Sit down (Conversations 1976)

Expressions researched:
"sat down" |"sit down" |"sits down" |"sitting down"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: If some children discuss some serious subject matter, what is the value? And they are all children in the cradle of nature, that's all. Prakṛteḥ kriya.... Therefore it is word, prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni (BG 3.27). Just like children—"Ha! Sit down here"—he has to sit down. Then where is his freedom to discuss? Prakṛti says that "You sit down here. Don't go there." He has to accept. Then what is the value of discussion?

Acyutānanda: Mainly, these Karl Marx, they were angry at the Christian church for exploiting the poor masses, and that's the reason...

Prabhupāda: This is our...

Acyutānanda: ...so he has attacked. He has taken vengeance on this.

Prabhupāda: That they are doing. Still they are doing. Just like you said, some sprinkling water. They have no philosophy and they violate everything, what is stated there in Bible. Now you say that "Thou shall not kill;" they say, "Thou shall not murder." They are molding. Now this homosex they are sanctioning, man-to-man marriage. They are sanctioning abortion.

Acyutānanda: Yes. Two homosexuals were married by a priest.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where?

Harikeśa: The next floor down on the end, where they sometimes have class.

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 10, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: I think there was a Vaiṣṇava meeting inaugurated by Mahārāja Maṇīndrānandī. You are referring to that. (break) When I was visiting, I used to sit on his couch. Yes, like... Guru Mahārāja was sitting on the couch, so I took him as ordinary gentleman. So then nobody asked me that, that "You are sitting? Get down." No. Nobody asked me. Then I was seeing that all other big, big disciples, they are sitting down. So then I began to sit down. Neither Guru Mahārāja told me, neither anybody told me.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What kind of a... It was a regular couch...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...or a cauki?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not cauki, couch. That padded couch, bench.

Hṛdayānanda: Sofa.

Prabhupāda: Sofa, sofa, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, boy. You were a young man at that time.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But no one said anything.

Prabhupāda: Not very young. It was in 19... Yes.

Morning Walk -- February 20, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: He would die when he liked. That was the benediction upon him. And Gandhi will say dharma-kṣetra means this body.

Indian man: Balarāma and Subhadrā month, is that on the same, the next month, He came?

Prabhupāda: He came one sūrya-grahaṇa occasion. (break) ...in America. That is better than calling a government. What is the government? I don't care for them, these politicians. In America I never attempted to see the politicians, secretary and... Never attempted. I was sitting down under the tree and playing my dundubhi.

Dayānanda: Yes. For one year the Marquis of Zetland was interested, and then what is the use? After that, then finished.

Prabhupāda: Finished.

Dayānanda: Just five hundred pounds spent in two years, and then nothing.

Prabhupāda: Then nothing.

Dayānanda: In 1933-34. But you have, you have done so much. Even, even though you just had some low-class persons, you have transformed them all. And now it is a very wonderful...

Prabhupāda: The Ramakrishna Mission man came to see me. He said that "You dress like American. Otherwise, nobody will take you as important."

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

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. That is sense... The basic principle is sense gratification. The other day I was talking about hīrā-cora and kṣīrā-cora. Hīrā means diamond. And kṣīrā means...

Devotees: Cucumber.

Prabhupāda: "I shall steal. I shall steal one cucumber." And another one thinks, "If I steal, I shall steal the diamond." But the stealing propensity is there, hīrā-cora or kṣīrā-cora. "Well, I am stealing one..., only one cucumber. That is not very dangerous." But, but to the eyes of law, both of them are criminal, either you take hīrā or kṣīrā. Big thief and small thief, that's all. Thief. You are thief. So we manufacture concoction that "Yes, I have got this stealing propensity. So I'll not steal diamond. I'll steal kṣīrā, not hīrā." This is only mental concoction, but he is a thief.

Jayapatākā: I think this side's...

Prabhupāda: Hm ?

Morning Walk -- March 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: What is to arrange in Calcutta?

Yaśodānandana: Well, all the devotees are coming, and they will be going to Śantipur, and when they come back, they will... We're working a schedule to take all the devotees to the various parikrama spots.

Prabhupāda: No, that's all right. I mean to say, if we make a procession, then first of all... That is my suggestion. Make the devotees first, chanting, all the devotees. And then the Deity, carrying. And then my carriage, my car, and then all the buses. So devotees who become tired, they can sit down in the bus and again go on. And keep one big pot of halavā so that others may be distributed, and the devotees, when they are hungry, they can also eat. In this way make. How do you like this arrangement?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We'll do it.

Hariśauri: I think you'll need more than one pot of halavā.

Pusta Kṛṣṇa: I think we'll make devotees on the way.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everyone on the way.

Prabhupāda: Everyone.

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

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. That is paramahaṁsa. (break) ...system. In every big temple there is shenai. All through the year, morning, night, not only temple, rich man's house. And they are so nice player that early in the morning, people, the resident, will rise by hearing the shenai. And at night they will go to bed and sleep hearing the shenai.

Jayapatāka: Was that early in morning or late at night?

Prabhupāda: No, other time also. But this time especially.

Lokanātha: They also used to keep cock, hens and the cock.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) What is called? Alarm bell. Cocks. "Ka-ka-ka: Get up please." "Ka-ka-ka." Nature's alarm.

Guru-kṛpā: Sometimes they crow, though, at twelve o'clock at night.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: "He is my father." That's all.

Guru dāsa: Nara-priya(?) do not know śāstras. They know unalloyed devotion.

Prabhupāda: No, that is the nature. A child generally abides by the order of the parent. They are playing. The parent says, "Don't do it! Sit down!" Immediately sit down. That is the nature. So why don't you break your nature, that "My duty is to carry out the order of the supreme father?" Then you are safe.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: And when you carry out that order—you fully surrender—then you enjoy full freedom.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is full freedom.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: That is the freedom.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is freedom.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: That is absolute freedom.

Prabhupāda: Full freedom means to be under the order of the Supreme. That is full freedom. That is full freedom.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: The cinema or restaurant is not freedom. It's completely conditioning under the laws of material nature. But fully surrendered soul is fully free.

Prabhupāda: No, no, if you simply, even if you want to go to a cinema...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He's still responsible for going.

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) So give him two rupees, eight annas. (Hindi)

Guru dāsa: Bargain.

Prabhupāda: My father used to do that. He'd go to a vegetable vendor. He has got a big basket, and he'll say, "What do you want for all, the whole basket." So he is ready because he'll sit down so long, so at very cheap rate he'll give it. And it was not required in the family so much. My mother became very angry, that "You are bringing so many, so much vegetable, it is being spoiled." But he would purchase like that. If you give him in those days fifty rupees to go to the market, he will spend all the money and bring at home. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Hindi) We are prepared to spend. (break) ...from saintly person.

Vrajavāsī: Haribol!

Prabhupāda: Haribol. Jaya! Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Vrajavāsī: Jaya Rādhārāṇī ki!

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Hindi)

Vrajavāsī: Haribol!

Prabhupāda: Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Vrajavāsī: Haribol. Haribol. Haribol.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Oh, when our festival?

Meeting with Bankers -- April 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Anyway, so he was the father of the Yakṣas, this Kuvera. So Dhruva Mahārāja was a great devotee. You have heard the name of Dhruva Mahārāja. He was insulted by his stepmother. When he was young, very young child, so his father had two wives. So the junior wife was very pet to the husband, and the senior wife was not so much pet. But both of them had two sons. So the junior wife's son was sitting on the lap, a small child. So Dhruva Mahārāja was the son of the senior wife. As a child, he was also trying to sit down on the lap of the father. The other brother, he does not know stepbrother is brother. But the junior wife, she said, "My dear son, you cannot sit down on the lap of your father because you are not born in my womb. And that boy, the other boy, he is sitting on the lap of your father because he is born in my womb." So it was sarcastic remark, but Dhruva Mahārāja, although he was a child, four or five years old, he took it very seriously. A kṣatri..., kṣatriya... (Hindi) He became very angry. So he immediately left the place and went to his own mother, that "Stepmother has insulted me like this." He began to cry, and the mother said, "My dear son, what can I do? Your father does not treat me even as a maidservant, so I cannot take any step." "So how I can take revenge on it?" She said, "If Kṛṣṇa likes, then you can take revenge. Otherwise there is no possibility." "Where is Kṛṣṇa? I want to see Him." Child.... (Hindi) She said, "I have heard that Kṛṣṇa is in the forest. Big, big saintly persons go there and meet Him, so far I know, my dear son." "So I'll go there." So this four-year, five-years-old boy went to the forest, and he saw Kṛṣṇa within, Viṣṇu, within six months by his austerity, by meditating and observing austerity, living on water, on folio (foliage?), air, in this way, six months, he got the opportunity of seeing Viṣṇu directly. And there is a big story.

Morning Walk -- April 10, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, the crow, the crow and the tāla fruit. Somebody said this; somebody said this. Then what is that important thing? Crow and a tāla. You know the kāka-tālīya-nyāya?

Yaśodānandana: I never heard that story.

Prabhupāda: There was a tree, tāla tree, and.... tāla tree. So one crow was there, and the tāla fruit fell down. Two paṇḍitas, they began, "Whether the tāla fruit fell down.... Because the crow sat down on it, therefore fell down." The other said, "No, the tāla fruit was falling down, and the crow could not sit on it." And they began to fight: "No, this." He said, "No this, no this," go on.

Akṣayānanda: Or maybe the crow tried to eat it.

Yaśodānandana: I think in this case it was just a question that they never knew actually what was the actual position. But if Your Divine Grace does not wish anything to be published regarding that place, then we will not do.

Prabhupāda: As soon as there is some controversy, avoid it. That's all. Tāla fruit and crow. You worship Nṛsiṁha-deva. Ito nṛsiṁhaḥ parato, yato yato yāmi tato nṛsiṁhaḥ. Nṛsiṁha-deva is everywhere.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Bahir nṛsiṁho hṛdaye...

Morning Walk -- April 10, 1976, Vrndavana:

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

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

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

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I think it's a good idea because there is no suitable place to store it here.

Prabhupāda: No, we can make a suitable place. What is that?

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: First World War, yes. That was futile. Again you have started United Nation. Where is the benefit? There cannot be benefit. If you keep the dogs as dog, you bring them, "You Australian dog, come here, and American dog, come here, and European dog, come here. Live peacefully," will they live peacefully? So if you keep the human society as cats and dogs, how can you expect peace? They must be human being. Then there will be peace. So this is the training how to make human being, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Now these boys, they are also Europeans, Americans. They are coming from respectable, very educated.... They'll never ask for a chair. "Sit down. That's all." The necessities of life, artificial necessities, reduced, and time is saved for understanding the value of life. Without motorcar your life will not be spoiled. You can walk. But without Kṛṣṇa consciousness your life is spoiled. So how.... We recommend that "First of all understand yourself." Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is your prime business. And so far necessities of body, that can be done according to the circumstances. So if we simply waste our time for increasing unnecessary necessities of life and do not try to understand the value of life, then we remain animal.

Brian Singer: I understand that the body, you know, like the soul is different from the body...

Prabhupāda: Then your.... Then your activities will be changed.

Brian Singer: But what.... I would like to know more about the, the soul in so far as, does it have beginning? Does it have end?

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: So never went to school, but Oxford University gave him Ph.D. That does not mean that "I shall also receive Ph.D. like Rabindranath Tagore. I shall not go to school." The general method is: one must go to the school. Exceptional cases, that without going to school one can become Ph.D.... But we should not imitate that, that "Rabindranath Tagore got Ph.D. without going to school. I shall sit down." But the fact is that even without going to school one can get Ph.D. That's a fact. But that is not the method. The method is that you must go to the primary school, then secondary school, then enter college, then take your degree. Then you become M.A. and Ph.D. That is the general process, step by step. And if you take the example of Rabindranath Tagore, that "He did not go to school. Then I shall not go to school," then you may be spoiled also, without going to school. That is the, generally the case.

Brian Singer: How did you find the transition, or how did it affect you, the transition from leading a life in the business world...

Prabhupāda: No, no, business.... Business world is not bad. Why do you think that because I was a businessman, therefore I could not be...?

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

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Mr. Dixon: Well, I am very pleased to have the opportunity of meeting you.

Prabhupāda: Sit down.

Mr. Dixon: How long have you been in Australia?

Prabhupāda: Just up to Sunday. Monday we are going?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we were here on the twentieth of July. We'll be here until Monday.

Mr. Dixon: What's the main reason for your visit?

Prabhupāda: Preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness, about Kṛṣṇa. You have seen our books, our.... Show him.

Devotee (1): Have you seen Prabhupāda's books? The books I was just showing you?

Mr. Dixon: I am not very familiar with the books.

Prabhupāda: We have got very good response for accepting our books all over the world, Kṛṣṇa books.

Mr. Dixon: The reason that I was most interested to come is that my responsibilities in Victoria are a lot to do with the growth of our young people, and I think that many of the things that we don't succeed in doing, the problems that we have with drugs and alcohol and all sorts of unhappiness, that what your life indicates has got something that I think we could do well to take parts of it, to be involved in the things, the way in which we live. And I'd be interested to hear from you as to what you would believe might be done to encourage a greater acceptance of your areas of philosophy and religion.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I make a Book Trust. That is my will, that from all the collection of the books fifty percent for reprinting and fifty percent for expanding these temples, these buildings. In this way.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We really don't require very much for our maintenance. As you can see, we live a very simple life.

Prabhupāda: Just like these boys, they are practiced to sit down. We have kept two chairs for the visitors. (laughter) We don't require. We can lie down on the floor. We can use only one or two cloths, that's all, throughout the whole year. We have no demands, only bare necessities. We don't smoke, don't drink. There is no expenditure. Don't go to cinema, don't read newspaper or ordinary magazines, nothing. We have got reading matter. Practically we are noncooperating.

Mr. Dixon: Practically?

Prabhupāda: Noncooperating.

Mr. Dixon: Noncooperating?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Practically.

Mr. Dixon: I don't understand that.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Because we are not engaged in so many of the superfluous or unnecessary...

Prabhupāda: Material amenities.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: We have got activities day and night, but because the body is there, we have to eat, but we eat Kṛṣṇa prasādam. And naturally we go to sleep, to take some rest. Otherwise we are always engaged in Kṛṣṇa's business. We have no other business. So I go in the morning for little morning walk because the body, whole day if I sit down, it may be jammed. Therefore, for body's sake, I go for little walking. And then, whole day and night, I am sitting here, either chanting or writing books or talking with you, giving them direction. That's all. We have no other business than Kṛṣṇa's business. That is the peculiarity of this movement. Even if you take it is a religious movement, there is no religious movement in the whole world which has got twenty-four hours' engagement. You'll never find. The Christians go to the church once in a week for one hour, then closed. That is also not very regularly. Even if you take.... Our engagement. Twenty-four hours.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Every day.

Prabhupāda: Every day. You can see how we are engaged twenty-four hours.

Guru-kṛpā: Prabhupāda gets up at one o'clock in the morning.

Prabhupāda: Last night I woke up at half past twelve. (laughter) Yes. So on the whole, utmost, I sleep four hours, two hours at night and two hours in daytime.

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: All rascals. They are not ācāryas.

Guru-kṛpā: Last night this boy sits down and immediately he says, "I am a Hindu." I said, "What is this Hindu business? We are not interested in Hindu." Then he said, "Well, you do not know." "How you can say we do not know?" "Well, I was born a Hindu." So I said, "So how you know what I was born? What does that matter, where we were born? A learned person doesn't speak birth." Representing himself as very advanced or something. "Okay, you become Brahman, but we think that that is hell. That is no better than hell for us. And that is the liberation that the demons get. So we are satisfied to chant Kṛṣṇa's name, and we never want to become one. We would rather go to hell, because in hell we can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, but in the Brahman we cannot chant."

Prabhupāda: Staunch adherent. (break)

Guru-kṛpā: ...in Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that when a devotee, he sees a banyan, fruit of a banyan tree, and there are so many seeds within that fruit, and each seed can mean one tree and one tree means millions of fruits, and in this way the devotee can appreciate Kṛṣṇa. But the jñānīs, they go on speculating, and they can never relish anything. The devotee can simply relish how Kṛṣṇa has done everything in the material nature.

Prabhupāda: We can go here? No. And no...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. It is a little distance there.

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: These nasty countries, in the name of giving them material facility, they'll kill them, even they're independent. Such a horrible country. How people can tolerate loss of independence? It is very horrible. I am sitting here 24 hours, this is another thing, but if I understand that I cannot go out, I have to sit down here, oh it is horrible. It is a horrible condition. Simply this impression that I have to keep myself within this room, although I am keeping myself, I am not going, only for walk maybe. But if the impression is that I cannot go out from this room, then my life is lost. This is psychology. So, they are keeping their young men. They are not allowed to go out of the country, in Russia. Similarly in China.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even more so.

