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Slow (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk at Stow Lake -- March 23, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Chanting is good everywhere.

Devotee (1): Yes, but, I mean, if you can't chant all day.

Prabhupāda: If there is some inconvenience in chanting loudly, you can chant slowly. Loudly, slowly... Within mind you can chant. This simple practice, you'll give up all kinds of (microphone rattling)...

Devotee (1): Sometimes in school you have your, your mind is focused on their problems that they are, I mean... (plane going overhead)

Prabhupāda: Not sometimes. Practically, we are always disturbed. (Walks for awhile)

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Prabhupāda: More than hundred, because we collected hundred dollars, and utmost, they have paid one dollar.

Janārdana: The summer season is very slow in Montreal. The churches cut down their sermon program. The synagogues don't having sermons in the summer very often. So that's why we haven't had so many engagements. But in the month of September things begin to pick up faster. The coldest time of the year is the busiest time of the year here actually. The real busy season is January and February.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was speaking to Gaurasundara that Janārdana speaks, "The winter season is the busiest season," and you said, "It is dull season"? (chuckles)

Janārdana: January and February are the busiest, and they are the coldest months too.

Prabhupāda: Very busy?

Janārdana: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Past five-twenty. What is your time?

Guest: I have twenty-five after.

Prabhupāda: This is right?

Yamunā: Yes. Well, no. It's five minutes slow.

Janārdana: Think so? I don't know. My watch is ten or five minutes fast. My watch is always fast.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, this is still slow. This is correct time now.

Guru dāsa: Your watch is still drop proof.

Prabhupāda: Because it is correct to the church bell. Yes. Church cannot be... (laughter)

Janārdana: So the ceremony will be at six, yes?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Six-thirty. One hour after. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) (devotees offer obeisances)

Prabhupāda: So take care of your child very nicely. She is Kṛṣṇa conscious child. Yes. And Līlāvatī's child has grown very nice?

Devotee woman: Oh, very nice.

Press Interview -- December 30, 1968, Los Angeles:

Journalist: Yes. A very courageous man. Well the answer seems very pat, so to speak, and if it's that...

Prabhupāda: Now, if you cooperate, then I can change the whole thing in your country. They will be very happy. Their everything will be very nice. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is so nice. Provided you cooperate. Nobody is cooperating. Simply these boys, they have kindly come to me and cooperating. So my movement is progressing, but very slowly. But if the leaders of the American people, they come and they try to understand and they try to introduce this system, oh, your country will be the nicest country in the world.

Journalist: You... How long have you been involved with this?

Hayagrīva: Two and a half years.

Journalist: Two and a half years? How old are you if I may ask?

Hayagrīva: I'm 28.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: Whose list is that? Is that an old list or have you made that up for young Americans?"

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, these are taken from authoritative śāstras. Yes. This is the test, whether you are becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious or not. You have to test yourself, whether you are developing these qualities. This is for testing.

Allen Ginsberg: I'm slowly developing all qualities except sanity. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Insanity for seeking Kṛṣṇa, that is required. Yes. Unless you become insane after Kṛṣṇa just like Lord Caitanya became... Yes. His worship is to become insane after Kṛṣṇa.

Allen Ginsberg: Is Kabir in the Vaiṣṇava tradition?

Guest (1): He is mystic.

Allen Ginsberg: So what tradition is he in, actually?

Prabhupāda: He is impersonalist on the whole. He is impersonalist, whole, and he has got some Vaiṣṇava thought. That's all, perverted thoughts. Perverted thoughts.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 14, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) No. I came here with this idea, that in America they are in need of these things, and they are wanting something substantial. So if some is given... Of course, I am doing my bit as far as possible. But if some organized things are done like government help or people help, then this movement can be pushed further nicely. Otherwise slowly it will go on, as Kṛṣṇa desires.

Hayagrīva: Mr. Ginsberg said he also chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa for Robert Kennedy before he died.

Allen Ginsberg: I think I told you about that, didn't I?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You told me in San Francisco. Yes.

Allen Ginsberg: So he heard two rounds of it. Okay. I have to take a plane today to a Catholic college in New York State. I'll be going back to New York at one o'clock, so I have to go back and pack and say good-bye to the students. It was a pleasure to see you here, lovely. So maybe we'll do it again in New York.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Meeting with Devotees -- June 9, 1969, New Vrindaban:

Kīrtanānanda: We'll try it that way.

Hayagrīva: Sometimes we're so slow getting started in the morning.

Paramānanda: It's not enough time because..., that is, if the morning, the entire morning, is to be allotted to the major tasks. 'Cause the thing is, I find, that there are many, many time-consuming little chores to be done, that without which New Vrindaban would be a mess. There are so many little tasks to be done. (break)

Hayagrīva: I'm president.

Prabhupāda: You are the president. And who is secretary?

Hayagrīva: Śyāma dāsī is secretary.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Hayagrīva: Śyāma dāsī.

Prabhupāda: Śyāma dāsī, secretary. And who is treasurer?

Hayagrīva: Hṛṣīkeśa.

Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: No, no. Use small.

Hayagrīva: Thank you. There's so many... That causes a headache for everyone.

Prabhupāda: No. It is better to make everything sound but slow. We want to create this position of Back to Godhead as very authorized representation of the science of God. In future people may refer to it, so we should very cautiously and very nicely do it. It is very important thing, Back to Godhead. If our movement is going to be recognized as scientific, God consciousness movement, then this Back to Godhead will be referred as authorized scripture. So therefore we have to prepare in such a way, nothing non-conclusive can be introduced in this. That should be our policy. And actually it is the position of Back to Godhead.

Satsvarūpa: Prabhupāda, about glossaries, the glossary? I have prepared a glossary...

Brahmānanda: It's for the books.

Satsvarūpa: Oh. Well, this is...

Prabhupāda: Glossary?

Satsvarūpa: For the Īśopaniṣad. And Hayagrīva Prabhu thought that there was too much preaching in the definition. Like, say, in the definition of bhakti, I shouldn't say, "Bhakti is the highest form of yoga." Well, I don't know if... I'm not speaking your words, but to make it, not to preach more, but I thought that was right.

Prabhupāda: Glossary should be short as possible.

Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Satsvarūpa: Prabhupāda, I have a question and it applies only to me, but it's important. A year ago you wrote me in a letter when I was..., said the editing was going slow, to pay more attention to managing the temple. So...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Managing, you, why don't you make this Giriraja as the temple manager?

Satsvarūpa: But still... I've already done that. I've made him, but practically I'm still managing anyway. And I made Murāri manager, but still I'm... I don't spend much time in editing. People are always coming, and I'm running all over the place. I don't edit at all. It makes me sad. I don't...

