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Sannyasa (Conversations, 1976)

Expressions researched:
"sannyasa" |"sannyasas" |"sannyasi" |"sannyasi's" |"sannyasis"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: Tirupati is establishing Gaṇeśa temple. That is against Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavān says that kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānā yajanty anya-devatāḥ (BG 7.20). The rascals who are very much lusty, lost their intelligence, they worship other demigods.

Acyutānanda: The Rāmānuja sannyāsīs have had all their authority taken away from them by these...

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Acyutānanda: All their authority in the temples has been taken away by the government committee.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Acyutānanda: Just ritualistically in the morning the sannyāsī comes and opens the door. He holds the key. We met him at Rangaji.

Prabhupāda: Rāmānujācārya sannyāsīs, they have no influence over them.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (break) ...to me that the actual purpose of this Tirupati government committee is eventually to do away with all religious function.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's their real plan.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: So this cannot stay in the court. Kṛṣṇa's instruction is not for the Hindus. Nowhere it is mentioned.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The word "Hindu" doesn't appear in the Vedas anywhere.

Acyutānanda: Then why do you use in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness the Hindu caste marks, Hindus caste marks and tilakas? This is all Hinduism.

Prabhupāda: No, this is not Hinduism. Appears like Hindu. Just like you appear like an Indian sannyāsī, but you are not Indian.

Acyutānanda: The judge is wearing a white wig and a British suit. He's not British either.

Prabhupāda: No, we are clearly stating Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Harikeśa: Yes, but Kṛṣṇa is a Hindu god.

Prabhupāda: That is your definition. Kṛṣṇa doesn't say.

Harikeśa: But my definition counts 'cause I'm in charge.

Prabhupāda: You can do any nonsense. That is.... Therefore you have to be taken to the court, that "How you can..."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But they are the court.

Prabhupāda: "...talk like nonsense and do like nonsense? Then anyone can do any nonsense thing? Then who will control you?"

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: Foreign devotees, they are joining this movement not because it is a Hindu culture. They take it as a real spiritual culture. Otherwise why, for the last hundred, two hundred years, the Hindu sannyāsīs, yogis, were going there? Who did accept it? Did anybody? The Rāmakrishna Mission, Hindu monk, within the eighty-five years, how many Hindus they have made? You can count maybe a dozen only. Huh? Did they make any Hindus, European, American young boys? And it is the Hindu custom that sannyāsīs eat meat?

Morning Walk -- January 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: But the rascals do not know Kṛṣṇa says, svakarmana tam abhyarcya saṁsiddhiṁ labhate naraḥ. Whatever he knows, he can work on it, and that way he can get perfection, provided he is Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is wanted. Otherwise people think, misunderstand, that "They are parasites." Why we should be parasite? We should work for Kṛṣṇa. That's all. It is not that because sannyāsī and brahmacārī, you'll be able. No. Everyone. Svakarmaṇā. Kṛṣṇa says, svakarmaṇā: "Whatever talent you have got, you can serve Me and be perfect." That is the program. They are preparing cloth for the devotees, not for business. Therefore he is serving Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: He does not mention his name. He says... All right, go. His sannyāsī name is... All right. Then?

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: The large number of publications in different languages and the vigorous missionary activities and door-to-door preaching by the sannyāsīs and brahmacārīs of the Maṭha, who held meetings in the remotest villages, duly spread Śrī Caitanya's teachings, which today are followed in every part of India. His songs are sung in chorus and a great interest is created among the intelligentsia of India. After having become the president of the institution..." In this last paragraph, all of these activities of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, there is no mention of his name.

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

Prabhupāda: In the family nobody expects enemy, but Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says that these are enemies in the family. Ṛṇa-kartā pitā śatrur mātā śatrur dvicaraṇi, rūpavatī bhāryā śatruḥ. Now everyone is hankering after very beautiful wife, and Cāṇakya Paṇḍita said, "Then you are bringing one enemy." Just see what is the type of civilization. Because if you become too much attached to wife, then you'll never be able to go out of home and take sannyāsa.

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: And Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, kibā vipra kibā śūdra nyāsī kene naya, yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā sei guru haya (CC Madhya 8.128). It doesn't matter whether one is gṛhastha or a sannyāsī. (Bengali) (break)...all big, big men, he was present.

Morning Walk -- February 5, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Without varṇāśrama-dharma there is no civilization. Yes. They are trying to abolish this under the name of "caste system." It is not caste system. Caste system, or whatever you call, there must be these four division. Not four, eight. This is general, that brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. Then, according to the brahminical culture, the spiritual, brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa. And after sannyāsa, then spiritual life, complete, śuddha-sattva. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So you have to establish varṇāśrama. Varṇāśramācāra. Ācāra. Ācāra. Varṇāśrama ācāra. Yes. Because the aim is... Again we come to the... Just like state affairs going on, but ultimate aim is to keep the government satisfied.

Morning Walk -- February 9, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So you can go by the bridge, and if you can jump over, that is also going. That is also going. So to become Kṛṣṇa conscious means to jump over to the spiritual platform immediately. And this varṇāśrama-dharma, sannyāsa, varṇa-tyāga, karma-tyāga, these are different steps only. But if you become Kṛṣṇa conscious seriously, then you jump over all these steps; you go immediately. That lift and the staircase. By staircase you go step by step. By lift you can go immediately, faster.

Morning Walk -- February 10, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Not all of them were real Vaiṣṇava. That was my discrimination from the beginning of my life. I never liked these bogus swamis and yogis. I never liked. But my father had no discrimination. "Never mind whatever he is. He is a saintly person. Receive him." He was giving fortnightly... There was one Māyāvādī sannyāsī in Kālīghāṭa. So first of all the father was sannyāsī. Then his son was sannyāsī. So we had very good relationship with him. I also used to... Because father was going... So he would carry gāñjā for him—in those days gāñjā was very cheap—so much gāñjā and so much butter. Whenever he would visit, he'd give some red cloth, gāñjā, and butter.

Morning Walk -- February 10, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your father would give him gāñjā?

Prabhupāda: That, to sannyāsī.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why?

Prabhupāda: Well, he was smoking gāñjā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But why did he supply him?

Prabhupāda: He did not discriminate that this is bad. He smokes, and he had some regard for him. "All right, take gāñjā."

Morning Walk -- February 10, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. He told me, Mr. Das, that it increased his meditation and ecstasy.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, gāñjā smoking by the sādhus, sannyāsīs, is not taken very bad serious. The hippies learned from them. Allen Ginsberg introduced... "Yes. Gāñjā smoking is very good by the saintly person."

Morning Walk -- February 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: Brahmacārīs don't like to take the instructions from the elder devotees, and then they want to take sannyāsa, so they think they can be independent and give orders themself and not listen.

Prabhupāda: Therefore not to be given all of a sudden. (break)...to become sevaka. Everyone wants to become sevya.

Morning Walk -- February 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: That's why Lord Caitanya said that "I am not a sannyāsī or a..."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa...

Yaśodānandana: Nāhaṁ vipro na ca nara-patir nāpi vaiśyo...

Prabhupāda: Bhṛtyasya-bhṛtya, servant of the servant (CC Madhya 13.80). Everyone, if he wants to become a master, that is materialism.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: ...no more desire of material enjoyment he is fit for sannyāsa. Anyone who sees: "Oh, this car is very nice. This beautiful wife is very... A very beautiful woman is very nice," he should not think of taking sannyāsa. Viṣa-bhakṣaṇād apy asādhu: "Such desires is most abominable, more than taking poison." To commit suicide by taking poison is most abominable thing, because he's going to be a ghost. He'll be punished to become a ghost, those who commit suicide. Or, if one is suddenly killed and he has so many desires, he becomes ghost. Therefore viṣa-bhakṣaṇa, taking poison, and die untimely, is most abominable, or commit suicide.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Devotees: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is criminal. (Bengali) If you take s annyāsa... Just like there are so many sannyāsīs, for filling up the belly. Wherever you go they give some alms. But in..., outside India, who cares for the sannyāsī? Then why you should be eager to take sannyāsa and cheat yourself? You cannot cheat others, but you can cheat yourself.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Hṛdayānanda: Outside India a sannyāsī will starve.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) So I do not know why our disciples are so anxious to take sannyāsa, at least those who are outside. Everyone comes: "Give me sannyāsa." What is the idea?

Jayapatākā: Freedom from authority.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Eh? Who cares him, for authority.

Jayapatākā: No, they, they don't want to take order as brahmacārī. If they're sannyāsī they think they can do as they feel.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: That's why that system where a brahmacārī is recommended for one year and then he proves himself by doing some extraordinary preaching work is a very good system. Otherwise, anyone just comes and by pressurizing and begging and pleading, then they try to take sannyāsa. Then they don't stay to the path.