Prabhupāda: So what kind of government it is? It is a horrible government. And they are hackney only in literature. These communist country, the people are forced to accept the government regulation. And that is all bad. I have seen in Moscow, generally the people are morose, their face not very happy. They are also Europeans, they want freedom to go here and there (indistinct) and to work. The taxi driver-first of all there is scarcity of taxi, you can not get taxi...

Guru-kṛpā: Even in Moscow, big city.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That Professor Kotofsky, I asked him, "Please arrange for a taxi." (indistinct) "Well, Swamiji, this is Moscow." So he came down to the gate—he was very virtuous—he showed me, "You go this way, actually there was 3 or 4 lane then you find a short lane, then you go this way, this way, then you get to your hotel. He showed me some short cut, personally. They... He could not call a taxi. And somewhere we went, we got a taxi, private taxi, and that man was begging for more than the fare.

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

Prabhupāda: Thank you. So here in the material world happiness means sense gratification, that's all. So Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "The happiness of sense gratification, obtainable in any form of life..." The birds, beasts, human beings or even the demigods, cats, dogs—everyone has got the happiness of sense gratification, namely eating, sleeping, sex and defense. That is obtainable everywhere. But the spiritual happiness, that is obtainable in human form of life. Therefore the human being from childhood... Kaumāra ācaret prajño dharmān bhāgavatān iha (SB 7.6.1). From the very beginning of childhood. Why so early? Durlābhaṁ manusam janma. This human form of life is obtained after many, many births' evolutionary process. And adhruvam. There is no certainty that I shall live so many years. Although it is estimated that one is expected to live for at least hundred years—that is estimation—but at the present moment at least, nobody is living up to that. So even there is such indication, still, there is no guarantee. We can die at any moment. Adhruvam, but arthadam. Although it is adhruvam—there is no guarantee—but whatever period we get, we can utilize it for the best purpose. Arthadam. We can gain the ultimate goal of life, arthadam. That is... He is giving stress. Arthadam means spiritual realization. That is arthadam. Otherwise we remain like animals. The animal has also sense gratification process: how to eat, how to sleep, how to have sex and how to defend. So sukham aindriyakaṁ daitya. He is addressing his friends as daitya, "sons of the demons." He is addressing his father as "best of the demons." (laughs) There are two classes of men: deva and asura. Dvau bhūta-sargau loke daiva asura eva ca (BG 16.6). In this material world there are... (aside:) Why not Dr. Wolfe may come here, bring his chair here? You can sit down there. You can bring your chair. So this sense gratification is available. Viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ yat. These are called viṣaya. Viṣaya means sense enjoyment. So viṣayaḥ sarvataḥ syāt. In any form of life these four principles are there.

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

Prabhupāda: ...could not eat one cāpāṭi. (laughter-Prabhupāda laughs) Later on: "Bring more!"

Kīrtanānanda: Prabhupāda was feeding us all from his own plate.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Sit down. (break) New spoon?

Hari-Sauri: Yes, a new spoon. I think Jagannātha-sūta bought it, and a few others.

Prabhupāda: That article is very nice, Jagannātha's...

Hari-Sauri: Er, Jagjīvana.

Prabhupāda: Jagjīvana. Jagjīvana.

Hari-Sauri: There's one article that he wrote for the BTG and a reply that Viśvakarmā made. Prabhupāda just read the article.

Kīrtanānanda: I brought some pictures.

Prabhupāda: Ah, very nice, the Deities. (indistinct) Kiśora-Kiśorī.

Devotee: Oh, it's beautiful.

Prabhupāda: Yes.... (break) Colors?

Kīrtanānanda: They have many different outfits.

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

Prabhupāda: You can sit down here. Then also for mahārājas. So when you started from New Vrindaban?

Kīrtanānanda: This morning.

Prabhupāda: And you are coming directly here?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: By plane?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. I left New Vrindaban about nine o'clock. The plane left Pittsburgh at 11:30.

Prabhupāda: To Los Angeles.

Kīrtanānanda: Arrived here at 3:15.

Prabhupāda: Pittsburgh.

Kīrtanānanda: We stopped in Chicago for one hour.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Kīrtanānanda: You go to Detroit from here?

Interview with Jackie Vaughn (Black Congressman) -- July 12, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: What do you think in our movement is impractical? I have given you a practical example that you are paying so much money to the suffering women, especially who have got children but no husband. So, but what is the result? They're not satisfied. They're still committing sinful activities. So the money, giving money, we're giving, is no solution. That is practical. And here, the same girl, I do not give her any money, but by Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they're satisfied. It is practical. So therefore people should be enlightened with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then problems will be solved. Otherwise, even you give him some money, that money will be spent and no satisfaction. This is failure. Our monetary problem.... Actually, we have no monetary problem. Kṛṣṇa has given us money. Our expenditure is more than, I think, two hundred thousand dollars daily. Hm? What is our total expenditure, can anyone say?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Well, with all the constructions, perhaps it's very high.

Prabhupāda: But we are getting money. We have no money, but still we can sit down in such a nice palace. This is practical. So money is not problem. The problem is godlessness. So as soon as there is godlessness, there will be suffering, different types of suffering. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā:

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: What is that sound? Airplane?

Mādhavānanda: There is a very large factory over there. You can see the smokestacks. What is it? What kind of factory? Electrical company.

Prabhupāda: We have got open place, but not very pleasant. You cannot sit down for a long time. The wind is cold.

Mādhavānanda: Very beautiful here, all over the grounds. There's also very beautiful places over there and all over.

Prabhupāda: So develop it nicely. (break) ...fruit and flower trees. Mango trees, all fruits, banana, papaya, jackfruit, apple, guava...

Hari-śauri: Pineapple.

Prabhupāda: Pineapple. And flowers.

Hari-śauri: They have lots of gardenias there. (peacock crying in background)

Prabhupāda: Where you got this?

Mādhavānanda: Ann Arbor, Michigan, a farm. They raise peacocks on different farms. (loud call of peacock)

Hari-śauri: It sounds just like Vṛndāvana in the morning.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...also. The evening begins at eleven, half past twelve. And morning, at four o'clock. A few hours only. That is also not complete dark.

Hari-śauri: Moscow is very far north, very northerly.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: And fell and flew away. How quickly they can take. Everyone knows his business. That intelligence there everywhere. Āhāra nidrā bhayam maithunī, for these things, how to eat, how to sleep, how to enjoy sex and how to defend, everyone knows. You do not require to educate them. Only they cannot take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is only possible by the human beings. Otherwise, other necessities of bodily, everyone knows. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ. Every morning, this place should be washed with water. Then it will be very nice. Then we can sit down and chant all day and night, Hare Kṛṣṇa. What is the wrong there? Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). Haridāsa Ṭhākura was doing that. But don't imitate. But I mean to say, if you do that, where is the problem? (break) ...I think you can acquire some land through the government for agriculture and cow protection. There are so many, so much vacant land. I think they will accept community proposal. Sometimes invite some important government officials; let them see what you are doing.

Hari-śauri: Hmm. Like that congressman the other day.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: He was very impressed.

Prabhupāda: Very much impressed. He's friendly, you can invite him again. He can introduce a law; he's a law officer. (break) ...charges. They may not think they will charge. And some pictures from our books. Signboard, book and pictures. There are some painters here? No painters? Well, there are so many painters. You can bring from Los Angeles.

Garden Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Guard me? Why?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna (children come in): From the rain.

Prabhupāda: No. It is all right. You sit down. It is fine, you can sit. No, no.

Hari-śauri: Sit over this side.

Jayādvaita: "The sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, whom if we killed we should not care to live, are now standing before us on this battlefield." Arjuna did not know whether he should fight and risk unnecessary violence, although fighting is the duty of the kṣatriyas, or whether he should refrain and live by begging. If he did not conquer the enemy, begging would be his only means of subsistence. Nor was there certainty of victory, because either side might emerge victorious. Even if victory awaited them (and their cause was justified), still, if the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra died in battle, it would be very difficult to live in their absence. Under the circumstances, that would be another kind of defeat for them. All these considerations by Arjuna definitely prove that he was not only a great devotee of the Lord but that he was also highly enlightened and had complete control over his mind and senses. His desire to live by begging, although he was born in the royal household, is another sign of detachment. He was truly virtuous, as these qualities, combined with his faith in the words of instruction of Śrī Kṛṣṇa (his spiritual master), indicate. It is concluded that Arjuna was quite fit for liberation. Unless the senses are controlled, there is no chance of elevation to the platform of knowledge, and without knowledge and devotion there is no chance of liberation. Arjuna was competent in all these attributes, over and above his enormous attributes in his material relationships.

Room Conversation with George Gullen, President of Wayne State University -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Everyone's body is temporary, either human body or cat's body, dog's body. But the human body is important because in the human body we have developed consciousness by which we can understand what is God. The cats and dogs, they cannot, they haven't got that developed consciousness. Therefore if we do not use this developed consciousness for understanding God and our relationship with Him, then we are no better than cats and dogs. Cats and dogs cannot be educated about God, but a human being can be educated. That is the distinction between animals and man. But modern education is keeping them in ignorance about God, so they are no better than cats and dogs. And how can you bring peace among cats and dogs? Can you bring in peace calling all the dogs of your city and sit down peacefully? No, that is not possible. So if we keep our citizens like cats and dogs, then how we can expect peace?

George Gullen: We are much in ignorance about those matters, I understand that, and...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Complete ignorance, like animals. So the leaders of the society, if they are serious about advancement of human civilization, they must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or God consciousness; otherwise, they'll be baffled.

George Gullen: Well, we do not teach about these things...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the defect.

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Because my..., it is fact, it is not a bogus thing. It is not some imagination, "By meditation you become God." We do not bluff like that. We give education, scientific education. The books are there. You'll find this Bhagavad-gītā... Have you read ever? No. Here, how to understand God and myself, my relationship. There is no such thing that "You sit down fifteen minutes and you become God." There is no such bogus thing. It is science.

Devotee (1): I think she was asking also why there are so many young people, why so many young are attracted.

Prabhupāda: Young, they are receptive, and another side is that in the Western countries, your younger generation, they have seen that their father and grandfather are not happy. Is it not a fact? So they are trying to find out something where they will find happiness. As such, they go to so many swamis and yogis who come from India. But there also they are frustrated. But here they are finding the real substance. That you can ask any one of them, they will explain how they have come.

Kathy Kerr: Can you, em, do any of you (indistinct).

Jayādvaita: I can show you downstairs in our magazine, there's an article about our program of visiting India. We have very beautiful centers there. India..., it's not that because we're going to India, therefore it's an Indian idea. Science, it's not "Two plus two" is Indian or American. It's everywhere.

Kathy Kerr: I've asked everything I've been able to think of. Thank you very much for the interview.

Prabhupāda: Very good. You have given prasāda?

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Let him come.

Satsvarūpa: This is Shivaram.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Should I turn this light on?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You also sit down. Note down.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I want to get the newspapers that you wanted. (break)

Prabhupāda: What can I do? (laughs)

Jayādvaita: I'll speak to Rāmeśvara and see if we can do something to publish it. (break)

Prabhupāda: I began with these men are running in car and the dog is running on leg, where is the difference. His running by car is his advancement of civilization. They are taking running by car, never mind the passenger is a dog. (laughter) But the passenger is running on car, a dog, therefore he's a dog.

Jayādvaita: They use these cars for running after women.

Prabhupāda: That is the same thing. Just like dog runs after.

Hari-śauri: What will the program be? Won't Prabhupāda speak down there also?

Prabhupāda: What is speaking?

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

Prabhupāda: They will do it like this, now it is very nice.

Kīrtanānanda: Very beautiful.

Prabhupāda: That one girl is taking care, she's doing very nice. We can sit down here?

Kīrtanānanda: Kulādri, find some more (indistinct). Come up this side. As soon as you sit down, everything looks complete.

Prabhupāda: Hm? (laughs) Where is Pradyumna Mahārāja?

Kīrtanānanda: He's just inside the house. You'd like him to come out?

Prabhupāda: No. Pālikā, you came before here?

Pālikā: Six years ago. There was just that one small, original farm.

Prabhupāda: Now it is a big property. And when the palace will be ready, many people will.... You simply advertise "Come and see palaces in New Vrindaban." It will be a combination of Western and Eastern culture. For the profit of the whole human society. So Vṛndāvana-candra will come here? No. Vṛndāvana-candra Deity?

Kīrtanānanda: No.

Prabhupāda: His palace will be different.

Kīrtanānanda: His palace will be where the building is now. We're planning to move Him into the new building next to the present temple, the four-story building. He will occupy the fourth floor for now. Then we will take down that old building and put up a nice big temple.

Prabhupāda: So why you dismantle, construct another?

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

Prabhupāda: Part of life?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Yes, it's natural. So I don't, I'm not afraid.

Prabhupāda: Then when there is some sign of death, why do you go away? Sit down and die. (laughter) You don't accept. You are talking foolishly. You don't want to die. That is a fact. You are talking foolishly, that "I accept it," but you don't accept it. That is the fact. But because you have no other way, then you say, "I accept it." The real fact is this, that you do not wish to die, but you find that there is no other alternative, "Then I accept it. All right." So you can talk like that, foolishly, but intelligent man, you do not want to die.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: One time, one boy said that. So as soon as he said it, I picked up a stick and went like that "Oh!" and said "See, you are afraid." And he said, "No, I'm not afraid." So I went—and he was showing fear.

Prabhupāda: Even dog is afraid, what to speak of man. The animals, when they are taken to be slaughtered, they cry. So animal is afraid of death, why not man? Everyone is afraid.

Kuladri: Prabhupāda? They say why do you worry so much about death? We are living. We are enjoying life, why do you worry about death?

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

Prabhupāda: That is not the right way. Kṛṣṇa never said to Arjuna that "You haven't got to fight. You sit down, I shall do everything." He never said that. "You have to fight." Nimitta-mātraṁ bhava savyaśacin. "And the result is already created by Me, but you have to make a manifestation of fighting." Just like our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Within eight or ten years we have developed so much. Is it humanly possible? It is Kṛṣṇa's plan. But Kṛṣṇa says that "You go and preach. Take the credit." Yes. It is His plan. Actually everything is done by Kṛṣṇa. He gives the credit to His devotee, that's all. You know the history of the Detroit temple (laughs)?

Kīrtanānanda: A little bit, not too much.

Prabhupāda: Detroit temple, it was, that building was constructed at a cost of two million dollars, say some fifty years, sixty years ago. And we purchased it at three hundred thousand dollars. So when they said that there is a nice house, so I told "Let me go immediately." So I went there and talked with the proprietor, so I liked it very much. It is a wonderful palace. So he asked $350,000. So I talked with him and asked some concession. Then I last bid again, "I'll give you cash, three hundred thousand." So he said "Yes, I accept." There was no money. (laughter) So the Bombay purchase, you know, it was simply speculation. So Kṛṣṇa is giving us. For a karmī, it is not possible, but Kṛṣṇa gives us all facilities. You have been in that palace, Detroit? Very, very nice. Perhaps the best in our society, huh?

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. 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.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "If he is actually advanced and so ordered by his spiritual master, he should preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness with logic and understanding. And if he is not so advanced, he should not accept the renounced order of life. But even if he has accepted the renounced order of life without sufficient knowledge, he should engage himself fully in hearing from a bona fide spiritual master to cultivate knowledge. A sannyāsī, or one in the renounced order of life, must be situated in fearlessness, sattva-saṁśuddhiḥ (purity), and jñāna-yoga (knowledge). The next item is charity. Charity is meant for the householders. The householders should earn a livelihood by honorable means and spend fifty percent of their income to propagate Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over the world. Thus a householder should give in charity to such institutional societies that are engaged in that way. Charity should be given to the right receiver. There are different kinds of charities, as will be explained later: charity in the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance. Charity in the mode of goodness is recommended by the scriptures, but charity in the modes of passion and ignorance is not recommended, because it is simply a waste of money. Charity should be given only to propagate Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over the world. That is charity in the mode of goodness. Then as far as dama (self-control) is concerned, it is not only meant for other orders of religious society, but it is especially meant for the householder.

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

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Everyone is envious of such persons, Śrīla Prabhupāda. They think that "Yes, he could not enjoy his wealth, but if I had that wealth I would enjoy it." But then if they get it, then they also fail.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Next, what is next?

