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Shop (Conversations 1976)

Expressions researched:
"shop" |"shopped" |"shopping" |"shops"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Oh, we shall invest.

Jayapatāka: The gurukula is living on this side. And they're having classes in this original house. (break) (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Bidi.

Jayapatāka: Many people want to open up a shop. They'll pay for the...

Prabhupāda: (break) ...tulasī...

Jayapatāka: Our land.

Prabhupāda: So why not employ one man to manfacture tulasī beads? Yes. There are many experts.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They have to live here as devotee?

Jayapatāka: No.

Prabhupāda: No, let them manufacture. That will make him devotee.

Bhavānanda: On the right here, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is our nursery for our landscaping.

Prabhupāda: So this is nice. It is very.... It will be very nice to live in these rooms. What is the cost of this kattan?

Jayapatāka: Of?

Prabhupāda: What do we pay?

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: No, then you will require extra energy.

Jayapatāka: No, I mean our own production, not outside.

Prabhupāda: No, no, your production.... You should make production for your necessity.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The American devotees, when they come, they want to purchase the cloth.

Prabhupāda: That is amongst ourself, not public. That one can purchase from that side. Why a shop? You make one utensil shop, bāsana, bāsana, karatāla. So one, prasādam; one, bāsana; and another?

Jayapatāka: Books.

Prabhupāda: Books. And another? Four you have got.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You know those quotations you gave from your guru mahārāja? Yesterday you wrote some quotations?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here is a place where they might be displayed. This is a blank place.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. There it should be written.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, Prabhupāda wants it up there where they sell the prasādam.

Bhavānanda: They will buy in some leaf cup and go next door and have a place to sit down and take it, and then water to wash their... Actually there's a pump. Everything is right there.

Prabhupāda: You will find such confectioner's shop, sitting place and eating.

Bhavānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Like that.

Bhavānanda: Just like in Navadvīpa.

Harikeśa: They have that near the Gopīnātha temple in Vṛndāvana. Everybody goes there. That is very big.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We should make a nice sweet, sweetmeats also.

Harikeśa: Lugloos is big there. Those lugloos.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We should make many types of sweetmeats. There should be so many preparations, all offered to the Deity. People can purchase mahā-prasādam. It will be very big. When you read in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, every time Caitanya Mahāprabhu's devotees are purchasing prasādam from Jagannātha temple, all the time.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the system.

Morning Walk -- February 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Mūḍha. Anyone who's not a Kṛṣṇa conscious, he's a mūḍha, bās. Narādhama, bās.

Acyutānanda: We call a barber, and he shaves one, and we said, "Now sharpen again," and he does not bring his stone. "Go back and bring your stone." But even in the free society, American society, they have union. And that is caste. To protect the employment, one union man cannot do the work of another union or he'll put another man out of work. So they stay in their place. So that is sva-dharma and para-dharma. So the same principle is natural, svābhāvika, again appears naturally. Hmm? Just like we... In my house we purchased a piano. One union is hired to bring the piano from the shop to the lorry, another set of workers will lift the piano and put it into the lorry, and another union will take the, from the lorry into your house. So you have to hire about nine different men, because they'll say, "No, now our work is finished up to this point."

Prabhupāda: In America?

Acyutānanda: Yes. And the other union is the truck driver. And no man will do the other work. Like in India, if you hire a woman to wash the pots, if you tell her to wash the pāyakhānā, she will not go. Another woman you have to get. And that protects them. That protects their employment opportunity.

Prabhupāda: Division of labor.

Acyutānanda: Division of labor.

Prabhupāda: (break)... gradually no simple life. Struggle for existence, very, very...

Acyutānanda: People confuse change for progress. When it is just changed and done in a more complicated way, they think it is called progress. That is also the Communist thing when there is protest: "Oh, well, you have to accept change. It's natural. It's a natural change."

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: Yes, very prominent road.

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

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

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

Jayapatākā: It's a smaller road.

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

Jayapatākā: French-lover.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Morning Walk -- March 12, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So I was cooking once only, that's all.

Yaśodānandana: Your loitering was very fruitful even.

Prabhupāda: I was studying Americans, how they are walking, how they are shopping, like that.

Satsvarūpa: One time you said you were happier then, maintaining yourself, than having thousands of disciples.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There was no chance of finding fault. (laughter) Now I have to find fault.

Madhudviṣa: (break) ...New York now named Jaya Nimāi Nitai. When you were first in New York, he was a musician. He used to write music, and he used to get inspired by looking down from his apartment down to the street. And every day he said he used to see this little Indian man walking by, and it was you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. And he couldn't figure out what was going on, this man walking by on the street every day.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I was having morning walk regularly, alone.

Madhudviṣa: He said you used to walk very fast. (break) (Indian band playing)

Madhudviṣa: Entrance? (break)

Rādhāvallabha: ...ISKCON temples, ISKCON activities, ISKCON temples, ISKCON Deities... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...people will know there is exhibition? There is no signboard. Who will know that here is...?

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

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

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

Pañcadraviḍa: I had experience, because when I was younger I was stealing, and I was taking to the hock shop one typewriter, and while I was taking to the hock shop this typewriter, the police came and showed me his badge and took this typewriter and one French horn from... He took the money, and he said, "I am going to check to see if this is stolen." So one week later I was worried. I called him. I said, "What is happening?" He said, "That typewriter was reported one year ago stolen from the school." But he said, "Because I think you're a good boy, I'm not going to arrest, you because I don't think you did it. If I thought for a moment you did it, I would immediately come and take you." So I said, "That's all right. What about the French horn? When can I have my money back?" He said, "You just forget about this. You leave it to me."

Prabhupāda: To keep you honest. (laughter) To keep you honest, you just don't hope your money.

Guru-krpa: Their practice is that they watch our saṅkīrtana devotees collect all day, and they know when he has good pocketful of money. Then they arrest him...

Prabhupāda: In Germany they have done this.

Guru-krpa: ...take to jail, and then they say... Actually the boy collected two hundred dollars. They say, "Oh, he only collected thirty dollars," and then the others, they split.

Morning Walk -- March 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Pañca-draviḍa: .... that is praiseworthy.

Prabhupāda: And advertise publicly: "Topless, bottomless women are available here. Come here. School is open at ten o'clock at night. It goes on up to four." I have seen it. This is civilization, nightclub and topless, bottomless shop.

Rāmeśvara: The women argue, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that they can be given.... If they are given a good chance, they can make equal contribution in business, in science. So they are demanding equal rights, equal employment.

Prabhupāda: So why.... Why not equal rights that you stop producing children like the man? The man does not produce. Why you are obliged to produce?

Rāmeśvara: That is their special qualification.

Prabhupāda: That is.... Similarly, everything is special. You are a different entity. You must have different engagements. That is your perfection.

