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Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- March 9, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: So from this book we understand from the version of Kṛṣṇa, or God, that ā-brahma bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). Even if you go to the highest planetary system, again you have to come back. In this way, all living entities are rotating from one planet to another, from one species of life to another. But we don't want this actually.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: The sun is, sun-god is situated one place, but it is fiery. Blazing fire. Its heat and light is expanded. You see practically, the heat and light. So whatever this material existence is the sunlight, sunshine. Everything existing on sunshine. It is scientific. Your electricity, your this, that, whatever you take it is all sunshine. All these planets are moving, rotating on the sunshine. Heat. If heat is taken away immediately whole thing spoiled. Therefore everything is resting on the energy of the sunshine, but if you say that "Then let me find out the sun-god in the sunshine," that you will have to go there.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

That is explained in Viṣṇu Purāṇa. Parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ sarvedam akhilaṁ jagat. Eka-sthānī sthitasyajñer jyotsnā vistāriṇī yathā, parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ sarvedam akhilaṁ jagat. The same example, that the sun. The sun is, sun-god is situated one place, but it is fiery. Blazing fire. Its heat and light is expanded. You see practically, the heat and light. So whatever this material existence is the sunlight, sunshine. Everything existing on sunshine. It is scientific. Your electricity, your this, that, whatever you take it is all sunshine. All these planets are moving, rotating on the sunshine. Heat. If heat is taken away immediately whole thing spoiled. Therefore everything is resting on the energy of the sunshine, but if you say that "Then let me find out the sun-god in the sunshine," that you will have to go there.

Room Conversation -- September 24, 1969, London:

Guest (1): They might say it's a rotation. They just have to do it.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Guest (1): Do some work.

Prabhupāda: But do you like to do that? Suppose you are making very nice arrangement in this apartment to live. And again, after, say, one hour you are asked, "Now quit this place." So are you not disgusted?

Guest (1): Yes, I am interested.

Prabhupāda: So why this point is not coming? This is ignorance. Just like animals, they do not know why they are laboring so hard. Just an ass. An ass is piled with cloth, you know? In your India. But whose cloth, why he's so much bearing burden? For a little grass only? That he does not know. Therefore he's called ass. Ass is working so hard, but he's not, he does not know if the cloth does not belong to him, but he's piled up with... (Aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. ...tons of cloth and he's bearing. He's bearing. Therefore they have been... These karmīs who do not know for whom he's working, they have been described in the Bhagavad-gītā, mūḍha. Mūḍha means ass. Na māṁ prapadyante mūḍhaḥ duṣkṛtino narādhamāḥ, māyayāpahṛta-jñānā āsuraṁ bhāvam aśritāḥ (BG 7.15). These things are there; in the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find. Wherefore you are coming?

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- November 7, 1970, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, that is second. First of all surrender. Then what way you shall surrender, that is different thing, another stage, more confidential. First of all there is surrender. First of all you enter this house or this room. Then you ask, "How can I serve you?" That is different. First of all there is no surrender, or without surrender, full surrender, there is no entrance in Kṛṣṇa. No entry. Because those who revolted against Kṛṣṇa, those who wanted to become Kṛṣṇa by imitating Him, they are here in this material world. Icchā-dveṣa-samutthena sarge yānti parantapa (BG 7.27). (Hindi) Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19), creation, that all the living entities who have come into this created world, they have revolted. They wanted to become Kṛṣṇa, to imitate Kṛṣṇa. Therefore they have given the chance, "All right, you become Kṛṣṇa. You do whatever you like. I will give you facilities. You want to become Brahmā? All right, you become Brahmā. And you want to become the worm of stool? I will give you the facility." So these living entities are rotating.

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: The story is a mouse came to a saintly person: "Sir, I am in trouble. If you kindly release me?" "What is that trouble?" "A cat, they are after me. I am always at risk of life." "So what do you want?" "You also make me a cat." "All right. You become a cat." Then again he came. "Sir, again the complaint is here." "What is that?" "Dogs are chasing me." "Then what do you want?" "I want to become a dog." "All right. You become a dog." In this way he came up to the tiger by the benediction of the... And when he became a tiger, he was... (snarling sound-laughter) Just like our Brahmānanda Prabhu. "All right. Again become mouse." You see? So these civilization is like that. They became tiger, and they are so much badly trained up that they have to become again a mouse. That is the way. That is the way of nature. If you don't improve yourself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you again become stool worms. The human form of life is an opportunity to come out of the cycle of birth and death, but if one does not take—these are the statements in Padma Purāṇa—then he loses the chance. They do not know what is life, how life is rotating, talking nonsense, "I am God.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Actually there is no darkness. Take it sunlight, it is whole. There is no darkness and everything is in sunshine, all the planets, they are rotating in sunshine. So under certain conditions one part is becoming dark, another part is light. But actually the whole universe is full with sunshine. Sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. That is the exact definition given in Sanskrit. Everything is light, brahma.

Mensa Member: That's another postulate.