Hari-śauri: Half past eight.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Should we take your leave now, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No, I have no objection to sit down here. If you want to stop, we can stop, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)

Dhṛṣṭadyumna:

idam adya mayā labdham

imaṁ prāpsye manoratham

idam astīdam api me

bhaviṣyati punar dhanam

asau mayā hataḥ śatrur

haniṣye cāparān api

īśvaro 'ham ahaṁ bhogī

siddho 'haṁ balavān sukhī

āḍhyo 'bhijanavān asmi

ko 'nyo 'sti sadṛśo mayā

yakṣye dāsyāmi modiṣya

ity ajñāna-vimohitāḥ

"The demoniac person thinks: 'So much wealth do I have today, and I will gain more according to my schemes. So much is mine now, and it will increase in the future, more and more. He is my enemy, and I have killed him, and my other enemies will also be killed. I am the lord of everything. I am the enjoyer. I am perfect, powerful and happy. I am the richest man, surrounded by aristocratic relatives. There is none so powerful and happy as I am. I shall perform sacrifices, I shall give some charity, and thus I shall rejoice.' In this way, such persons are deluded by ignorance." These are timeless statements Śrīla Prabhupāda. Kṛṣṇa has spoken for all time by these words.

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

Prabhupāda: What is the difficulty? Everything is explained. By seeing the sun one can understand the sunshine, the sun globe and the sun-god. There are three things. Within the sun globe, there is the sun-god. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam: (BG 4.1) "I spoke to Vivasvata." So there is a person Vivasvata, and the globe is there, we see, and the sunshine is there. So what is the difficulty to understand? Three things are there. The person within the sun globe, Vivasvata, is there, otherwise how Kṛṣṇa could speak with him? He says, imaṁ vivasvate yogam, "unto Vivasvata I spoke." So there is a person. And we can see the globe, and we can see the sunshine. Is there any difficulty? So similarly, the Brahman is the sunshine, light, and Paramātmā is the sun globe, and Bhagavān is the sun-god. This is, the sun is one example. From this example, we can understand the Absolute. Where is the difficulty? (aside:) Sit down properly. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). As heat and light, all of them are the same... In the sunshine there is heat and light, in the sun globe there is heat and light, and within the sun globe there is heat and light, but the temperature is different. You can tolerate the heat and light of the sunshine, but if you go to the sun globe you'll be finished. Temperature's so high, it requires a special qualification. Similarly, from heat and light point of view, Brahman, Paramātmā, Bhagavān, the same. Everywhere there is heat and light, but the temperature is different. So one who understands Brahman, he cannot understand Paramātmā. He understands, but not as thoroughly. Similarly, one who understands Paramātmā, he can (not) understand Bhagavān, but if you understand Bhagavān, then you understand Paramātmā, Brahman, everything.

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

Prabhupāda: Modern yogic society. "Transcendental Meditation." Whatever nonsense they like, they do. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated that yogis should sit down in a secluded, sacred place, and they are seeking after America's big, big cities. Hmm? They find out yogic class in America's big, big cities, hotels. This is their program. The prescription is that one should sit down in a solitary sacred place, alone, and these rascals are holding class. All smokers, drunkard, woman-hunters, (laughs) they are yogis. Hmm? What do you think? Is it all right? This is going on. And they are accepted, "Yogi this," "Yogi that." This is going on. In India they cannot find out because people are not so fool as yet that in big, big cities, in a big, big hotel, "yoga practice." India, although so fallen, they will not accept. They will at once detect, "Here is a rascal." But here, their dhana-māna, their qualification... They have got money. So whatever they accept, that is all right, because they have got money. No other qualification required. They have money; they can pay. That's all. You read that, dhana-māna...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Ātma-sambhāvitāḥ stabdhā dhana-māna-madānvitāḥ.

Prabhupāda: What are the word meanings?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "Ātma-sambhāvitāḥ-self-complacent."

Prabhupāda: Whatever they are thinking, it is all right, that's all. They are not going to hear any authority. Whatever they think, that is final. That's all. Why?

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

Prabhupāda: You see. But they are so fools, rascals, they'll not accept it. And they'll give example, "Christ ate fish" somewhere; therefore we have to maintain the slaughterhouse. Because Christ ate fish, therefore we have to maintain slaughterhouse. Give the dog a bad name and hang it. Huh? This is going on. So we have to make vigorous propaganda for all this foolishness. Mūḍho nābhijānāti loko mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. So we are giving the best civilization, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. With little patience and perseverance you work on it, people will take it. Because there is nothing adulteration; it is pure. Rest assured, if you follow the principles and push on according to the prescription I have given, it will be accepted. May take some time.

Rūpānuga: But they will appreciate the purity.

Prabhupāda: It is pure. Actually, these fruits and some milk preparation are sufficient. You don't require any flesh. Is the flesh comparable with this nice fruit? (pause) Come on. Sit down.

Devotee: Is there one for you, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes, I am not so fool that I shall give everything. (laughter) (end)

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: There is no question of evolution. It is already there. This is a wrong theory. The monkey is there, the man is there. The soul is going from monkey to man. It is not the evolution. Just like you have got apartment, ten rupees, five rupees, twenty rupees, thirty rupees, like that. Now, as you pay, "Come on, here." There is no question of evolution. It is already there. Jantur dehopapattaye. These dehas, these bodies, are already there. So immediately it develops a particular type of desire, "Yes, come here, sit down." First class, second class, third class, fourth class is already there. As you pay, "Yes, come here." It is not evolving; it is already there. He is transferred from one apartment to another. This has to be convinced. We don't find that monkey's body became a human body. That is not in the experience, anyone. The monkey is there, the human being is there. But the soul is going from monkey's body to human's body, or monkey's body to another body. That is by superior administration. Their theory is the body is evolving and some body is missing. Nothing is missing. Every body is there. The soul is being transferred from one body to another. Asatims caturam caiva laksams jīva jātiṣu.(?) Jāti means the form of the body. So the form of the body is already there, and the living entity is being transferred from one body to another. This is called transmigration. We have come here, not that that room developed. This room is here, that room is there, but I am transferring. Because they have no idea of soul, they are thinking that this nice room, now transform into this room or this room, transform... This is foolishness. A civil man transferred into jail—not that his civil house becomes jail. They are thinking wrongly like that, Darwin's theory.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, and that is not being fulfilled. Therefore planning, sometimes this way, sometimes that way. Manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ (SB 5.18.12). Mental concoction. Real platform they are missing. Sometimes sitting down, sometimes... (laughter) Happiness. When tired up, then come down. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30).

Hari-śauri: They come out for a quiet sit-down in the countryside, and they bunch together, hundreds at a time.

Rūpānuga: They are coming to watch the fireworks. You see, from here, the fireworks are going to be very high in the sky. They can see it from this point. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...celebration, independence from our point of view?

Hari-śauri: From our point of view, it doesn't have any meaning. For a conditioned soul to think that he's independent...

Prabhupāda: It is foolishness.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They think they're free from being controlled by the British, for example. Free from being controlled.

Prabhupāda: There is some meaning. That's all right. But where is your independence? You are fully under the control of the laws of nature. So where is your independence?

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

Prabhupāda: It is a machine manufactured by the material nature under the order of Kṛṣṇa. So actually it is not my body, it is Kṛṣṇa's body. Kṛṣṇa has given us. He has given you a particular type of body, He has given me a particular type of body, so many. Yantra, machine. Just like on a machine, motorcar, we sit down and travel here and there. So we wanted to travel in a certain way so we require some machine, and Kṛṣṇa has given us this machine manufactured by material nature. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ suyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). So Kṛṣṇa is within the core of heart of everyone. He knows what I want. He's giving us facilities. We wanted to enjoy this material world, and He's still giving direction, "All right, you want to get this facility, sit down on it and travel as you like." So we are getting different machines. Sometimes the human body machine, sometimes dog machine, sometimes cat machine, sometimes demigod machine. We are desiring all these things. American machine, Indian machine. When you are in Indian machine you are thinking "I am Indian. My business is to satisfy Indian interests." You Americans are thinking "This is American machine; it should be used for America's benefit." These are upādhi. Upādhi means designation. Neither I am Indian nor American nor cat nor dog. But as soon as I get a particular type of body, I think that I am cat, I am dog, I am Indian, I am America, I am black, I am white, this. This is our position. And people are struggling on this understanding, "I am this body." So long we think like that, "I am this body," we are no better than cats and dogs. He is also thinking "I am this body." Is it not? What do you think, Mr. Sukla? If I think I am this body, the dog is also thinking "I am this body," then where is the difference between the dog and me? What do you think, Mr... How shall I address you?

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

Prabhupāda: If you are uncomfortable you can sit on this cot...

Carl Warentz: No, that's okay, I'll sit like this.

Prabhupāda: You are welcome to sit down here.

Hari-śauri: You can sit on the couch.

Vṛṣākapi: This is Eugene Thoreau, Prabhupāda. He's an attorney in Washington, D.C. He's helped us very much opening up saṅkīrtana places. Very good.

Vipina: Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is a professor from Catholic University, a physicist.

Vṛṣākapi: I told him already.

Vipina: Oh, did you?

Hari-śauri: Bring one or two chairs.

Prabhupāda: So how do you like our movement, Hare Kṛṣṇa movement?

Vṛṣākapi: He said how do you like our movement?

Guest (1): Well, for myself I know nothing about it, that's why I'm here.

Guest (2): I like it, I've seen some very good people go into it, and I like it.

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

Prabhupāda: No, educated means they have knowledge, but real knowledge is taken away. He does not know God. Just like a man is rich, but he has no food. It is like that. māyayāpahṛta-jñāna. Therefore his knowledge is misused, duṣkṛtina. This knowledge, without any sense of God... Yes, come in. Sit down. (guests entering)

Vṛṣākapi: This is Mr. Davis, Mr. and Mrs. Davis, Prabhupāda. Their daughter is a devotee here, very good devotee.

Hari-śauri: There's chair if you'd like to sit in the chair. We can bring one more. Bring another chair.

Vipina: Used to be a senator.

Prabhupāda: Perfection of knowledge means to understand God. That is perfection of knowledge. Otherwise, it is imperfect knowledge. Therefore it is called Vedānta. Veda means knowledge. (more people enter)

Vṛṣākapi: This is Bill Sauer. He wrote this book, The Fourth Kingdom.

Prabhupāda: Fourth kingdom? What is the idea?

Vṛṣākapi: The idea is that the goal of life should be to...

Bill Sauer: To put people on other planets.

Vṛṣākapi: Put people on other planets, so that the race can survive.

Bill Sauer: So that all of life can survive.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Rūpānuga: So these persons, I was mentioning to you in the car, that we would like to have them associated in some way with the Institute, so...

Prabhupāda: Yes, if they write articles, if they read our books, that is associated. Not that they will have to come here and sit down with us. Let them read the book and deliberate and write nice article, their opinion. That will be nice. Then you'll get sufficient article for publishing. That is wanted. All the Ph.D. Vaiṣṇavas, they may take advantage of this.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, and it will be respected in the big circles.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. If they are getting respect talking all nonsense, and here we shall glorify the Supreme Lord, why not respect?

ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā

varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ

svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya

saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam

(SB 1.2.13)

When they try to satisfy the senses of Kṛṣṇa, His glory, then the Ph.D. is perfect. And if continues to talk nonsense, then it is useless waste of time and labor.

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

Prabhupāda: I don't think there is any.

Dr. Sharma: There is no difference.

Prabhupāda: There is no fundamental difference. The same. Bhagavad-gītā recommends that you should select a very secluded place in a solitary sacred place, you should make your āsana, sit down perpendicularly, don't close your eyes completely, half open, and concentrate on the tip of the nose. Everything is there. "And then think of Me." But Arjuna said, he said, "Oh, it is not possible." He was a frank gentleman. He was not a hypocrite. He said that "You are recommending all these yoga practice, it is not possible for me. I am a politician, I have to execute so many other businesses. I cannot go to the secluded place and sit down like this. So you are recommending me for yoga practice, but I say I cannot." But at the present moment, they have become more than Arjuna. (laughs) What Arjuna denied, they want to practice. This is another hypocrisy. Arjuna was not an ordinary man. He was so exalted that he could speak with Kṛṣṇa directly, and coming from royal family, and he's famous as great fighter. He refused, "I cannot do that." And we are taking to yoga practice. We have become more than Arjuna. This is going on. He does not think himself that "Arjuna is such a great personality, he thought himself to be incapable to practicing yoga, and we are making a show of yoga, paying somebody large amounts of money"? That's all. This is going on.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is by chance.

Prabhupāda: "By chance," just see. Is that explanation? Hmm? If one head is bald-headed, why by chance it does not come again, hair? And these plants and creepers are coming by chance, just see. We have to accept this explanation? (aside:) You sit down. That is for the outsider. So this is explanation by the scientist, "By chance." Just see. How fools they are.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Chance is their instrument of explanation.

Prabhupāda: Just see how they are befooling persons. The law is cause and effect. Nothing is chance. There is cause, and there is effect. It is saying the same thing, that "This girl has produced a child by chance." It is not possible. Any sane man knows that she had connection with man, either legally or illegally. It is not chance. So there can... Nothing can happen as chance. That is imperfect knowledge. Wash out.

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

Prabhupāda: Lavish? What do you mean by lavish?

Janice Johnson: Well, I think this is a rather elegant, lavish kind of room.

Hari-śauri: She's referring to your quarters are very nicely furnished.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So it is for you, because you cannot sit down cross-legged, we have arranged this couch for you. (laughter) If it is not lavishly decorated, you'll refuse to come here.

Janice Johnson: Why is it necessary to live in such comfort as this for the spiritual...?

Prabhupāda: No, we can live on the street, but you cannot come and see on the street. For you we have arranged. That is the... We can live underneath a tree. That is a... But that does not make any difference. Our point is that you may live materially comfortably—there is no harm—but if you forget your spiritual identity, then you'll remain like animal. Just like sometimes a cat or dog is also allowed to sit on the couch, but that does not mean he has become a human being. He remains a cat and dog because the consciousness is lacking of a human being. In this seat there may be some bugs. So the bug is also living on this couch, but he has no understanding.

Interviewer: What is your opinion of what this movement should be doing in terms of world activities and world affairs that it isn't doing now? Are there some new areas that you may try to influence?

Prabhupāda: No, we are pushing on this movement all over the world. It is not that this particular place is important, but our interest is that Western people... They are so intelligent. They are very systematically making improvement in material condition of life. They should know also that spiritual life is more important than material life. Because, for example, we are combination of matter and spirit. So long the spirit soul is there, our body is very important. Otherwise, without spirit, the body has no importance. Everyone can understand. Similarly, all this material advancement of civilization is very good, provided there is spiritual understanding also. Otherwise it is decoration of the dead body. A dead body decorated has no value, but when there is life, then the body is valuable. So material advancement of material civilization means decoration of the dead body. But when there is spiritual understanding, then there is importance of everything.

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

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) (interviewers leave)

Rūpānuga: You made some nice points during the interview, Śrīla Prabhupāda. They wanted to know why we were doing things so elaborately, and you said, "This is for you, so that you will come here. We can live anywhere, under a tree, but if we were living under a tree you would not come. So this couch is for you to sit down because you can't sit down cross-legged." They appreciated.

Prabhupāda: Actually that is the fact. We can live any condition. What he'll do?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We saw the first Back to Godhead magazine yesterday, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The first Back to Godhead copy of the magazine that you published from Calcutta in 1944. We found in the library.

Prabhupāda: Oh, '44 edition is here?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, Library of Congress.

Prabhupāda: How they collected?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, it has kept very nicely. Paper was... Quality was very good, printing and everything, from India, thinking... (laughs)

Prabhupāda: There are some mistakes also.

Arrival Comments in Car to Temple -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, there is a Brooklyn Bridge, but we're not going over it.

Prabhupāda: Sometimes I was coming there and sitting down near the bridge.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Near the water? You were sitting near the water?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that river.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's a famous bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge. It's the biggest expansion-type bridge.

Prabhupāda: Because I was on that Bowery Street, it is not very far away. So I was coming, walking there, and sitting under the bridge. And thinking, "Whether I shall return to India?" (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You said you were always inquiring when the boat was returning.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There was one sub-railway station, beginning with F?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fulton Street?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fulton Street.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes. Sometimes I am going there. Fulton.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Rādhāvallabha: Śrīla Prabhupāda, Manasvī is here.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Rādhāvallabha: Manasvī. Tell him to come in?

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Sit down. Wherefrom you are coming?

Manasvī: New Jersey, Hoboken.

Prabhupāda: Where is your child?

Manasvī: She's downstairs.

Prabhupāda: With whom he is with?

Manasvī: With her brother.

Prabhupāda: So? What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is the magazine I was telling you about. Transcendental Meditation Today.

Prabhupāda: That is the name of the magazine?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. The feature article is...

Prabhupāda: This is our?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Big article all about our society.