Prabhupāda: Sannyāsa means ultimate success, because this human life is meant for becoming disgusted with this material life: "No more." Material life means to take a body and enjoy this material āhāra-nidrā, sleeping twenty-four hours, eating like elephant, and sex life like a monkey, these animals. This is material life, eating, sleeping, mating, and always afraid of. This is material life. And human life means to take freedom from these four things: no more afraid, no more sex, no more hankering after eating or sleeping.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That means cheating themselves. What is the use of taking sannyāsa and cheat yourself? Material life means punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30), repeatedly doing the same thing. Either as human being or as monkey or as a small ant or the demigods, but doing the business is the same, four things: eating, sleeping, mating and fearing. In different scale, doing the same business. Therefore it is called punaḥ punaḥ, "again and again," carvita-carvaṇānām, "chewing the chewed." If one is sober, he thinks that "These four business, I have done many, many lives, as sparrow, or as jackal, or as demigod, and I have got this human form.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Frustrated? Everyone. Whether young or not, everyone is frustrated. He says that the desire in old man... It is expected because he has gone through the gṛhastha life. Gṛhastha life is a concession for sex life. That's all. It is not needed. But those who are unable to avoid it—"All right, have for some time. Then become sannyāsī." This is the process. It is not needed. So in old age, after going through these stages, brahmacārī is learning how to stop this sex life, and then, if one is still unable—"All right, take concession for twenty-five years. Then give up this habit. Then take sannyāsa." So that is the process, one who has gone through the stages, expected that he has no more... āra nārī bapa (?) "I have done..." But generally, those who are not trained up, their desire is not diminished.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: So is it necessary to be fixed up to take sannyāsa, or one should take sannyāsa to become fixed up?

Prabhupāda: To become fixed, become sannyāsī, the other three processes are there, to become brahmacārī, to become gṛhastha, to become vānaprastha, stage by stage. But if one is able, he can take sannyāsa. The stages are there, but if one is very competent, he can be given sannyāsa. And that competency is also very simple. If you become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, then you can immediately become competent. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). As soon as you fully engage yourself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then immediately you become more than a sannyāsī.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: The difficulty that every person has not got the same mentality... One...

Prabhupāda: That... That will depend on the preaching of the sannyāsīs. What is this? Frame?

Indian man (1): It's a hot iron building, Prabhupāda.

Hari-śauri: It's the wrong type of renunciation.

Prabhupāda: There is no renunciation. There is sense gratification. "I like this." That's all. He is thinking that "I am so renounced," but he's still satisfying his senses. That's all. As soon as we manufacture something, that is sense gratification. "I want to fulfill my desire. That's all." That is sense gratification. It may be I sit down on the tree, or I may sit down on the palace.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Hari-śauri: That's your mercy on us.

Prabhupāda: Caitanya Mahāprabhu, personally He gives example. He could have done at His home. Why He took sannyāsa and went out of home?

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: Elephant?

Prabhupāda: No elephant. Why elephant? Elephant is royal. We are not royal. We are beggars, sannyāsī, beggars.

Morning Walk -- February 29, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Rāvaṇa class man wants only Sītā, not Rāma. Rāma, they are condemning, these rascals, Suniti Chatterjee and others. But our mission is to keep Rāma and Sītā together. We are not satisfied that Rāma should remain alone and Sītā should be under the custody of Rāvaṇa. We can't... I don't want. Sītā must be released from the custody of Rāvaṇa. With opulence means we are bringing Sītā nearer, nearer, nearer... That is wanted. Otherwise, for a sannyāsī, what is the use of these big buildings? No. We want these big buildings for service of Rāma.

Morning Walk -- March 9, 1976, Mayapur:

Madhudviṣa: The subjects that we're going to be discussing today in the GBC meeting is about the role of sannyāsī and brahmacārī and gṛhastha in ISKCON. And in the Eighteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, in one of your purports, you say that a sannyāsī should never discourage a young man from becoming, from getting married. But on the other hand, we have understood that a sannyāsī should encourage young men to remain brahmacārī. So it seems to me like there's some kind of a...

Prabhupāda: According to time, circumstances. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, niyataṁ kuru karma tvam: "Always be engaged in your prescribed work." And, at last, He says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Now we have to adjust. That is not contradiction. That is suitable to the time and circumstance. Karma is also recommended in the Vedas. Karma-kāṇḍa. There are three divisions: karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kaṇḍa and upāsanā-kāṇḍa. Trayi. Therefore Veda is known as, what is called, trio. The trio word has come from "trayi."

Morning Walk -- March 10, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: They... According to different position and attitude, the four āśramas are there: brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa. This means that everyone is not on the equal platform. Different platform. But the whole idea is how to give up the propensity of enjoyment. That is wanted.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We find in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam that Śukadeva Gosvāmī would approach the householders in the morning just so long as to give them a little bit of spiritual knowledge, and he would accept the offering of some milk. So the sannyāsīs and renunciates, generally, they wouldn't very much relish the association of householders because of this enjoying spirit and the association that it entails.

Morning Walk -- March 10, 1976, Mayapur:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He's saying that sometimes the brahmacārīs, even the sannyāsīs, they may have a very strong aversion towards association with women and/or householder life, things of this nature. And sometimes the gṛhasthas will criticize the sannyāsīs and brahmacārīs that "This is fanaticism," or it's, to the other end, "It's just as bad as the enjoying spirit, because you're meditating on the same thing, but only you're averse to it." So what is the...? Bhāgavata dāsa's question is "What is the condition?" Is it better to be neutral or to be averse?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Neutral.

Prabhupāda: These are all fanaticism. Real unity is in advancing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva... In Kali-yuga, you cannot strictly follow, neither I can strictly follow. If I criticize you, if you criticize me, then we go far away from our real life of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Morning Walk -- March 10, 1976, Mayapur:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We'll find something or another to absorb our time with besides Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: No, you should always remember that either gṛhastha or brahmacārī or sannyāsī, nobody can strictly follow all the rules and regulations of them. In the Kali-yuga it is not possible. So if I find simply fault with you, and if you find fault with me, then it will be factional, and our real business will be hampered. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu has recommended that hari-nāma, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, should be very rigidly performed, which is common for everyone: gṛhastha, vānaprastha or sannyāsī. They should always chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Then everything will be adjusted. Otherwise it is impossible to advance. We shall be complicated with the details only. This is called niyamāgrahaḥ. I think I have explained.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Don't become paramahaṁsa immediately. Paramahaṁsa is the last stage of sannyāsa. First stage is kuticaka. Second stage is parivrājakācārya. Third stage is.... No, first stage is kuticaka. Then second stage is bahudaka, bahudaka. And third stage is parivrājakācārya, and fourth stage is paramahaṁsa. Therefore paramahaṁsa stage is the topmost.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: They are not under any rule and regulation, paramahaṁsa. Paramahaṁsa means, just like mlecchas and yavanas, they are not under any rules and regulation. Similarly, a paramahaṁsa is also not under any rules and regulation. He can do whatever he likes. Śāstra is not meant for him. Avadhūta. He is not in the material world, mahābhāva. So that is the last stage of sannyāsa. Kuṭicaka means when from family life, vānaprastha, and then one takes sannyāsa, that is kuṭicaka. Kuṭicaka means he does not remain at home but goes outside home, outside the village area and makes a kuti, cottage, and lives there. But because he is not accustomed to beg, from his house some foodstuff is sent.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Bumblebee. He collects little honey here, little honey there, wherever.... And not one place so much honey. So this is called bahudaka. Not to collect lump sum, food, from anywhere. To any gṛhastha a sannyāsī can go: "Please give me a little piece of bread." So that is not difficult. "All right, take." Because many sannyāsī may come, so it is not burden, little piece. So as soon as it is sufficient piece, that's all. It is called bahudaka. Then, when he's further experienced, then preaching country to country, place to place, go on preaching. That is parivrājakācārya. And when he has sufficiently preached, then he can sit down anywhere.

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1976, Mayapur:

Pañca-draviḍa: In your article, though, you said that Dhṛtarāṣṭra said he was better than the sannyāsīs because they were coming to him, begging for money.

Prabhupāda: (break) "...beg. They help you. You are keeping Kṛṣṇa's money; you'll be punished. So return it to Kṛṣṇa; you'll be happy."

Morning Walk -- March 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Devotee (1): That's a great mercy for them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is mercy. When they excuse a saintly person, that is, that is their great mercy. Now, according to Vedic law, a saintly person is never subjected to any law. He's paramahaṁsa. He's never.... Rather, the order is he must be given all help that he wants. That is the Vedic civilization. And brahmacārī, sannyāsīs, they should be treated as children at home, so that wherever they go, they will be treated just like children: "Oh, he's my son. He's my dependent."