Rāmeśvara: But we all have.... The women and men, they all have the same brain, they say.

Prabhupāda: No, that I protested in Chicago. Yes. "And no, that is not the fact. The fact is man has 64 ounce. The woman has 36 ounce.... Highest."

Devotee (2): They'll say intelligence is not dependent on the size of the brain.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Reporter (5): But what would you attribute this to?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What would you attribute this to? What is the cause of this?

Prabhupāda: Cause of this? One simple cause is they have become unfortunate. They give up the real thing, and they accept the imitation. So that is their misfortune. If there are two shops, everyone knows "Here is real gold, and here is imitation gold." If you go to purchase imitation gold, that is his misfortune.

Reporter (5): What is it in your movement which has appealed to the Western world? I believe you have a sizable following in...

Prabhupāda: Yes, because we are supplying real gold. We are giving real gold. We are not supplying imitation gold. That is the credit. If you supply imitation thing, it may go for some time, but it will not endure. So many swamis and yogis go there, but just these.... Ask these American boys. They don't care for them.

Reporter (5): But even Mahesh Yogi has a considerable following in America and a lot of Western countries.

Prabhupāda: No solidified.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Amongst housewives.

Hṛdayānanda: No. Now it is going down, and the followers, they have..., they will not follow any regulative principles. They will not surrender. Simply.... They have no actual disciples who are following principles.

Morning Walk -- March 26, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, that is natural and everything else unnatural. The principle of loving Kṛṣṇa is distributed in so many ways. Instead of loving Kṛṣṇa, loving so many nonsense things, and we are becoming implicated. The principle is love, but instead of loving the right person, you are loving so many things. Hm?

Cyavana: Growing wild.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dayānanda: You told me, "What is the use of becoming a paṇḍita?" So the other day I was in one shop, and the man was asking me about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one of the shop owners. So I told him one verse, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). He did not know it, but he called over one of his employees. He was a paṇḍita. He was working in the shop as a salesman. So I was thinking that he has become a paṇḍita.

Prabhupāda: Become a salesman.

Dayānanda: But he's just working in the shop as a salesman.

Prabhupāda: And he has become a servant of a person who does not know Sanskrit.

Dayānanda: Yes, he does not know anything, but he has become servant.

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

Prabhupāda: And you can disvertise(?) it from New Zealand or from Australia. There can be very peaceful condition of the whole world. Simply mismanaged by the rascal leaders. Otherwise, people can live very peacefully, eat sumptuously, save time, and there is no necessity of stopping the bare necessities of life. There is arrangement for eating, sleeping, sex life also. But not like fools and rascals. Like sane man. But this modern civilization, it is insane, crazy civilization. There is a little pleasure in sex life—simply sex life, increase sex life, spoiling everything. That is crazy. Eating-eat anything, any nonsense thing, and become a hog. Sleeping-oḥ, there is no limit, twenty-four hours sleeping if it is possible. Go on, this is going on. Eating, sleeping, mating. And defense—and discover atomic weapon, this weapon, that weapon, and kill innocent persons, unnecessarily, defense. This is going on. But everything can be used properly for peaceful condition, and when you become peaceful, no disturbance, then you can very happily chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and your life becomes successful. This is our program. 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. Actually, they want to stop population. Then why it, sex, then? No, they'll have sex life, at the same time, no population, kill the children. What is that? Simply sinful life. They will suffer, continue to suffer. So we want to stop that suffering. These rascals, they do not understand. They think, "Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is disturbing." A rascal civilization. So let us try our best. What can be done? You also helping in this movement. So don't spoil the movement by manufacturing ideas.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: Yes, traveler is the loser. If you have no faith, then loser, you are loser. You will never understand. Therefore śāstra says, Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). Big, big stalwart ācāryas, mahājanas, they are accepting. Therefore we accept. That is sense. And if you sit down, "No, no, I have no faith," you'll sit down and remain a rascal, that's all. Ādau śraddhā. Therefore faith is the first thing. Ādau śraddhā. If he has got intelligence, he'll see: "So many big, big.... Lord Brahmā accepts. Lord Śiva accepts. Vyāsadeva accepts. Nārada accepts. The ācāryas accept. So am I more than them? No. I will accept." And that is perfection of.... Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). And if still you remain faithless, then you are rascal. Same example can be.... Quantas. So many hundreds are purchasing ticket. They have also never seen London, but on faith they're purchasing ticket. So you have no faith, you don't purchase; therefore remain here. Without faith you cannot begin to work. The same example: You have gone to a barber shop. He is shaving, and people blindly, closing eyes, and he has got a razor. He can immediately cut. But why do you do this? Because you have faith that "These people are professional barbers. They are shaving so many other people. They will not kill me. All right. Go on." This is faith. And if you have no faith, then you will never have clean shaven. You go away. So beginning is faith, but faith should not be blind. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). You have to take faith from great personalities. That is faith. Just like you American boys and girls. You began with faith. Without faith nothing can be.... Ādau śraddhā. Just like people come, and they get some faith that "So many people are following Swamiji." So he associates for some time. Then he offers himself for initiation. This is the way. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo 'tha bhajana-kriyā (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). And bhajana-kriyā, if he agrees with spiritual master and takes his word, then anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Spiritual master says, "You should not do this," and if he follows, then automatically his unnecessary burden is cleansed. This is the way. But faith is the beginning. And that is quite natural. Faith means by seeing others, respectable persons following, "And why not I shall follow?" That is faith. Faith is not also blind. You can see that so many others are doing, "So why I myself?"

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: No, no. Everything is controlled. Whatever government will give you, they have to accept. And all the stores, it is just like, what is called? The old?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Grocery store?

Prabhupāda: Antique, antique, antique shop. That means no purchaser. People have no p..., no bank. People have no money, simply bare necessities of life their government supplies. And bus transport, buses standing in one place, best time, and people are running after. Women, men, mostly they walk.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Or bicycles.

Prabhupāda: Bicycle, I did not...

Guru-kṛpā: I think they must all wear the same clothes.

Prabhupāda: I did not study so much. Yes, there is no gorgeousness.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In China they all wear the same clothes. Whatever you saw in Russia, China is ten times more oppressive. It is much more oppressive. They say that Russia is a complete failure, because they are allowing so much looseness. The Chinese are accusing the Russians of being very loose and very capitalistic inclined. China is very dissatisfied that Russians have given up the principles of Marx and they have taken after the western ways. Preferring one group above another group.

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Even plastic, they can cover big land like this?

Rādhāvallabha: Almost this big.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They cover football fields. They can cover big areas, but it's artificial. (break) ...flowers also.

Prabhupāda: You take. (break)

Rādhāvallabha: ...shopping centers, they also make plastic trees.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Rādhāvallabha: In the big shopping centers they have plastic trees growing.

Prabhupāda: Grown?