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

Prabhupāda: There is an example. In a water tank you throw one stone. It becomes a circle. And the circle expands, expands, expands unless the circle comes to the shore. Similarly our loving affair begins from personal self to family, from family to society, community, nation, international. But still, it is imperfect unless the circle reaches to the lotus feet of God. Then it is satisfied. Svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce (CC Madhya 22.42). Here, any loving affairs, that is more or less lusty. A man or woman love each other with some desire, not without desire. That desire is sense gratification. But actually that is lust not love. Pure love can be exchanged in relationship with God. Here there are temporary... A boy, a girl or a man, a woman in relationship of love but it breaks as soon as the lusty desire is not fulfilled. So here there is no question of love. It is all lusty desire. Real love can be achieved when it is exchanged with Kṛṣṇa or God. Premā pum-artho mahān, that is the recommendation given by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. That is the highest (indistinct) when we come on the loving platform with God, then we are satisfied. Big, big political leaders in our country like Mahatma Gandhi, he loved his country so much. But the result was that he was killed by his own men, by his country men. But this is not possible when the love is exchanged between God. Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati (BG 9.31), a little love for God can save you from the greatest danger of life. That is real love. So if you love Kṛṣṇa, then you can love with everyone. Just like we are spreading this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. It is out of love for Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise we would have sat down at home and love Kṛṣṇa. Why you are trying to spread this love exchange to others? Because I know or we know that here in this material world, the so-called love exchange is frustrating, and people are being frustrated. So let him love Kṛṣṇa, then we'll be successful. This is our mission. Everyone has got loving propensity. So this child has now love for his mother, for the mother has got... But as soon as the child will grow, the love is finished, he will love somebody else. When he becomes young man, his love is transferred to somebody else.

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

Prabhupāda: Ha.

Rāmeśvara: If they are important.

Prabhupāda: Let them come one by one. If they come one at a time, they will sit down. They'll not try to go away. But if they come, see first too many, and go away, then another comes. Then it will be nice interview.

Rāmeśvara: I see. There must be management.

Hari-śauri: And the devotees can come in the morning for class.

Prabhupāda: That's right. Try this experiment.

Rāmeśvara: Anything that we can do to assist you in the translating work is the best service...

Prabhupāda: Hm, yes.

Rāmeśvara: Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)

Devotee (6): It's mustard oil.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Interview with Newsweek -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: No, why shall I sit if I can sit down on the open space anywhere, on the bank of the river, on the bank of the ocean. There are so many open spaces. You can sit down there.

Bali-mardana: Her question was, "Is your physical place important, surroundings"?

Prabhupāda: Yes. So long I have got this physical body, I have to give some physical facility. Yukta-vairāgya. If I can write my books in a comfortable place, why shall I voluntarily go to a dark place? Material facilities, either dark place or lighted place, it is the same thing, but I'll have to accept which is favorable for me.

Rāmeśvara: In other words, our system is, as I explained out there, we are not averse to using material facilities in our service to Kṛṣṇa.

Bali-mardana: We're not dependent upon them.

Rāmeśvara: We're not dependent on them, but if they are available, we must use them for Kṛṣṇa.

Bali-mardana: Prabhupāda has undergone great difficulties...

Prabhupāda: After all, anything, material or spiritual, that is Kṛṣṇa's arrangement.

Interviewer: That is what?

Rāmeśvara: Kṛṣṇa's arrangement, after all. Anything material or anything spiritual, it's His arrangement.

Prabhupāda: What we say material, that is not aloof from Kṛṣṇa. That is also Kṛṣṇa's energy. Just like darkness and light. Both of them are related to the sun. Is it not? What is darkness? Absence of light. Is it not?

Interviewer: Can you tell me what this painting up here is?

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

Prabhupāda: So they require chair?

Rāmeśvara: He's asking if you'd like a chair.

Interviewer: No, this is all right.

Rāmeśvara: This is Mr. Bill Semm. He's a photographer from their newspaper.

Prabhupāda: Thank you. Sit down. You have seen our books?

Interviewer: Yes, I have. You translated all of those. (pause) (break) ...I wonder if you could tell me how you came to founding the movement here in the United States.

Prabhupāda: I was ordered by my spiritual master to do this work, so on his order I came in 1965. That is the beginning of this. I came alone with no help, no money. Somehow or other (laughs) I started.

Interviewer: How did you attract people? You landed in New York...

Prabhupāda: My attraction is this chanting. That's all.

Interviewer: Did you stand on street corners and chant?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I had no magic. Just like others. They say some..., show some magic. I never showed any magic.

Interviewer: No, I understand that.

Bali-mardana: Thompkins Park.

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

Bali-mardana: It's not that we sit back and wait for Kṛṣṇa to send it to us.

Rāmeśvara: No, we're very industrious.

Prabhupāda: We don't sit down idly.

Bali-mardana: God helps those who help themselves.

Prabhupāda: We are not idle preachers, we are working. All, very hard, more than the karmīs.

Rāmeśvara: These men, they go out to engage people in taking our books maybe twelve hours a day sometimes, ten hours a day, without any salary.

Prabhupāda: I am now eighty years old, I am working twenty-four hours. I think I work more than my young disciples (laughter).

Bali-mardana: Oh yes, definitely.

Prabhupāda: I work at night.

Rāmeśvara: It is hard to keep up with Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Hari-śauri: Very difficult.

Prabhupāda: We are not idle creatures.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because this was our first year, we were not expecting such a big turnout, so we did not have sufficient stands to meet everybody's needs.

Prabhupāda: And the police officer has approved.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, the policemen sat down at the end of the park later on.

Prabhupāda: You gave them prasādam?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't know.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'm not sure. I didn't deal with them. They were dealt with by Toṣaṇa Kṛṣṇa. We'll bring them some present tomorrow. But they made the statement that "If every parade was so beautiful and so nicely orderly, we would be very happy."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They said it was very orderly.

Prabhupāda: And that cannot be expected from any other group, only in this group. Such a huge crowd, and there was not a single instance of violence.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Except that one tie. One boy was punched out.

Hari-śauri: (referring to 7-UP) I sent someone out.

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: No, actually that is a fact. There is no difference, 2.2 and 1.

Bali-mardana: And then we had a life membership table with Gajahanta and Śravaṇānanda. The Indians were all coming, and there were chairs for them to sit down, and they were preaching to them life membership.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they had..., you know that little portable movie screen, you may have seen, it comes in an attache case.

Hari-śauri: Like Gargamuni's, he showed you in Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we had three of these set up, and many people were sitting in chairs watching the different movies.

Bali-mardana: It was amazing that one little generator was supplying all the power. This one little gasoline generator was supplying the power for all the sound and the various electricity things.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, there was no electrical hook-up; we did that with a gas generator.

Prabhupāda: Oh. And there was no sound, cutcutcutcutcut.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, because we put it very far away. In India that would be a nuisance, the sound of the...

Prabhupāda: So where is Ambarīṣa?

Car Conversation -- July 21, 1976, New York:

Rāmeśvara: ...people of New York are appreciating, Prabhupāda, how you came here alone and now you have a big building with many followers. Actually the people are aware, very much aware of how you started this movement in New York.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And were struggling personally. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...life there is struggle. Without struggling there is no...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We should not be, try to avoid struggle.

Prabhupāda: No. Because we have got preaching point of view. Preaching means struggling. If it was simply bhajana, you can sit down and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa like Haridāsa Ṭhākura.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (break) "There's one credit that I have. I was never a lazy fellow."

Prabhupāda: Yes, throughout my life. (end)

Conversation at House of Ksirodakasayi dasa -- July 25, 1976, London:

Jayatīrtha: ...was sitting previously, which was being worshiped at this place. So he sat down because he was thinking that he was good as standing up, same as standing up. So one Vaiṣṇava priest who was taking care of the place, he threw him out. So in the book they complained that the Vaiṣṇavas are considered to be very narrow-minded (laughter). Now I can understand...

Prabhupāda: Here. He was kicked out.

Jayatīrtha: Yes, the boy threw him out. So they were complaining about this.

Prabhupāda: Just see. How bogus he was. No, when I go to met in Hollywood that, in the beginning that Prabhavananda, the rascal said that "Ramakrishna was formerly Caitanya Mahāprabhu." He began like that. Then I could understand "What a rascal he is, and I have to waste my time." So I did not answer anything. I said, "Thank you very much for your meeting," and I went out. This Ramakrishna rascal's first proposal was that Ramakrishna Thakura was formerly Caitanya. This is beginning. He was so rascal. (pause) (sounds of massage?) This is framework house. If some of the swamis may have said, they say that "Why you call us rascal and so many things?" So you say that "We are not calling you. Kṛṣṇa says. So we are pushing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So we have to repeat what Kṛṣṇa has said. That's it. We cannot help it. Kṛṣṇa says na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ (BG 7.15). So you are not Kṛṣṇa conscious; therefore you must be mūḍha."

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bombay is just like garden. As good as your place here. No. Not so big. It is seventeen acres, and Bombay is five. Just go on. (prasādam being served) Give him whatever you have got to give. But don't give much. When he wants something more.... Waste not, want not. Give more, that preparation, you should give more. (laughter) That is called (indistinct). You can bring it, prasāda.

George Harrison: I'll just wash my hands.

Prabhupāda: You can wash here. The sink is there. Here is also water. You can put the bowls outside, here, so that there will be sufficient place. Our Indian system is like this. That's all right. Sit down, you also sit down.

George Harrison: I see you've done new books. You've been so busy, there's so many books.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There are already fifty-four, and another at least thirty books I have to finish before my death. (laughs) That I am.... Give him a puri. Where is Ravi Shankar?

George Harrison: He's in.... I think he's in New York. He'll be here the first of August, and then I think he's...

Prabhupāda: He has got his house there? In New York?

George Harrison: No, just a house in Benares. Benares. He doesn't have anything. He just stays in hotels.

Prabhupāda: I thought in Washington somebody told me that George Washing..., George Harrison has got his house here.

George Harrison: Yes, he had a little house here, but he...

Prabhupāda: No, you have got your house in Washington?

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

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. So one man, you can sit down, you can eat. Pradyumna, you can eat.

Pradyumna: I've taken some milk before.

Prabhupāda: Oh, you don't require. Now you can eat, go on. Prasāda prapti mātrena. Our Jayatīrtha prabhu is a good manager. Management, looking after. Yes, he's a very good manager, experienced.

George Harrison: Hm?

Prabhupāda: He's experienced manager.

Jayatīrtha: Not very good managing this place now.

George Harrison: Well, it seems okay. Seems to be taken over pretty good. Peacefully.

Prabhupāda: He was also managing Los Angeles. Now we have brought him here to see things nicely managed.

George Harrison: It feels good, nice vibrations.

Prabhupāda: Yes. One thing, Jayatīrtha, why don't you sprinkle this water in this ground?

Jayatīrtha: Well, we do sprinkle it.

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

Prabhupāda: "At that time I may be not able to utter 'Kṛṣṇa' or think of You, and now I am healthy, let me finish this business." That means "Let me die immediately. Now I'm healthy, I'm quite fit." This is the ideal. Ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ (SB 2.1.6). At the time of death, if one remembers Kṛṣṇa, then his life is successful. Immediately he goes to Kṛṣṇa. Just like Ajamila. He chanted "Narayana," and immediately his path to Vaikuntha become clear. So this practice means, whatever we practice all through life, there is chance of coming that remembrance at the time of death, and then it is successful, life is success. If at the time of death one can remember Kṛṣṇa, then his whole life is successful. Our one student, Kārttikeya, his mother was very fortunate. So his mother had nothing to do with this Society, but the boy was attached, and she heard several times "Kṛṣṇa," that this boy is attached to Kṛṣṇa. At the time of her death, she asked her son, "Is your Kṛṣṇa here?" and died. Just see how fortunate she is. She simply uttered this word, "Is your Kṛṣṇa here?" then she died. Very fortunate. So on account of her son she got salvation. Otherwise, Kārttikeya told me that he went to see his mother, and the mother was going to ball dance, and the mother did not receive him well. "All right, you sit down. I'll come again." She was such lady. But by Kṛṣṇa's grace, at the time of death, she inquired her son, "Is your Kṛṣṇa here?" Very fortunate.

George Harrison: When my mother died I had to send my sister and father out of the room, because they were getting emotional, and I just chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: She chanted.

George Harrison: I did.

Prabhupāda: Oh, very nice, so she could hear?

Room Conversation -- July 27, 1976, London:

Hari-śauri: No, they won't come for another half hour yet.

Jayatīrtha: They can come earlier if you like. They can come any time you like.

Prabhupāda: No...No, I have no objection. What is that? They'll work that side; I'll sit down here.

Jayatīrtha: They should come now.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Our program is solid, but if we have to argue with animals, that is a different thing. Otherwise any human being, they will accept. But the modern civilization means to keep the people in general in animal platform, that's all, and cheat them.

Bhagavān: Most of the people who..., they are becoming attracted to this communist philosophy. They have no idea how to practically apply it. All they are saying is "It is an opportunity to take from the rich and give me to enjoy." But they are not seeing any scope of community cooperation. This is all impractical. They are saying, "I will get money from my boss. I will take his wealth and distribute." They are simply materialists.

Prabhupāda: "That also distribute for me. More share for me." (laughs) Now there is drought; there is no rain. What the capitalists or communists can do in this connection? If they are able to present any program how to counteract? Then where is your progress? When there is some calamity, you both of you simply (indistinct). That's all. You cannot do anything. Then where is your progress?

Hari-śauri: The reason why the Russians were buying wheat from America...

Prabhupāda: Yes?

Morning Walk Around Grounds -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Jagadiśa's son?

Bhagavān: Nirmala.

Hari-śauri: You want to ride in the palanquin?

Prabhupāda: Yes. We can sit down on the plank... (break) Snake here?

Devotee (5) : There are some, yes.

Devotee (2): There's a big one in the forest. It has not got any water in it, very big.

Devotees: Snake? (laughter)

Bhagavān: He thought you said lake.

Prabhupāda: Python?

Hari-śauri: He thought you said a lake. So he said there's a big one in the forest. But you were talking about a snake.

Prabhupāda: Snake, yes. There is a big snake here? (laughter)

Hari-śauri: No. He was talking about a lake, for water.

Bhagavān: Kirtana?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (end)

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

Prabhupāda: In, actually, in Bengal, Bengal has lost its original culture. In other provinces the brāhmaṇa class, they are keeping very strictly the original culture. Even a brāhmaṇa would not accept foodstuff prepared by his wife, because woman is considered śūdra. The woman, when she becomes the wife of a brāhmaṇa, then she is called brāhmaṇī, but she's not offered brahminical culture. She remains as śūdra. So therefore a strict brāhmaṇa does not accept foodstuff prepared by his wife. Still there are in U.P. The wife will arrange for cooking, and he'll sit down and cook dāl, cāpāṭis. Then he will eat, and whatever remains, that is there, that will be taken by her. But he will not take foodstuff cooked by his even wife. And if there are several brāhmaṇas, so each one of them will cook his own food. In Calcutta, mostly the rich men they used to keep the collector's darwans, they are called darwans. Means guard, policemen, guard. They're all, very big, big brāhmaṇa family, they used to take, accept the job. But each of them, even in police, I have seen, they are cooking separately. They take bath thrice, cook their own food, very strictly. The government had to give them a big hall for cooking. So, it will not take much space, say, little space. One small oven and demarcated: "This, you see, is mine, and then I, you get, this is yours, this is yours." So within that space they'll sit down and cook dāl, cāpāṭis, rice, one vegetable, and cook, and immediately all the utensils will be cleansed and washed, and the space washed and kept. You'd like to eat, they cook so nicely, although simple. And I have got practical experience, if you cook your own food, whatever it may be, it is healthy.

Harikeśa: That a fact, yes.

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

Harikeśa: I notice these four things, they are very unnatural, these four sinful things, very unnatural.

Prabhupāda: Unnatural, yes. What for smoking? What for drinking? How nicely they sit down on the ground and take prasādam. Why there is need of table, chair and these dishes and fork and knife and so on, so on? Why?

Harikeśa: It's hard to cut the meat. You need a good surface. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: Our Bon Mahārāja, once I was eating in his festival and... He's a bara-sahib. So he has given fork and knife. (laughs) So I did not know, I do not remember even which way I took fork. So Bon Mahārāja began to criticize "You are going to foreign country you do not know which hand to take this fork and knife." So I told him, "I am not going to learn all these things. I am going to teach them something else, to forget it. (laughter) You went to learn all these things. But I am not going to learn anything."

Harikeśa: What did he say to that? (laughter)

Prabhupāda: It was our...

Hari-śauri: He's following the line of Vivekananda.

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

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. There are many such families. The... If wife is very good, then his home is very nice. They cannot be unhappy at any circumstances. Dampatyoḥ kalaho nāsti tatra śrīḥ svayam āgataḥ.(?) Cāṇakya Paṇḍita. When there is full agreement between husband and wife, cooperation, then the goddess of fortune comes there without application. You haven't got to ask goddess of fortune, "Please come and help me." She'll come automatically. This is Cāṇakya Paṇḍita's instruction.

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

Bhagavān: Sprinkling can?