Dr. Weir: You can build any theory according to the number of postulates you're willing to accept which cannot be analyzed, including the basis of science, the atom, as originally thought of by Theocritus and others is the thing that you cannot go beyond and count down farther in playing with your philosophy or your theology that you go down until you can find nothing, except that you say that causa causam and then you build back again from that. But that's what I was saying earlier on, the Kṛṣṇa is very close to the Unitarian position in Christianity.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: He has got already spiritual body. Material body is his covering. It is unnatural. Real body is spiritual. Just like your coat, this is unnatural. But your real body is natural. Otherwise how transmigration is possible? I am accepting different unnatural bodies. Unnatural means to my constitution. My real constitutional body is servant of Kṛṣṇa. So, so long I do not come to that position, I remain servant of nature and I get so many bodies. According to the nature's direction I am getting body, I am giving it up, again I am desiring something, I am getting another body. This is going on. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ, ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā (BG 3.27). He is a rascal. He is thinking, "I am this body." Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati, bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). This is a yantra, machine. And we are traveling many species of life, all riding on this car, given by nature. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. Māyā has given this vehicle, anywhere wandering, up and down, sometimes demigod, sometimes dog. This is going on. And in this wandering process, if he gets in touch with a devotee, then his real spiritual life begins. Otherwise he has to go on, rotating.

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, Caitanya Mahāprabhu. By mercy of spiritual master, the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, he gets the seed of devotional service, and if he cultivates, then his life becomes successful. Otherwise he has to rotate, sometimes up, sometimes down. Sometimes this grass, sometimes lion.

Paramahaṁsa: But ultimately if we come to Kṛṣṇa, there's no return. But nevertheless, Jagāi, and..., the two gatekeepers, they returned?

Prabhupāda: There is return, that is voluntary. Return there is.

Paramahaṁsa: If we want.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Paramahaṁsa: So we can come to the spiritual world and return?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Paramahaṁsa: Fall down?

Prabhupāda: Yes. As soon as we try, "Oh, this material world is very nice," "Yes," Kṛṣṇa says, "yes, you go." Just like nobody is interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Do you think everyone is interested? So. They want to enjoy this material world. Otherwise what is the meaning of free will? Every living entity has got a little free will. And Kṛṣṇa is so kind, He gives him opportunity, "All right, you enjoy like this." Just like some of our students, Kṛṣṇa conscious, sometimes go away, again come back. It is free will, not stereotyped. Just like one goes to the prisonhouse, not that government welcomes, "Come on.

Room Conversation with Two Buddhist Monks -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: No. This is from the western world. This is very nice argument, that in the jungle there are carnivorous animals, but they don't maintain slaughterhouse. Neither they attack unless they are hungry. Otherwise, in Africa, there is national...

Haṁsadūta: Park.

Prabhupāda: All the animals are freely rotating.

Buddhist Monk (1): Or they think their life is in danger.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Buddhist Monk (1): If one radiates love and kindness...

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. Defense is allowed to everyone. You must defend. That is another thing. But ordinarily, not that because a lion has got jaws and teeth, therefore he's simply jumping over. Not like that. Even people have experienced that when the, these ferocious animals, they are not hungry, they don't attack. They don't attack.

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, this, this whole material world is going on under physical law. That is called guṇamayī. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). Everything is going on... It is exactly... Yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakraḥ. So it is... Just like the sun is also rotating in its orbit, sixteen thousand miles per second, but it has got a fixed time, how long it will rotate by the order of the Supreme. This is physical law. And when, when He wants, everything will withdraw. All physical, finished.

Hṛdayānanda: Īśa.

Prabhupāda: Law means law-maker. So they do not know who is the law-maker. That is the difficulty.

Sudāmā: In Japan, Śrīla Prabhupāda, there was a cherry tree that usually in the springtime it gives off flowers. So about three, two years ago, in the middle of winter, this tree gave off all flowers. All the scientists, everyone was running. "It is not time. It is not time. It is not the season. Why is it giving the flowers?"

Prabhupāda: Therefore the best education, scientific advancement, is to recognize God behind everything. That is perfection. We are canvassing, "Accept God, accept God." But if the modern scientist, philosopher, they present, "Yes, here is God," by calculation, then people will take it more seriously.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. There are many planets invisible. So there is a Rahu planet which comes in front of the moon planet, and that is called eclipse. So there is a planet rotating. I think they are going to that Rahu planet, not to the moon planet.

Haṁsadūta: How can they make such a mistake?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Haṁsadūta: How is it that they made such a big mistake?

Prabhupāda: Their whole life is mistake. (laughter) They cannot do anything but mistake. Why you are so much confident about that? Their whole life is simply mistake.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, they see a little fire, and they see that it has heat and light, and so they see a huge thing having heat and light, and so they conclude that that's also a fire. So if that's their deductive method, then if they see that whenever there's intelligence, there must be a person, then why don't they conclude that behind the universe, there's so many wonderful things, that there must also be a person?

Prabhupāda: Yes, we say there are persons, combination of fiery persons. Therefore it looks so bright.

