we don't go. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)

Rādhā-vallabha: This one parade in Los Angeles, the Rose Bowl, they distribute thousands of books on this one day. What happens is all the karmīs get out there, sometimes the night before, at least very, very early in the morning. They line both sides of the road.

Prabhupāda: To see?

Rādhā-vallabha: To see yes. Approximately a million people. About a million people, they're just lining both sides of the road and the street is empty before the parade. So this year we're going to have the gurukula boys do a kīrtana and go right up the road. So one million people will see the saṅkīrtana party.

Guru dāsa: And then it will be on television.

Rādhā-vallabha: It will probably be on television.

Hari-śauri: They have a similar parade in Melbourne like that called a Moomba. Three-quarters of a million people come for it and the whole city closes down. And they line up and down the main road and then they have a parade of floats. So they invited that we could put a float in so Bali Mardana said he would try and get the ratha cart in. Three-quarters of a million people seeing Lord Jagannātha.

Guru dāsa: Why don't you do that in Los Angeles? (end)

Morning Walk -- December 30, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So you can believe in him, that by putting in his custody one hundred, one thousand rupees he can deliver. At any moment. The bankers. And Rūpa Gosvāmī did it practically. Some money for emergency, some money... Relatives they also expect. That is allowed. So they should be given something. Not that cent percent. At least 25% to the relatives and 25% for personal. And 50% for Kṛṣṇa. This is the system. So this is called dānam. Kṛṣṇa also says kuruṣva tad mad-arpaṇam. "If you want to give in charity, give it to Me." Kuruṣva tad mad-arpaṇam. Dadāsi yat. "If you have got some capacity to give something, give it to Me." He never said to daridra-nārāyaṇa. I do not know how they manufactured these things. Kṛṣṇa says, "Give it to Me." He's not daridra. He's Nārāyaṇa, but He's not daridra. The principle is to give to the richest Nārāyaṇa, not daridra-nārāyaṇa. But these rascals misinterpret that daridra has become Nārāyaṇa. How daridra can become Nārāyaṇa? This is going on. And therefore there is no effect. There is no effect. See from practical what Vivekananda has done? But they have made propaganda, false propaganda, they have got roads. In a city like Bombay, big road, Vivekananda. But they do not care what Vivekananda has done.

Morning Walk -- December 30, 1976, Bombay:

Devotee: Even they got road, in the road so many nonsense going on.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: They cannot utilize my writing in their favor.