Prabhupāda: No, no. They must give relief to you. You can give them instruction, but the actual execution should be done... Pradyumna is there. He can also do. But anyone who is expert in management, he should be... Temple management should not be done directly by you. You can give him policy that "You do like this." That's all. Because you have got so many other things to do. Yes. So you create. If there is no expert manager, you create some manager. That is most important thing, to create. To become... (laughs) In our college there was one Mr. Kidd, professor of economics. He was always chastising us. We were student; he was our professor. "Oh, you cannot have independence. You cannot manage it.

Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: So you take up twenty days, one month for one book?

Hayagrīva: I cannot edit much faster than forty pages a day.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Don't do it, I mean to say, so hastily. But do it slowly and surely. That will be nice. Yes.

Brahmānanda: One book, one month.

Prabhupāda: No, that you are printing, that "one book, one month" for the last six months. (laughs) That is in theory only. Actually it has not happened. Now do everything solidly so that at least in two months we finish one book. That's all. Is that all right?

Jayadvaita: Yes.

Prabhupāda: You say everything all right. (laughter) Anyway...

Brahmānanda: Today, Pradyumna prabhu, you edited how many pages?

Pradyumna: I didn't edit so many today. I edited fifty yesterday.

Prabhupāda: So I think I want... I shall be very glad to see the Nectar of Devotion is finished before I leave this place and you begin some other book.

Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: Art, yes.

Satsvarūpa: Jadurānī asks are they going too slow? She wants to know are they going too slow. They have thirty pictures ready.

Prabhupāda: One thing, that Jadurānī should have some assistants. She alone cannot do that.

Satsvarūpa: Well, Prabhupāda, you used that word once before, assistant. So then when Jāhnavā saw that letter she said, "That means I should paint." So all that assistant meant was that they all painted. And Śāradīyā began to paint. I don't know what you mean by assistant.

Prabhupāda: Assistant means that they should work under her direction. That is assistant.

Satsvarūpa: And produce pictures side by side with her.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I give some idea, sketch, and then under that sketch, instruction of Jadurānī, and...

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1971, Detroit:

Mohsin Hassan: How about the meaning of the chanting. You are insist on chanting.

Prabhupāda: Chanting is to make the process very easy. Because in this age people are unfortunate, short living, and they are attracted in false things, they are very slow, they do not take it very seriously. Therefore chanting is a common platform. Anyone can chant. Anyone, even the child can chant, the old man can chant, the fool can chant, the intelligent can chant, the rich can chant, the poor can chant. So the chanting is a common; therefore it is becoming successful. And chanting means, Kṛṣṇa being absolute, Kṛṣṇa's name and Kṛṣṇa there is no difference. Absolute means there is no duality. As in this dual world there is difference between the name and the substance, in the absolute world there is no difference between the name and the substance. Both of them are the same. So therefore chanting of Kṛṣṇa's name means associating with Kṛṣṇa directly. And because they are associating with Kṛṣṇa directly, they're quickly becoming purified. Just like if you touch a metal rod to the fire, it becomes warm and then it acquires the quality of the fire. The metal rod, you can touch anywhere, it will burn, although it is metal rod. But because it acquired the quality of the fire, it can burn, it can act as fire. Similarly, if we constantly associate with Kṛṣṇa, then we acquire the spiritual quality. Then we can act as spiritual very quick. This is the point.

Temple Press Conference -- August 5, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: About three thousand we have got.

Woman Interviewer: And is it growing all the time?

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is growing very slowly. Because we have got so many restrictions. People do not like any restriction.

Woman Interviewer: Yes. Where is the following the greatest? It is in America?

Prabhupāda: In America, in Europe, and Canada, in Japan, Australia. And India there is millions, there is millions of this cult. Apart from India, in other countries they are small quantity. But in India there are millions and millions.

Male Interviewer: Do you think your movement is the only way to come to know God?

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Devotee: Do you think this movement is the only way to know God?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- August 15, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: That is practical, we have seen.

Parivrājakācārya: When we put guitars, it waters it down. It doesn't have the same effect.

Prabhupāda: All GBC members should organize like that. Then everything will be all right. And sell books. Now you... What is the name? Maṇḍalībhadra, he is slow. So you translate.

Haṁsadūta: Okay. Because there are others, they are competent. I have others, they are competent.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Simply you check that they are not writing nonsense.

Haṁsadūta: Oh yes. That I can do.

Prabhupāda: That's all. And print it and distribute. And another thing. If you can print yourself, it is all right, But if you want printing cost from the general book fund, then whatever you sell you deposit there. You deposit and take, deposit and take, deposit and take. Then when, even if you have no money you'll get money. And then you deposit. But if you spend it, then you cannot expect from the general book fund.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everything should be done quickly. Because we do not know when we shall die. So everything, Kṛṣṇa consciousness business, should be done as quickly as possible.

Haṁsadūta: I mean in that respect... see, everything must go through Maṇḍalībhadra's hands. Before it can be printed, everything has to go through his hands because he is the chief translator. But at the present moment it's going so slowly that... We haven't even been able to produce the magazine.

Prabhupāda: So find out somebody else.

Haṁsadūta: Well, that's my proposal. Or make a different arrangement. But one arrangement I proposed was to pay him some money.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Haṁsadūta: I proposed that we pay him some money so that he can do it full time instead of...

Prabhupāda: So yes, you can do.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1971, London:

Haṁsadūta: They can do, but the thing is that you have said that he is the chief and unless it goes through him, it can't be printed.

Prabhupāda: No. No, no. No, no. No, no.

Haṁsadūta: Everything is bottle-necked around him.

Prabhupāda: Now, the important subject, he may do slowly, but...

Haṁsadūta: Like Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Others may be done by others. You print it. Even there is some mistake, that doesn't matter.

Haṁsadūta: Yes. And another thing I wanted to ask Your Divine Grace is this. This Bhagavad-gītā, I would like to print it as it becomes finished chapter by chapter. Otherwise it will be a long time before we have a book.

Prabhupāda: No, no, you can publish, chapter by chapter.

Haṁsadūta: This is all right?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes.

Room Conversation -- December 10, 1971, New Delhi:

rabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: But if you have that material desire, does that slow up your advancement?

Prabhupāda: By Kṛṣṇa consciousness it will vanish. But Kṛṣṇa is so kind, because you desire, He'll give you. He'll give you. Kṛṣṇa is so kind that "Oh, you wanted this? All right, you take!" That is the benefit of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You get both these things. You reject, "No, I asked for..." That is real pure devotion. "For this paltry happiness I requested Kṛṣṇa. What a fool I was." But Kṛṣṇa will give you because you desire. Therefore Dhruva Maharaja regretted that "I was such a fool that I came to in the forest Kṛṣṇa for asking my father's property. What a nonsense I was." But Kṛṣṇa gave. Better than. He demanded that "I shall have a property," because that was child. His stepmother insulted, so he was determined. Nārada Muni had requested him, "My dear boy, you are child. Why you be afflicted to this insult? Go now to play." So he said, "Your instruction is very nice, but I am so degraded, I cannot accept it as such. If you kindly give me some way that I can get," I mean, "material opulence better than my grandfather and father. You just give me such a post." His father was Uttānapāda. Grandfather was Brahma. So he wanted a post better than Brahma. So he was given: "Oh, yes, you'll get." But when he was offered a better position than Brahma, he regretted that "What I..., what a fool I was." He requested, "Sir, I am very much satisfied simply by Your..." "Never mind. You enjoy, then you come back." Kṛṣṇa is so kind.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Bob: Not adequately because if I could explain, then I would be becoming liberated very fast.