Prabhupāda: Ah, sprinkling can. We all grandchildren, we were about half a dozen. So we took very much pleasure in watering. But my special tendency was that along with the plants, I, with the bushes, I'll sit down. My tendency. And I'll sit down for hours. And like that. In my childhood. In my maternal uncle's house also, I was doing that. As soon as I find some bush, I make a sitting place.

Bhagavān: It's hard to see how people could not be attracted to such a nice life.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhagavān: But more and more people are coming.

Prabhupāda: They'll come. First of all, this life is not for every man. Most fortunate man. Kona bhāgyavān jīva. Kona, kona means someone; it is not for everyone. Kona bhāgyavān. Find out this verse, Nineteenth Chapter, Madhya-līlā.

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva

guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpā pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

(CC Madhya 19.151)

(devotees look for verse) Brahmāṇḍa bhramite? Guru-kṛṣṇa. Find out. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpā pāya.

Hari-śauri: Guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

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

Prabhupāda: Very good, but I could not digest them. That is my fault, but, oh, it was so nice palatable. Chick peas, chick peas, grow fresh. Eat very nicely, keep strong, drink milk, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Bas. Don't depend on this outside work and then gradually become debauch, thief, rogues, prostitutes. Is that civilization? They cannot imagine that the modern civilization can go without all these things. Do they not? Slaughterhouse, brothel, cheating, diplomacy, roguery, drinking—without this, no civilization. We are quite opposed. We want to show it is possible, yes. You can stop all this nonsense and still you go on as a perfect civilized man. With character, knowledge, satisfaction, everything. They are trying to gather knowledge by sending so many machines up to date. We have already got. We say you cannot go there, you are simply wasting your time. We have got so much knowledge. No, you can attempt, just like a monkey, that's all right. But our verdict is already there. You cannot go there. Ten years before I said this moon excursion is simply childish and waste of money in my Easy Journey to Other Planets. I am not a scientist, but how I dared to say? Because I know, I have got full knowledge. That is the difference. Without becoming scientist, we can give our verdict. Veda-pramāṇam. (Prabhupāda is eating) Umm, better give this fresh fruit. Don't bring all rotten. In the market you cannot get fresh. All three hundred years old. Anything fresh, that is full of vitamin. Grow fresh, take fresh. In India there is no system to purchase three-hundred-years-old bread and eat. It must be freshly made. Wife is preparing in the simple oven, husband is eating, children are eating. You know Yaśodāmāyī calling Kṛṣṇa? "Come back! Your father is waiting!" You remember this? That is Indian system. The father and the children, they sit down, mother will bring fresh dāl, rice and cāpāṭi, and distribute, and they eat. We used to do that. Along with father we shall sit down for eating, separately. There was no need of table-on the ground. And mother will distribute, cook. No servant; mother personally, wife personally.

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

Prabhupāda: Very light. In the morning you can give them this puffed grains, then fruits and milk, very good breakfast. I mean to say all self-dependent. Yes. We should save time, as much for this purpose, for chanting, discussing grantha. Not for any personal so-called comforts. We can sit down anywhere on the grass here, and whatever available we make our food. This is the idea. Life will be sublime. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī mām. That is real business.

Bhagavān: They are spending so much money for entertainment in material life, but no one is becoming enlivened. But this kind of discussion is so fresh. For a show they pay five dollars, to go to one movie for one hour, two hours.

Prabhupāda: That is another artificial agitation of the mind. It has, there is no practical benefit. Just see how many varieties of flowers, colorful. Can they make such colorful? "Yes, we're trying to overcome nature. Wait millions of years." And what about not? "Now you sleep." (laughter) These rascals are misleading other rascals. And they are, "Oh, a scientist!" Very misleading civilization. We shall appreciate in every flower the craftsmanship of Kṛṣṇa, how He has done nicely. Unnecessarily puffed up by so-called advancement of knowledge, misleading themselves and misleading others. Who is that old man comes? Some old man?

Bhagavān: He's a life member from Belgium.

Prabhupāda: Oh. He has come from Belgium? In the last German war, the first attempt of attack was on Belgium. And within few hours, Belgium finished, conquered.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. But this is restriction. There is light in the veranda?

Jñānagamya: Yes, there is light. Yes.

Prabhupāda: So let us go so that you can sit comfortably. You can take this (indistinct). That janma-acarana, 12th canto, 3rd chapter. (moving occurs) I shall like to sit down. (indistinct) Now in the beginning...

Pradyumna: The beginning of the third chapter?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Pradyumna: The third chapter begins, dṛṣṭvātmani jaye vyagrān. That's third chapter.

Prabhupāda: Second chapter.

Pradyumna: Second chapter, tataś cānu-dinaṁ dharmaḥ.

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Pradyumna: It says carma? Cara?

Prabhupāda: Dharmaḥ cara.

Pradyumna: Oh.

Prabhupāda: Now you begin that.

Pradyumna:

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: I can like anywhere.

Atreya Ṛṣi: This is good, this is good.

Prabhupāda: But these gentlemen? Sit down. So let them come near; our men may go there. You can sit down. Let them come forward. Take, give them. Yes. You can bring the room light also. So there is introduction?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is Mr. Hamidi. He's a friend of mine at work, and he's very much interested in both Indian and Iranian spiritual life, in culture as it is. And this is Peter, he has been coming here on Fridays.

Prabhupāda: He's American?

Peter: English.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes. And he's come and taken prasādam and we talk to him sometimes.

Jñānagamya: He offers pūjā to Lord Buddha, he's worshiping Lord Buddha. He has an altar.

Prabhupāda: The other boy?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Śiva, Mr. Śiva from Malaysia. He's Hindu I believe. And he's recently come to visit us. Next is Dr. Rulf, he is from Holland. He is an economist and he is working here. I've been acquainted with him through business. And that is Reza. He has been coming here for a long time and he's been chanting.

Prabhupāda: He's trying to be (indistinct).

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: This is the process, I've described. We have got Deity of the Lord, we offer foodstuff prepared very nicely, and whatever leftover is there, we eat. We dress very nicely with flowers, with ornaments; we give Him a nice place to sit down, to sleep. He also looks after our comfort. In this way, exchange of love.

Ali: Just like when there is a mutual understanding, then...

Prabhupāda: No, there must be practical display.

Ali: Practical display.

Prabhupāda: Yes, simply understanding will not do. That is not love, that is appreciation.

Ali: How can I be practical about something without understanding that thing, because I...

Prabhupāda: Understanding, guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati. You try to understand God, and He'll explain what He is. You try to understand.

Ali: But I have been trained through intellect, trying to discern things the way that intellect functions. And I don't have spiritual training.

Prabhupāda: That training is given here, spiritual training.

Ali: And therefore, how am I to understand?

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Theoretical and practical. Scientific knowledge means both, theoretical and practical. (someone enters) If you like, you can sit down there. I have no objection if you sit down.

Jñānagamya: It is up to you, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: No, I am... Everyone, you can... Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is practical. They are fully engaged how to make progressive advance in love of Godhead. They have no other business.

Hari-śauri: Nowadays generally, if someone is very religious and he wants to do some practical action, he usually acts on the social platform.

Prabhupāda: No, there, everywhere practical action. Just like all the Muhammadans, they go to the mosque, five times they offer prayer. That is good, very good.

Ali: Even to be attentive, to pay a lot of attention.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but that is also good, but if one is twenty-four-hours attentive, that is better.

Ali: But we tend to forget things that we don't see.

Hari-śauri: They don't see God, so the tendency is to forget.

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

Ātreya Ṛṣi: You sit on another bench. There's many benches.

Prabhupāda: The park belongs to government of the king. So you can come, sit down here, enjoy. Why should we claim proprietorship? Then there is trouble. Otherwise, it is kept very nicely. You come, sit down, enjoy the atmosphere. Everyone has got the right. But why shall we claim proprietorship unnecessarily and create trouble? Because you are allowed to sit down here, if you say, "From henceforward, I am the proprietor," then others will say, "Then I am the proprietor. Then why you are coming here?" Then there is trouble.

Nava-yauvana: They say that God has no need to enjoy.

Prabhupāda: Beat him with shoes on his face. Because He has created and He has no need to enjoy. Why He has created? He's your father's servant, that He's created for you? He has created for His enjoyment. That is the tendency everywhere. I create something for my enjoyment. But I can allow others to enjoy also with me, that is another thing. How can you say that God has simply created for your enjoyment? What is his claim? Is there any practical example in the world, that somebody creates something for others? Is there any example? Why do you claim in this way, which is unusual? What is the ground of your this rascal philosophy? Wherefrom you get this idea that I create something for somebody else? I create for myself, for my enjoyment. But I can allow you to enjoy with me. That is another thing. A father creates family for his own enjoyment. Wife, children, he wants enjoyment—society, family. Therefore he takes the risk of maintaining so many people. He feels some enjoyment, therefore he takes the risk. Otherwise he has no business. Why should he create unnecessary trouble to maintain a family, maintain wife, children and society? The principle is if you create something, it is created for your personal enjoyment. But I can allow my sons, my wife, my family members to enjoy with me. But the basic principle is for my enjoyment. This is natural. Where do you get this philosophy that...? What you said? That God cannot enjoy.

Nava-yauvana: Yes, He doesn't need to enjoy.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: You sit down, I'll show you.

Nava-yauvana: I should sit in front here.

Atreya Ṛṣi: No, you stand and do it. Do it but do it strongly. Or you can do it like this, just comfortable. Comfortable. He was used to getting massage from woman.

Prabhupāda: Acchā?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes, this is known. He used to have women devotees who...

Prabhupāda: No, it was known to everyone. And that was remarked that his granddaughter, I mean granddaughter-in-law, he was always accompanied, resting his head on their shoulder, he was walking. That was remarked by...

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes, but they were not his granddaughter, his relative, and it was the wife of a relative. And he believed in honesty.

Prabhupāda: He was very sexually inclined. That is written by him. While his father was dying, he was engaged in sex with his wife.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Exactly. That is right. And therefore he felt very guilty toward sex. He was artificially depressing it. Therefore this article was pointing out that in his old age he was getting his satisfaction in a perverted way.

Prabhupāda: By touching their bodies.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Give them knowledge from Bhagavad-gītā. If you accept dependence on God, then you take instruction from God, how you'll be happy. Just like a child. The child knows he's fully dependent on parents. So he's fully obeying the orders of the parents, then he's happy, naturally. The father, mother, knows how to take care of the child and they're happy. And by nature they're dependent on father and mother. So they are happy. Mother says, "My dear child, sit down." He will sit down. By nature.

Dayānanda: Some people are sectarian in their idea of God.

Prabhupāda: What is sectarian? Every sect the child is dependent of the parents. What do you mean by sectarian? Does it mean the Hindu child does not depend on the parents? The Muslim child depends on the parents? Everyone depends on the parents. Either he may be Hindu child or Muslim child or Christian child, that is the nature of the child. Similarly, you may be Hindu, you may be Muslim, you are dependent on God. This is a fact. What is sectarian? Can the Muslims say that "No, no, we are not dependent on God"? Can the Christians say like that? We have to take the general condition: everyone is dependent on God. Where is the question of sectarian? Now this cloud, it is clouded, everyone is expecting some rain. Does it mean the rain is Hindu rain or Muslim rain or Christian rain? Dependent on cloud. Everyone is expecting rain. It doesn't matter whether he's Hindu, Muslim or Christian. Why they declare independence?

Jñānagamya: They say independence means you don't need anything.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No, we have no attachment. We can sit down, in this nice building, we can sit down anywhere. We are not attached to this building; we are attached to push on Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is our business. And unconditionally we can push on Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Ahaituky apratihatā. It is not that if we don't get a nice building as Atreya Ṛṣi has supplied, then we cannot push on. No. That is not Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like I began this movement underneath a tree in New York, Tompkinson Square, what is that?

Devotees: Tompkins Square Park.

Prabhupāda: I used to sit down there. There was no mṛdaṅga. A small dundubi. And I was chanting three hours—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. And people used to come.

Nava-yauvana: In a very bad neighborhood. Very low-class neighborhood.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Low-class, high-class, we don't mind. We chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, that's all. That 26 Second Avenue also not very good neighborhood.

Jñānagamya: It's the worst place in the country. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: But I did not know. Mukunda suggested this is good place, all right, live here. And actually happened to be good place. Gradually, all my disciples came. So I had no disturbance. I was living in the Bowery Street, and on my door these bums were lying with urine and wine bottles and everything. Still, they were so respectful. When I'll come, "Yes, you can enter. Please." (laughter) I had no quarrel with them. They were very kind. They welcomed me, they opened the door, "Please go." They also knew that "He's a harmless..." So, platform, if you remain on the spiritual platform, this material condition cannot hamper you. Ahaituky apratihatā. Then yenātmā suprasīdati, in that condition you can execute. First of all, we have to ascertain on which platform we shall stand. And if you want to stand on the spiritual platform, nothing can check it. That is not conditioned. So why not stand directly to the spiritual platform and make you life successful?

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: It's possible. If you take advantage of the highest college, then you become..., there is possibility to becoming highly educated. You cannot become highly educated sitting down in a dark room. That is not possible. Is it possible? You have to associate, take admission in the society where people are actually highly educated. The advantage is there, the possibility is there, but you have to take it.

Mrs. Sahani: From their own religion also.

Prabhupāda: Why you bring in religion? We are talking of knowledge.

Mrs. Sahani: Knowledge is there in all the religions.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Religion is now misunderstood. Religion is described in the dictionary, "a faith." So faith..., your faith may be something, my faith may be something, that is not religion. Religion is described in the Vedic literature, "the law given by God." That is religion. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). So, just like law means the order given by the state, similarly, religion means the order given by God. So if you do not know what is God, what is His order, then what is your religion? Do you believe it or not? If you do not know what is God, if you do not know what is His word or what is His order, then where is your religion? If you do not know what is the government and if you do not know what is the government's order, then where is the question of law-abiding? Religion means, according to Vedic description.... Just like Kṛṣṇa said, mām ekām śaraṇaṁ vraja. This is religion. Sarva-dharmān parityajya: (BG 18.66) "Give up all this nonsense. Surrender unto Me." So what is the objection? Religion is one, surrender to God. So where is the objection? And God says that "You surrender to Me." So where is the objection? Religion cannot be two. Religion is one, surrender to God. If I say, "You are Muslim, you surrender to God, " do you have any objection? If I say to Christian, "You surrender to God," will he have any objection? Therefore religion is one; there cannot be two religions. Why you are bringing other religions? There is no question of other religions. Religion is one. You accept it?

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: There is a story like this. A man is sitting. His friend came, "Why you are sitting idly?" "What shall I do?" "Work." "Why shall I work?" "You'll get money." "What shall I do with the money?" "Then you'll be able to sit peacefully and eat." "I'm doing that. I'm already doing that." I'm peacefully sitting and eating. Why shall I go and work? If that is the ultimate end, that I shall peacefully sit down and eat, I am doing that. Why shall I go and work?

Harikeśa: What about when it gets cold?

Prabhupāda: That you again "if." You are bringing some condition. For the present time, sitting very peacefully and haven't got to work. Why you are insisting me to work? If this is the goal, to sit peacefully and eat, I'm doing that.

Hari-śauri: But I want more than that; it's boring. I want more.

Prabhupāda: Boring?

Hari-śauri: It's very boring just to sit and eat all the time.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that boring for the rascal. Otherwise, one who is intelligent, he's enjoying.

Harikeśa: Yes, but I mean definitely it will get cold. There's no question that "maybe if." It definitely it will get cold.

Prabhupāda: Cold you will get both ways, whether you work or not.

Harikeśa: No, no, because when I work I have a nice house and I got a heater, then it's warm. If I didn't work I wouldn't have my heater, and it gets to be zero...

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Anywhere.

Guest: Anywhere. Any village. All the villages...

Prabhupāda: You start from anywhere and go anywhere and sit down and chant. In India, Bhārata-bhūmi (Hindi). Thousands will come. That is India. You won't have to advertise that there is hari-kīrtana, come. No. As soon as you begin, immediately thousands. As soon as there will be sugar grain, immediately the ants will come. It is like that. This is a fact.

Guest: Correct, correct. Hundred per cent correct.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Just get one dozen good, I mean, good or bad. It doesn't matter, who is ready to work for this purpose. And our men are ready. Our buses are ready. So let us go. There is no question of selecting place. Anywhere. Anywhere.

Guest: Any place, anywhere, all the places.

Prabhupāda: You go and find out some good place for camping and begin kīrtana. Get down from the bus and begin kīrtana. Then all friends will come immediately. They will offer shelter, they will offer food. Everything. One thing is, their difficulty is language. Indians are there, they can speak on the local language.

Guest: They can explain everything.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore wanted.(?)

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

Prabhupāda: Anyway, he'll collect. That's all.

Jayapatākā: Your program everyone is appreciating. When the newspapermen came out, at that time the black development officer he came there, and when the newspapermen were there he sat down with all the poor people and he took also and said, "This is very good. This is our national service." And they photographed.