Morning Walk -- March 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: "Let all the girls remain open." They.... "Let them use and produce atomic bomb. Show your brain." The.... Just like the marriage.... According to Vedic civilization, marriage is allowed to the karmīs. It is not that marriage allowed to the sannyāsī or brahmacārī. The karmīs require sex. Therefore.... Why marriage is allowed to the gṛhastha? Why not to the brahmacārī, vānaprastha or sannyāsī? Why it is not recommended? Because the karmīs require that enlivenment. Therefore they are allowed to marry. So in the European civilization it is only karmīs. There is no question of brahmacārī, vānaprastha or sannyāsa. There is no such idea. Therefore they want new, new girls. And that they have kept, this artificial law.

Morning Walk -- March 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: One should be fully satisfied: "No more I want this material disease. That's all. Enough of it." That mentality required: "I don't want anything material facility." Sannyāsa means that, that "I shall live with the minimum necessities of life and simply devote..." That is sannyāsa. "I shall become a sannyāsī and enjoy all material facilities"—that is not sannyāsa. (break) ...recommended that "If there is no need, don't take even cloth. Remain naked." That is sannyāsa. But because we have to preach, because we have to go the people, therefore some covering. Otherwise, this is also not necessary for a sannyāsī. Nothing. Lie down on the floor like the Śukadeva Gosvāmī said, and take water in your palm, no dress. Śukadeva was also not dressing, naked. That is the perfection of sannyāsa. (break) Where is Jayapatākā? (break) ...talk with this boy. He wanted to.... (break) ...make. He's offering a land. Did you talk with him?

Morning Walk -- March 22, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yei bhaje sei boro. Here is woman (indistinct) engaged in worshiping (indistinct), she is great. Yei bhaje sei boro. So why should we hurt woman? Anyone who is engaged in service, he is big. The dress is not important. The advancement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is important. We have to see from that formula. Just like we sometimes have to dress like ordinary gentleman and sell books. Does it mean he is deviating? No. He's serving Kṛṣṇa, dress or no dress. It doesn't matter. If you stick to the dress, "Oh, I have taken sannyāsī, I cannot..." He cannot sell the books. Where is your service influence? You must give service first. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Is that Līlāvatī? No. It is Līlāvatī? No.

Morning Walk -- April 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Are the Vaiṣṇavas in general lamenting for the physical upkeep of Vṛndāvana, or are they indifferent?

Prabhupāda: No, it is the business of the government. Vaiṣṇava can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra anywhere. He doesn't require any nice park. Ahaituky apratihatā. For becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious, for a serious person, there is no obstacle. Any condition he can do it. (break) ...why there is sannyāsī? In the Vedic civilization, ultimately sannyāsa. Why? That one must give up the intimate relationship with wife. This is the ultimate position. Brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa.

Morning Walk -- April 14, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: He is such a man. He has all the characteristics of a sannyāsī in the home. He is a multi-millionaire's son. But absolutely untouched by wealth, and very fine man, extremely fine.

Prabhupāda: If our gurukula children comes here they can have very good sporting. And this idea I have given you?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Remain healthy.

Morning Walk -- April 14, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Sannyāsīs don't touch money.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I don't touch money. They pass check. (laughter) I simply sign check. All these accounts in Bombay, they are being managed by them. I do not touch even. Lakhs and lakhs of rupees they are spending.

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: They are sannyāsīs. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: But number-one rogue. Each of them keeping one dozen women, at least, and no discrimination between wife or daughter. No discrimination. Just like hogs. That's all. No discrimination.

Morning Walk -- April 17, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: You must have the clothing in the internal side.

Prabhupāda: No, clothing is.... Anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ ...sa sannyāsī (BG 6.1). It is not the clothing. Clothing is not.... Sa ...yogī ca na niragnir na cākriyaḥ. (Hindi) And continually doing that mahā-pāpa. (break) ...narādhama.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Brian Singer: No, no. I just want to know how you found the transition.

Prabhupāda: No, this is our regulative principle, that first of all you be trained up as brahmacārī. Then you be entered into family life. Then you retire from family life. Then you become a sannyāsī. This is a general procedure, not that you shall stick to one position. So a businessman does not mean he's fallen man. He can become first-class Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Food is also required. And good government is required, and nice direction is required. This is brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya. And śūdra, they have no brain; they will abide by the orders of these higher sections, that's all. So our movement is creating first-class brāhmaṇa, and the kṣatriyas, if they abide by our instruction-our instruction means Kṛṣṇa's instruction—then everything will be nicely done. Sannyāsīs, they have begun to keep secretaries.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: So many. This tail, dog's tail. Either you become sannyāsī or gṛhastha or anything, the tail is this side. You may grease it as much as possible, but the whole tendency is sex, that's all, in different dresses only. The objective is sex. This is going on. Some of them are openly declaring that "I am for sex," and some of them showbottle. But the objective is sex. This is the whole world. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tucchaṁ kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha (SB 7.9.45). And the sannyāsīs like Rajneesh, they are advocating, "This is life—sex. By sex indulgence you get salvation." These Brahma-kumārīs. Not brahmacārī but Brahma-kumārī. Kumārīs are available very easily. And they keep. And the rich men, they are supplied with nice, beautiful kumārīs. They pay money.

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1976, Auckland, New Zealand:

Prabhupāda: We don't want to stop anything. How it can be stopped? Whatever is the bare neces.... Just like we have taken sannyāsa. What is that? "Oh, we have no sex life only. Otherwise, we are also eating, we are also sleeping." So that is also stopped in good old age. In old age, if a person like me, at the age of eighty years, if I would have shopped for sex life, does it look very good? Young men, they are allowed. That's all right. But a young..., old man is going to the club and spending for sex life so much money. Therefore younger generation, they're allowed gṛhastha life from twenty-five years to fifty years. That's all. After that, stop sex life.

Room Conversation -- May 1, 1976, Fiji:

rabhupāda: Because there are third-class men, fourth-class men. They cannot understand bhakti-yoga immediately. But at last He says, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66), if you are intelligent. Sarva-guhyatam. Real knowledge is here. Sarva-guhyatamam. But He's proposing at last, "If by understanding all other ways, if he has come to know what is the actual knowledge..." That is the most confidential knowledge. That is not for everyone. How one can give up karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, dhyāna-yoga? They cannot. But Kṛṣṇa says, "This is the most confidential. If you accept this, then it is to be understood you have knowledge." It is not for everyone. Find out this verse. Sixty-three, Eighteenth Chapter, I think. So take these notes, take these books and preach. You have taken all, sannyāsa. You preach.

Morning Walk -- May 3, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: Where you get this mind? Where you get this body? It is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: bhūmir āpaḥ analaḥ vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva, prakṛtir me aṣṭadhā. He claims, "It is My property. What you have got? And you are also My part and parcel. So why you are...?" This is all nonsense, that "I give up." What you can give up? You cannot give up, you cannot enjoy. That is your position. If you enjoy, you are a thief. And if you say, "I have given up," you are a false. Therefore sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). Somebody is thinking "I am giving up, and now I've taken laṅgoṭā, (?)(indistinct) I have become sannyāsī." And whose laṅgoṭā it is? You have got still the laṅgoṭā.

Morning Walk -- May 3, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: This is material side, but still, it is religious. First education is brahmacārī, how to train him to avoid sex life. And still if he's not able, then he is allowed to become a gṛhastha, a little concession. Otherwise, the whole Vedic civilization is: how to avoid sex life. Brahmacārī—no sex life. Vānaprastha—no sex life. Sannyāsa—no sex life. Only gṛhastha, under control. That is gṛhastha. Gṛhastha does not mean one who is doing everything whimsically on account of getting this concession. He's not gṛhastha, he's gṛhamedhī. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām (SB 2.1.2). Śrotavyādīni rājendra nṛṇāṁ santi sahasraśaḥ, apaśyatām ātma-tattvam... (SB 2.1.2). Gṛhamedhī means he does not know what is spiritual life. That is gṛhamedhī. And gṛhastha means he knows what is spiritual life, and he lives on that status.

Room Conversation -- May 3, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: (tape very distorted) They are not beggar. But Kṛṣṇa has assured, yoga-kṣemaṁ vahām... Why they should go to beg? That this is only a process to approach them. If you approach any gentleman as beggar, he'll give you, at least in India. Not.... Just to enlighten, give them education. (break) He's thinking, "This is life." And the sannyāsī's duty is: "No, not this is life. You are in darkness, mūḍha." That is sannyāsī's business: to enlighten. (break) ...everything, and only for understanding future, they'll be left on the hand of the nature. Is that very good proposal? Hmm? No. There must be.