Prabhupāda: But if you do not know what is liberation, then how fast and slow liberation? (laughs) There is no question of liberation. It is neither fast nor slow. You first know what is liberation. If you do not know where the train is going, then what is the use of asking or understanding fast and slow? You do not know your destination. What is liberation?

Bob: Umm...

Prabhupāda: I am asking. You daily ask me; I am asking you today.

Bob: Okay, yes. (laughs) I'll think for a moment.

Śyāmasundara: Shall I turn this off, this fan? It's cool now.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. No, he'll do. Where is Nanda Kumāra? He can do. (break) ...is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, er, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The exact Sanskrit word for liberation is called mukti. So that mukti is defined in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: muktir hitvānyathā rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ (SB 2.10.6). One should stop doing all nonsense, and he must be situated in his original position. But this is also more embarrassing because nobody knows what is his original position. And how to act properly. Muktir hitvānyathā rūpam. People are generally acting differently. But they do not know what is differently and what is properly. So much ignorant are the modern population about their life. It is very, very awkward position. They do not know.

Room Conversation with John Griesser (later initiated as Yadubara Dasa) -- March 10, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: When?

Śyāmasundara: He will ring as soon as it comes. He telephoned it is on its way. It should be here any moment.

Prabhupāda: They are so slow. They do not understand the spiritual value of life, and simply they are satisfied with something hodgepodge, that's all. The entire population of the present-day world. Just like the hippies. There are so many hippies. They want something spiritual, but no clear... Something hodgepodge, that's all.

Yadubara: Has this happened before, the material wealth that we have now? Has it happened in past ages?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Yadubara: Technological advancement, scientific?

Prabhupāda: All scientific. As this is winter season, so there will be a summer season. Anyone can say that after two months there will be summer season. Similarly, these ages are also, what is called, changing. So now it is Kali-yuga. After this Kali-yuga, there will be Satya-yuga. Cycle. So everything is happening. When there is winter season, everyone feels cold. So there is no question of asking. The particular type of age and its reaction of the quality of the nature, it will be there. So as there are many Kali-yugas, so it is to be understood that many times these things happened, and many times again will happen. Seasonal flowers, fruits. In the past, there were many times all those flowers and fruits, and in the future also they will appear. What is the difficulty to understand? But if in all these changing circumstances, if you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then your position becomes transcendental. You are no more subjected to all this changing process.

Room Conversation with Kenneth Keating, U.S. Ambassador to India -- October 14, 1972, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: So there is some defect, and here is a chance to rectify that defect. Here is a chance. I can argue with any scientist, any philosopher, that this is the only remedy to save people from frustration. This is the only remedy. Why it should go unnoticed by your country, such a great, who are willing to help others, willing to help. You started the United Nations in your country for that. Let us do something tangible, scientific, that people will be happy.

Ambassador: Oh, I think the, what this young man says is very encouraging, that some of this is now being slowly inculcated in our colleges and universities.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: Of all the movements, religious movements from India that have gone there, this one has shown the most potency of all, by far...

Ambassador: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It must be settled. Not (indistinct). Therefore, I have asked so many people to go there. It must be settled.

Pañca-draviḍa: The last situation I had heard was that everybody was agreeable, that Nair himself was agreeable and that everything was proceeding, but it was in the hands of the Municipality and that was going so slow, and that Nair himself, he is saying so many dubious things on the outside, but in complete agreement once you step into a room with him. So we are not so much sure. It's more or less in the hands of the Municipality, but who knows what is going on behind the table. Something like that. (break)

Prabhupāda: Take a little breakfast?

Gurudāsa: They said you wanted to see me?

Prabhupāda: Huh? Oh, about that typing. (break) How we have secured that house in London.

Gurudāsa: Oh, jaya! All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda!

Prabhupāda: Berkshire Palace.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 28, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Devotee (1): Not yet. But one man came yesterday who was very interested, big local paper and Associated Press International, the man in charge was in San Francisco for Ratha-yātrā, and he saw you there and took prasādam also. And he wants to take some color photographs for international coverage. (indistinct) I think in Indonesia they're usually a bit slow so a week later they will cover.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Devotee (1): You wrote a letter to me from Sydney in which you said that the preaching program was very nice, but by your experience, it takes much time and money. And how will we do saṅkīrtana and do prasādam distribution and cooking all at the same time? Then you said, "You can think this over with a cool head and we will discuss more when we come."

Prabhupāda: First thing is that we (indistinct).

Morning Walk -- May 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: This is a very big..., quite deep. I think they are digging so they can take this out. This is called technological advancement. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Yes, to work foolishly. (break) 6:37. Is that all right? What is your time?

Brahmānanda: 6:34.

Prabhupāda: Oh, little slow.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I am writing a letter to Rāmānanda Prabhu...

Prabhupāda: Yes, come and join. Let us do some service to Kṛṣṇa. What is the value of our education? Earning money, that also ordinary porter also... They are also earning more than that, than scientists, these men?

Brahmānanda: Oh yeah.

Prabhupāda: What do they charge per day?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are getting much more than the normal scientist because manual labor is very expensive here.

Brahmānanda: About seven, eight dollars an hour or something like that?

Prabhupāda: And they work for how many hours?

Room Conversation with Reporter from Researchers Magazine -- July 24, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Therefore, kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ. Correct? In this age of Kali, everyone is to be accepted as śūdra. No brāhmaṇa, no kṣatriya, no vaiśya. All śūdra, or less than śūdra.

Reporter: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Pañcavān.(?) This is the position. So at the present moment, to reform that, you cannot take them to the original position. It is not possible, it is Kali-yuga. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). They are very slow, they don't accept the right path... Just like God is here, Kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). But they're creating their own God. Even big, big leaders they are saying, "Eh, Kṛṣṇa, why Kṛṣṇa should be accepted?" Even big, big leaders, they do not believe that Kṛṣṇa was there on this planet, there was Kurukṣetra battle. You know better than me.