Prabhupāda: "National Service"?

Jayapatākā: Yes, he mentioned.

Gargamuni: Still, though, because of these articles, it has been a little bit hard to secure money from people now because the people who are giving us money, they are under investigation also, the rich people. So when they see we are under investigation, oh, then they get afraid. They don't want to give.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Gargamuni: Because we're under investigation and they're also being investigated, so they don't want to endanger... The government is every day raiding the houses of the rich people.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, what is the investigation?

Jayapatākā: They are being investigated for income tax.

Gargamuni: For income tax. The government is making it so that no one can give any donation. They don't want any more donation. They want everything to come to the government. So it's not easy to get money locally. We are getting enough to do maintenance, but it is not like it was, say, two or three years ago, when you could get 25,000 fifteen thousand, especially in Calcutta, where the income tax, every day they are raiding the houses.

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Cāpāṭis. When she brought, it was so thick. And "How shall I eat this?" But when I ate it was so nice. Soft and sweet. I ate everything.

Jayapatākā: Devotees have brought from the farm.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Maybe she should come here to cook for you.

Prabhupāda: Oh, maybe. No, they are very happy. All the boys and girls are very happy. Sit down. So that I want, that I live happily and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all. We don't want unnecessary luxury. Anartha. Anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Anartha should be reduced, nil, bare necessities. Anartha... Just like this material thing we require for preaching. That is not anartha. But when it is used for sense gratification, that is anartha. Anything for sense gratification, that is unwanted, anartha. And anything for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is spiritual.

Jayapatākā: Anukūla.

Prabhupāda: Anukūla. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam (CC Madhya 19.167). So whatever we are using, that is not material. It is all spiritual. So what are these? So... Mahābhārata Sunday? (?)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I've cancelled it. I'll send tickets for...

Prabhupāda: So two strong opinion was against. One Kanadaji (?), another Gargamuni.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Another?

Prabhupāda: Gargamuni. He was also not in favor, going to Hill Station.

Room Conversation -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Not even you cannot see black, any black spots. Then it is clean. Otherwise not clean. If there's a single black spot, it is not clean. You can see from this poor class of men, how their utensils are cleansed. Before taking water the jug, the waterpot... You'll like to drink water. In our school days there were sweeper, they were a different quarter. So you like to sit down. So clean. The sweeper, cleansing the toilet, bangi. But when you come to his house, living quarter, oh, it is so clean. The bed, the room, the utensils. And they also will take twice, thrice bath, then they will eat. That is a Hindu culture. Even the sweeper class, lowest class. And I have seen one sweeper class who were in Allahabad, regularly worshiping Deity. Very nice worship.

Mahāṁsa: So a Vaiṣṇava then...

Prabhupāda: They took initiation from the Vṛndāvana Goswami and they follow strictly rules and regulations. Cleanliness is very essential. In English also it is said cleanliness is next to Godliness. Everything should be, especially temple. It will attract them. And we are singing daily, śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau **. Tat-mandira-mārjana. Mārjana means cleanliness. And want of cleanliness means laziness. If you are lazy you cannot keep clean. "Ah, let me sleep for the time being." That is mode of ignorance. Tamo-guṇa. So we have to conquer over rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Tadā rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ (SB 1.2.19). Then there is question of coming to the platform, śuddha, sāttvika. Sattvaṁ viśuddhaṁ vasudeva-śabditam. Where is this verse? In Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

Room Conversation with Pandita from Tirupati and Government Minister -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: It is a great fortune that Bālajī is there in your home. Take full advantage and simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Simple. Then everything will come automatically. Buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi tam.

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ

bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam

dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ

yena mām upayānti te

(BG 10.10)

This is the very easiest method. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. Sit down as much time as you can devote. The Lord is at your home. It is a great fortune. So do this, both, all family together. Yes. And I have seen, you are fortunate enough that you have got good wife and good children. That is a great fortune. Nobody is against you. Everyone is favorable. Oh, that's a great opportunity. In some family the wife goes another way, the children goes another way. That is very disturbing. But you are so fortunate that everyone is just obedient to the head of the family. So utilize, whole family, this simple method. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Sit down before Bālajī. You are fortunate Bālajī is there. Do this. Then we shall talk further.

Minister: So when shall we meet?

Prabhupāda: As you like.

Minister: I'll come to Delhi.

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

Prabhupāda: No, no, there is no...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The Delhi man who wrote the story, this editor told me he's an outright Communist.

Prabhupāda: Sit down.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually an outright Communist.

Girirāja: The other point that people felt that nobody will take it seriously because everyone knows that it's just junk.

Prabhupāda: Third-class paper. (Child speaking in background.)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It has a wide circulation in India. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...leave this boy in the park and we shall go. Let them come, walking. You come walking? Live here? No. Cannot walk? He can walk. Leave him here. (Prabhupāda is teasing a little child.)

Child: That's the park! Here we are!

Prabhupāda: They will come back by walking.

Child: There we are. Ācchā.

Child: We're going to come back by the walk.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: How many Hindi words do you know?

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Your father is living? How does he like you have become Vaiṣṇava?

Caraṇāravindam: At first he would not even speak to me. Then I used to visit next door and my mother would come to see me. And then after awhile he would talk to me from the other side and I quickly used to go and see. I would sit down. I would not preach to him. I would just be social.

Prabhupāda: After all, father and son, affection, where it will go?

Caraṇāravindam: Now he likes. He says, "This is better what you are doing than all the other things you were doing." I've not seen him now for three and a half years since I left England. They are a little sick now.

Prabhupāda: What is the age of your father?

Caraṇāravindam: Sixty-five I think.

Prabhupāda: Grandfather died.

Caraṇāravindam: Yes. (indistinct) when I used to go in the temple there...

Prabhupāda: Grandfather was living at that time?

Caraṇāravindam: No, when I was a little boy I used to see him. We were very close. He used to take me for walks, like this, and then he died. And grandmother lived long time and then she died. But she would not leave the family...

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is the whole world history. Now they have made encumbrance. Naturally, a class of men, they became soldiers. They were trained up, and...

Caraṇāravindam: Whenever I visited a village in India, people were always very friendly. "Sit down, take some meal." Or if I walk through a field they will pick something from a tree, some tomatoes, or some vegetables and give it to me.

Prabhupāda: You can grow some tomatoes here. That is a very easy thing.

Caraṇāravindam: I have also some and some different seeds to plant.

Prabhupāda: Tomato, squash.

Caraṇāravindam: You would like to see growing in your garden a little sabji?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is very... Cucumber. These things can be grown very easily. And zucchini. Called zucchini?

Hari-śauri: Yes. It's like a small marrow, zucchini.

Caraṇāravindam: I would like to get, I don't know...

Prabhupāda: No, there is not much place here.

Caraṇāravindam: Some things we can grow.

Prabhupāda: But this green banana if we get that will be nice.

Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No. Hayagrīva...

Hari-śauri: It's a picture of Brahmānanda and Acyutānanda dancing, and Prabhupāda's playing on tabla, and Kīrtanānanda sat down on the corner.

Harikeśa: Boy, was he skinny in those days! This is Brahmānanda? And this is Kīrtanānanda Swami sitting down?

Prabhupāda: Just Brahmānanda, Kīrtanānanda standing together.

Hari-śauri: Acyutānanda.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Acyutānanda.

Harikeśa: Acyutānanda. And Kīrtanānanda's sitting down.

Prabhupāda: Kīrtanānanda's sitting there?

Hari-śauri: Yes. He sat next to you. He's shaved up.

Harikeśa: They're so skinny.

Prabhupāda: This was published in New York Times.

Harikeśa: New York Times?

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...they're reading now. Here, although we have got books, nobody reads. But there they are reading. But nobody is... (microphone moving) That means they are concentrating (indistinct) with so many books. There are other books also. Why they cannot sell so many books. Unless public is interested... If one has read one part of Bhāgavatam, he has got some impression, and actually that is the... (break) One young gentleman came, I do not know where. He simply asked me, "Swamiji, can I talk with you?" "Yes, sit down." His first appreciation was, "Swamiji, where you have got so vast knowledge?" I have already told some of you. So these people, these Americans and Europeans, they are intelligent. They are seeing that here are some ideas which is not to be found throughout the whole world. Therefore they are purchasing. Actually, it is right here. Every verse, every śloka is so sublime, and if it is properly explained people must appreciate. There is no doubt about it. And they are doing that. In our country, due to the loss of our own culture and poverty, we have now taken, "Money is everything." Wherefrom you are coming?

Rūpa Vilāsa: Gurukula.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He's in charge of Gurukula. He's here for the last six months. Jagadīśa left him here. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...he has got?

Devotee: What taste does he have?

Rūpa Vilāsa: He seems to have a taste more for studying, but not too much for teaching.

Prabhupāda: Study is not to teach. What is that study?

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This is his taste. Sit idly, and become famous as very good scholar.

Rūpa Vilāsa: He did not come to class so often. He did not even come to teach so often. Śrīla Prabhupāda, when Dayānanda prabhu was teaching the children he was a very good teacher and he liked very much to teach. Now I know he is in Tehran upon your order, but still he was very effective as a teacher of Bhagavad-gītā to the children.

Prabhupāda: Restless, that's all. Mind not fixed up. Restless. Now what he'll do with that four thousand rupees? It is very good program. If I get some thousands of rupees and sit down in Rādhā-kuṇḍa and eat, that is very good idea.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I think we can find him. We know where he is.

Prabhupāda: You can find him, that is not difficult, but what is his mentality. Why he has gone to Rādhā-kuṇḍa if he was teaching here? You cannot rely upon him. When he'll go (indistinct). Rādhā-kuṇḍa, Rādhārāṇī's place, if anyone thinks that it is very easy to remain in Rādhā-kuṇḍa, the topmost place. Rūpa Gosvāmī has spoken—he must speak about Rādhā-kuṇḍa. But what he has spoken about other things?

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, solves or not solves, we shall see later on. But this is the principle. This is the principle. Solution, if we do not become very simple servant of Kṛṣṇa, problems will increase. It will never be solved. If you have got any other desire than to serve Kṛṣṇa, then the problems will increase. It will never decrease. Therefore bhakti begins, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). No other purpose than to serve Kṛṣṇa. This is only purpose. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam (CC Madhya 19.167). So our only business is how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa in His original status as Kṛṣṇa, and in His other status as Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and in both ways, He's insisting to preach. That is a very important business. Neither Caitanya Mahāprabhu nor Kṛṣṇa has recommended that you become a great devotee and sit down in a place and talk big, big words and simply eat and sleep. Kṛṣṇa has never said. That is not Kṛṣṇa's neither Caitanya Mahāprabhu's business. That is not required. Boro boro bado bado phet lanka mata kore het.(?) "Big, big monkey, big, big belly, Ceylon jumping, melancholy." There are very many big, big bellies in Vṛndāvana, but if they're asked to preach Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission all over the world—melancholy. Melancholy. Big, big monkey, big, big belly. So you have taken a very great mission that world preaching, that is very, very nice decision. So you have got buses and you have got capacity. You do this. And one in Germany, one in India, come and go, come and go. What do you think?

Haṁsadūta: Yes. Then I want to do that, but there are some problems which I'm experiencing.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Haṁsadūta: Well, for instance, Gopāla Kṛṣṇa has the habit of deporting my men to different centers, even against their will.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't have that habit.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Budget is there. Hundred rupees per head. Fifty men if you keep, it is five thousand.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We can keep less. We don't want fifty.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. It will be less. But I'm prepared to pay you five thousand rupees for fifty men. Not more than that. That I can pay. You do not require to collect. You sit down. But work hard here. Not that eating, sleeping. No. That cannot be. That cannot be done. They must be engaged twenty-four hours. That is wanted. It is not a lazy free hotel. Anyone lives, he must be engaged twenty-four hours. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). If he has no work, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa here. That should be done.

Akṣayānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda? We have this twenty-four kīrtana. I've requested everyone who comes to do at least one hour per day.

Prabhupāda: There is no question. This is the condition. If you agree, then stay here. Otherwise, you go to Rādhā-kuṇḍa.

Akṣayānanda: Also visiting devotees should do that too. Anyone who comes here should do that.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Everyone.

Prabhupāda: You must make a rule.

Akṣayānanda: At least one hour in the temple.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Mirage. There is no water. It appears there is water, and the animal goes forward and it goes forward, it goes forward. So this material world is like that. Ask anybody, any so-called successful. Unless he's an ass, nobody will say that this is very comfortable. So best thing is to become niṣkiñcana. Niṣkiñcanasya bhāgavata-bhajana... This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's instruction. Bhāgavata-bhajana means niṣkiñcana. You make nothing this material world. That is real Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And so long I'll make this material world something, then I'll suffer. Best thing is make it... Just like Draupadī. Draupadī, when she was grabbed in the assembly and Duryodhana and Karṇa wanted to make her naked. So generally woman, if you try to make her naked she'll try to save herself. So she was trying to save herself and when she thought, "There is no way. My husbands are here. They are not helping, and..." So cloth is being supplied by Kṛṣṇa, but how long I shall? No, before Kṛṣṇa helping, she was trying to help herself. But when she found that it is not possible, then she did not try to save the cloth. She said, "Kṛṣṇa, save me!" Two arms. You have seen the picture. And then Kṛṣṇa supplied cloth. So it is, "Go on, yes, Duḥśāsana, you go on. You try to make her naked. I'll supply." So this is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's instruction, that one should, if one is serious about bhagavad-bhajana, he should take it, whole material world, as nothing. Sometimes I think, I made nothing this material world, and again retired in Vṛndāvana. Again Kṛṣṇa, you have given so many things. What is the purpose? At that time, I remember Rūpa Gosvāmī's instruction. "This is not mine. This is Kṛṣṇa's." Nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yuktaṁ vairāgya. We are exerting so much energy to construct a temple, but as soon as we become implicated, "Now I have got this big building. Let me live very comfortably." Then it is very dangerous. So long we work for Kṛṣṇa, it is Kṛṣṇa's, I am still nothing. And as soon as I take it, "Oh, now I have got very good, comfortable place. Make me again something." Take that as dangerous. Otherwise, there is no danger. Therefore we have to be engaged always in Kṛṣṇa's service. Not that "Because we have got this nice building and income also, let us now sit down and eat."

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And he added something, that "Swami is hounding."

Hari-śauri: Yes, the heading was, "His Divine Grace has come here to hound us." And then the article was Prabhupāda describing how the United Nations was a collection of dogs barking. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: My point was that if you bring some dogs and ask them, "My dear dogs, sit down here peacefully. Don't bark. Don't create trouble." Will they do? Will they do?

Indian man: No.

Prabhupāda: If you keep them dogs, how it is possible they will be peaceful?

Indian man: So long as they are dogs it is not possible.

Prabhupāda: It is not possible. And so long one is in the bodily concept of life, "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am this, I am that," and all of them go to the United Nation assembly... So what is the difference when a dog thinks that "I am dog, I am this dog." And an American or Indian thinks "I am a..." Where is the difference? So as American, as Indian, as German, as Chinese, if they go there, they remain animal, and how there can be peace? That is not possible. And the peace formula is given by Kṛṣṇa. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram, suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 5.29). When one understands Kṛṣṇa is suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati. That is śāntim. So if you keep them as Americans, or Indians, or this or that, how there can be peace?

Hari-śauri: That was front page.

Room Conversation (Bullock Cart SKP) -- September 12, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Village, if you go out they will come like anything. Even in the city we have got experience. In Calcutta we did Maidan. Thirty thousand they were coming. They could not understand English, still they are coming, simply by kīrtana. This Haṁsadūta was performing kīrtana, and all the Bengali ladies coming from outside Calcutta by train, and they're praying, "take this." (indistinct) Still India is alive. And I was speaking in English mostly. Also in Delhi. Still ladies are sitting. (laughs) What they'll understand English? But that kīrtana was so attractive, they sat down only for kīrtana.

Lokanātha: Nobody outside ISKCON does this kīrtana.

Prabhupāda: What do they know? What they'll do? All rascals, fools.

Lokanātha: Even some religious organizations are there but nobody...

Prabhupāda: They do not know what is religion. They do not know what is religion. They have no faith in God. This is their position. All bogus. I say it, challenging, do they know what is God? Ki bolo, Mr. Gupta, do they know? People in general, do they know what is God?

Gupta: They don't know what is God. But they only respect God out of fear.

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

Prabhupāda: No, especially of the water. Kṛṣṇa is everything, but specifically he mentions, "The taste of the water I am." So you remember this.

Doctor: That's very interesting. So every time you drink water...

Prabhupāda: You can remember Kṛṣṇa. What is the wrong and what is the loss there? But you follow Kṛṣṇa's instruction. Yes, sit down. There is no difficulty to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. (microphone moves)

Doctor: Why do you tape record?