Rādhāvallabha: They don't need any water.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They don't grow. (break) ...say, though, that "We don't want to enter into a religious, philosophical discussion. Simply we are trying to improve the standard of life."

Prabhupāda: What improvement you have done? What improvement you have done? I do not wish to die. Can you help me? Then what improvement?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: What improvement?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But we can make it more comfortable.

Morning Walk -- May 26, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: In Hawaii?

Devotee (5): They seem to let people live in these buildings, boxes. They don't want to let people live on the land.

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: Causing what is that?

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

Prabhupāda: They don't want natural things.

Devotee: (indistinct)

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

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

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

Richard: I'm what?

Rāmeśvara: Liberated.

Richard: Oh. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: Naturally, everyone, that is the problem of life. Otherwise, why there are so many medical colleges, drug shops and medicines, just to avoid disease? Otherwise, there was no need of arrangement. Everyone is afraid of disease, not to suffer from disease. That's a fact. If you say that you are not afraid of disease, that is something new. But unless we are afraid of disease, why there is this Memorial Hospital, this drug shop, this pharmacy? Why these things are required? We don't want it.

Richard: Do you...? You have a doctor, though, you said, right?

Prabhupāda: No, I am not a doctor.

Richard: You have no doctor.

Prabhupāda: My point is that these are the problems—birth, death, old age and disease. This is our point.

Richard: That these are the basic problems of most men?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Richard: Death, fears of death and disease.

Prabhupāda: Yes, everyone.

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

Prabhupāda: Now what do you mean by that? First of all, describe what is happiness, whether drinking is happiness or going to the church is happiness. Therefore you have to define what is happiness. Then we have to select whether this happiness is obtainable in the liquor shop or in the church. You must have clear idea of happiness. And if you speak generally, then he will say, "I am getting happiness; why you are insisting me go to the church? I am getting happiness." Therefore you have to define what is happiness.

Richard: Okay, I would say happiness is the pursuit of, to you, what makes your life work, worthwhile.

Prabhupāda: We are not working, we are not interested in working.

Richard: Well, when I say work, I mean what gives you an inner respect for yourself, um, yeah, I think it all boils down to self-respect, an appreciation of...

Prabhupāda: What is this self-respect?

Richard: Self-respect? Self-respect would be an appreciation and cognizance of your spiritual and physical being.

Prabhupāda: What is my actual being? Physical being or spiritual being?

Richard: Both. I mean they are part of, to me, they are one manifestation.

Prabhupāda: And after death what happens?

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Panwanna(?), puṣpānna, kijeranna(?), so many things. What is that? If you kill the cow you get the meat only one time. But if you allow the cow to live and take milk, and from milk you can make hundreds and thousands of preparations. That is enjoyment, real enjoyment. In Delhi, there are shops, very respectable shops. One side salt, and one side sweet. But the salt side or sweet side, they're all based on ghee. This preparation, dahibarā, so nice. Combination of grain and yogurt. So introduce this. They do not know. It is a new type of civilization we are trying to introduce for the benefit of the human society. They do not know it. Crude civilization. Primitive. Kill an animal and eat. And when you are civilized, you are supposed to know so many things; why should you kill the animal? You utilize the animal. This milk is taking the blood without killing. That is humanity. You are eating beef because of the blood. So if you take the blood in a different way, you get the same benefit. And if you are still ambitious to eat the meat, flesh, just wait, it will die, you take at that time. Why so hurry? Everyone will die, there is no doubt about it. So you take the dead body and eat. Why do they not?

Hari-śauri: They said there's something wrong with it. When it dies, it has so many diseases and things.

Prabhupāda: This is rascaldom. They are eating so many dead animals.

Hari-śauri: But they say if they kill it in a healthy condition then the meat they eat is good.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: Hardbound Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam?

Pañca-tattva: Yes.

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

Mādhavānanda: Kṛṣṇa empowered him.

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

Mādhavānanda: Many amazing things happen when we are distributing books. People come up to us, and they say, "No, I will not take your book. I will tell you now that I will not take your book. If you want me to read your book, then I will read it, but I will not give you any money." And we say, "All right, please read it, please read the book and tell us what you think." And they say "All right." And we say "Oh, please give a donation." And they say, "No, I cannot give a donation." And we say, "All right, but please read the book." He says: "All right." "Oh, and give a donation." And they say, "All right, I'll give a donation." (laughter)

Morning Walk -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

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

Hari-śauri: Machine.

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

Hari-śauri: Like dogs and cats.

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

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: And they drink.

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

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

Hari-śauri: Someone told me that your Guru Mahārāja said that.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. Anyone who is not taking urad ḍāl, he must be taking fish silently, secretly. (break)

Kīrtanānanda: Not on this side, other side. I want to buy that farm there.

Prabhupāda: This barn, Vṛndāvana. What is this building?

Kīrtanānanda: They are constructing a... I have a big carpenter shop, a construction shop, a printing shop. And upstairs there will be a big hall for Janmāṣṭamī that holds seven, eight hundred people. There is another, that's our guesthouse building we're building there. You can see the top two floors, with the arches.

Prabhupāda: What is this? Another barn?

Kīrtanānanda: This is an oxbarn here.

Prabhupāda: No, this.

Kīrtanānanda: That tank? That tank we are making for grain storage.

Prabhupāda: Oh, much improvement. (end)

Marble Shop Visit -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Hari-śauri: (announces in microphone:) Prabhupāda visits the marble shop. (break)

Kīrtanānanda: This is a cutting table Śrīla Prabhupāda, here's is a diamond saw. When you cut marble you have to use water, so it automatically shoots water out.

Devotee: You can make the cut if you want to.

Prabhupāda: This is the marble? No.

Kīrtanānanda: This is a marble base, this is what they cut on. Just to make it flat, it has to be a perfectly flat table. This is part of the floor for your study room.

Prabhupāda: Oh. This is marble?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, this is all marble, but it is glued together in little pieces. Like inlaid. And this is the polishing room. (break) Take the rough marble and make it shine.

Prabhupāda: You have spent so much money. What is the price of this machine?

Kīrtanānanda: Well, there was a man, he was going out of business in Pittsburg, and I got a great deal of marble and all the machinery and everything for nine thousand dollars. It is very cheap.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Do you know how to work? No. (devotees laugh)

Kīrtanānanda: That is a heater, it's burning wood. (break to walking outside, kīrtana going on.) ...growing mung beans in this little field over there.

Prabhupāda: (kīrtana ended, conversation in car now) Jaya. ...horse? What do they do, plowing?

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

Prabhupāda: Downtrodden, you keep them downtrodden. You manufacture wine and let them drink, and he will be uplifted. One side, (chuckles) you are manufacturing wine and advertising, "Come on, take here," and you remain, become harijana. How it is possible? You must stop all this nonsense, the slaughterhouse, the liquor shop or the breweries or the prostitute quarter. You stop this. But that cannot be also stopped. Anyone who wants to become harijana, he can become in spite of all these things. He can defend himself.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So should there be some effort?