Reporter: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So, if big, big scholars say, when Kṛṣṇa says that man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī... (BG 18.65). The scholars say, "It is not to Kṛṣṇa." You see? If now, I can frankly say, if leaders like Dr. Radhakrishnan, Gandhi and others, they mislead people, then how the people will be in normal condition? This is the position of India at the present moment. The leaders... Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). The leaders are blind. They have no training. They are not in disciplic succession. They do not know what is what, and they are taking the part of leadership, then everything is spoiled. Jāti-dharma, kula-dharma. And they have created varṇa-saṅkara.

Room Conversation with Mister Popworth and E. F. Schumacher -- July 26, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes, you came here before.

Revatīnandana: Yes, that's right.

Prabhupāda: How are you?

Popworth: My invariable reply, sir, is that I am dying slowly. I trust you are well, sir.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Old man, struggling. Spiritual consciousness is not dependent on material impediments.

Popworth: I'm not hearing these beautiful words. (pause)

Revatīnandana: He remarked that the spiritual consciousness is not impeded by material impediments-like the body.

Popworth: I discovered that when I was a cook. I used to have to peel a huge bath full of potatoes every day, hours and hours, and it became that I could peel the potatoes without being aware that I was handling them. And my mind was roaming, disembodied almost from any encumbrance. But this is not the same as meditation, I'm sure, as you see it.

Prabhupāda: What is your idea of meditation? (Someone comes in.) Come on. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- November 1, 1973, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: But in western countries it is very open talk. And open business also. Sarvatra. Sarvatra lokāntare 'pi vasanavagatya iha duḥkhānusaṅghanena, nivṛtta-kāma...(?) So one should give up this material sense gratification. The more you become entangled in material sense gratification, more you'll have to remain in this material world. Iti tiprokti malakam taṁ proktaṁ kāma karma prokta gena iti, ahaṁ deva upasya yesantai saṅghata nirvaira adrstitvaṁ samyag anvasya duḥkha, sukha-duḥkha eva, sukha-duḥkha...(?) Water is wasted?

Śrutakīrti: Almost full. Very slow.

Prabhupāda: Vīrarāghavācārya: deha-geha-gehayoḥ ātmiya buddhiḥ jihasaya tyāgecchāya (?). Ātma-buddhi, this family, society, friendship and love. Yes. To feel very much affection... What is called? Attached. Tyāgecchā. It should be given up. Therefore the sannyāsa āśrama. Just try to deliver this message very... Everyone is in darkness. Therefore I was speaking. They do not know what is siddhi. Yesterday, you were present? Yes.

Brahmānanda: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: They do not know what is siddhi. What is perfection of life, they do not know. Neither they have information.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1973, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Nobody has intelligence. It will not, it will not stay. It will be spoiled. Joint mess organization. In Los Angeles, they're also doing business. They're going to sell books. But regulative principle is observed. Huge expenditure they have got. No center is so improved as Los Angeles. We have purchased six houses. And I wanted immediately two lakhs, immediately sent. You cannot pay. You simply want to take. In India, nobody can pay. If I want two lakhs, nobody can pay. But all this money have been taken from U.S.A. I asked Bali Mardana, I asked Karandhara. They paid me for this Bombay affair, sixteen, eighteen lakhs. (break) ...and breathing also does not stop. It goes very slow. Therefore he cannot be immortal. And Bhagavad-gītā proposes, that is wonderful thing, if you can stop death. And whole spiritual life means how to stop death. That is Bhāgavata's instruction, "Don't accept guru, don't accept father, don't accept, or don't be father, don't be mother, don't be, if you cannot stop death." Either you don't accept, or don't become. Just like they want guru. So don't accept a guru who cannot stop your death. And from guru's side, it is advised, "Don't become guru if you cannot stop the death of your disciple." This is Bhāgavatam's statement. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to stop death, live eternally with Kṛṣṇa, go back to home, back to Godhead. This is our movement. So our guru gives us this opportunity, no more death.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 4, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Without understanding, if you follow like a storm, that is no use. That is no use. Slow, but sure. Go slow... And that is the defect in the modern. If somebody can recite Bhagavad-gītā like storm, it is to be understood he has perfected himself. No. Let him explain at least one word of Bhagavad-gītā. That is wanted. Slow, but sure. That is going on. The professional Bhāgavata reciters, they jump over Kṛṣṇa's rāsa-līlā. The rascal does not explain the first line of Bhāgavatam, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). It requires many years to understand that one word, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), and he jumps over, "Bhāgavata recitation means rāsa-līlā." That is going on. That has spoiled the whole atmosphere. Therefore that rascal has been able to challenge that Kṛṣṇa, that, what is that, rural?

Satsvarūpa: "Popular rural god with sixteen thousand wives."

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...study one line, that is sufficient. It does not mean to go like a storm and do not understand.

Dr. Patel: We don't go like a storm. We go very slowly.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Let us go slow but sure.

Girirāja: (finishes synonyms for 11.19) "Translation: You are the origin without beginning, middle or end. You have numberless arms, and the sun and moon are among Your great unlimited eyes. By Your own radiance, You are heating this entire universe."

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa says that prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ. Now that being exhibited by Kṛṣṇa. Not only Kṛṣṇa said, but He exhibited.

Dr. Patel: And now for the real thing. Shall I read, sir?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Car Conversation on the way to Chateau -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Rogues. Rogues. After education, they are rogues only (pause) (break)

Bhagavān: ...take breakfast a little earlier. Is that O.K? And then this other gentleman can come with us and we can go faster that way. Because their truck is slow. (break) ...human being, those who have system of religion? Is that what makes them civilized? So the society today, even though it seems to be technologically advanced, can that society be called civilized? No.

Prabhupāda: So long technological advancement is meant for bodily comforts, so, so long one remains in the bodily concept of life, he's animal. (pause) (end)

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: I would like to say the other way around: As more as you advance in experience, the more you have higher knowledge.

Prabhupāda: But experience, it may be slow. But higher knowledge you can get immediately.

Professor Durckheim: Yes. Like flash.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like Kṛṣṇa says...

Professor Durckheim: When it's awakening.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa says that you are not this body. So instead of my experiencing for years and years that "I am not this body," we take the knowledge from Kṛṣṇa, the perfect, and my experience is now received.

Professor Durckheim: Yes, I understand.

Prabhupāda: Therefore Vedic instruction is tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). In order to get first-class experience of the perfection of life, you must approach guru. That is the Vedic injunction. Samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham. Now, who is guru? Whom shall I approach? So the next line explains that approach such guru, śrotriyam, who has heard from his guru perfectly, that guru. Who had no chance of hearing from perfect guru, he is not guru. This is called guru-paramparā, disciplic succession.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prof. Pater Porsch: I agree with you but just think how the world was only a few years ago.

Professor Durckheim: Yes. And especially if you talk about the rational (German), the really German tradition is the irrational. So now this is coming back now, rediscovering their own past slowly.

Prabhupāda: So long they do not come to the standard platform, they will accept this sometimes and that sometimes. This will go on, changing.