Room Conversation -- May 3, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: Because they have no education. The guru's duty is to give them education; the sannyāsī's duty is to give.... They do not give. They say, "Yes, you are all right. Give me some money." That's all. That they go: "I am avatāra, I am this, I am that," that's all. And he is.... He return (indistinct) to darkness. That's all. (break) ...they used to discover, whole method is finished.

Room Conversation -- Honolulu, May 20, 1976 :

Prabhupāda: ...and two sides, his two wives. Not that Caitanya Mahāprabhu is worshiped as a sannyāsī.

Devotee (2): Gṛhastha.

Prabhupāda: Gṛhastha. Gṛhastha with two wives, he must enjoy. This is our process. Why you will see Him as a sannyāsī? Therefore Nityānanda prabhu broke (daṇḍa?). They want..., do not want to see Him as sannyāsī, (indistinct) renounce. Why He should be renounced? He is gṛhastha. "Oh, well." God must enjoy...

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: We require engagement, necessities. So give up necessities means these rascal necessities. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He's sannyāsī, He has no necessity. Why He's crying for Govinda? He has given up the whole world, sannyāsī. And why He's crying for Govinda? That is real necessity. Govinda-viraheṇa me. Govinda necessity. The necessity is Govinda is not alone. There again life, again Vṛndāvana, again gopīs, again dancing, again eating, again everything. That necessity.

Room Conversation Excerpt -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Indian Man: Yes. I don't know if it is true. (break) ...taken sannyāsa, and just gone out somewhere.

Prabhupāda: So anyway, although you have got independence, India, oh, what is the profit?

Hari-śauri: The independence is just about to come, Śrīla Prabhupāda, when you start preaching there.

Prabhupāda: Real sva-raja is to go back to home, back to Godhead.

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

Prabhupāda: So after family life, according to Vedic civilization, one has to accept vānaprastha life. And when one is fully prepared, he takes sannyāsa after vānaprastha life. So vanaṁ gataḥ means one should prepare by going to the forest for the next life of renounced order of life. That is human civilization: brahmacārī, gṛhasta, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. Sannyāsa means full engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta (SB 7.5.5). Otherwise, what is the use of going to the forest? In the forest there are many monkeys also. So that kind of life is not harim āśrayeta. He must take shelter of the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari. That is oṁ tat sat. And then he'll be happy. That is Vedic civilization. So Prahlāda Mahārāja is teaching to the boys, his class friends. He was five-years-old boy. Naturally, his friends are also of the same age, and he's teaching this bhāgavata-dharma. Read this.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda has asked that all the sannyāsīs take one shirt. (break) (conversation continues after entrance of guest)

Prabhupāda: He wants chair?

Rāmeśvara: He likes sitting Indian style. (Prabhupāda laughs)

Jay Warner: No, this is fine, thank you.

Rāmeśvara: His name is Jay Warner.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I.... Ācarati śreṣṭhas tat tad evetaro janaḥ:"Anything which is accepted by leading men, that is accepted by others." So you are one of the leading men in the society, lawyer. If you understand our philosophy, then many others will follow.

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

Prabhupāda: This leaves only a few more years, but because of too much attachment to household life, those years are also spent with no purpose, without God consciousness. Therefore, one should be trained to be a perfect brahmacārī in the beginning of life, and then to be perfect in sense control, following the regulative principles, if one becomes a householder. From household life one is ordered to accept vānaprastha life and go to the forest and then accept sannyāsa. That is the perfection of life. From the very beginning of life, those who are ajitendriya, who cannot control their senses, are educated only for sense gratification, as we have seen in the Western countries. Thus the entire duration of a life of even one hundred years is wasted and misused, and at the time of death one transmigrates to another body, which may not be human. At the end of one hundred years, one who has not acted as a human being in a life of tapasya (austerity and penance) must certainly be embodied again in a body like those of cats, dogs and hogs.

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

Prabhupāda: When he is fully trained, if he likes he is allowed to marry. Thus he is not an ordinary gṛhastha who has learned only how to satisfy his senses. A trained gṛhastha can gradually give up household life and go to the forest to become increasingly enlightened in spiritual life and at last take sannyāsa. Prahlāda Mahārāja explained to his father that to be freed from all material anxieties one should go to the forest. Hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpam. One should give up his household, which is a place for going further and further down into the darkest regions of material existence.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Jayādvaita: Their only objection, when we present that there's brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa, then they become automatically hostile, because they understand that we're against sense gratification.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Sense gratification is animal civilization. And sense control is human civ.... Sense gratification is not human society. Sense gratification is not human civilization. That they do not know. Their central point is sense gratification. That is the defect. They are running on an animal civilization as human civilization. That is the defect.

Interview with Professors O'Connell, Motilal and Shivaram -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself was a gṛhastha. He married twice. First wife died, he married second wife. So gṛhastha is not rejected. Simply it is not that simply sannyāsīs will go back to home. No. Everyone can go. Striyaḥ śūdrās tathā vaiśyāḥ. They can go also. But one must be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's recommendation is that you remain your place-don't try to change it artificially—but be Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is required. And that is also very easy, how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Read Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, you become Kṛṣṇa conscious. At home or out of home, it doesn't matter. Sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ. You remain in your situation, place, and śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāk, and hear, just lend your aural reception of the words of Kṛṣṇa. So that day will come, Kṛṣṇa, who is ajita, you can conquer Him. Ajito 'pi jito 'py asi. Nobody can conquer Kṛṣṇa, but by this method, one can conquer Kṛṣṇa.

Garden Conversation -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: The same disease is there—master. Therefore they are condemned, arūhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padam tataḥ (SB 10.2.32). Because the mentality to remain master is continuing, even they are in the Brahman, merge into the Brahman, the mastership mentality is there; therefore he falls down again. Because mastership exhibition can be done in this material world. So many Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, they give up, "This world is false," and they merge, so-called merge, but the mastership mentality is there. But in the void, simply spiritual light, he cannot do any mastership; therefore again falls down in this false world, and he wants to be by becoming a leader of hospital, and school, college, a Christian missionary.

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

Prabhupāda: Liṅgam evāśrama-khyātāv. There are āśramas, brahmacārī, sannyāsī, gṛhastha. So they have got different dresses. So Kali-yuga, simply by dress, he becomes a brahmacārī, he become a gṛhastha, he becomes a sannyāsī, simply by dress. What he is acting, nobody cares, that's all. Then?

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

Prabhupāda: Liṅgam means the external feature. This is the dress of a sannyāsī, this is the dress of a gṛhastha. Just like daṇḍa. Daṇḍa is the symptom that he is a sannyāsī.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: As a gentleman, if you go to somebody's house, you require his permission, but India, still, a sannyāsī doesn't require any permission. He can enter in any householder's house: "Mother, give me some food." This is the introduction. Not that he has gone there for food, but easy introduction. And generally the householder will receive a sannyāsī, "Yes, Swamiji, come here, sit down." They will offer obeisances and then they begin talks. This is the meaning. Not that he is hankering after food. This is only introduction. He's not a beggar. But people take advantage of this dress because they think that "Without any work I can beg and live." That is going on in India.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

So many rascals, they are taking this sannyāsī dress and living at the cost of others. Therefore people have become disgusted. They have no knowledge to preach. Yes, go on.

Garden Conversation -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: This is stated in the śāstra. Anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ, because they have not understood Kṛṣṇa, even they have gone up to the Brahman, they cannot stand there; they fall down. Again they come to the material world. The Māyāvādīs, they say, brahma satyma jagan mithyā, "Brahman is truth, and this material world is false." They take sannyāsa, but after some time they fall down, again take to other businesses than Brahman in the material world. Just like our Vivekananda. He came to the Western countries to preach Vedānta, and he has advertised that "Whole America has become Vedantist." The proof of Vedānta is when he returned to India he became very enthusiastic to open hospitals like the Christian missionaries.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Vedic civilization begins from the varṇāśrama system. Varṇāśramācāravatā puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān viṣṇur ārādhyate (CC Madhya 8.58). How to realize Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore the system is varṇāśrama. In another place it is said, tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujaṁ harer (SB 1.5.17). The varṇāśrama means there is division: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa. But the ultimate goal is viṣṇur ārādhyate. The Supreme Lord should be worshiped. That is the idea.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Even one merges oneself into the impersonal Brahman, he again falls down. Patanty adhaḥ. We have seen practical, in India many sannyāsīs, they elevate themselves by jñāna-kāṇḍa, but because they cannot stay, they again come to the karma-kāṇḍa, philanthropy activities and hospitals and schools. That is their fall down. So either in karma-kāṇḍa or jñāna-kāṇḍa you cannot achieve the real purpose of life. Therefore Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has said, karma-kāṇḍa jñāna-kāṇḍa sakali visera bandha. Either you accept karma-kāṇḍa or jñāna-kanda, they're different pots of poison. Amṛta boliya jeba khai.