Prabhupāda: What is that effort? Teach them Sanskrit?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, to make the harijanas respectable.

Prabhupāda: Anyone can respectable. That is already described. Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya (BG 9.32). Kirāta-hūṇāndra-pulinda-pulkaśā ābhīra-śumbhā yavanāḥ khasādayaḥ. Everyone can be, śudhyanti, they can be purified. But if you take the real process, this is Kṛṣṇa consciousness process. Otherwise, simply by learning Sanskrit, what will be able...? There are so many big, big Sanskrit scholars in India. They are loitering in the street. Huh? What is that? You have met so many scholars. What is their position? That Prabhakara you know? He was my first student.

Pradyumna: Ah, Prabhakara. Hm, hm.

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

Prabhupāda: No, no. It is just like in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement there are so many Christians, so many Jews, so many Mohammedan, and Hindus. Everyone is there. It is a question of understanding. So in the beginning if... But if he's serious to understand what is God, then he will accept Kṛṣṇa the Supreme Lord. If he knows what is God, then he'll understand, "Here is God." If he remains in darkness, he does not know what is God, then how he'll understand Kṛṣṇa? He'll understand Kṛṣṇa as one of us. That's all. But if he knows what is God then he'll understand. Yes, here is God, Just like if a person knows what is gold, then anywhere gold, he'll understand, "Here is gold." It does not mean only gold, in certain shop only gold is available. But if he knows what is God, what is meaning of God, that he will find in Kṛṣṇa in fullness. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). The śāstra says how He is Bhagavān, what is Bhagavān. You should understand and see from the activities of Kṛṣṇa whether He is not Bhagavān. It requires brain to understand. I say, "Here is God." Now it is up to you. If you know what is God, then test it, and then you'll accept God. If you do not know how to test it, then you may refuse. That is another thing. You'll accept iron as gold. That is your ignorance. You do not know what is gold. But if you actually know what is gold, you will accept Kṛṣṇa as God, there is no doubt about it. So this is the only platform, Bhagavad-gītā. Everyone come and take to Kṛṣṇa and understand God and learn how to love Him and your life is perfect.

Room Conversation -- June 29, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Because a class of men will demand to eat the flesh. You cannot stop it. So we are giving free: you eat. And from economic point of view, we require the skin for our mṛdaṅga making. So give us the skin. That's all.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda says the butcher, even, he can sell the meat cheaply, make profit. He's getting it free of charge.

Hari-śauri: Maybe some time in the future this could happen when Kṛṣṇa consciousness becomes very powerful influence in the country, but unless we could actually close the slaughterhouse...

Prabhupāda: No, but now by imploring, we are requesting him that "You can take this cow and sell in your shop, butcher shop, you give us the skin. And you can tell the customer that it is as good, it is cheaper. So whatever money you get, that is your profit. You haven't got to invest anything."

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Do you propose that we should do this now, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: (laughs) No, no, this is... Think over.

Hari-śauri: Yes, the proposition is very good, that's a fact.

Prabhupāda: First of all, you try one butcher, that "Why not make this advantage?" How does he react, see.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Yes, that he will not pay anything...

Prabhupāda: He's not going to pay us. You simply take it and sell it.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They sell meat..., for one pound of meat, they can get sometimes two dollars, three dollars, four dollars. So much money...

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When the devotees heard about your idea for a neon sign on the top of the building, they all went "Jaya!" They like that idea.

Prabhupāda: What is this street?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ninth Avenue. Sometime I'd like to show you the garage.

Prabhupāda: On Ninth Avenue there are many grocery shops. Eh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Rādhāvallabha: Don't you want a lead car?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where is the lead car?

Ādi-keśava: They don't know the way; I do.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Go straight on, I want to show Prabhupāda the garage. I'll show you where we have our garage. This whole area, all this brown area, all the way where the yellow stripe is. Big, big. It's huge.

Prabhupāda: Down.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Down, the whole downstairs. Ten thousand square foot.

Rāmeśvara: That's the same..., ten thousand square feet is the same size as the book warehouse in Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: Oh. The height is less.

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

Hari-śauri: The parade, Ratha-yātrā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Two hours. (break)

Prabhupāda: Lord Rāma's, what is this?

Hari-śauri: There's shop there with a sign of Lord Rāma's.

Rāmeśvara: Train station? Grand Central?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Grand Central Station.

Ādi-keśava: You want to go on the upper level and around?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...underneath there is subway.

Rāmeśvara: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: About hundred yards below.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, quite far below. Beautiful church here, St. Bartholomew's Church. This is the Seagram's Building. Yes, this is Dhṛṣṭadyumna's father's building. The whole building, the Seagram's building.

Rāmeśvara: It's a liquor company.

Prabhupāda: Liquor?

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

Prabhupāda: And that is advertised means nobody's purchasing at this quarter, it is not very safe.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This quarter? No, this is the most prestigious. Fifth Avenue between Seventy-ninth Street and Thirty-fourth Street is the prime location. That's about as far north as you would want to go. Any further north uptown will not be nice, but this area here is very select. The best area is from Fifty-ninth Street to Thirty-fourth Street on Fifth Avenue, where all the shops are, the library. That area is very high class. This is Fifty-seventh Street, Fifty-fifth Street.

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda, if the spiritual master has a mission, is it proper for the disciple to think that he can take more than one..., he can take many births to help the mission of the spiritual master?

Prabhupāda: When the spiritual master goes there, somewhere, his nearest assistants, they automatically go there to assist him. When Kṛṣṇa comes the demigods also come to help Him. That is there in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. All these Yadus, Yadu family, they came from heaven. So before Kṛṣṇa's disappearance, by some trick they were all killed and they returned to their original place. It is nicely described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Just see, small house, this yellow. Still, in New York City.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, small little house. (end)

Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: By the prasādam.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I joined because I had nowhere to eat.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At first I had nowhere to eat, so the devotees in San Francisco, they gave me, then I heard you lecture and I became convinced. These banners are very common. You can see this one flying in the air. Most shops and things keep banners nowadays, but they aren't as nice as ours.

Prabhupāda: What is this street?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Eighth Avenue. There's a restaurant called Asia Restaurant.

Prabhupāda: Asia? It's behind you. It's hard for you to see.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And there's another one, an Indian restaurant two blocks up, but they all serve meat.

Devotee (1): And liquor.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Meat samosās, like that.

Devotee (1): Like the Muslims. (end)

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: What is valuable there?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Someone may have thrown something out which he could use. He's a bum.

Prabhupāda: Another madman. In Hong Kong I have seen, they are searching some food.