Room Conversation with Bishop Kelly -- June 29, 1974, Melbourne:

Satsvarūpa: In this verse the word buddhi-yogam is very significant. We may remember that in the Second Chapter the Lord, instructing Arjuna, said that He had spoken to him of many things and that He would instruct him in the way of buddhi-yoga. Now buddhi-yoga is explained. Buddhi-yogam itself is action in Kṛṣṇa consciousness; that is the highest intelligence. Buddhi means intelligence, and yogam means mystic activities or mystic elevation. When one tries to go back home, back to Godhead, and takes fully to Kṛṣṇa consciousness in devotional service, his action is called buddhi-yogam. In other words, buddhi-yogam is the process by which one gets out of the entanglement of this material world. The ultimate goal of progress is Kṛṣṇa. People do not know this; therefore the association of devotees and a bona fide spiritual master are important. One should know that the goal is Kṛṣṇa, and when the goal is assigned, then the path is slowly but progressively traversed, and the ultimate goal is achieved.

When a person knows the goal of life but is addicted to the fruits of activities, he is acting in karma-yoga. When he knows that the goal is Kṛṣṇa, but he takes pleasure in mental speculations to understand Kṛṣṇa, he is acting in jñāna-yoga. And when he knows the goal and seeks Kṛṣṇa completely in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and devotional service, he is acting in bhakti-yoga, or buddhi-yoga, which is the complete yoga. This complete yoga is the highest perfectional stage of life.

A person may have a bona fide spiritual master and may be attached to a spiritual organization, but still, if he is not intelligent enough to make progress, then Kṛṣṇa from within gives him instructions so that he may ultimately come to Him without difficulty. The qualification is that a person always engage himself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and with love and devotion render all kinds of services. He should perform some sort of work for Kṛṣṇa, and that work should be with love. If a devotee is intelligent enough, he will make progress on the path of self-realization. If one is sincere and devoted to the activities of devotional service, the Lord gives him a chance to make progress and ultimately attain to Him.

Prabhupāda: So one must be engaged in devotional service, practical. So these our boys and disciples, they are always...

Morning Walk at Marina del Rey -- July 12, 1974, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There's all forms of species developing slowly.

Bali Mardana: No. Now they have just recently found a species of man three millions years ago, and it's similar to modern man. So scientists... So now they have concluded that there are more than one species, a lower species and a higher species existing at the same time.

Prabhupāda: This Darwin is a rascal. He cannot... He has taken some idea from this Padma Purāṇa, and he has developed in a befooling way. There are different types of human beings, four hundred thousand species. (pause) (break) ...is to conquer over the stringent laws of nature. Is it not?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: No? What is the purpose of scientific research?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1975, Hawaii:

Devotee (2): You'll miss the opportunities.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore it is helpful. If you want to do business, you must take the first opportunity, the greatest opportunity, do your business. That is intelligence. And if we think, "All right, I shall do slowly. In seven hundred lives I shall become perfect," that is another thing.

Bali Mardana: It is riskier to stay outside.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Otherwise why you are opening so many centers and making arrangement that "We shall provide you with shelter, with food. These are the facilities. You live here, do whatever is your capacity. Don't sleep, but work." This is our teaching. Satāṁ prasaṅgāt, this is also, and Rūpa Gosvāmī says, sato vṛtteḥ sādhu-saṅge sadbhir bhaktiḥ prasidhyati: "If you live with the association of sādhu, devotee, then it will be quickly fruitful." And if you live with these ordinary men, then whatever you have got will be finished very soon. There is another verse. It is said there that it is preferred to live within the cage surrounded by fire than to live with the nondevotees. It is preferred.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:

Rāmeśvara: Well they say the atoms, the molecules, are always in motion.

Prabhupāda: No, no. First of all prove that this is moving. Then all, say all this nonsense. First of all, why it is not moving? This, this piece of earth, why it is not moving?

Viṣṇujana: They say it's moving very slowly. You can't see it moving.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Eh?

Viṣṇujana: It's moving so slow, you can't see it.

Prabhupāda: Then you become blind. Then you can see.

Devotee: But they'll say the whole world is moving, the whole cosmic manifestation is moving.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is another thing. But then how that is moving, we have to settle. But matter, as itself, does not move.

Morning Walk -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: Still, even after you went to America and brought back so many European and American disciples, still the Indians are so slow to come and join.

Prabhupāda: Because they have been... The disease is very chronic. They are not opulent. That diagnosis already given. They have become poverty-stricken. So daridra-doṣa guṇa naśe. Although they are born in India, they have got many qualification, due to this poverty-stricken position, they... Their first business is how to... Because they have got family attachment, so they cannot sacrifice. They will work very, very hard. You have seen how they are going to office, how..., because they have got the responsibility of family. That is Indians another feature. They take family responsibility. In your country there is no such thing. There is no family. There is no family responsibility. In India still that old tradition is going on. Therefore they cannot sacrifice the family responsibility, although they are willing. And the whole thing is it is due to poverty-stricken position. They have got family responsibilities. They think, "If I go, then whole family will starve. How can I go?" That is the exact position. And to come to that stage, that "Let my family starve, I don't mind," that is very higher stage. That is sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), "Oh, no responsibility, simply I have got respons..." That is not ordinary stage. You cannot expect these things from ordinary man.

Morning Walk -- May 10, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: So eventually if we keep advancing like this we'll understand the truth.

Prabhupāda: No you'll never advance. Your advance is so slow and foolish that you cannot.

Amogha: But some Indian history professors say...

Prabhupāda: We are not talking of Indian history, we are talking on the truth. We never say it is Indian truth.

Amogha: But Bhagavad-gītā has been presented in so many ways also, and now we are saying it is another way.

Prabhupāda: Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that "I am showing you the way how to understand Bhagavad-gītā. You have to accept that." Not so many ways. Only that way. That I have explained in the Preface, that when you have to take a medicine, you have to take the direction: dose, such and such. Not that so many ways doses are prescribed. According to the prescription you have to take. Otherwise you will waste your time. Now they have wasted so many plates. What is the value of this? (referring to memorial plates on trees.)

Amogha: Bhūtejya.

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: So when it touches the ground, it may become impure. It doesn't water (matter). But the water is pure. Water is coming. You cannot take water from the sea and moisten the ground with... That is not possible. But if pure water comes down from the rain, it is utilized.

Justin Murphy: But a lot of the water that is in our dams and the water that we use for irrigation south of here, which is the basis for the dairy produce of Perth, is becoming slowly, because of its contact with the ground and its travel through the soil and its seepage out into streams and into underground areas, that water is slowly becoming in many respects almost as salty as the sea.