Morning Walk -- April 4, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Now, this is Kṛṣṇa's power. Let us understand. A teeny aeroplane is floating in the air, and it is making so much sound. And millions and trillions of planets are floating, there is no sound. There is no sound. (break) ...if you take it and fix it up... What is that? One thousand or more than, one thousand miles.

Dr. Patel: A second.

Prabhupāda: No, no. This earth, per hour.

Dr. Patel: Earth is rotating and also going round... It has got two movements.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, but we cannot understand any movement, but it is moving. The force is there.

Dr. Patel: Shall I go further?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...even the sun, what to speak of other things, even the sun, the central point of this universe. Yasyājñayā bhramati saṁbhṛta-kāla-cakraḥ. It is also rotating in the orbit by order of Govinda. Govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi **. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...nama utila pi-asa nīre (?). Now, if you live on the ocean and if you are thirsty, you cannot drink a drop. You will have to die. Nīra kari vasa (?). Although the same water we are drinking. Is it not, Dr.?

Dr. Patel: Yes. Water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The same water drinking, but when it is purified by the arrangement of Kṛṣṇa... You cannot drink. And still, you are scientist. (Hindi)

Dr. Patel: One boy from engineers' school of technology here in Bombay has found out a method of...

Prabhupāda: That is another nonsense. He will turn one cup of seawater into sweet water and it will cost some hundreds of rupees.

Dr. Patel: That is right, but these fellows, they have found some natural way.

Prabhupāda: Well.

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1974, Rome:

Bhagavān: You say in the, I think it's in the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that by doing so much drilling into the earth, they actually disturbed the rotation of the earth.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we can think like that. Just like the plane, aeroplane, is flying. There is sufficient petrol stock. Is it not? So the world has got sufficient petrol stock. If you do not know how it is being used, maybe due to this petrol, it is floating. And if you take away the petrol stock, it may drop. Everything is there. There is a purpose. Pūrṇam idam (Īśopaniṣad, Invocation). There is full purpose. Not that whimsically petrol is there within the earth. There is some purpose.

Devotee: What they do, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is take the petrol out and put salt water, because they know there can be a imbalance. And then they put salt water in the holes.

Prabhupāda: But water cannot produce gas. Petrol produces gas. Maybe due to that gas, it is floating. Because we have got practical experience. When there is gas, you can float anything.

Dhanañjaya: Like a balloon.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Monsieur Roost, Hatha-yogi -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Now, in another place, the magnitude of the soul is explained. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya (CC Madhya 19.140). In the Upaniṣad also it is stated that 10,000th part of the top of the hair point, is the magnitude of the soul. Our knowledge is accepted in that way, Vedic knowledge. Whatever is stated in the Vedas, that is taken as Absolute Truth and we accept it. And that is fact. If you go to the same point by experimental truth, you will come to the same conclusion. So we think that by experimental knowledge, why should we waste our time? Better take the truth which is already stated in the Vedic literature and build up your farther premises on that basic principle. Just like that small fragment of spirit, 1/10,000th portion of the top of the hair, is there within you, within me, and that is rotating through the air, prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, like that, the vāyu. The yogic process is to capture it. But that is a fact, that the spirit soul is there within this body. It is a fact. So either you try to understand or capture it by the yogic process or you know it, that there is the soul within the body, the result is the same. Therefore you will find in the Bhagavad-gītā at the end of the Sixth Chapter that the bhakta-yogī is the topmost yogi.

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: The cotton is there in the cloth in a different, transformed, transform, but you cannot accept, when you require a cloth, you cannot take cotton. This is a crude example. So the cause of physical elements is spiritual energy, and the spiritual energy is... Both spiritual... Spiritual energy is coming from God. Just like... (aside:) Close. (sound of windows closing) Just like the sunshine is coming from the sun, and in the sunshine there are so many physical transformations. Is it not? In the sunshine... Just like we, ordinary men, we can understand. When there is absence of sunshine... In your western countries or in other..., the leaves of the tree falls down. And again, in the springtime, as soon as there is sufficient sunshine, immediately thousands of trees grows leaves. So there is action of sunshine. So sunshine is coming from the sun. And the sunshine is working in different ways, changing the color of the flowers, of the leaves, and... Or, so far I know, all the planets are, they're rotating on the sunshine heat. Eh? So therefore the sunshine is the original cause of all material, physical things. But wherefrom the sunshine comes? That comes from the spiritual energy. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40). In the Brahma-saṁhitā. So that original cause is the spiritual energy. Therefore, because everything is coming from the spiritual energy, you can take everything as spiritual. The same example: like cotton is the original cause.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1975, Tokyo:

Prabhupāda: ...flowers, fruits, and temperature is changing, it is rotating. Very fixed up, very timely. How can you say there is no control? How can you say? The animals cannot say, but any human being can say, "Yes, there is control. Otherwise how things are going on like this?" (break) ...convince him there is surely controller, convince him. (break) ...to beginning of this chapter that there is no controller. Asatyam jagad āhur anīśvaram (BG 16.8). Where is that verse, find out. Jagad āhur anīśvaram.