Hari-śauri: You can see in every big city, mainly older people, they go and look in all the rubbish bins.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just like they'll find an empty bottle, and if they return the bottle to the shop, they'll get a deposit, ten or fifteen cents for a bottle deposit.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In Māyāpur we've seen the little children coming looking for prasādam left over in the rubbish outside.

Rāmeśvara: This is one of the big problems in the world today. They don't know how to dispose of all the paper and garbage that they go through. They are selling so many goods, and then they have to throw away the packages. They don't know how to get rid of the garbage. They try to throw it in the ocean sometimes.

Prabhupāda: And for manufacturing the paper they are cutting so many trees and committing sinful life.

Rāmeśvara: The scientists report that by throwing all this garbage in the ocean they kill many fish. Here in New York there is one beach called Coney Island, and no fish can live near the shore, they are all dying.

Prabhupāda: Why they are so sympathetic to the fish? Because they will eat it. No? They are thinking that "We shall eat the fish, and they are dying." Is it not?

Hari-śauri: Do you want your hat, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Bottle or... Bottle or can.

Bali-mardana: This store has it... They have the machine.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about Ninth Avenue? There's all those shops. (whispering in background about 7-UP)

Bali-mardana: He already went to get it?

Prabhupāda: If the government is going against our movement, then I'll have to stay. There is no alternative.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In India.

Prabhupāda: Because in that case I'll be hampered in India.

Bali-mardana: He'll be what?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hampered.

Bali-mardana: Yes, now the government has a policy that anyone they do not like, they put him in jail.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In India.

Bali-mardana: In India. Even that elderly gentleman, Nārāyaṇa, put him in jail. He's so old.

Prabhupāda: The result is that the Congress Party and Indira Gandhi will never be elected anymore. That is sure. Therefore he's postponing election. Now they have lost all their credit. They will never be elected. Congress Party and Indira Gandhi finished.

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

Prabhupāda: I think five, six stories.

Hari-śauri: Oh. You just had the shop at the bottom.

Prabhupāda: Bottom shop and the first floor, I took my...

Harikeśa: With a garden.

Prabhupāda: Not a garden, but there was some vegetables.

Hari-śauri: Few plants.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not bad. For me, it was very convenient, come down immediately to my down storefront. And some boys were living in the storefront. There was a sink in the storefront, and for toilet I allowed them sometimes in my bathroom. Not some, only two or one. So he was washing my dishes also. In this way, I was living.

Hari-śauri: That was Mukunda, or...?

Prabhupāda: No, that was another boy. He was drunkard. (laughter)

Harikeśa: Yogeśvara has many pictures of those meetings at 26 Second Avenue, with Hayagrīva with the beard and the long hair hitting this... There's pictures of all those meetings, photographs. Of Hayagrīva with the beard and long hair hitting the gong next to you.

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

Prabhupāda: Penang also I visited. I stayed with one Indian gentleman. His wife made very nice kacuri.

Hari-śauri: It doesn't matter wherever you go around the world...

Prabhupāda: They asked, "What you want to eat?" "If you can, you make first-class kacuri." That is from my childhood. My friends also did it. They'd make the first-class kacuris in my youthhood. I am fond of kacuri. Kacuri is made first class in Mathurā. Agra and Mathurā. Very, very nice. The kacuri is being made, hundreds of customers waiting. At shops, there was many shops, waiting for purchasing. And as soon as it comes out of the pan, immediately sold. There is no question of waiting. They make spice nicest. That is India's craftsmanship. Nobody will starve. If you have no business, you prepare something palatable, and people will purchase, all over India.

Hari-śauri: There's so many people on the railway station selling.

Prabhupāda: There's no question of starvation for want of money. Anywhere sit down and do something palatable, and people will purchase. So your livelihood will go on. Pakorā, kacuri, jalebi, anything. You make some palatable, people are fond of eating some palatable things. That is their hobby. In Allahabad, there was a brāhmaṇa. I had my business, and he was neighborhood, he was living. So in the morning, the husband and wife would go to take bath in the Ganges. They would very nicely take bath, and while coming they will purchase some ingredients and then come home. The husband will perform pūjā, etc., and the wife will prepare many nice preparations-baḍā, pakori, puskar (?), this, that. Then he'll take his meals, rest awhile, and in the evening he will sit down, he was sitting just in front of my shop, about four or five o'clock. All the preparations his wife had made whole day, and the small shop. And the university students will come up to night, ten o'clock, he'll finish. Nothing will remain. Everything will be... And he'll make at least ten rupees profit, minimum. In those days, 1925, in those days ten rupees means nowadays at least fifty rupees. So, and living very happy. Living humbly as a brāhmaṇa, he was having his pūjā, going to the Ganges, taking bath, husband and wife, in the morning, and the wife's business is to prepare and his business was to sell. So they'll make at least ten, fifteen rupees profit daily, very prosperous. Living peacefully, husband and wife.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes. At the present moment, the soul is dependent on the material body because he has no spiritual culture. Just like we Indians, we were under the British rule. So long there was no national movement, they remained dependent on the Britishers. But as soon as there was national movement they became independent. This is a crude example. Similarly, because we have no spiritual cultivation, we are dependent on this material body. Actually, the soul is not dependent on the body. It has become so under certain condition: because he's thinking that he is this body. They have been described as mūḍha. Mūḍha is an ass. Mūḍha means ass. So I do not know what it is here. In India the asses are kept by the washerman. The washerman loads tons of cloth on the back of the ass to take it to the waterside, and again he brings back to the washerman shop, and the washerman gives a morsel of grass, little, and he eats the grass and stands there to carry the tons of load, thinking that he's dependent on the washerman. He has no intelligence that grass can be had anywhere, why I am dependent on this washerman to carry so much load. Lack of knowledge. Similarly, we are dependent on this body for lack of spiritual knowledge. As soon as he'll be enlightened by spiritual knowledge, then no more dependence. Therefore it is (indistinct). Otherwise, he'll remain like an ass perpetually dependent on the washerman. Mūḍha. We are thinking that without this body we cannot live. No. That is not the fact. We can live independently of this body. But our present position, because we have no spiritual culture, we are thinking that we are dependent on this body. Actually, we are not dependent. That will be revealed the more you advance in spiritual culture. What was his question before?