Prabhupāda: But first of all, you want water. If the water is reserved on the top of the hill, then it gradually comes down. That is nature's, God's, arrangement: Let river fall down, and you can use that water. That is the nature's arrangement. Just like you keep your water on the tank, and by pipe you get down. But there is nature's arrangement. The water is stocked on the top of the hill, and throughout the whole year the pipe is the river. That water must be there. That is the first problem. Therefore here it is said, parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ. You must have sufficient water. Water is already there. But it has to be purified, kept on the top of the hill, water tank, and it will come down in rivers. Then you take and utilize. And when the water falls down and there is sufficient water, the ground becomes cleansed so it is no more polluted.

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Christ says, "Thou shalt not kill." So why they are killing?

Guest (1): Yes, you're right. But, you know, up the road someplace maybe there's an answer.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Guest (1): Maybe up the road there's an answer someplace, but we're too slow in arriving there.

Prabhupāda: There is no answer. The Lord says, "Thou shalt not kill." Why you are killing? Who is a Christian? If you don't obey the order of Christ, how you become a Christian? You cannot say that you are Christian if you disobey the order of Christ.

Guest (1): Yes, I know. You're right. You can't kill...

Prabhupāda: If you don't carry out the order of the government, then you are not a good citizen.

Guest (1): Now, you look like you're either English or...

Prabhupāda: We are neither English nor American. We are servant of God.

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, I don't think. What is the time?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ten minutes to six.

Jayatīrtha: Yesterday you left about 5:40 and today you left exactly at 5:30. So...

Brahmānanda: I came just after you left.

Prabhupāda: I think your watch is slow. (laughter) (break) ...actual time now?

Jayatīrtha: It's 5:51.

Prabhupāda: Hm? What is my?

Jayatīrtha: Your's is about one minute faster.

Prabhupāda: And what is your?

Brahmānanda: 5:53.

Prabhupāda: Fast. (break) ...in my childhood, I remember, I went to see football match in the Maidan.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Calcutta Maidan.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So when I was returning—of course, I was walking—throughout the whole... At that time our house was that Mullik's house. So from Maidan to Mahatma Gandhi Road I came. And all the watches throughout the road, the same time. Means every watch was, every clock was wrong. But I was going, so I, suppose I saw 5:10 here, then few steps away, 5:10, 5:10, 5:10, like that.

Morning Walk -- August 25, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Where? He has altogether 83 acres, so far I know. What is this? (break) ...this way, this way, from back side. Then? (break)

Brahmānanda: ...going on in that Pagala āśrama?

Gurṇārṇava: Very slow.

Dhanañjaya: They say another five years before it's finished.

Prabhupāda: By that time he may be finished.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I have heard he's a chain smoker.

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And the Marwaris are after him, "avatāra." He is called "līlā-avatāra." Whatever he does, it is līlā. Smoking is also "līlā." (break) ...these cottages?

Dhanañjaya: Some sādhus live here.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- September 30, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No. They are fixed up in Kṛṣṇa. That is a fact. That is a fact. You cannot bribe them to take from this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is not possible. They may commit some mistake, but they are fixed up in Kṛṣṇa. That is bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. You cannot deviate them. Sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). So this qualification they have, and for this qualification they will be triumphant, without anything else. We shall return now?

Dr. Patel: Those thirty qualifications do come naturally, as you say, but they come slowly. But (Hindi) we must teach them this in the kṛṣṇa-bhakti, the qualities of a real sādhu.

Prabhupāda: If you make a condition that "First of all you become qualified; then you preach," that will never come. Rūpa Gosvāmī therefore recommends, yena tena prakāreṇa mana kṛṣṇe niveśayet: "Somehow or other bring him to Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Then other... Sarve vidhi-niṣedhāḥ. Vidhi-niṣedhāḥ. Sarve vidhi-niṣedhā syur etayor eva kiṅkarāḥ. Automatically they'll come as servant. First of all let their mind be fixed up on Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Dr. Patel: But the present difficulties are because they don't know the vidhi-niṣedhas.

Prabhupāda: So how they can know?

Dr. Patel: That is the difficulty.

Room Conversation with the Rector, Professor Olivier and Professors of the University of Durban, Westville -- October 8, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: You have seen our books?

Prof. Olivier: I got a copy of the Bhagavad-gītā at the last occassion when your representatives were here, which I thought was a very well brought out and a very well documented edition. The printing is also very good. So we are trying at this university to, slowly, to delve down into the infrastructure of education. Of course, one..., in the Western society one has got to take cognizance of so many developments in the various fields of science. And the element of spiritual science certainly has been neglected. I would concede this point immediately. That is perhaps where this university can also still play a meaningful part. Of course, here we have representatives of three of the world's greatest religions: Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity. This will be part of Professor Oosthuizen's department, to try and take the best out of these and formulate for our students, and maybe for the rest of South Africa and the world that will listen, the essences of religion that would really satisfy as we go along.

Prabhupāda: We say that religion means the law given by God. So any religion must accept God. Then there is no difference. The law may be little different according to time, circumstances. But religion means dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Religion means the law given by God. Just like law means the codes given by the state. That is law. Just like you are keeping, "Keep to the right" or "left" here. In America it is right. So somewhere, "Keep to the right," or somewhere, "Keep to the left," but because it is given by the state, it is law. Similarly, whatever law is given by God, that is religion. This is our definition of religion.

Room Conversation with the Rector, Professor Olivier and Professors of the University of Durban, Westville -- October 8, 1975, Durban:

Professor: I think we have to leave slowly. Thank you very much.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Please won't you all take some prasādam.

Prof. Olivier: Thank you very much.

Prabhupāda: So I think I shall not be able to attend that class because I take my bath at half past eleven.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That's okay, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: I will go. These people will remain.

Prof. Olivier: Have you transport?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. We'd like to show you some of the books and also... (break)

Prof. Olivier: ...searching for truth. If it is not doing that it is no longer science.

Prabhupāda: No longer science.

Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, higher...

Dr. Patel: ...slowly and slowly. They have their own way.

Prabhupāda: if you do not know what is that higher.

Dr. Patel: They have tried to know, sir.

Prabhupāda: This kind of will not help them. No, no. That is the... That is there. They'll not know. Panthās tu koṭi-śatavatsara-sampragamyo vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānām, so 'pyasti yat-prapada-sīmny avicintya tattve. Still it will remain inconceivable. These rascals, they do not know that. You have to simply hear from Kṛṣṇa that there is another atom, apareyam. These are inferior. Apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parām. There is another atom. What is that? That is jīva-bhūtaḥ. You have to take this knowledge from Kṛṣṇa, not by searching out. How you can find out one ten-thousandth part of it? It is not possible. You have no machine, no source of knowledge.

Morning Walk -- November 30, 1975, Delhi:

Harikeśa: In the back of that Awake magazine there was one little article that said that this one teacher in one college was doing yoga. He locked himself up in his room and went into a yogic trance, and they finally broke into his room two days later and found him in the same position but dead. So then they say that because he was in yogic trance that his heart was going too slow to give sufficient blood to the body, so he died.