Nitāi: It's text 8.

Prabhupāda: Ah. What does it say?

Nitāi: It says:

Morning Walk -- May 18, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: You can call anything. (laughs) But if Kṛṣṇa desires, a football may not fall. Just like so many planets, they are carried up by the air. All these planets are moving only by the air. So the heavy land, heavy cloud is carried by the air. It is a question of adjustment of air, not the law of gravity. Now the whole universal planetary system are floating and rotating round the polestar. Is it law of gravity, they are rotating? It is the arrangement of the air, by the air it is up. Just like there is dust storm, so many are floating in the air. There is no question of law of gravity; it is the air. And the who is controlling the air? That is Supreme Personality. Just like in Darwin, the motor buses were floating by the air. It was a great storm there?

Amogha: Yes, hurricane.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Hurricane?

Amogha: On Christmas day.

Prabhupāda: Motor buses were floating. Is that law of gravity? Air, different adjustment of air. If Kṛṣṇa desires, simply by air this whole city will be devastated. The other day we saw so many trees fell from (New?) Kurukṣetra. All trees and houses will be smashed within half an hour if some hurricane is sent. Poking nose in the affairs of God. They'll simply try to prove that there is no God. This is their attempt. And they say "nature." What is this nature? Nature is an instrument, machine. The authority is God, Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: What is your definition? First of all let me hear.

Harikeśa: I'm still wondering myself.

Prabhupāda: We have got our definition.

Harikeśa: What do we call those planets that rotate around Jupiter and Saturn and... They will say those are also moons.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Different planets, different position. Just like this sun planet is fiery. There is fire. Similarly, in moon planet there is fire, but it is surrounded by cold atmosphere. Therefore it is cooling.

Harikeśa: So that's the specific characteristic of this moon?

Prabhupāda: Which moon? Yes, this is...

Harikeśa: Our moon.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Harikeśa: So the other moons that rotate around Saturn and Jupiter...

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Other moon? There is no other moon.

Harikeśa: So they're just planets?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Paramahaṁsa: The moon is not rotating around the earth. The moon is further away than the sun.

Harikeśa: The moon is further away than the sun. Wow! (laughs)

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Harikeśa: Why does it seem like the moon is...

Prabhupāda: Seen? Who has seen it? First of all let me..., who has seen it? (Devotees are laughing)

Harikeśa: There's nothing you can say.

Morning Walk -- October 3, 1975, Mauritius:

Prahupada: That is going on. Just like Mother Yaśodā. She would chastise Kṛṣṇa. But you will never find Nanda Mahārāja is ever chastising. Rather, when Kṛṣṇa was chastised, Nanda Mahārāja would come back and take Him on the lap: "All right, I shall punish Your mother," and call him (her?), chastise. And then Kṛṣṇa will stop His mouth: "No, no. Don't do this." It is natural that when the child is in the lower stage, minor stage, the mother takes more care. That is natural. (break) Such a big planet, sun, six months rotating on the northern side of the equator, six months on the southern side. It is never changed. Why?

Brahmānanda: It's an accident. (laughs)

Cyavana: The sun doesn't change?

Prabhupāda: No, the uttarāyana. Now it is passing on the northern...

Brahmānanda: Now it's on the southern?

Prabhupāda: Southern side, dakṣiṇāyana, yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The scientists say that the earth is actually tilting back and forth like this, that the sun is not...

Prabhupāda: Why it is tilting, rascal? Stop it.

Morning Walk -- October 25, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: No, there is fire.

Indian man: In the moon too there is fire? But it is cold, as the, our sages say.

Prabhupāda: It is surrounded by cooling atmosphere.

Indian man: It rotates?

Prabhupāda: In a different way, not as they explain.

Indian man: They rotate.

Prabhupāda: Just like my hands is moving... (break) ...like that.

Indian man: And it does not go all around other planets?

Prabhupāda: No.

Cyavana: They all move together?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Cyavana: They move together?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The pivot is the polestar. Fixing, the pole-star, they are moving like this. And there is sun's movement. So we shall go once again?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 4, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Then how it comes so high? After few hours it goes so high.

Harikeśa: Well, there is less atmosphere to look through. Why it goes up there?

Prabhupāda: So that means move?

Harikeśa: No, no. Because we're moving this way. The earth is rotating.

Prabhupāda: You are moving, but why you say sometimes this position and sometimes that position?

Harikeśa: Because the earth also moves like this. It's going around the sun, and then every day it rotates once.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Harikeśa: It rotates on an axis like this. So therefore the sun seems to go around, but actually it's the earth that goes around.

Prabhupāda: Now, if you measure when this sun and when it comes meridian distance, so do you think the earth is moving so quickly? It is... According to their modern science, the earth is moving twenty-five thousand miles only throughout... No, within twenty-four hours.

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, how can the earth move so quickly?

Jagadīśa: The earth is just spinning around.