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Nobody. Do you think your king, Shah, is also happy? No. His sons, daughter, they are happy? No. He is also anxious how to keep his position, exalted position, he has to makes many plans, satisfy so many ministers, so many. He is also full of anxiety. And a small bird eating some grain here, he's attracted for the grain, but he's looking this way, "Oh, here is a man, here is man, he may not do some harm to me." So everyone is full of anxiety. Nobody can be free from anxiety. That is not possible. Sadā samudvigna dhiyam asad-grahāt (SB 7.5.5). Because we have adopted this material life, asad, our mind should always be full of anxiety. Nobody can be free from anxiety. That is not possible. Sadā samudvigna dhiyam asad-grahāt. Because we have accepted this temporary body, we have to be full of anxiety. This is law of nature. And if we act in this life to create another material body, then our all activities are spoiled. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. He did not ask about the constitutional position of himself, he simply engaged himself in dog's place(?). Then whatever activities he has done, it is simply defeat. Next body what he's going to get he does not know. If you become a minister in this life and next life you become a dog, then what is the benefit? Can anyone challenge this? "No, no, I'm not going to become a dog." Nobody can say. You are going to change the body—tatha dehāntara prāptir—now what kind of body you'll get, that will depend on nature, not on yourself. If you go to a tailor's shop, so you have to pay for if you want a better garment. Similarly, what kind of body you will get, that will depend on your work. So in this life you may be a prime minister, but if you have worked like menial dogs and hogs, then you are going to get body of a dog and hog. That is nature's gift. You cannot check it. You have no hand on the administration of the nature. That is not possible. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). If you have infected some disease, you must suffer from that.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: That is your choice. Just like when you go to the market there are so many shops. Now it is your choice from which shop you have to purchase. First of all, you must know what is your need. If you want gold and if you go to the cigarette shop, "Give me gold," then what benefit you'll get? He'll give you a cigarette and he'll cheat you, "Here is gold."

Atreya Ṛṣi: Śrīla Prabhupāda, is it possible to sit inside? There are seven, eight people.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Atreya Ṛṣi: You can continue the discussion inside. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...a small child, he does not know what is the meaning of bowing down. But he's doing it. This is association. But he's getting benefit. Not that because he does not know, he's not getting benefit. He's getting benefit. (pause) You can put this light on that side, anywhere, or down, keep it down. (speaks in Hindi to guests)

Atreya Ṛṣi: Mr. Sharma is a devotee. He's a wonderful person. He's taken to spiritual life and is very serious about it. Mr. Sahani is also very serious, he's...

Prabhupāda: No, every Indian is a devotee. This is the privilege of taking birth in India. There is... Naturally he's devotee, and if he takes little education, take advantage of the Vedic instructions, then his life is successful. In the śāstra it is said even the demigods, they desire to take birth in India because this facility is there in India. This facility, the land is so sanctified that anyone who takes the body from this land, he's born sanctified. Now, if he further takes advantage of the Vedic knowledge, then his life becomes successful. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission is that anyone who has taken birth in India, make his life successful, and then preach this knowledge to the outside world.

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: There are Hindus?

Guest: Oh, yes. Most of the business shops are controlled by Hindus. Also in the school, as well, there are lots of teachers, and education is managed by Hindus. But they are for years... (break) ...for hundreds and hundreds of years. You make this tour around the world once a year or twice a year.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I've gone round the world fifteen times within ten years. Naturally more than once in a year. And we have got branches all over the world.

Guest: I think the temples are increasing, particularly in Germany, England, and I suppose in America as well.

Prabhupāda: Yes, in America we have got forty branches. Our philosophy is simple. We educate people to understand that there is God. This is a godless civilization. So we say that there is God. Try to understand, and love Him, that's all. This is our philosophy. Then you'll be happy. And so long you do not love God, you simply love dog, you'll never be happy. That is our philosophy. You have diverted your loving spirit to the dog. You change it. Instead of loving dog, you love God. Then dog will be loved and everyone will be loved. If you simply love dog, then your love will be simply in dog. But if you love God, then you'll love God and dog also. Just like you are eating. So the eatable is going to the stomach. If you distribute this eatable to the eyes, to the ears, to the nose—there are nine holes—it will be uselessly spoiled. And if you give this foodstuff to the stomach, the energy will be immediately distributed to the ears, to the eyes, to the nose, to the... Similarly, if you have got a propensity to love, you love God, your love will be distributed everywhere. And if you fix your love to the dog, then it is uselessly spoiled. That is going on. They have manufactured love for country, for this, that, so many things. But without love of God. Therefore the disturbance is going on. However big nationalist you may be, you cannot make happy anyone.

Room Conversation About Blitz News Clipping -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: First thing is that when you take śālagrāma-sevā, wherever you stay, this worship must go on daily.

Pradyumna: Yes, nitya-pūjā, nitya-sevā.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That you cannot... One day, if you are sick, your wife will do that. But that half an hour pūjā must continue. That you must decide.

Pradyumna: Yes. Yes. I saw those brāhmaṇas in Udupi, they will never fail to do it under any condition. They have little box with śālagrāma, little śaṅkha, little thing, little tulasī leaf they get. They will do that every day daily. They cannot...

Prabhupāda: So both of you are initiated. In case you are little sick, your wife will do. In that platform you have to do it. Sevā shall not be stopped. Gradually as your son grows, he will also do it. So you can purchase one little siṁhāsana. That is available in any utensil shop. All right.

Pradyumna: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)

Meeting with Endowments Commissioner -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: No, I can, (Hindi) (break) (Unless) one is enthused, he cannot preach. It is not possible. I went there when I was seventy years old. I was sitting in Vṛndāvana. So I thought that my Guru Mahārāja wanted me, Caitanya Mahāprabhu wanted me... So in this old age let me try. (indistinct). But by Kṛṣṇa's grace it is becoming successful. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam, dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ tam (BG 10.10). So there is good field for propagating this cult. See our young men they are... (Hindi) Juhu mai beef(?) shop (Hindi) And I inquired some of the Hindu boys that "Do you eat meat?" So they began to smile, then they accepted. (Hindi) (break) ...platform is finished. (Hindi) Yathecchasi tathā kuru (BG 18.63). Yathecchasi, yathā icchasi tathā kuru.

Minister: No, we are agreed (?) to that. There is actually no difference at all than what you are saying. As a matter of fact government is..., that's what I said, they have started their own society, society of Kṛṣṇa bhaktas. (indistinct) This country, our country, this country itself, it is such a great service.

Prabhupāda: Whole world will accept.

Minister: This country itself is such a great service. It will require miracles.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) We can cooperate.

Minister: Unless you are so single-minded it can't be. Therefore you say there is no compromise. Otherwise if there are compromises, there will be adjustments, it will lead to dilution. We understand.

Meeting With Member of Parliament, Mr. Krishna Modi -- August 31, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: So this is the real platform of United Nation. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati samaḥ sarveṣu (BG 18.54). At that time samaḥ sarveṣu. Na śocati na kāṅkṣati. They have no demand. These boys they are working so hard. They never ask a single paisa from me. It is not possible for me to pay these foreigners as salaried man. That is not possible. They get minimum four thousand rupees minimum. Minimum salary America is $400 dollars. That means four thousand rupees. So and they are getting $800, $1200, $2000. And poverty is unknown in America. They do not know what is poverty. I see here the milk they are standing in block. You can get as much milk as you want anywhere you go, any shop you go you take immediately. Anything. Building materials. You simply order to the suppliers, immediately everything is there.