Prabhupāda: So by yoga practice he died.

Harikeśa: Yes, that's what they're saying.

Prabhupāda: The result is he's died.

Ambarīṣa: My father, he read that article, and that's what he says to me. He says, "You do yoga and you'll end up like this man."

Prabhupāda: These are government buildings. They are not properly maintained. The roads are not properly maintained. So New Delhi light is diminishing. And the shabby motor buses.

Morning Walk -- December 16, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānas te'pisa-tantryam uru-damni baddhaḥ (SB 7.5.31). Pisa tantrya, under the laws of God or nature, everyone is tied, hands and legs, and he's thinking independently, "I can do that."

Dr. Patel: But slowly and slowly, sir, the modern science is trying to prove that sanātana dharma, the existence of God everywhere. Which in our times, if we respect scientists for their...

Prabhupāda: "They are trying to prove" means so long they are rascals...

Dr. Patel: They are rascals. I quite agree with you. You have caught my rascals. (both laughing)

Prabhupāda: As soon as you say "progressing," that means they are rascals. Unless one is rascal, what is the meaning of progress? Hm? Rascal requires progress.

Dr. Patel: Whether they do progress or regress we don't know, but...

Prabhupāda: No, that progress means still rascals. After ten years they'll make no... This is progress. So they have no standard knowledge, and that is very much palatable, modern progress. Mūḍha.

Morning Walk -- December 17, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, not cutting.

Saurabha: No. These poles, they all set in size about nine feet. You notice they're about fifteen to eighteen feet. So we use them only for the scaffolding.

Dr. Patel: (Hindi) ...anyhow, they have done it very quickly. Our engineers could not have done it so quickly as that. You are quite fast. And the structure is very strong.

Prabhupāda: (laughter) I say they are quite slow.

Dr. Patel: No, no, but it takes its own time for curing and all these things. How can an engineer accelerate that natural process? And that structure is really extremely strong.

Prabhupāda: No, no. We want to see the temple also. (kīrtana) (end)

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 12, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: That is why all the great bhaktas, all the great, I mean, say, Narsi Meta(?) or Mirabai, they have worshiped personal God and merged in personal God in toto. Their, that what we call that ego is washed away by the sacred, I mean, this thing of God. Our impersonal philosophers are there, but they are not so well known. That is why he said that personal God and, I mean, worshiping personal God, you are immediately raised to that status from where you will be able to get jñāna.

Prabhupāda: (break) There was one teacher in my school, he used to say that "One who is slow to understand, he is slow to forget also."

Dr. Patel: Yes, that's a fact. It's really a fact.

Prabhupāda: And one who understands quickly and he forgets quickly. So Dr. Patel has understood slowly. So he'll never forget it.

Dr. Patel: But I...

Indian man: Actually that is a fact.

Dr. Patel: I have been very critical within myself. All my.... All my studies, medical, otherwise, I have been always...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, yes, critical...

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But very slowly. They say the earth is turning, so you see the sun as moving, but actually you are moving. Just like if you are in a car and you are moving, it may appear that just as... Sometimes you can see another object...

Prabhupāda: But that's all... But why the color should change? That is point. You may move...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because, he's explaining, that light is seen when it bends... White light when it bends at different angles...

Prabhupāda: That is only applicable when you accept that the sun is moving. Therefore atmosphere is going...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, the earth is moving.

Jagadīśa: They say the earth is turning. Therefore at a certain point the sun is actually below the horizon, but part of the sun's light, the red spectral, the red light of the sun, comes over the horizon and so the sun appears...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Red, but actually it's not reddish; it's white or yellow, whatever.

Prabhupāda: Actually it is white, that's all right, but if you see one fixed thing, a color, practical experience is the color does not change if it is fixed up.

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Dayānanda: Just like a prism, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Then the speed of the earth changes. Eh? In the morning you see the sun is very slowly rising, either sun's speed or your speed. But now you see it is rising very quickly.

Jagadīśa: That's explained that because the sun... Actually you can see it before it appears over the horizon because the light rays reach our eyes before the sun actually comes up.

Hṛdayānanda: But that's only eight minutes' difference. That won't explain it, because the light rays reach in eight minutes. That won't explain it. That would only cause an eight-minute difference.

Jagadīśa: No, no, no. No, it's not because of the time it takes. It's because of... The light rays bend. So they bend towards us before the sun comes up.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You can't actually see the sun. You're seeing only a...

Hṛdayānanda: Prabhupāda said, "But it rises so quickly."

Jagadīśa: Huh? Then, once it comes up over the horizon, we see it rise at its normal pace.

Hṛdayānanda: Doesn't explain. Word jugglery. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...fixed. (break)

Morning Walk -- February 20, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Acyutānanda: Bhaktivinoda...

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa... (break) ...times it is speedy, sometimes slow. Therefore day and night, there's time difference. It is moving. It is not fixed.

Acyutānanda: Bhagavad-gītā's Battle of Kurukṣetra fought, in which month?

Prabhupāda: That I do not know. Why?

Acyutānanda: Because they have a Gītā day, I think, in November, where they claim that they have found the day... September?

Yaśodānandana: December, beginning of December.

Acyutānanda: So that and the eighteen days' war, and then the Uttarāyaṇa begins in the middle of January. So I was thinking that Bhīṣma was lying on the battlefield for almost a month or more.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Acyutānanda: That Bhīṣma was waiting, lying on the battlefield for about thirty or forty days. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...was to die when he liked. That was his special privilege.

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Anyone who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he has no good quality. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). These are the... From the Vedic angle of vision, the Western people are the most uncivilized. Only money is covering them. When they introduced that mini-skirt for the girl, how much abominable it was considered in India. But they very publicly introduced.

Hari-śauri: Now even in India, slowly...

Prabhupāda: Yes. They'll imitate.

Devotee (1): When the prime minister of Canada, when he was, when he first began running, he was a young bachelor, very good looking, long hair. And he sent around girls in mini-skirts, kissing men on the cheeks, giving them a little candy for his campaign, and he, he almost got all the votes, became the prime minister.

Dayānanda: We were talking yesterday how nice this story of Prahlāda Mahārāja is, because no matter how great a demon becomes, still, he cannot vanquish the devotees, even if the devotee is a very insignificant little boy, only five years old. These demons seem so...

Hari-śauri: Powerful.

Dayānanda: ...horrible. The society is so degraded. (break)

Hari-śauri: 6:20.

Prabhupāda: Eh? The idea of reincarnation. That is horrible for them.

Morning Walk -- April 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Government (Hindi) They have admitted in the Parliament.

Indian: They are frightened in the beginning.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: I think they are very slow to act.

Prabhupāda: No, the real is that all rogues are in the government.

Dr. Patel: Yes, that is the right thing. Not only rogues...