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

Prabhupāda: But it may not be perfect. (break)

Ṛṣi Kumāra: Prabhupāda, is it all right if I remain a sannyāsī?

Prabhupāda: Stay for some time. You'll get sannyāsa. Stay for some time.

Ṛṣi Kumāra: I don't want to get married. It's just being kicked by māyā. I can see that.

Prabhupāda: At least you have got already experience. (laughs) Don't be misled. Stay for sometimes. Will be give you sannyāsa. And now Mr. Punja, has he written any letter?

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Nothing. Simply he has taught the sannyāsīs to eat meat. That is his contribution. He says there is no harm eating meat. This is going on. Nārāyaṇa has become daridra. Daridra-nārāyaṇa, these are Vivekananda's contribution. And spoiled India's spiritual tradition. He has created one illiterate priest as God. That is his contribution, if we become honest to understand. So it will take some time to counteract all these mischievous activity. Simply mischievous.

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: If you are trying in different way, for sense gratification, karmīs are grossly, they want something (indistinct) they want nice car, wife, house, nice wife, nice (indistinct), So many things. That is karmī life. Jñānī, as they are baffled, they say, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, this endeavor for all mithyā. They take sannyasa, but after few days, again they take to the karmī's life. So that is also not good. Restless, so long you remain karmī, jñāni, yogi, restless. But when you become devotee you have no such desires, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (BRS 1.1.11). And then you become happy. Simply (indistinct) to execute the order of Kṛṣṇa. Just like Arjuna, he after hearing Bhagavad-gītā, what was his position? His position was, "Yes, kariṣye vacanaṁ tava. Yes.

Evening Darsana -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: So that attitude will not help to understand. (Prabhupāda converses in Hindi with an Indian lady about how one does not have to renounce family life to understand Kṛṣṇa.) He says paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12). He understands perfectly. There is no question of gṛhastha or sannyāsī. It is a question of understanding. And Arjuna is gṛhastha, politician, fighter, and still he is selected to understand Bhagavad-gītā. So gṛhastha. (Hindi) ...in gṛhastha life or sannyāsī, Caitanya Mahāprabhu also says like that, kibā vipra kibā śūdra nyāsī kene naya. (Hindi) I shall speak in English so that others.... Kibā vipra, whether one is a brāhmaṇa, kibā śūdra, or whether he is a śūdra, nyāsī kene naya, or whether he is a sannyāsī.

Evening Darsana -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Anyone who understands Kṛṣṇa perfectly, he is guru. Just like Arjuna is our guru, but he's a gṛhastha, he's a soldier, he's a kṣatriya. He's neither brāhmaṇa nor sannyāsī nor Vedantist, nothing of the sort. But he knows Kṛṣṇa. Therefore he is guru. So gṛhastha (Hindi). Śravaṇam, this is the first step of bhakti. Hear about Kṛṣṇa from the right source. Otherwise you will be misguided. Therefore Kṛṣṇa recommends, tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). You have to go to a person where you can surrender.

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

Dr. Sharma: I grew up with yogis and sannyāsīs in Hrishikesh. My father is a recluse.

Prabhupāda: Oh, your father is also recluse.

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

Prabhupāda: Everyone is engaged. Generally according to Vedic civilization, the society is divided into eight divisions. Varṇāśrama-dharma it is called-four varṇas and four āśramas. Materially, four varṇas: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. And spiritually, brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. These eight divisions. So according to these eight divisions, everyone has an occupational duty. So what is the duty and how the duty is perfected? That is hari-toṣaṇam, to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That people do not know. Especially at the present moment, they do not know who is Hari and they do not know how to please Him.

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

Dr. Sharma: Perhaps you can comment on the fact that in the movement, the Kṛṣṇa people, not only the sannyāsīs, but also the common working man, his karma is karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana. He also...

Prabhupāda: This is karma. Karma means according to that division, that brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra and brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. Karma means activity. There must be some prescribed activity. Just like you are professor, you have got your prescribed activities. He's the minister of ambassador's, he has got prescribed activities.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Vṛṣākapi: Every father, he wants his son to stay brahmacārī and become sannyāsa. So who will be willing to give up their son for marriage at a young age? (pause)

Prabhupāda: Hmm. (laughter)

Hari-śauri: You were saying the other day, actually the only solution is if everybody chants.

Prabhupāda: That is the only solution.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We were experiencing it just now, everyone was so happy chanting.

Prabhupāda: If one can remain without marriage, that is first-class.

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

Prabhupāda: They should be trained up. Therefore Vedic civilization is training. Some section of the people, they should be very intellectuals, brain, just like to maintain this body we require first of all the brain. If the brain is not order, then other parts, they may be there, but they are also useless. So similarly, in the society, some intellectuals should be maintained. They are called brāhmaṇas, and some of the brāhmaṇas, they are sannyāsīs. They are simply meant for giving good instruction. They should personally become very good and intellectual, and they should give instruction to other people what is the value of life, how to live. This is one section.

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

Prabhupāda: This is Vedic system of division. Brāhmaṇa... This is for our living condition, and then human life especially meant for spiritual realization, self-realization. For that purpose, again, another four divisions. Generally, the brahmacārī, student life; gṛhastha, married life; vānaprastha, retired life; and sannyāsa, renounced life. So at the end of life one should be renounced from all other responsibilities and completely devote his life for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or God consciousness. In this way, when a person dies in God consciousness, his life is perfect.

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

Prabhupāda: Therefore I say it is mentioned in the śāstra, brahmacārī guru-kule vasan dānto guror hitam (SB 7.12.1). If you want to be a lawyer, you must know the law. Without knowing the law, how you become a lawyer? Without knowing the engineering art, how you become engineer? So either you become a brahmacārī, gṛhastha or vānaprastha, sannyāsī, or anything, you must know what you are meant for. Without knowing, how you can become brahmacārī?

Guest (3): I must know what I am meant for.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Interview and Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Dress? Dress is not important. Practically, as sannyāsī, brahmacārī, we dress with saffron cloth, but sometimes you do not like, but we have to do business with you; therefore we change. What can be done? "Necessity has no law."

Janice Johnson: I'm also interested in... You all have moved your school out of Texas. Is that correct?

Prabhupāda: Gurukula school, yes.

Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That is not the remedy, because afterwards he give up and become a sannyāsī, and then again become this gṛhastha. This is not good. Opposition is already there, especially in the Western countries; they will never agree. So why do you marry? That is understood. Huh? Both the boys and girls trained in such a way that there must be opposition. So that is expected, that in your married life there will be opposition. So why do you marry?

Room Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: If you hear of Kṛṣṇa, you'll think of Him. In this way there is no need of changing the place, Sthāne sthitāḥ. Sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ, prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi: "My Lord, You are Ajita, nobody can conquer You. But this person who has engaged his body, mind and words for Your service, he can conquer You." Sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ. This was spoken by Lord Brahmā, that there is no question of changing position. Caitanya Mahāprabhu never says so, neither śāstras. But in a regulative way there are steps, brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa. But on the transcendental platform these things are useless. Simply engage in the service of the Lord. That is mukti.

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

Prabhupāda: And father, and son is no liquor.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: Son is sannyāsa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: 375 Park Avenue.

Prabhupāda: Like Prahlāda. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very big building.

Prabhupāda: Other brothers he has got?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, he has two other brothers.

Prabhupāda: They are with father?

Evening Darsana -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Now there are so many rascals in this dress of sannyāsī, they are eating meat. That is going on. They say, "What is the wrong of eating meat? Can eat." They eat meat. Then?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "The subject matter has already been discussed in the conversation between Lord Caitanya and Maulana Chand Kazi Shaheb. The animal sacrifice as stated in the Vedas is different from the unrestricted animal killing in the slaughterhouse."

Prabhupāda: There, your question.

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

Prabhupāda: In India the sannyāsīs beg, but I did not beg. I sold my Back to Godhead, books. I got income tax free...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You always gave literature.

Prabhupāda: I think this church.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, Universalist church. You always gave literature in return for donations you received.

Prabhupāda: That is going on still.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh! Mr. ... Come on. (guests come in) So Mrs. Kallman is going to become a sannyāsī, (indistinct). Gradually you have to become.

Mrs. Kallman: Must.

Prabhupāda: So if you feel uncomfortable you can sit on this.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: Are your followers encouraged to visit with their...