Hṛdayānanda: Yes, they would say that that is not from the..., that is not from the earth moving around the sun. That is from the earth rotating.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Rotating on its axis.

Hṛdayānanda: And turning different sides, different faces to the sun.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And that's possible. That speed the earth could do.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That much speed the earth could do, simply to turn around on its own...

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Hṛdayānanda: That's rotation.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's rotation, it's not an orbit.

Jagadīśa: Like a top, spinning.

Indian man (1): From its axis.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Hari-śauri: And the earth is rotating, and the sun is, only appears to move around the earth.

Prabhupāda: Is that question answered?

Pañca-draviḍa: Well, they both appear that way because of the turning of the earth.

Prabhupāda: The sun is fixed up.

Pañca-draviḍa: But the earth is turning.

Prabhupāda: Earth is turning, and moon is turning. But why the sun and moon rises from the same side?

Pañca-draviḍa: 'Cause the earth turns in that direction.

Prabhupāda: Just talk if it is proper answer.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Why doesn't the moon sometimes rise in the south? Or the north?

Pañca-draviḍa: Because the sun.... Because the earth is not turning in the opposite direction.

Prabhupāda: What he is doing on the roof?

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Hari-śauri: So the whole universe moves around. Every twenty-four hours it does one rotation. And then the sun is also round all that.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Every twenty-four hours?

Prabhupāda: The moon.

Gurudāsa: Acintya-bhedābheda-tattva.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Gurudāsa: It seems to be one and different simultaneously.

Prabhupāda: No, no, not like that point. (laughs)

Satsvarūpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, are the planets shaped liked balls or more like plates? Because it's, it's hard to understand, 'cause they're called dvīpas, "islands." Their roundness is the roundness of a plate or like a ball?

Prabhupāda: Which one?

Satsvarūpa: The earth planet?

Prabhupāda: If it is like a tree, then these things can be as dvīpa, island.

Garden Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is Kṛṣṇa saying, coming, yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata (BG 4.7). Real dharma is to remain subordinate to Kṛṣṇa as servant. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). So we have forgotten it. This is dharmasya glāniḥ. Dharma means characteristics. It is not a faith; it is a fact. So our characteristic is that we are eternal servant of God. When we forget this characteristic, that this is my original characteristic, that is adharma. That is dharmasya glāniḥ. So yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata (BG 4.7). When there is discrepancy in the matter of discharging dharma, my occupational duty, then there is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So one has to take it, then he's fortunate. Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva. He's rotating within this universe, up and down. So if he's fortunate enough, he takes to this movement. It is an opportunity.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Mādhavānanda: Their theory is because the earth is tilted on an axis, that during the winter season the sun is hitting at a different angle, and therefore it's different time. They say that the earth is rotating also, and the axis is turning from one side to the other, so that north is sometimes...

Prabhupāda: Where is the question of going fast and slow?

Jayādvaita: They say that because the smaller portion of the earth..., the earth is spherical, and by the top it's smaller, so when that top side is pointed toward the sun, the sun is, as the earth turns, the sun is hitting each place sooner in each day. So it's going, traveling less distance on that surface. Then when it turns the other way, it has to go more distance. Some..., they have some concocted idea. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: (laughing) All concoction. That is not explanation. This is nice explanation, that in this season the sun goes faster and in this season the sun goes slower. That is quite understandable. Just like you are walking. Sometimes you walk slow, sometimes you walk fast. That is possible. (pause) So you can convert the down room, one of the down room as reception, like this. This should be Deity room.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatākā: Ordinary, by rotation and three, two or three or four permanent, by citizen, if he allowed to stay...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatākā: Then that would solve the problem.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That make.

Jayapatākā: Not too many.

Prabhupāda: Not too many. Say at least five. They will manage.

Jayapatākā: Four or five. All others on rotation.

Prabhupāda: They they will manage, and if they allow two years, that's all right. One devotee comes, another goes, another... That will be done.

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

Prabhupāda: Four places, Haridvar, Prayāga, Vṛndāvana.

Mr. Malhotra: But after every 11 years or...?

Prabhupāda: No. It comes in rotation, every four years.

Mr. Malhotra: So there are sort of ardha-kumbhīs and then kumbha.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In Allahabad they actually hold every year. Māgha-mela.

Mr. Malhotra: Māgha-mela. But this is not every year, this time people are...

Prabhupāda: It is very, I mean to say, atmosphere becomes surcharged. Great spiritual advancement. Very nice.

Mr. Malhotra: (Hindi conversation)

Prabhupāda: Iran is like, that but no green, simply sand.

Mr. Malhotra: These are the mountains of Deccan. They say that these all mountains were under sea.