Hari-śauri: Everything Prabhupāda speaks we tape record and then everyone in the world can listen.

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.

Doctor: But this Kaṭha-Upaniṣad praises om.

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: So they just become a liability.

Haṁsadūta: I had one devotee, his name was Rad... (break) ...you know and you know. He does nothing at all. He's always sick. But at prasādam he eats more than any other man. I told him, "Prabhu, you're a doctor. You should know that if you eat so much food you can't digest, you're going to be sick." He says, "No, I'm so weak I require food. I have to, I can't get any strength." So I asked him, "At least, sit down in the temple and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." He said "I can't..."

Prabhupāda: I have seen. Some of them eat so much I am surprised.

Akṣayānanda: But the ones who eat that much, they are the ones who are always sick. They're the ones.

Prabhupāda: Overeating means sick.

Hari-śauri: I used to eat a lot but I used to burn it all off.

Akṣayānanda: They don't know if you eat a lot and then work very hard, that's all right. But they eat a lot and then sleep a lot, as Mahārāja said. If they would simply work. Eat a lot, all right, but then work very hard. Then it's all digested.

Hari-śauri: They eat a lot at midday and then they're useless for the rest of the day. Sleep two or three hours in the afternoon and then stagger out for ārati.

Akṣayānanda: Now they eat in the morning.

Prabhupāda: So, how to manage this? It is very difficult.

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

Prabhupāda: No, we don't care for Indians and Europeans. We care for Kṛṣṇa, that's all. I didn't care for anyone. I simply care for Kṛṣṇa, that's all. And my Guru Mahārāja, that's all. I went to your country, not supported by Indians and Europeans. I went on the order of my Guru Mahārāja and under the shelter of Kṛṣṇa's protection, that's all. That is wanted. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). We want two favours. One from guru, one from Kṛṣṇa. That's all. We don't want anyone's favour. So you have to fight. You cannot fight (sic:) immaterious. Kṛṣṇa never said, "Arjuna, oh you are my devotee, you sit down and sleep, I shall take care of..." He never said that. (laughs) So if you take that position, we are devotees, non-violent, and let us sleep, that is not... Fight! With all the resources that we have got. That is wanted. (voices in background of Indian people) That you cannot stop. They are coming, going, how you can stop? People, public, they are coming, going.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They all want to come and have a look at the guest house.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. So prepare for fight. Don't be afraid. Arjuna, they were five brothers and the other party, one hundred brothers. Therefore Dhṛtarāṣṭra was confident, that "What are these five brothers without any help, we have ruined them. They were in the forest for thirteen years. Lost all connection, no kingdom. I have got government in hand, and my sons are, hundred sons, and we are well equipped. How? Therefore the... Bring that Bhagavad-gītā, dṛṣṭvā tu pāṇḍavāṇīkam (BG 1.2).

Jagadisa: Dṛṣṭvā tu pāṇḍavāṇīkaṁ vyūḍhaṁ duryodhanas tadā (BG 1.2).

Prabhupāda: If someone wants to come, let him come.

Aksayananda: Ācāryam...

Prabhupāda: Why you have refused him? Let him come.

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

Prabhupāda: Aiye. (break) Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission is to preach. So you join us. Why should you be limited within Vṛndāvana? The people are taking this, and there is... Now they are feeling the strength. The whole world is now combining against this movement. That means they are feeling the strength. Certainly it is (indistinct) credit.

Guest: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Don't say certainly, you must come forward to fight. If you simply sit down in Vṛndāvana, then Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission is not being carried. He says, pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma, that is His mission. (CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126) So this (indistinct) in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, so why other parties, they should sit down and simply... I am a teeny person, single-handed we shall fight. Why you should see the fun and do not fight? That I am asking you. I shall fight and you shall see the fun.

Guest: No, no.

Prabhupāda: What is this? Now, you appear to be educated gentlemen, you combine all the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava gosvāmīs, and come with me to fight because there is a world fight now. They are threatened. Their whole civilization is threatened by this movement. That is the position now. Whole Europe and America, they are combining. They are intelligent person, they see that this movement is spreading like epidemic. They have admitted, some of their (indistinct), "If this movement is allowed to advance, then some day they will take our government." They have expressed that feeling. And now they are preparing to fight out. These, all these fathers of these young men, they are combining together to charge me that I am kidnapping their boys. So it is a serious situation, you should not see simply the fun and claim to belong to Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Now you should come out to fight. Am I wrong or right.

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

Prabhupāda: The millions of liquor manufacturers, breweries, millions of gambling houses, so, cigarette factories, so theoretically if this movement is successful then whole civilization is finished. So they are now looking... Because these young men have taken seriously so they are threatened and they are making a strong party to fight with us. They cannot safely say that (indistinct) this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement they are (indistinct) a charge against my movement or me that I am kidnapping young men. That is their (indistinct). I am not kidnapping, I am not going to their house to kidnap. They are coming to us. (Hindi)

kṛṣṇot-kīrtana-gāna-nartana-parau premāmṛtāmbho-nidhī

dhīrādhīra-jana-priyau priya-karau nirmatsarau pūjitau

śrī-caitanya-kṛpā-bharau...

The gosvāmīs, they are śrī-caitanya-kṛpā-bharau. Now prove! They are descendants, now prove: come forward. Śrī-caitanya-kṛpā-bharau. Simply sitting at home. And in Bengal there is Nityānanda-vaṁśa. What is Nityānanda-vaṁśa? Nityānanda went forward before Jagāi-Mādhāi and He was hurt. Blood came out. Where is that Nityānanda-vaṁśa? Fight between Jagāi-Mādhāi and Nityānanda. That is Nityānanda-vaṁśa, simply taking advantage of coming from Nityānanda-vaṁśa, "I have become guru, give me your money," and sit down. "Let me enjoy life with my wife and children." That kind of Nityānanda-vaṁśa will not help. Come forward to fight. This fighting is now here. You can show the newspaper clipping. (Hindi) big arrangement to fight this. First of all they thought that so many swamis and yogis come, all rascals, they stay for some time and go away. Even Vivekananda. (laughter) So this is not a bogus movement, it is taking stand. So now they are threatened and they are combining together especially the Christian... (Hindi) But in each heading there is Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...bring various charges against our...

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So is it not credit? We spend for God. We are servant of God. We want to see God gorgeously situated, and for us we have no comforts, we don't care for any comfort. We simply spend minimum just to keep the body and soul together, that's all. This is our principle. We don't spend a farthing for our sense gratification. This should be noted down if some case is there, this should be presented. We don't go to restaurant, we don't go to cinema, we don't spend lavishly for dress or something else, no. Neither for furniture (laughter). Eh? If you sit down in a, a pad is that faulty?

Hari-śauri: Then when they go to any of our temples, they're amazed because we don't...

Prabhupāda: We sit down, don't use any chair, any couches, unnecessarily, carpet. What expenditure? We have no expenditure for personal self. And still you are faulty? What can be done? We don't purchase any cosmetic, this clay tilaka is sufficient. We don't apply any pomade or cosmetic or ointment. Either for our girls or ourselves. We don't do that, we live very simply. After 15 days we shave, there is no use of cutting or decorating. Note down all these things. We have no doctor's bill even.

Hari-śauri: It's because of those...

Prabhupāda: At least I save doctors bill, (chuckles) I am always sick, but I never go to the doctor. Give me little nim, give me little this (sounds of hand striking table), that's all. Then what less expenditure we can make? As far as possible we do not go even to the doctor.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh, teachers.

Jagadīśa: At least ten years, nine, ten years old.

Prabhupāda: Still...

Devotee: Nine years old to fourteen years old.

Prabhupāda: They should be engaged in chanting, not sit down and japa. That will not be possible for them.

Jagadīśa: The problem is that some of the boys are fourteen, fifteen, or thirteen. They should chant japa because they are required to chant sixteen rounds a day. Many of them are initia...

Prabhupāda: Sixteen rounds, it requires, utmost two hours, two and a half hours.

Jagadīśa: Well, two hours is on the schedule, two hours and ten minutes.

Prabhupāda: Chela bangiya (laughter). How are you? That's nice.

Jagadīśa: So they have two hours and five minutes of japa.

Dhanurdhara: Some boys that are younger, they make a vow to do less and then they can study.

Jagadīśa: Some of the younger boys chant six or eight rounds instead of sixteen. They chant that much during that time and then they study. Then they attend the temple program, guru-pūjā and Bhāgavatam class. And then after that, they go upstairs, wash their clothes and clean the āśrama. That takes them about an hour, to wash their clothes and sweep and cleanse the floor, cleanse the shower room, wash their clothes...

Prabhupāda: Now, when they chant the mantras?

Room Conversation -- November 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Devotee (1): I was hearing that before I left England there was some trouble in Scotland over the rules about the bars and drinking. And now they want to make a rule, a law, that the children can be allowed into the bars under their parents... They make it a big social...

Prabhupāda: They allow the children sit down. They take soda water and the father-mother drinking. I have seen it. They are learning from the father and mother from the begin...

Hari-śauri: My father used to... Every Sunday they used to go to the pub, and then for Sunday afternoon, as a special treat, they would all get..., we'd be given a glass of beer.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Father-mother take... Because they think it is civilization. Elderly boys, the father mother tell, "What is the wrong, illicit sex? Take woman, take car. Enjoy life." I have seen it. They know, "This is life. Why...?" Therefore they say, "Brainwash. This Swamiji is controlling their minds and brainwashing." That is their charge. Wash, ne. The brain should be operated, surgical to take out all rubbish things from the... It is called membrane?

Pradyumna: Cerebrum?

Prabhupāda: Cereb?

Hari-śauri: Cerebral.

Prabhupāda: Cere... Not... It is all gobar. Take out. (pause) Ne, make khicuḍi.

Devotee: Puṣpānna rice?

Morning Walk -- November 17, 1976, Vrndavana:

Mahākṣa: I did not know. I thought it would be a good opportunity. They promised me they would give us a good program and good accommodation. When we got there, they did not like that we were very popular. (tape breaks up throughout) Then Mr. Bishop (indistinct) brother, T.C. (break) ...tour, he is a good man. He came with... (break) He is one of the most respected men in Bareilly. He forced them to put the program back again. So we did again the same evening. The people there love our program. They are all supposed... They have pictures of Caitanya Mahāprabhu on the stage and they're supposed to be following Him but they sing all these sahajiyā sort of songs and they sit down and it's all gṛhasthas. There's no, There's no real...

Prabhupāda: They want business.

Mahākṣa: Just a business. We also had a program with Dr. Gupta (?). That was a nice program. And his wife she cooked some Bengali prasādam for us. We took our lunch there. That was very nice.

Prabhupāda: I think that he is disciple of Tīrtha Mahārāja.

Mahākṣa: Yes. But his son... His house, they have so many pictures of Ramakrishna and Sai Baba. His son is telling him to not follow the same like his father. And his father did not speak. He only spoke about three words. He's suffering from some rheumatism or something. Anyway, we had a good kīrtana there. (break) No, I never say, I never say.

Akṣayānanda: But all the people who are Sai Baba followers, they all do have some activity in the mode of ignorance. They eat meat or onions. By their symptoms, we can see that they're in the mode of ignorance.

Mahākṣa: ...at Meerut by Mr. Brijmohan Gad. He has come. He's in our guesthouse now. Actually he just came here this morning. We stayed in his house. That's was also a good... That is a good town also. Altogether we made fifteen life members in about two weeks. (break)

Room Conversation -- November 24, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. But...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We should not think that if we are Indians we can have a special access to you.

Prabhupāda: So do, do. What is that? Ta...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we can do it outside instead of troubling you. We can sit down... Actually, I've already told them since I've been here yesterday that whatever problems they have, we can solve it ourselves.

Prabhupāda: So go and settle up in that lungi.(?)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We can settle it ourselves instead of bringing it to Prabhupāda.

Akṣayānanda: I don't think there's any great difficulty, Prabhupāda.

Devotee (1): Actually, we've been speaking the last few days and these problems can be solved.

Prabhupāda: No, it is Kṛṣṇa's service. Everyone is offering voluntary service. So not that anybody's paid and if he cannot, dismiss or... Yes. This bureaucracy is not... Train him. Train him. If he does not know, train him. But things must be done very nicely by cooperation. That is wanted. Everyone should remember that we are serving Kṛṣṇa, and everyone should remember, "The other person is serving Kṛṣṇa. And because he is serving Kṛṣṇa, he is not my servant; he is my master." That should be always in view. Therefore we address, prabhu: "You are my master." We never address, "You are my servant." We are trained up to say my brother, that "prabhu," "such and such prabhu." Prabhu means master. Nobody think himself that he is master. He should always think that everyone is his master because he's serving the master. This is our philosophy. So in this way... Now you have got good arrangement and they're all intelligent persons, young persons.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Guest (1): Bhagavad-gītā gives the way to go back to Godhead. Otherwise one has to suffer continuously.

Prabhupāda: Yes, this material world, birth after birth. One birth, suffering, then again die, again another birth, again suffering. But the people are kept in ignorance. They do not know how the soul is transmigrating. (aside:) Ayi. Betiye.(?) From... Ask them to sit down properly. Why don't you... Is there any seat, proper? So you... (Hindi) What was the topic? What was going on, the topic?

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, this morning we went to this engagement. There was the inauguration of the Vivekananda Society Home, so we went there on saṅkīrtana because we were invited by them. And one swami spoke and he said service to mankind was also service to God. And at the end he also said that Vivekananda used to say that for the housewife, that the cooking pot was becoming God, had become God, had become a God.

Prabhupāda: People applauded. This is foolishness. They do not know how to act. Just like if you pour water on the tree, then it is accepted that you are pouring water on the tree but that is not the process. The process is to pour water on the root of the tree. Practically we... You can make an experiment. Just like here is a tree. You don't pour water on the root but pour water on the leaves. Then it will dry in due course of time. It will not be effective. But if you pour water on the root, the water will go everywhere. So the whole thing is just like a tree. God is the origin of everything. He is the root. Aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2). Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8). Therefore He is the root. So if you pour water in the root, then the water is distributed everywhere. But if you pour water on the leaves, on the twigs, on the fruits, it will take time and it will not be successful. So one who is not in awareness of the laws of nature, they commit this mistake. We can say that pouring water on the leaves is also pouring water on the tree. By serving human being you can serve the Supreme Lord, but that is not the way. Another example is that if you supply food to the stomach, then the share is partaken by all the parts of the body. But if you supply food to the part of the body, it is not shared by other part of the body. They are opening hospital for men, human being, but what about the animals?

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (3): "Perform your prescribed duties, for action is better than inaction."

Prabhupāda: But if you have no prescribed duties, then you are animal. Just like monkey. What is his duty? He is jumping simply and creating havoc. Monkey is very busy. Wherever he'll sit down, he'll "Gat, gat, gat, gat," like this. That's all. Very busy. But what is the meaning of his business? Simply creating disturbance Therefore it is said, niyataṁ kuru karma tvam: "Act on your prescribed duties." Don't act like a monkey. That is better. What is that?

Devotee (3): "For action is better than inaction. A man cannot even maintain his physical body without work."

Prabhupāda: Then? Purport?

Devotee (3): Purport. "There are many pseudo-meditators who misrepresent themselves as belonging to high parentage, and great professional men who falsely pose that they have sacrificed everything for the sake of advancement in spiritual life. Lord Kṛṣṇa did not want Arjuna to become a pretender, but that he perform his prescribed duties as set for kṣatriyas. Arjuna was a householder and a military general, and therefore it was better for him to remain as such and perform his religious duties as prescribed for the householder kṣatriya. Such activities gradually cleanse the heart..."

Prabhupāda: You are following? Go on.

Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So who will be forceful?

Mahāṁśa: He can be trained. I'm training him.

Prabhupāda: So that training... Everyone is under training; then who will be head? If in old age you have to be trained up, then when they will be trained up? So what is the..., to sit down silently? That's all?

Mahāṁśa: We'll send the parties out...

Prabhupāda: Make. Make immediately program, where to go. So why you are not making?

Mahāṁśa: Now? Here?

Prabhupāda: Yes, make program immediately. Write what to do.

Mahāṁśa: I was thinking one bus should go immediately to Kathinagar because they want to have program there and they are ready to arrange it and we can collect some money immediately for the expenses which are going on now.

Prabhupāda: So go. Go.

Mahāṁśa: So if you want, we could get one bus and few devotees can go on that.

Haṁsadūta: But where is this place?

Mahāṁśa: Kathinagar. It's in Andhra Pradesh, Visakhapatnam near Waisac.