Prabhupāda: No, first of all you take your answer one by one. You say, "against the family." It is a wrong. It is a wrong propaganda. Oh, there are so many families in our society. It is a society. There are family members. There are brahmacārīs. There are sannyāsīs and vānaprastha. Whatever situation is suitable for you, you can accept, and in any situation, you can become God conscious. That's a wrong propaganda, that we are against family. Here is a wife of a boy.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: Was it difficult for you to give up what you had been doing in order to devote full time.

Prabhupāda: No, it is the Vedic system that at a certain age they should give up family connection and completely devote for God consciousness. In the beginning, twenty-five years, he should learn from guru about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then, if he is able, he does not become a family man, but if he is unable or circumstantially, he may become a family man. So he can remain a family man up to fiftieth year and then he retires from family life. He travels in holy places with his wife, and sometimes he comes home and sometimes he goes home. In this way, when he's practiced to give up family attachment, then the wife goes back home to the care of her elderly children, and the man takes sannyāsa, and he remains alone simply for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is Vedic system.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Rāmeśvara: In other words, some of our members are sannyāsa at an earlier age.

Prabhupāda: No, if... The purpose is to train a person in brahmacārī, not to enter into the entanglement of this material life. That is Vedic system. Basic principle is that don't be entangled with this material energy. So at the early age, up to twenty-five, he's trained up. If he can, he can continue as brahmacārī. He directly can take sannyāsa. But if he's unable, so let him go by step by step. Let him become a family, householder life, then retired life, then... But sannyāsa at the end, that is compulsory, not that unless he is shot down by somebody, he's not going to give up family life. That is not Vedic system.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: Young men do not generally possess a great deal of wisdom.

Prabhupāda: No, if he's trained up. Just like here we have got so many young men. They are trained up. So there is no prohibition that a young man cannot become a sannyāsa. If he's able, he can take sannyāsa from the very beginning. But if he's not able, let him enter into household life and then remain as householder up to fiftieth year, then retire, then take sannyāsa. It is not an enforcement. A gradual process. But the ultimate end is to become free from all material attachment and completely devote life for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the ultimate end.

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

Prabhupāda: Real Vedic principle is called varṇāśrama. Observing the principle of four varṇas. Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya. It is a very long science. Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. This is called varṇa. And brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. This is called āśrama. So the Vedic civilization is called varṇāśrama-dharma, not Hindu dharma. This is later contribution of the so-called scholars.

Interview with Trans-India Magazine -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: And you are journalist, you are not expected to become a motor mechanic or a medical man. But your function is also required in the society. Similarly, the Vedic society was divided into different sections. That is called varṇāśrama-four varṇas, four āśramas. That is very scientific. Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra and brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement includes this system of division of society. It is perfect society.

Interview with Trans-India Magazine -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: In this age, although varṇāśrama-dharma is very scientific, and Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement includes this, but we are mostly trying to get to the topmost part of varṇāśrama, sannyāsa, or above that. That means Vaiṣṇava. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). One can immediately transcend the jurisdiction of three modes of material nature if he engages himself in the devotional service of the Lord.

Car Ride -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Gurudāsa: Should I not go to the London zone at this time? I've been invited. They say they need a sannyāsī in that zone, for years, so I've been invited. Do you think I should go now with Satsvarūpa Mahārāja, or go to London?

Prabhupāda: That you decide among the all of you.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Pṛthu-putra: I just traveled with him.

Prabhupāda: For a sannyāsī it is very nice. So people may not dislike it, but for a sannyāsī this is very nice.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Jayatīrtha: Actually, it's a fact that you...

Prabhupāda: Everywhere is my home. Not that India.... If I am attached to India, then how I am sannyāsī? (laughter)

Bhagavān: And every other day I will give you a new book. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Where is?

Hari-śauri: You have to keep it, too, when you promise.

Prabhupāda: All right.

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

George Harrison: They are looking better and better all the time. It's nice for me to see Gurudāsa. He's turning into a mountain. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: His wife has also sannyāsī, renounced. Have you seen her latest?

George Harrison: No.

Prabhupāda: She has cut hair and white dress, living alone in the temple. Vairagya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yogam (CC Madhya 6.254). This bhakti-yoga means vairagya-vidyā, means detachment. That is the perfection of life. If we remain attached, that is conditional. Māyā has made so many things attractive so that we have to remain attached, and to come out of this attachment is called bhakti.

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

Mukunda: In Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: He's not a sannyāsī.

George Harrison: Pardon?

Prabhupāda: He's not sannyāsī.

George Harrison: Oh, well, the one I met had a staff. Maybe it was a different one.

Gurudāsa: Mādhava Mahārāja maybe.

Prabhupāda: Maybe Mādhava.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, everything is devotional. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam (SB 7.5.23), there are varieties. We are not Māyāvādī, impersonalists, finished, all business. It is not like that. So whatever business is going on in our movement, everything should be taught according to the capacity, boys or girls, it doesn't matter. Some department is suitable for the boys, some department are suitable for the girls. In this way, they should be trained up. But everyone should be trained up to give service. That is Gurukula. And brahmacārī, this sex impulse should be controlled. That ruins the whole character. Our big, big sannyāsīs are becoming victimized. So that is the danger. Woman is good, man is good; when they combine together, bad.

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

Prabhupāda: So be careful. All, you are all old students, and try to organize more and more solidly. The children should be taken, you can give lectures to the mothers, that children should be taken care of. They are future hopes. Child is the father of man. They say that we escape. What we are escaping? We have got all types of social society. There is gṛhastha, there is sannyāsī, there is brahmacārī. Whichever position is suitable, you accept and keep yourself sincere, that's all. Unnatural there is nothing. Is there anything unnatural? And if they think that we're prohibiting this meat-eating, this is unnatural, that we cannot. That is not unnatural, that is natural.

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

Prabhupāda: Just see how rascal they are. My Guru Mahārāja every step condemned this Ramakrishna Mission and Vivekananda. He said frankly that if there are any impediments for our movement, that is this Gandhi and Vivekananda. He said frankly. Hodge-podge. Gandhi's also hodge-podge. He was a politician, and in politics he mixed some spiritual ideas, hodge-podge. And this Vivekananda was also politician. His name was recorded in the government as "sannyāsī-politician." Because after returning from America, he began to preach to make the poor man rich, and these weak, fatty, and so on, exercise. So the government took it that he's, under the dress of a sannyāsī, he's preaching social and political upliftment. So his name was recorded as "sannyāsī-politician."

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

Translator: She wants to know if it is recommended that a woman become a sannyāsī.

Prabhupāda: Woman should stay under the father, under the husband, and under the elderly sons. Nothing more. Therefore it is the duty of the father to give her in charge of a young man when she is young. This is Vedic culture.

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

Prabhupāda: She cannot be alone. Na sataritatam ananti(?). Woman should not be allowed... Just like children. Children cannot be alone. They must taken care of. Similarly a woman, in childhood, should be taken care of by the father; when she's young, she should be taken care of by the husband; and when she's old, she should be taken care of by elderly sons. You'll find in the Vedic literature, the father's responsibility is until she's handed over to a suitable young man. And the husband's responsibility is so long she hasn't got elderly children. At that time, when she has got elderly children, he can leave home and take sannyāsa. So the process is a woman is kept under protection always.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: The impersonalist means ajñānī. Yes. Because he does not know Kṛṣṇa, the person. There is another verse in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ (SB 10.2.32). Āruhya kṛcchreṇa, by the jñāna process, is undergoing austerities and penances, one comes to the platform of paraṁ padam, monism, or platform of oneness. But because he has no shelter, he patanty adhaḥ, again comes to the material. Just like so many sannyāsīs in India, they are very learned, they have come to the platform of Brahman realization, but after some time they come to the material field for political work, for social work.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: We are. Our society, it is not that we are simply sannyāsīs. We have got brahmacārīs, we have got gṛhasthas. So gṛhasthas should be provided with some profession, business, so that they can earn very nicely. That is good idea.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: He has so much propensity to become engaged in these things, I have the propensity, all the devotees have the propensity. We can...