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything was... Pralaya-payodhi-jale dhṛtavān asi vedam **. (break)

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: God has nothing to do personally. As we see a very big rich man, he hasn't got to do anything personally, but he has got so many assistants. They're doing everything. Similarly, parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate. But when the things are done, svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā. The knowledge is so perfect and things are done so nicely that it is automatically being done. And the rascals who cannot see behind there is God, they simply see this nature: "The nature is working automatically." It is not the fact. That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛti suyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). There is adhyakṣana. Yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro. Even the sun planet, such big illuminative, powerful, it is also rotating by the order of God. So similarly, we are addressing the potencies of the Lord. We cannot jump over God, because potencies are so important. They are actually helping hand to God. So if they are pleased, then God will be pleased automatically. Why we address, "Hara"? "Hare Kṛṣṇa." The Kṛṣṇa's potency, Rādhārāṇī; Rāma's potency, Sītā... Therefore, first of all, Sītā-Rāma; Hare Kṛṣṇa; Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa; Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa. We address the first, potency.

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: The other day I went to a gentleman's apartment. He is.... The gentleman is earning two thousand, and the wife is earning seven hundred. But they are living in an apartment of this size. Within this, there is bedroom, and there is kitchen, and there is toilet, and everything is there. And if we say people, "Please come here. Take a room like this and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa," they'll not come. They'll prefer to remain in that tiny apartment. Am I right or not? Manda-bhāgyā. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu has declared, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva. They are rotting or rotating within this universe in different species of life. But if by chance he becomes fortunate, then take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: But this is extraordinary. Lord Caitanya's movement, the ten thousand years of His movement, that is a special exception for the Kali-yuga.

Prabhupāda: Special for this millennium. But the thing is going on like that, rotating.

Rāmeśvara: But in general, first it gets more and more degraded. Then it's all finished.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Unless there is degradation, there is no question of improvement. So this is going on. This is nature's way, bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19), appearance and disappearance.

Rāmeśvara: Now, this Kṛṣṇa conscious government... Will many of the things that are going on in America, like schools and education, teaching people to read and write...

Prabhupāda: They'll have to reform.

Rāmeśvara: That will all continue, but it will be adjusted so that Kṛṣṇa consciousness...

Prabhupāda: Yes, Gurukula, Gurukula education.

Rāmeśvara: Still we'll be teaching subjects like history and math.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Without teaching, how the human society will exist? There must be.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One big paṇḍita has been contacted, and he's very surrendered to Prabhupāda. He wants to help Prabhupāda and our movement to understand the meaning of the śāstras in regard to the layout of the universe, so that the planetary systems can be done in our planetarium.

Prabhupāda: This planetary system is rotating from east to west, and it is hanging like the chandelier, taking shelter of the polestar. That we can see every night. Now where is the situation, which planet, where is sun, where is moon—so that he has to assert.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: When he's coming, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: I have asked him to come in this ceremony.

Satsvarūpa: Resolved: Devotees preaching to raise funds for Māyāpur must make a uniform presentation. A brochure should be prepared by the BBT. The preaching for Māyāpur should not be done differently by different persons in different parts of the world, and a brochure should be prepared for this preaching. Any GBC who wants a BBT loan...

Rāmeśvara: That's specifically for fund raising.

Satsvarūpa: Yes. Preaching for fund-raising for Māyāpur. Then, any GBC member who wants a BBT loan will submit it to Rāmeśvara Mahārāja, but it will be held in abeyance until the Māyāpur financing is decided in regard to the BBT commitment to Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Evening Darsana -- May 15, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Dūre parjakanam(?) tīrtham. If gaṅgā-jala is pure, it is pure here and there also. So Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, tīrtha-yātrā pariśrama, kevala manera bhrama: "It is simply satisfying the mind." Otherwise, wherever there is Ganges, there is Yamunā, that is sacred place. Delhi also, sacred place. There is Gaṅgā. Anyway, so, we should take advantage of the knowledge of sādhu. And that is real progress. So catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtinaḥ. Four kinds of men, they come to God, Kṛṣṇa. God means Kṛṣṇa, not ordinary... Caitanya Mahāprabhu said,

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

Kṛṣṇa also says, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). To approach Kṛṣṇa is not so easy thing. After many, many births... We are rotating... (break) ...superintendent of this egglike aṇḍa, universe. It is all Brahmā's. And there are innumerable planets. That we can see. So we are wandering in all these places, sometimes down, sometimes up, sometimes in the middle, according to our karma, in different species of life, in different planets, in different position. So we are rotating.

Evening Darsana -- May 15, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: That we do not know. This is called mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. You die, accept another body, another place, another situation, another position. This is going on. Brahmāṇḍa-bhramaṇa. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, "In this way, rotating, and in course of our rotation, if we are fortunate enough, then we come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite. (aside:) Why you are closing that? Eh? Open it. Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān. So to come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is meant for persons who are very, very fortunate, kona bhāgyavān. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). When one is very much eager, serious, that "I want to see God..." Nobody's serious. But if one becomes serious, then Kṛṣṇa gives him charge. He sends him to the proper guru. Kṛṣṇa is there within the core of heart of everyone, and if somebody is... (aside:) Let him come. What he is doing? He is not a proper man.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, no, but the son is the king, but he is ruling over the ocean?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, he is ruling over the dvīpa.

Bhakti-prema: Yes, he rotated around the mountain area. Seven times he went. And then to (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Now, oceans, but there is no inhabitant.