Krishna Modi: Ah, but here there are so many difficulties.

Prabhupāda: Here simply difficulties. In comparison to other countries, I have seen that it is simply difficulty. Frankly speaking. And to speak more frankly, why there is emergency? Emergency means bad government. Otherwise, there is no necessity of emergency. Emergency proves the government is not going nice. Is it not? Why emergency? If it is normally going on nicely then where is the question of emergency?

Krishna Modi: Emergency means there is something unnormal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. If it is normal there is no question of emergency. That is the proof. Another thing, personally, from the Vedic point of view, I don't think India is ready to take actually democracy. Mass of people, they do not care for politics. You have better experience. There, in other countries, even a small man, he has got political sense.

Krishna Modi: Ah, but they are educated.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, cannot stay... You can allow three days free. You can receive guest for three days. Not permanently. And they can... That is very reasonable. If they have come, spending so much to Vṛndāvana, they cannot pay?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They usually have money. Everyone who comes from America, Europe, has some money.

Prabhupāda: Then? What is the difficulty? What is the difficulty if they have got money?

Indian man: See the shop here. See all the shop whether they have got money or not. You have opened a canteen here and you can note from there who has got money.

Prabhupāda: No, money they have got. There is no doubt. They are not coming from poor country, either poor. No, we are welcoming provided he is reasonable. Simply to exploit, that is not good. That is not good. What do you think? In our Indian system, if somebody goes to a sādhu's āśrama, especially gṛhastha, immediately he pays fifty rupees, hundred rupees. He'll not stay more than three days, four days. But he knows "The sādhu, wherefrom he'll bring money? Take." They are paying without staying. Just like yesterday this man came, and you have seen so many people come. In your country also it is done. That is up to the man's conscience. That I have come here, so I require to stay. Pay something. But not that... That should be properly expended. So anything can be done very nicely provided there is good management. I do not see any difficulty. I am present here. If there is any difficulty, ask me. I shall advise. (Hindi) Per head hundred rupees is sufficient. Not more than that. Even, how many devotees are here now?

Akṣayānanda: We have sixty. About sixty. There are, many women are there. Normally there has been about...

Prabhupāda: Up to fifty I take charge. I shall pay hundred rupees per head.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So if Mr. Modi discusses this it will be a great help.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Now the other book I want to write, it's facts about ISKCON, or what is ISKCON. We will call that booklet "What is ISKCON." And then in a question and answer form, give all the answers. What is ISKCON, where does ISKCON get its income from, who are the people who run ISKCON, everything that they ask.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I think it came from Delhi from shopping.

Prabhupāda: They are shopping from Delhi?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He was supposed to go to Delhi, few items. They're better and cheaper sometimes. So now I'll work on the other booklet which the defense minister wanted, "What is ISKCON." A small, like "Kṛṣṇa Consciousness is Authorized," on that form with some reviews.

Prabhupāda: You can start this fan. No, no. Yes.

Hari-śauri: This one?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is stopped.

Caraṇāravindam: The mains has been turned off, Śrīla Prabhupāda. There is no water coming from the mains.

Hari-śauri: They've turned the water off somewhat.

Prabhupāda: No, no, it is dropping.

Room Conversation -- September 11, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. And nice Gaura-Nitāi and Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. And they'll prepare nice dress and pack in a box and send to our different centers. There are hundred centers. If you can dispatch at least one dozen pairs, you can make business for twelve hundred pairs. It will be very big business. And if they are displayed, people will like to purchase. It will be very good business.

Dhanañjaya: Even here. For people coming to our temple, if we have display they will purchase.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We can have our shop here. We are getting so many shops. So one shop Deity and Deity clothes and mukuṭas. Just like they have got...

Dhanañjaya: In Loi Bazaar.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dhanañjaya: The same.

Harikeśa: One shop sweets.

Prabhupāda: Apply business brain, everything I'll have to tell you. You can... Anyone who has got business brain, he can earn any amount of money. That is the... These are all... Incense, Deity, and then mukuṭa, then tulasī-mālā, then karatālas, (indistinct), some pañcapātrā. In this way.

Room Conversation -- September 30, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: One boy, he was coming to me. In that hundred, about one hundred seventy-first street, all my things were stolen. My tape recorder, typewriter. Fortunately they did not touch my manuscript that I was typing, typing my books. So some money was stolen. Then one boy, he was coming to me, he told me, "Please come to my place." A loft. Bowery Street. I did not know the Bowery Street was not a good quarter. All bums and drunks. When I see there, one Jewish friend, he had electrical shop, he told me, "Swamiji, you have gone to Bowery Street? Oh, it is not your place." I did not know that it is full of drunkards. But they were lying down in front of my door, but they were very respectful. When I'd go, these drunkards comes and they respectfully give me ways. And they would lie down on urine and something like that, on water. Then the boy who took me there... He was Murray. His last title was Murray. And he was taking LSD. So since I went there he did not go to work. Otherwise, he was working and getting daily twenty-five dollars, in some dock he was working. Since I went, he stopped working, and I had to pay 125 dollars for the loft. One lady was the landlord. So I was going on. Some people were coming. That Mukunda began to come, his wife, and another black boy, half-black. Yeargen, Karlapati. I gave him name, Karlapati. He was coming. Then one day that boy Murray, he showed some crazy features. So I thought it is dangerous to live with him. So I approached Mukunda. Mukunda had no place, still I asked him. So I kept my goods at Mukunda's house and went to live with Yeargen. That is another loft. So in this way, with great hardship—sometimes here, sometimes there—in this way, I got two hundred dollars by selling books, and then I asked Mukunda to find out an apartment. He found this apartment, 26 Second Avenue. One storefront down and one living quarters up. So I found it very convenient.

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Eight hundred?

Mr. Saxena: Eight hundred rooms. Very big temple and the daily income is about more than 1500 rupees per day, donation. I still get from three months. His speech is at nights, their sannyāsīs. But if you see that practical life, you realize all this tīrthas, what you call? They are no more tīrthas now. All (indistinct) use that word shopping centers, what we call. I have been to the Sivananda Ashram. Some Cidanandaji is there. Sivanandaji is no more. When I went to Yoganiketan, there is one Gangesvarananda...

Prabhupāda: Cidananda.

Mr. Saxena: Cidananda is there.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mr. Saxena: He is a disciple of Swami Sivananda, Divine Life Society.

Prabhupāda: He is dead now?

Mr. Saxena: No, Sivananda is dead.

Prabhupāda: Not.