Prabhupāda: So you make your formula, I mean to say, plan and scheme. So far how to do it, that instruction I give.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Unless one is put into practice, it is not possible. That is Vedic culture. From the beginning of life students were sent to gurukula for practicing how to become brahmacārī. That training (indistinct). Then they are trained as gṛhastha, then vānaprastha, and ultimately sannyāsa, completely renounced. Immediately, a person cannot be renounced, therefore gradually, step by step. So unless there is proper training... Now just like we are selling millions copies of these books, they are reading, and how many of them coming forward? So it requires training. Training is essential to make them Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Indian man: First time they are hearing.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the cause we are selling six lakhs of rupees' worth books daily. They understand it is not so-called religious sentiment, it is science. Our so-called swamis and yogis, they never tried. They did not know. Also big, big swamis, they went there. Instead of teaching them, he was taught how to eat meat. Sannyāsī eating meat. He was convinced, "Yes, why not?" At least, in India still, the sannyāsīs they do not eat meat. Except that rascal missionary. No one. There may be difference of opinion, Māyāvādīs. But their behavior is the same.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Sadācāra is there. But these people, asadācārī, and passing as sannyāsī. Cigarette, meat-eating and everything, drinking. We are asking common men to give it up, and they say, "Oh, what is the wrong there?" They do not know what is the wrong there. This time in Iran we initiated some Iranian. Some Afghans also coming.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What is the difficulty? But unfortunately you have got fertile brain. You manufacture things. And that is your misfortune. It is better to remain a fool before the ācārya. Then he'll make progress. As Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, guru more mūrkha dekhi' karila śāsana (CC Adi 7.71). "My guru saw Me a fool number one, and he has chastised Me." When Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī asked Him that "You are a sannyāsī, You are simply chanting," so He replied like that: guru more mūrkha dekhi' karila śāsana, "My Guru Mahārāja saw Me a fool number one. Therefore he has said, 'You simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. You rascal, You cannot do anything.' So I am doing like that."

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: That is still existing?

Prabhupāda: Very big place. That you have seen this Keśavajī Gauḍīya Maṭha in Mathurā? No. There is Caitanya Mahāprabhu Deity. That Deity was there. When I closed that I brought that big, big sannyāsī and delivered them, they will show.

Conversation with Seven Ministers of Andhra Pradesh -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Indian (1): Yes, varṇāśrama, I wanted to, Swamiji...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Varṇāśramācāra-vatā. The varṇa and āśrama I've already explained. Just like for maintenance of the whole body there are different parts: the brain, the arm, the belly, and the leg. Similarly, varṇāśrama means the head—brāhmaṇa; the arms—kṣatriya; the belly—vaiśya; and the leg—śūdra. So by nature these divisions are there. Varṇa, four varṇas and four āśramas. Four varṇas means social divisions, and four āśrama, spiritual division. So apart from spiritual division, brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, and sannyāsa, the social division must be observed.

Room Conversation with Endowments Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: There may be some percentage. If you do not accept the recognized process... Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He was a great scholar. So He was chanting and dancing. So some of the sannyāsīs, Māyāvādī sannyāsīs in Benares... (to servant:) You keep it there, they will take. There was a meeting, and the question was that "You are a sannyāsī..." This question was put to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that "You have taken sannyāsa, you do not read Vedānta, and you are mixing with the sentimental persons, chanting and dancing. What is this?" This was the question. So He explained that, "Yes, My Guru Mahārāja found Me a great rascal."

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

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.

Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Ha. Happiness means spiritual happiness. That they do not know. Therefore I began my words that so long one is after material happiness he remains as an animal. Because the animal cannot derive spiritual happiness. They do not know. The man can know. Just like this boy, he's coming from very high family in America but he's now happy in this way, by taking sannyāsa, giving up everything, living very plain. He has got money he had got beautiful wife, he had got beautiful home, everything. But he has given up. Not his example. In our country there were many many big, big kings, rājarṣis. Just like Bharata Mahārāja. He was emperor of the whole world.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...Sannyāsī should go on preaching, preaching, preaching, preaching. Practically, I was sitting here in Vṛndāvana, in Rādhā-Dāmodara temple. So at the age of seventy years, nobody goes out. At least from Vṛndāvana nobody goes at the age of seventy years. But Kṛṣṇa asked me. I thought that I must go, Guru Mahārāja wanted it, Caitanya Mahāprabhu... Let me try. So if I had not gone then this institution would not have developed.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Otherwise, I have no capacity to move now. But still I am moving. Only for this purpose. Girinaṁ grhna-cetasam.(?) So a sannyāsī must move. A sannyāsī must not stay anywhere more than three days. That is the principle. So he was moving, but his moving is creating disturbances here. Therefore I have stopped. And besides that, a temple is nirguṇa. A sannyāsī is forbidden to stay anywhere else, but in a temple he can stay for more than three days provided there is business. Otherwise, there is no necessity. So this is the exclusion(?).

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: When we come to a center, naturally there are certain men who want to go traveling. Not all men want to go traveling, but there are definitely some who want to go traveling. And if they come to me, what should I do? Tell them, "No, I'm sorry"?

Prabhupāda: No, no, traveling, if somebody wants to travel, what he is, first of all you must know. A brahmacārī, a sannyāsī, they are meant for preaching. Not gṛhasthas.

Haṁsadūta: No, not gṛhasthas. I'm not taking any gṛhasthas.

Prabhupāda: So if a brahmacārī, gṛhastha, yes, if he wants to travel, so there is no objection.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: If it's three rupees, thirty paisa a day for eating, soap, and toothpaste...

Prabhupāda: No soap. Take this Rādhā-kuṇḍa's... Why soap? You are so devotee of Rādhā-kuṇḍa, why you require soap? This is nonsense. You take earth from the Rādhā-kuṇḍa or Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana-dhūli. Why you require soap? (Hindi conversation to the effect that if one has the dust of Vṛndāvana or Rādhā-kuṇḍa, there is no necessity for soap) Nim datun? I was doing nim datun(?) until the teeth fell down. You will know that I was collecting nim. But now it is impossible. That also I have manufactured my own toothpaste. I purchase only the brush and I made my toothpaste at home. I never used any toothpaste. Even in my young days. I never used. You have seen it practically. Not only that now I have become sannyāsī. When I was gṛhastha I never used. When I was gṛhastha I was using that nim datun(?) regularly. And I can give you the paste. So if you cannot use nim datun, you can use this paste. Very simple.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: And there's no need for me to go out. There's so many nice sannyāsīs. So many big preachers and so many buses. So if we just try it.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Īśvara Candra prabhu has come from Mathurā. (break)

Prabhupāda: When you will come to preach something. You take it from me.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: But they are not here. They're not in the country.

Prabhupāda: So, we are sannyāsīs. We have no children. So why you are coming to us.

Akṣayānanda: They've never come fortunately.

Hari-śauri: They can only do that to their own citizens. They can only do that to Indian citizens.

Prabhupāda: Foreigners...

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: Plainly you have described in the Gītā. You have described plainly in the Gītā. No one else has done that. Cinmayananda's, this, that rascal, no one has. No one has explained that. They don't know.

Prabhupāda: No, anyone who is not in our disciplic succession, he's not a human being. Cinmayananda, Vivekananda, this-ānanda, they simply... Ānanda, there is no ānanda. All nirānanda. What Cinmayananda? He is supposed to be very big sannyāsī, what he has done?

Akṣayānanda: What has he done? He advertised in the paper for young boys.

Prabhupāda: There is one gentleman, Sadajivatra in Bombay. You know him?

Akṣayānanda: Sadaji Mahatma?

Prabhupāda: Sadajivatra.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He is very intelligent. He has said to a friend, that Bhaktivedanta Swami (Hindi) Kāla means, that he has made all other so-called sannyāsīs, yogis, black-faced.

Akṣayānanda: (laughs) Jaya. He is intelligent.

Prabhupāda: Bhaktivedanta Swami sata mukala.(?)

Akṣayānanda: It's true. It's true.

Prabhupāda: Now here is a big sannyāsī, Akhandanandan, or Bon Maharaja. They are supposed to be big, big sannyāsī.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is natural. Just like when I go to Calcutta. Therefore a sannyāsī is forbidden to live in his native place. There will be attraction. Caitanya Mahāprabhu never returned to Navadvīpa. (break) ...no striking six o'clock. Did you mark it?

Room Conversation -- September 11, 1976, Vrndavana:

Devotee: You can give him one of those sannyāsī rooms in the brahmacārīs.

Harikeśa: All right.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Arrange everything. But don't turn this, and very easily give the other guest room. Then it will be awkward like anything. Very cautious. So this is the program I am giving, and if you can give some practical sense, it will be very nice profitable business.

Room Conversation with U.N. Doctor -- September 29, 1976, Vrndavana:

Doctor: Otherwise, om is only given to sannyāsīs?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. It is not mentioned there. Anyone chanting Vedic mantra, he has to begin with oṁkāra.

Room Conversation with U.N. Doctor -- September 29, 1976, Vrndavana:

Doctor: Someone said that the word om is given to sannyāsīs and it...

Prabhupāda: No, Kṛṣṇa does not say.

Doctor: It's not so.

Prabhupāda: "Someone," we don't take authority. "Someone." There are so many "someones." We don't care for them. What Kṛṣṇa says we accept. That's all.