Room Conversation on Farm Management -- December 10, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Make very nice palatable prasādam. We shall spend for that. Why miserly? There is no need of miserly. You are going to earn money by agricultural produce, so how the money will be utilized? It will be utilized for Kṛṣṇa's purpose. By prasādam, by chanting, by drama, somehow or other bring them. That is our mission. Congregational chanting. Always festival, and we shall spend for that. Immediately arrange. If there is scarcity of money, I shall pay, but from... Bring them somehow or other. Tomorrow I want to see at least 500 men. Make arrangement like that. I came here to see that, not to sit down in a room peacefully. So there also we shall inform the meeting that we want to propagate this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement town to town, village to village, by attracting them with musical demonstration of saṅkīrtana, dramatic play, movie, prasādam. Somehow or other they should come to the temple, to the pandal and congregationally chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, hear Bhagavad-gītā, Bhāgavatam. For this purpose, whatever expenditure is required, that you should collect and spend. This is the scheme of Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. You must come here, question, understand, and vigorous propaganda should be inaugurated town to town, village to village. Those who are educated, to them distribution of literature. The school, college, library, institution, university, by scholarly presentation. That is wanted. What is that?

Devotee: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Oh, it doesn't matter. Understand the idea?

Jagadīśa: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation on Farm Management -- December 10, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes, and other bulls have been eaten up. Now we stop that eating. Now if you need, you can purchase tractor. But as far as possible try to avoid, and engage the bulls. Otherwise, it will be problems. The Europeans have invented tractors, and the bull is a problem. Therefore they must be sent to the slaughterhouse. So we can not create that problem. How the bull should be utilized? They should be used for transport, and plowing. What is this turmoil?

Devotee: I think they are distributing prasādam.

Mahāṁśa: Now, they have finished the slide-show and they are sitting down for prasādam.

Prabhupāda: All right. Go and see it is done. Announce that "Tomorrow we shall prepare such and such nice preparations. Please you are especially invited." In this way attract. (end)

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Tejas: Their children. By themselves they were doing this kīrtana.

Jagadīśa: Is somebody leading kīrtana now?

Tejas: The children.

Jagadīśa: We should go.

Mahāṁśa: Let's go.

Prabhupāda: Sit down daily and make next program. Then it will be success.

Mahāṁśa: Jaya Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. (end)

Room Conversation -- December 20, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But All India conference, it is not for mass understanding. Kṛṣṇa said yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhaḥ. Śreṣṭhaḥ means the leaders of society. Rājarṣayo. Not ordinary persons. Rāja, he must be just like Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, Mahārāja Parīkṣit, Lord Rāmacandra, Mahārāja Ambarīṣa. They are rājarṣi. They are saintly persons, but they are governor. Such persons should understand. Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhaḥ tad tad evetaro janaḥ (BG 3.21). If the śreṣṭha person understands Bhagavad-gītā, it is not for the mass of people. Because

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu

kaścid yatati siddhaye

yatatām api siddhānāṁ

kaścin vetti māṁ tattvataḥ

(BG 7.3)

You cannot make a mass meeting and pass resolution and you'll understand Kṛṣṇa. It is not like that. Workers must be also very śreṣṭhas, not ordinary workers. He must understand Kṛṣṇa. Then he can... It is not foolish, what kind of (indistinct). So if you want to prove Bhagavad-gītā, find out the śreṣṭhas of the country, sit down. Not that at mass conference—you bring meeting (?) And preaching. Select! If you understand then you can preach. But if you do not understand what is Bhagavad-gītā, how to understand Bhagavad-gītā, what is Kṛṣṇa...

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

Guest (1): Sir, I got into conversation this young man in Colombo for the simple reason that I have got five sons, and those sons are trying to be Westernized or Americanized to the extent that I couldn't believe that my own children would go to this extent. So I told Girirāja when he came to see me and introduced my children to them, and it has now little impact. Because now that...

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Don't sit down there. Don't sit down there. (Hindi) No, sitting on the...

Guest (1): You move it.

Prabhupāda: She is the daughter of jñānī.

Guest (3) (Indian man): They have come with me.

Prabhupāda: So why not ask him. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Guest (1): Now they have, after seeing these young men, they have started thinking that "Why these young men (laughing) from America are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and why we are not doing?" I said, "You just think it over."

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) No, America... The purpose of going to America for... This was one of the cause, that "When I bring Americans here, these rascals will take some lesson."

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

Prabhupāda: Nārtasya cāgadam udanvati majjato nauḥ, bālasya neha pitarau śaraṇaṁ nṛsiṁha. Na ārtasya ca agadam. Tāvad vibho tanu-bhṛtāṁ tvad-upekṣitānām (SB 7.9.19). If Kṛṣṇa neglects somebody then these things will not help.

Dr. Patel: Kṛṣṇa never neglects anybody. You have told once so. It is we, our own actions which we, I mean, forget. We get. If you walk too much you get tired. If you sit down you do not. If you walk then there is swelling of the leg, sir. Eh? So it is not Kṛṣṇa. I mean, this is your own saying, eh? I am not manufacturing my own arguments.

Prabhupāda: No, the śāstra says, nārtasya cāga... There is no guarantee. But we may try but there is no guarantee.

Dr. Patel: This is the play of māyā, that we all know. But so long as we are in māyā we have to play our part, haven't we?

Prabhupāda: But it is supposition, the pathologist.

Dr. Patel: No, I am going to bring. That was myself.

Prabhupāda: He'll take blood, he'll take this, he'll take that. So that is another trouble. (chuckles)

Dr. Patel: No, no, but why should you have a minus on blood? Why should you have minus and whose blood is it? This is your own argument sir, I am very sorry.

Prabhupāda: No, no...

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

Prabhupāda: I say but somebody says that... What is the medicine? I take some āyurvedic medicine.

Dr. Patel: No, you do take. We don't say no. You don't take any medicine, we know exactly where you stand, as the modern science explains us. (break) Well, he may not (indistinct) truth immediately, but that is his aim.

Prabhupāda: Now I am feeling some dizziness.

Dr. Patel: Sit down, you sit down.

Prabhupāda: Where is that sitting place?

Dr. Patel: (Hindi) Go down. (break)

Prabhupāda: Harer nāma eva kevalam, kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva (CC Adi 17.21). (break) ...is a big tank of Calcutta Gas Company. That looks like this.

Dr. Patel: We have got also tank like this in Bombay. We have also gas company tanks. It's in (indistinct). We have bigger tanks here of the petroleum companies. Huge tanks, petroleum tanks.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guru dāsa: When I was in Northern Ireland preaching, they blew it up. The gas tank, by bombs. They blew the whole gas tank up.

Prabhupāda: Where?

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

Prabhupāda: The others, others is not.

Devotee (2): The other seat got taken away, Śrīla Prabhupāda, for cleaning. For making it clean.

Devotee (1): We can get mattresses from your room and a pillow if you'd like to sit down.

Prabhupāda: No, no, this is all right. (break)

Dr. Patel: Only tired feel? (break) ...or may be due to poverty of heart action, or it may be due to some inaction on the part of the kidney or some collection of some obnoxious substances in the blood. That is why we must have an analysis done. So for a right understanding, we can advise you what to do. Anyone can write analysis, acidity and (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Now, everything is less.

Dr. Patel: Then you stay here. And you're completely home, without anything. You are not prepared to... This is...

Prabhupāda: As soon as this building is, I will take. (?)

Dr. Patel: We listen to you, but you don't listen. That is the misfortune of ours. Huh?

Prabhupāda: Actually, I have got so many engagements. Actually, I have got engagement in Bhuvaneśvara...

Dr. Patel: And you are going to Bhuvaneśvara after fifteen days, no?

Prabhupāda: ...Calcutta, in Allahabad, then Māyāpur, then Vṛndāvana, then Bombay.

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

Prabhupāda: Time hogya? (?)You can sit down here? No?

Girirāja: I feel this is important.

Prabhupāda: All right. So, sab bhārata-varṣī, young men, jitna hai. (Hindi) movement (Hindi) seriously. It is not ordinary movement. Cheating movement naiye. This is real movement. Kṛṣṇa, what Kṛṣṇa is speaking, what Caitanya Mahāprabhu is speaking, that is not cheating. That is real solution of the problem. So we have taken the business of Kṛṣṇa, Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So every intelligent person, intelligent young man... Now we have got... We have got everywhere, but especially now in Bombay—it is important city—we have constructed this. We can keep at least five hundred, six hundred men in these buildings. But who is coming? Nobody's coming.

Dr. Patel: If they all come then it will be difficult for you.

Prabhupāda: Then let them come first of all. (laughter) There is no "if." There is sufficient place. Come. But nobody's coming. They want to see, "Let these white men come and we see." That's all. "We see the fun." This is going on. They are coming. They are disgusted. But we are not disgusted. That is the difficulty. Therefore I was speaking to this boy, "You are Englishman, you have come." It's a problem now in Māyāpur, here. And the government is after them as soon as three months pass. "Get out, get out, get out, get out." Then how shall I conduct my business? A big, big establishment. This is another problem. But Kṛṣṇa is doing His own business. But practically seeing. This is India's business. Bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra (CC Adi 9.41). Manuṣya-janma, not the cats and dogs, but those who have taken the human form. It is their business. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra (CC Adi 9.41), janma sārthaka-First of all, make your life successful by understanding the philosophy. Then, janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra, preach this philosophy all over the world. That is para-upakāra. So actually that is being done. They understand, they are understanding this philosophy. There is struggle now in foreign countries. There is opposition now. Who will explain what is the opposition?

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: As far one who is paṇḍita, in the position of Rūpa Gosvāmī, for him, paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18).

Indian man: He'll see woman and man equal.

Prabhupāda: There is no difference. And if he makes such distinction, then how he's paṇḍita? Then he's not paṇḍita. But it is etiquette, mātā svasā duhitā vā. One should not very closely sit down even with mother, sister, and daughter. That restriction is there. But that does not mean that one should not see even a woman. So we are following that principle. Never mind, man or woman, she can offer her respect, but not very near. That restriction must be there. (break) We have support from very high circle. Scholar, priest, even father, mother, parent. Many old gentlemen come to congratulate me, "Swamiji, it is our great fortune that you have come to this country." In Los Angeles they have been very nice. Many parents used to come. (Hindi)

Indian man: Now Girirāja is going about with this school work.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But the building is not yet sanctioned. You have seen inside temple?

Indian man: Yes. I come here once a week. (break)

Prabhupāda: This is... Of course, I gave him the idea. But Saurab's design. He's Dutch. He's Dutch boy. The Vṛndāvana is also his.

Indian man: How is the Kurukṣetra going?

Prabhupāda: Kurukṣetra, the government has not yet decided to give us land.

Morning Walk -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

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. 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.

Dr. Patel: Neo.

Prabhupāda: Neo-sannyāsa.

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It should be of cotton.

Prabhupāda: Āsana, soft āsana. First of all, this kuśāsana, then the deerskin and then one...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Soft cloth. This will be excellent because nobody else is teaching yoga this way.

Prabhupāda: No. So they will sit down and perpendicularly. Perpendicularly, if you sit in this way, then you will automatically you become perfect yogi. Automatically. This should be practiced. In every class they should sit down with like this, like this, and they will not close the eyes but half-closed and see here.

Hari-śauri: Staring at the tip of the nose.

Jagadīśa: They supposed to look cross-eyed? In order to look at the tip of the nose...

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Jagadīśa: ...you have to look cross-eyed?

Prabhupāda: Why cross? You see, just easy, simply. That's all. This...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They can sit straight and also look.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This has to be practiced. And then they should be given lesson on six or seven verses very elaborately, and they will hear.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They should sit like this, and then they should hear.

Prabhupāda: So simple thing.

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So that will depend on practice. You practice it.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Because the people who come are very sophisticated.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Then why...? You become expert. If you cannot find out seven men, then what is this institution? Anyway, one may not be very expert, but he should practice how to explain. The explanation is there. He has to simply do it very nicely, that's all. Everything is there. And the students should sit down in that way here. That's all. It's not at all difficult.

Jagadīśa: Usually the yoga camps begin on a certain date and finish on a certain date.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jagadīśa: Usually the yoga camps advertise to begin lessons on a certain date and finish by a certain date.

Prabhupāda: That is seven days.

Jagadīśa: Yes. But they don't stagger it.

Hari-śauri: They don't stagger the course, yes. See, if he arranges with, say, like...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Courses start every Monday.

Hari-śauri: Then they'll advertise that there's a course starting every Monday and finishing every Sunday, like that. And then they'll book in accordance so that they'll arrive on a Monday and they'll drive out on Sunday night or...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's all right. But what is the difficulty? He is... On Monday he is hearing in one room, and Tuesday another room, and Thursday another room. So where is the difficulty?

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: If not, for the temporary you can hold somewhere. That doesn't matter. But the system will be this education will be given in the gurukula building.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. Now, we're also going to do this in Bombay, Śrīla Prabhupāda because...

Prabhupāda: But first of all, you make one successful here. Then you think of other.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But now we should not teach them any exercise at all?

Prabhupāda: This is exercise. If he sits down two hours like that, it is more than exercise.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But this may not satisfy them. They may want to do...

Prabhupāda: No, we are not going to satisfy them. This is our... This is our process. If you want to learn, then we have to learn according to Bhagavad-gītā. We are not going to flatter you.

Hari-śauri: If we explain that the whole purpose of the exercises...

Prabhupāda: That is the explanation required.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Is to concentrate, and by concentration your health will improve.

Hari-śauri: The idea is to tone the body so the senses are subdued.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: So we engage their senses in kīrtana.

Prabhupāda: That is the actual fact. You read that portion.

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Chanting, dancing.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually...

Prabhupāda: They haven't got to attend other classes. Let them chant and dance, kīrtana, other one hour. Because here is the class. They'll simply sit down in that yogic posture and hear. That's all. You explain.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: These people are... I understand this...

Jagadīśa: No, they have a misconception what yoga is.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I know, I know. But if we want to get repeat business...

Prabhupāda: No no, we are not after business. This is our...

Hari-śauri: Our program is the most attractive.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: When they go to these yoga classes; they don't get anything.

Prabhupāda: We are not going to flatter them. If you want to learn, you have to learn according to the authorized way.

Jagadīśa: The appeal of these other groups is sex. We're not interested in that.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No I'm not saying sex.

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Just publish the Sixth Chapter, that this is our booklet on yoga.

Prabhupāda: No, you can make a booklet, the Sixth Chapter explained, and posture, how to sit. That sitting down, that will attract.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Because they want to see these things.

Prabhupāda: That sitting posture will attract them. Give them figure, "This is the posture of sitting," and they will hear.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: What we can do, have a small booklet on yoga...

Prabhupāda: Concentrate on viṣṇu-mūrti here, in the heart, and hear... This will immediately give some effect.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Or... Yes. We can have some pictures of people. And we'll publish your Sixth Chapter, like, just like publishing Sixth Chapter of the Gītā with a two-page introduction how this yoga is different from others and this is a guide, the Sixth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, the most ancient Hindu scripture, Indian scripture.

Prabhupāda: So keep some price for that.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. That will be like a separate book, five rupees, with some illustrations...

Prabhupāda: Make that.

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Because they want to do something different. They want to see different things. If we give them a pajama and kurtā, we'll still make them do bhakti-yoga, but it's...

Prabhupāda: Bhakti-yoga, chanting, dancing there will be. They can join.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, but...

Prabhupāda: But they cannot practice. They cannot sit down like this, the women. They'll be tired. This is real practice.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I think even the men...

Prabhupāda: Yogāsana. Yogāsana, dhyāna, dhāraṇā, āsana.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That's so then we can show them, "See this yoga is...," because it appears a little difficult, it is the best form of yoga. It's not something easy that you can just do in one second.

Jagadīśa: So what's the conclusion?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They will sit together.

Jagadīśa: So he says... He thinks the conclusion is that the women will be in the class.

Prabhupāda: There, but in plain dress. Yes, man must be there.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Plain dress or if they wear dresses, they can have pant-kurtā pajamas.

Prabhupāda: Why pant?

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Modesty. There is no modesty left. Anyway, and that is the beauty. But we are breaking that. There is no beauty, no attraction. And as soon as you break this modesty, shyness, then the woman will create devastation.

Dr. Patel: Yes. They have been. They have finished now.

Hari-śauri: There's no carpet to sit down in front of... Oh, here it is.

Dr. Patel: No, If you sit down, these swellings will become less on the feet.

Prabhupāda: No, a little movement.

Dr. Patel: We got your examined. You haven't got much diabetes now. But unfortunately kidneys are...

Prabhupāda: I'm not eating all.

Dr. Patel: No, after kidneys are little affected. It was lack of albumen and perhaps you'll be all right by this shapauri.(?) You know this shapauri. Shapauri's growing in our own garden here. That (indistinct) will be coming on first day at six o'clock.

Prabhupāda: What is that satavari,(?) you see. If it is medicine, we can have.

Dr. Patel: He will guide you better than me. At six o'clock we have to send somebody to catch him on his consulting. He stays somewhere... His house number is 36.

Guest (2): If they let me know I can bring him.