Bhakti-prema: No.

Prabhupāda: Simply ocean.

Bhakti-prema: There are no dvīpas, no islands. Islands are surrounded by oceans rather than(?) oceans are surrounded by islands.

Prabhupāda: So what is his kingdom?

Bhakti-prema: An island... Islands are so big, very big.

Prabhupāda: Where is the island?

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That argument also I have refuted. Just like animal, he is bound up. He is rotating around the log, and within that there may be Japan, there may be Calcutta, there may be Los Angeles. You can think this is there. But that is not all. Within that rounding circle, whatever is there, you may think this is all. But that is not all. He's limited condition. So within his limitation (Bengali). Within that limitation he's speaking. But Himalaya and other things, far beyond their limitation. That I have already explained. He's speaking within his limitation. Our position should be, correctly represent what is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But if there is some question, we should ask. Just like I am answering to the reasonable point. That if you are conditioned, within your condition you can see, you can experience, but beyond that you have no right to see. What is Los Angeles, Calcutta, Japan, this is very insignificant space. And they're talking of that. We are talking that Himalaya mountain, we have crossed over Himalaya, we conquered the outer space. How they can think of it?

Bhakti-prema: How to take them to (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: There is no question of take them. If you take, he's all right. If you don't take, we cannot change.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And the opposite is true, in the daytime the night goes into the water, so it appears a very dark color. This is... Every explanation is given in the Bhāgavatam, and it's all in contradiction to the so-called scientists. They say that the reason we experience day and night is that the earth is rotating on its axis and at the same time circumambulating the sun.

Prabhupāda: Double. Double motion.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. So they say, therefore, when you're on this side and the sun is here, you won't see, but when it turns around, then you'll see the sun. But the Bhāgavatam does not agree with that description. The Bhāgavatam says that you don't see the sun because it's blocked by the Meru. The sun is moving, and Meru is blocking. And they never even heard of Meru. What is their knowledge? Such a big mountain and they don't even know about it. That means they never left the earth's sphere. They never went more than a few hundred miles in the air, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's all lies.

Prabhupāda: All. That I am speaking from the very beginning. Now it is proved. They are also saying.

Correspondence

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Jadurani -- Montreal 9 July, 1968:

If Brahma would not have posed himself as not knowing the whole truth, then some truths about the transcendental position of Krishna would not have been explained. Besides that, we cannot calculate even one day's duration of the life of Brahma. So, Krishna appears only once in a day of Brahma, and that takes a rotation of unlimited trillions of solar years. So some incidences take place in one day, and other incidents take place in another day. Just like we do something today, something else in a week, and we forget today's action tomorrow, and tomorrow's action after a week. And that is the nature of conditioned life. Therefore, Brahma being a big conditioned soul, this forgetfulness of one's affairs in the next day are not uncommon. Just as we are forgetful, Brahma also is subject to forgetfulness. Our so much so-called knowledge is nothing in comparison to Krishna's full knowledge. That is admitted by Brahma there in that verse, that people may say they know You very well, but so far I am concerned, I admit I do not know even a farthing of You!

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Kanupriya -- Bombay, India 11 June, 1971:

Krishna Consciousness is permanent, and the living entities are also permanent. So instead of wasting their time worshiping the demigods, everyone should take to Krishna Consciousness.

Your plan for not remaining in one place, but rotating every two weeks for engagements is very good idea, so do it nicely. And Krishna is giving you so much facility. So you can immediately open a very nice center there in Trinidad in that newly donated building and I may go there personally with Deities for installation also. So if they are donating the house and land, I am prepared to go there to accept the donation. Petambar Dindayal and Dr. Balwant Singh have both invited me to go there, so if you have been donated house and land, then I can go there without hesitation.

Yes, you should get ISKCON registered as an official religious organization. Do it seriously. Then we will be eligible for government assistance. That is very nice. So you organize it and make a very first class center there and very soon I will come and install Deity.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Bali-mardana -- Tokyo 26 April, 1972:

So far your coming to Los Angeles, you are doing very nicely there, why you should come? Besides, I want it that one GBC man will come to live with me for one month in rotation, and so I have asked Hayagriva to come first and stay with me for one month, and after he goes, then perhaps you can come next, we shall see.

Letter to Giriraja -- Paris 22 July, 1972:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 14, 1972, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am especially pleased to hear that everything is going on nicely in Bombay, and that you are sending a party of men to live in Bombay city for collecting there. That is a nice plan. Yes, the men may be rotated from time to time. And if all the others also go sometimes to nearby neighborhoods for preaching and distributing books, that is also good proposal. I am also glad to hear the deities will soon have a first-class house, and you will keep their nice jewels, etc., in a heavy iron safe.

So far my writings, avoid publishing them in hodge-podge journals. These so-called Hindus are generally impersonalists, and we do not want to have anything to do with them. Better we stick to our own standard, and eventually they will all come to us for learning what is God. You can try the daily newspapers. If Times of India, Navbharat, if some of these daily papers agree, I can send regularly one sloka from Bhagavad-gita, whatever is in the book plus further elaboration.