Mr. Saxena: Cidananda is the in-charge of that institute, Divine Life Society. There is another Yogesvarananda. There is Upaniketan trust. They are having three years' course for regular yoga. And there is some (indistinct) Mahesh Yogi, transcendental meditation (indistinct) samādhi. I lived there for fifteen days, tried to get something out of that. Everywhere I found there is no... We are after peace. There is no peace there.

Devotee: Prabhupāda, you say that religion is the law of God. So that means there can only be one religion.

Prabhupāda: Yes. God is one, (indistinct) for everyone. (indistinct) Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 24, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm? Finished. So what is your charge?

Hari-śauri: Your including...

Prabhupāda: Eh? What is that?

Devotee (1): Well, restaurant, shop, kitchen, the kitchen godown.

Prabhupāda: Kitchen godown?

Devotee (1): Supplies.

Prabhupāda: Oh, supplies. So what is the difficulty? The other day you complained some difficulty. So what is the difficulty?

Devotee (2): Nothing. Nothing excepting my jaundice.

Prabhupāda: Then?

Devotee (2): Everything is all right.

Prabhupāda: No, you said there is some difficulty. All of you came there on behalf...

Devotee (2): Yes.

Prabhupāda: So what is that difficulty? You are in charge of this department. That's right?

Devotee (2): Yes.

Room Conversation with Indian Man -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: That much intelligence, we must have that intelligence, that who is master. Suppose if you want gold, if you do not know where gold can be purchased, then he is cheated.

Indian man: That is what is happening.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So why should you be cheated? At least you go to a shop where gold is purchased and sold. Why should you go to a pan wala. If you have no such knowledge then you will get. You must know at least that gold has to be purchased from a merchant who is dealing in gold. If you do not know that, then you will be cheated.

Indian man: That becomes a problem, that people say that they are selling gold, but when you go to them, they are not selling gold.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is not problem. Problem is you do not know.

Indian man: Yes, that is accepted. Disciple doesn't know.

Prabhupāda: At least, you do not know where gold is purchased and sold. But others know. Otherwise, how they are transacting business, lakhs and crores in gold. He knows. (Hindi) There are many other persons who are dealing in gold. Therefore it is advised... The first is that I want to purchase gold. Śraddhā, this is called śraddhā. Ādau śraddhā. Then sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83). If you have to deal, you have to associate with persons. (aside:) I do not know exactly. For the present, we can go there. If I require, we can get up. (pause) At least, if you read Bhagavad-gītā to understand, and one is anxious to understand the need of spiritual life all over the world, So one should read Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Why he should interpret foolishly, spoiling the whole thing?

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

Prabhupāda: Ekādaśī.

Mr. Malhotra: We didn't know about ekādaśī. When we came to Mahabaleswar, we opened. They said "No, we can't eat because it is ekādaśī." So we said that "No you won't eat, so it looks odd that we should eat." But we were very hungry, you know. In the morning we didn't take anything. We said "All right, we eat, now we will go to the bazaar and see if we could get something." Then we went to Mahabaleswar, it was all closed, because it was raining season. And then there was one shop which had bananas, good amount of bananas. So we took one dozen or two dozen bananas, and then...

Prabhupāda: Banana is very good. You can make banana and potato. Potato boil and mixed with banana, and make nice puri. And then...

Mr. Malhotra: How Girirāja, I just ask you, how you took to all these good things of life? I mean in natural form or with some self-discipline or with some coercion or with some what?

Girirāja: It was Prabhupāda's mercy. I was looking for a guru. Actually whenever I heard there was a swami or a yogi, I would always go, even hundreds of miles. But I was never satisfied. But Śrīla Prabhupāda perfectly satisfied all of my questions. And I liked the process, chanting, dancing, taking prasādam, offering ārati, and I liked the devotees. It was very pleasing. So I immediately decided this is my real life.

Mr. Malhotra: No, but not taking any wheat, like on ekādaśī day, all such things.

Girirāja: That's training. Once we surrender to the spiritual master, then he trains us in the process of spiritual life.

Prabhupāda: Sādhu-mārgānugamanam, ādau gurvāśrayaṁ sad-dharma-pṛcchāt sādhu-mārgānugamanam.(?) These are the process.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Punjabi.

Indian man: Hindu brāhmaṇa. But there the brāhmaṇas also eat meat. Kashmiri brāhmaṇas eat meat. So he was about 25, 24 years old at that time. When he reached Bhavnagar, he could not get a house. There were so many "To Let's" but wherever he went he was told no. So after all he got fed up, he inquired what is the reason. He said "You are a non-Katyawari, non-Saurastri. You are from the frontier, so you must be eating meat and eggs. So we'll not give you our house." So ultimately, one of his business friends, because he was the manager of the office after a month or so, one of the business friends he said, "All right, I'll get you a house if you give a written undertaking that you'll not eat meat." So he said, "Okay, thank you. I'll write undertaking that I'll not eat meat." One year passed. But when he used to come back from office, in front of a particular shop he used to see... In those days even a crowd of twenty persons in front of a shop was a big thing. So he would see ten, fifteen people and eat what is stop in a shop and take a small tiffin box, drop off a small tiffin box and walk away. So one day he also stopped there and he asked the shopwala for this tiffin box. "What you are giving in there?" "That," he said, "is not for you." "What is this?" He said "It's not for you. You'll not get it." Then he visited that fellow five, six times, then ultimately, that man said, "Look here, why you want to know all about that? It's not meant for you, and you'll not be able to use it." He said, "What is, can you tell me." Then he brought it, gave it to him, he opened it. It was minced meat. "But it's meat." How do you know it is meat?" He said, "I have been living in Punjab for all of my life. I know what is meat." He said, "Now don't shout. Go away from here. They are my customers." "They are your customers? They are the very people who have been refusing me a house!" The same people.

Prabhupāda: Meat-eating is now world wide. I have seen now in the airplane one Marwari gentlemen, he was eating the intestines of the (indistinct).

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Yes. Take this idea. Note down. First of all make this brochure.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. That brochure which I made on Vṛndāvana, just one page, I'm taking up, Vṛndāvana and other temple pictures, and putting in a section on yoga.

Prabhupāda: So see how you have done.

Hari-śauri: If we don't have our own shop there which sells everything, then they'll just go down Loi Bazaar and buy it.

Prabhupāda: No, we have our own shop and...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we are having our own shop now in the gurukula. We are having it before the festival. We are having that before the festival.

Hari-śauri: It should be open for this course.

Prabhupāda: Another thing, that... I don't think they are very serious, that... They have paid that 250 rupees rate? This bank? They wrote they are going to pay.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Last I heard when I left is they had got their approval to pay two hundred rupees, but they haven't paid so far.

Prabhupāda: No, they have written 250.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They wrote 250? Viśvambhara told me...

Hari-śauri: I saw that letter, yes.

Page Title:Shop (Conversations 1976)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:18 of Nov, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=50, Let=0
No. of Quotes:50