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I took sannyāsa from him.

Hari-śauri: Who is that?

Prabhupāda: Sannyāsa has to be taken from a sannyāsī, so I took sannyāsa from him.

Hari-śauri: Yes, I was wondering what his name was.

Prabhupāda: Oh, his name is Keśava Mahārāja. He's one of the Godbrothers. He's also one of my Godbrothers.

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: Harikeśa said the day before you took sannyāsa you were gored by a cow or something? A cow hit you in the stomach?

Prabhupāda: Before?

Hari-śauri: The day before you took sannyāsa?

Prabhupāda: No. No. (laughing)

Hari-śauri: I was told that. I don't know whether it was... Or some time around then.

Prabhupāda: That was long before.

Hari-śauri: Oh, that was a long time.

Prabhupāda: I took sannyāsa sometime in '59, and... No, that is after I took sannyāsa. No, no. Before, yes. Before or after,...

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: Oh, that's a long time before.

Prabhupāda: And I took sannyāsa in 1959.

Hari-śauri: That was in Vṛndāvana or Delhi?

Prabhupāda: No, Delhi. Vānaprastha. I was alone. But my paper was going on, Back to Godhead. In Delhi I was alone. I was doing everything. Editing, selling, collecting, cooking.

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hmm. They sent, my family, to go and live with me. He came twice, thrice. The reason is that I asked him "If you want to live with me then you have to live with me as sannyāsī, brahmacārī.

Room Conversation -- October 26, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The bābājīs, they are against anything preaching. They are very, very much against preaching. So I am preaching. Bābājīs, the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, and all of them, their idea is that I am ruining this bhajana and Hindu dharma. This is the propaganda. What I am writing, they are all wrong. And they are making... And they try to poison my disciples as far as possible so that the whole institution may be poisoned and break. This is their propaganda.

Room Conversation on New York court case -- November 2, 1976, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Then do that. Hold a meeting among the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas here, and I will explain the position. Now we should combine together and fight. As soon as you introduce something strong, there will be fight. There will be fight. Even Kṛṣṇa had to see the fight, Kurukṣetra. Dharmakṣetre kurukṣetre samavetā yuyutsavaḥ (BG 1.1). The fight must be there, yuyutsavaḥ. So if you belong to Caitanya Mahāprabhu's party, then you should come out to fight. Whatever done is done, and it is done single-handed. Nobody has helped me. Even not my god-brothers. These American boys, they have helped me. They understood the philosophy and they helped me. Rather, they are criticizing that I am making these American boys sannyāsī, and giving them sacred thread. They are criticizing.

Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Jagadīśa: It's nice to have a sannyāsī involved.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Jagadīśa: He can be a good example.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Jagadīśa: And Bhagatji.

Prabhupāda: For feeding. Feeding. Give them sumptuous food so that they may become healthy, nice food. (laughter) Yes. That is also wanted. Children, they must eat sufficiently. Not overeat. Even overeat, that is not wrong for children.

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

Prabhupāda: That's it. Similarly you will find the so-called sannyāsīs, not bhaktas, they undergo severe austerities, penances, but after some time they come to the worldly atmosphere. Because they could not get any place, therefore they come down. Just like the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs they say that this duniyā, (world) jagat mithyā. If jagat is mithyā, you have left it, then why you come again to give some philanthropic service? If it is mithyā, then why you come again after so much? Is it not nonsense? If jagat is mithyā why you are coming again to this mithyā? That means you could not get place in the satya. Therefore you come down again. That is stated in the śāstra. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padam (SB 10.2.32). Although with severe austerities and penances (he) might go to the paraṁ pada, patanty adhaḥ, anādṛta-yuṣmad, because he could not get shelter at the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, he falls down. He must fall down to the material activities. Patanty adhaḥ. That is adho patha. As soon as a person, after undergoing severe austerities, becomes very highly elevated in the sannyāsa stage, but if he cannot get shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then surely he shall fall down for these material activities, material enjoyment. That is the sign that he's fallen down.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Girirāja: Yes, Jimmy Carter. On January 20th he will become the next President. So Ādi-keśava Mahārāja and this one Indian sannyāsī, they are going to make a representation to the new President.

Prabhupāda: Who is that Indian swami?

Śrutaśrava: His name is Chandra Swami.

Prabhupāda: Chandra Swami? So why...?

Guest (4): He's a young man.

Prabhupāda: He must be Māyāvādī. He's taking advantage of this. He's a Māyāvādī.

Morning Walk -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Yaśomatīnandana: That is indirectly accepting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's a fact. We do not make any compromise. Vivekananda went there. He came back. He said, "What is the wrong in meat-eating?" He introduced meat-eating amongst his contemporary sannyāsīs. This is his vedānta-pracāra. So he is advertised that he preached Vedānta all over America, and everyone has become Vedantist. What is...? What kind of Vedantist? Now, he introduced meat-eating amongst the sannyāsīs, which was never in India, any... There are two sets of sannyāsīs, the Śaṅkara sampradāya and Vaiṣṇava sampradāya. But their ācāra is the same.

Morning Walk -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

They may differ in philosophy, but their ācāra is the same. Rather, the Śaṅkara sampradāya sannyāsī are more strict than the Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī. Śaṅkara sampradāya sannyāsī, they'll never occupy a seat, those who are strictly following. They'll sit down on the floor. Without any āsana. They lie down on the floor. They are so renounced. And what is this, that sannyāsī smoking and drinking? And ordinary sannyāsīs, they are drinking also tea, one ghara (?). I have seen it.

Bhava-bhūti: Now Rajneesh gives sannyāsī and sannyāsinī.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā, yes. Sannyāsinī, woman sannyāsī.

Yaśomatīnandana: It's just a mockery. He's not making any sannyāsī. He's not sannyāsa; he just gives name sannyāsa.

Hari-śauri: Neo-sannyāsa he called it.

Prabhupāda: No, no, they dress like sannyāsī.

Yaśomatīnandana: They dress, but they smoke biḍi, they...

Prabhupāda: They say, nava-sannyāsa. They say, nava-sannyāsa.

Morning Walk -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Neo.

Prabhupāda: Neo-sannyāsa.

Hari-śauri: There were three or four of them came to stay at the guest house in Vṛndāvana, Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma guest house.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Husband and wife sannyāsa. (laughter)

Hari-śauri: Yes. They were saying, "I am sannyāsī, and my brother is sannyāsī, and my wife is sannyāsī, but my mother-in-law, she is not sannyāsī." (laughter)

Prabhupāda: This is Kali-yuga. Rascals, they are doing anything and any...

Morning Walk -- December 30, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So explain with that purpose. At least, they are sensible. (break) You cannot give up these four things: yajña, dāna, tapasya. So yajña for the brahmacārīs, begin yajña. And dāna for the gṛhasthas, and tapasya for the sannyāsīs. Yajña-dāna-tapaḥ-karma na tyājyam, Kṛṣṇa says. Do not give up this. "I have become sannyāsī, therefore I'll give up my tapasya also." Sannyāsī means the life of tapasya. If you give up tapasya also then what remains? How you become a sannyāsa? Yajña-dāna-tapaḥ-karma na tyājyaṁ kāryam eva tat. It must be continued. And again He stresses yajño dānaṁ tapaś caiva pāvanāni manīṣiṇām. Even if you think that you have become very great, "Now I'm very exalted personality. I don't require. I have become paramahaṁsa," No, no, no, no.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: This, our book distribution is the most important task in our society. Therefore I am giving so much stress and I am working so hard on this. Because this is my life and soul according to the order of my Guru Mahārāja. And by his grace it is to some extent successful. And I took it seriously. I take it seriously still now. That is my life and soul. I never tried in India to construct big temples or even in your country we didn't. I never tried. But I was selling personally books. That is the history. Sometimes they are criticizing, "What kind of sannyāsī? He is doing book business." (laughs) The other day that, what is his name? Bachu Hai came. Bachu Hai Dresswalla. You know him?

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Prem Kutir. So they received me very nicely. So I was going to sell my books. So some of them were criticizing, "What kind of sannyāsī? He's making business bookselling." Not the authorities, but some of them. I was writing book also there.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: '63 you were already sannyāsa.

Prabhupāda: No. '63 I was in Vṛndāvana. Before that.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Before sannyāsa.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes.

Hari-śauri: Before coming to Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. At that time I was not sannyāsa. That means it was before '58. Somewhere in '57 or... So I tried my Godbrothers, that if they give me facilities for this, then I shall join. Otherwise, I will work independently. So nobody was able to provide me with this.

Page Title:Sannyasa (Conversations, 1976)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Gopinath
Created:22 of Jul, 2010
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=144, Let=0
No. of Quotes:144