1973 Correspondence

Letter to Cyavana -- Bombay 9 January, 1973:

Your letter dated January 3, 1973, is in hand and I have noted the contents with much encouragement. Your plan for rotating the chief man at Nairobi Center is nice, provided the sense of authority and continuity is not weakened by so much switching of head men. As long as you are recognized to be the leader of Nairobi Center with full authority in all matters, that is the point. This constantly changing the head man and whimsically dividing the attention is not good. Someone must be there who will stick tightly to the temple and develop it gradually to the highest standard.

So far getting new place, that Sarat Building is nice but we have already purchased our other building for Shs. 200,000. But if we can sell that place to buy the Sarat Building, then it is all right. Whatever is agreed upon between yourself and Brahmananda, I have no objection. Your program for mass wholesale distribution of our propaganda, especially books, throughout Africa, is very much appreciated by me. That is the highest type of activity of human form of life, to distribute Krsna's message profusely as far as it is possible for me to do.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Tamala Krsna -- Bombay 21 November, 1974:

Everyone says the Investigation Committee report is dispatched, but it is not in my hand.*

It is very good that you have purchased a third bus and also that you are rotating the men. This is a good idea. Yes, train up the brahmanas very carefully. Many Indians and foreigners criticize us how we can create brahmanas. They are under the impression that brahmanas are born like horses and asses are born. According to Bhagavad-gita brahmanas are according to guna and karma. So the training of brahmanas should be so nice that people will be forced to accept them as brahmanas by guna, quality, and karma, action.

So go on with your preaching solidly. Krishna will be pleased and Caitanya Mahaprabhu will be kind. He is already kind. You simply have to go village to village, and your life will be perfect.

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Mahamsa -- Vrindaban 9 September, 1975:

I like that place and wish to go there. As soon as you call me I will come. If this scheme is successful, it will be a great fortune for us to capture Indian ideals and the support of the Government. Yes, Hamsaduta can supply Rs. 2 lakhs for irrigation. Also I am asking that he may request that English devotees may be sent. The Nature Cure Hospital as you have described it is all right.

Regarding the libraries taking the books, they can be given up to 25% discount. We shall take a standing order from them, and supply whatever we can, and the balance by and by.

Yes, you can rotate the profits from the milk products and agriculture for future developments.

1976 Correspondence

Letter to Svarupa Damodara -- Auckland 27 April, 1976:

Now our Ph.D's must collaborate and study the 5th Canto to make a model for building the Vedic Planetarium. My final decision is that the universe is just like a tree, with root upwards. Just as a tree has branches and leaves so the universe is also composed of planets which are fixed up in the tree like the leaves, flowers, fruits, etc. of the tree. The pivot is the pole star, and the whole tree is rotating on this pivot. Mount Sumeru is the center, trunk, and is like a steep hill, like the alps mountains which also have very high peaks. I have seen in Switzerland one mountain peak which was so high that is penetrated through the clouds. The tree is turning and therefore, all the branches and leaves turn with the tree. The planets have their fixed orbits, but still they are turning with the turning of the great tree. There are pathways leading from one planet to another made of gold, copper, etc., and these are like the branches. Distances are also described in the 5th Canto just how far one planet is from another.

Letter to Svarupa Damodara -- Auckland 27 April, 1976:

We can see that at night, how the whole planetary system is turning around, the pole star being the pivot. Each planet has its orbit fixed but the sun is moving up and down, north and south. It is not that we shall accept the theory that the sun is fixed up and the others are all going around the sun. That is not correct. Even the 7th star is rotating once around the pole star in each 24 hours. The whole universe is just like a big tree, that is a fact. I do not think that the modern astronomers have any such idea that the whole universe is like a big tree. The planets which are full of living entities are one after another, one above the other. The relative positions of the planets is fixed up but the whole thing is turning. The sun is going north and south, it has its own orbit below the moon. So now you all Ph.D.'s must carefully study the details of the 5th Canto and make a working model of the universe. If we can explain the passing seasons, eclipses, phases of the moon, passing of day and night, etc. then it will be very powerful propaganda.

1977 Correspondence

Letter to VARIOUS -- Unknown Place Unknown Date:

From now on the twelve GBC men will be acting as Srila Prabhupada's secretary on a rotating basis as Srila Prabhupada originally planned, and it appears that I shall have to go with Him to Australia, at least a couple of weeks, to explain the system to Madhudvisa Swami. Syamasundara prabhu will be shortly going to London via Los Angeles. You will probably be seeing him there shortly. He has many big ideas for increasing the preaching work, which he will probably tell you about. I have just received your letter regarding polygamy and Prabhupada has told me it should strictly be prohibited; although he does not object to the principle, we do not have the correct persons nor the correct time and place for putting it into practice.

Page Title:Rotate (Conv. & Letters)
Compiler:Sahadeva, RupaManjari
Created:28 of Sep, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=40, Let=10
No. of Quotes:50