Prabhupāda: So why don't you, if you are actually serious, why don't you make propaganda in the country that "Please do not give vote to the rogues." Don't mention any party. "If you want to be happy, then don't give vote to the rogues." And who is a rogue? The illicit sex hunters, the intoxicants, and the meat-eaters, and the gamblers. These are rogues.

Dr. Patel: They are all there in Delhi.

Prabhupāda: No, no, you don't mention any. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So it is impartial. And actually, if they test that "Whether this man I am voting, he is free from all these sinful activities?" Then, you see, the whole face of the Indian government will change.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Mike Barron: Are you happy with the way the Kṛṣṇa movement is progressing throughout the world and particularly throughout Australia?

Prabhupāda: Well, we are progressing very slow because the subject matter is so difficult that even big, big scientists, big, big professors, they are puzzled. So you cannot expect. But those who are fortunate and.... They are understanding. So this progress, we cannot expect a mass people will understand immediately, but if one person understands, he can act very tremendously to educate the people on this matter. Just like the example is that to illuminate the sky it does not require millions of stars. One moon is sufficient.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: American devotee, Asian, and Australian devotee.

Guru-kṛpā: I think it can be done amongst our devotees.

Prabhupāda: Mm. We are not very anxious to get done immediately, we shall do slowly.

Guru-kṛpā: So we are, me and Tamāla Kṛṣṇa, we have organized the saṅkīrtana here. The saṅkīrtana should increase about ten times. Before they were doing three hundred dollars a day, now they should be doing at about one thousand three hundred dollars a day.

Prabhupāda: That is nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Therefore I think if we have profit, fifty percent can go for books, and fifty percent can be banked. And when they have enough money, then we can build the temple. But it's the only question...

Prabhupāda: No, with what, whatever collection is there, fifty percent, go on. Why wait?

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Bring it, I shall see.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (break) ...diminution on this path of devotional service, nehābhikrama-nāśo'sti (BG 2.40). So does that mean that once one enters the material world, there's only progress in going back to Godhead, although it may be slow, over many lifetimes?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. One is going slow, one is finishing very rapidly. If one is serious, he can finish very rapidly. If one is not serious, it will take time.

Rāmeśvara: (break) ...contests and get all sorts of awards and recognition. Because no one has such beautiful books.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's a fact.

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: I never heard it.

Prabhupāda: Oh, so, when he was only two years old, so the table fan was running, and the child, he wants to touch it. So I am: "No, don't touch." So, and he was.... So there was another friend, he was a doctor. He said that "Slow the speed and let him touch." So I did it. So he touched, "Tung." (sound imitation) Then I said, "Touch again?" "No!" (laughter) So it is like that.

Rāmeśvara: Oh. It is actually Kṛṣṇa's mercy...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: ...that He allows Him to feel the pain.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: ...culture

Prabhupāda: Yes. Attentive.

Reporter: You don't see any slowing down of the impact of...

Prabhupāda: No. It can be slowed down unless we spoil it.

Reporter: Is there anyone who is designated to succeed you as the primary teacher of the movement?

Prabhupāda: I am training some, I mean to say, advanced students so that they may be very easily take up the charge. I have made them GBC. They are under my direct training, and I think they will be able to conduct this movement.

Reporter: Do you expect to name one person as your successor or have you already?

Prabhupāda: That I am not contemplating now. But there is no need of one person. As other things are managed, but by committee, so this can also be managed, and the committee may elect one person as chief. As, just like in the democracy there are senators and there is president, so it may be I may nominate or they can nominate.

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: This boy?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. He's just like a Bengali kīrtana leader. He joined the movement when he was only sixteen years old. Very...

Rāmeśvara: Jagannātha dāsa has just come back from Vṛndāvana. I think he's going to help on the books again. That will speed things up. Everything is going slowly through Sanskrit still.

Prabhupāda: (looking at bones?) Chicken?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, some animal, bigger animal.

Rāmeśvara: Ribs? Lamb, sheep.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...kill. Simply kill. Paśu-ghna. As soon as you become animal killer, Kṛṣṇa consciousness finished. Parīkṣit Mahārāja, vinā paśu-ghnāt. Except the persons who are killers of animals, everyone will be interested.

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

Prabhupāda: Therefore we are not afraid of death. That is another thing. But generally, people, they are actually. Are you not afraid of disease?

Richard: I would not wish to be in great pain or agony, no.

Prabhupāda: But there is pain, as soon as you are in disease, there is great pain.

Richard: Uh, yes, but there are quick deaths and there are slow deaths.

Prabhupāda: No. Everyone is afraid of this. Are you not afraid of old age and invalidity?

Richard: Not particularly. I mean, it's a part of life.

Prabhupāda: You are liberated. (devotees laugh)

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda said you are liberated.

Richard: I'm what?

Rāmeśvara: Liberated.

Richard: Oh. (laughs)

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

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

Jackie Vaughn: I suppose we could use the same analogy for black and white getting together. Ofttimes, we all become impatient because of the progress appears to be so very, very slow.

Prabhupāda: Slow, but sure, that is wanted. If you are slow, it is not bad, but it must be sure. But if you become very busy without any surety, then what is this? Simply waste of time. Slow, there is English word, "Slow but sure."

Jackie Vaughn: Slow but sure.

Prabhupāda: Sure. So what we are proposing, that is sure success. And all other things, they are very busy but no success. This is the difference. So what is the use of that business if you are going to be failure? So we see from the history these attempts have always been failure. Now this man who constructed this house, he never thought that I shall come here to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So his attempt is failure.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: According to our theory.... We don't say theory. According to Bhāgavata statement, in this season, the sun runs slow. In the other season, the sun runs fast. That is understandable. But if the sun is fixed up, why in some season if is going fast and some season it is going slow?

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

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

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

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

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: What is this forceful?

Hari-śauri: Well, if someone is very active, then it's only natural that some people will not be very keen on him, because he likes to get things done. Those that are a little slow, sometimes they complain. Maybe just that he's only been there a month or so. He's only been there not too long, so it's natural that it will take some time for the devotees to adapt to doing the things according to his direction rather than the way that they've been used to doing it. There's always some transition.

Prabhupāda: You can know more about him from Haṁsadūta. As well Bhagavān.

Jagadīśa: Bhagavān recommended him. He had been in Paris before coming to America. But his complaint was that he didn't speak French, so he didn't like to stay in France. Then he came to America, and he was distributing books with Tripurāri Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: Oh, he is very intelligent, there is no doubt, intelligent, and for preaching work he is good. But for becoming the manager in London, there were.... What is that boy in Bombay?

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

Prabhupāda: Not like.... Just like in college, school, some student making rapid progress, some of them are a little slow. That does not mean that he should he rejected. He should be given chance. But if he follows the regulative principles, there is no chance of falling down. The regulative principle is that you refrain from these activities: illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all. That will make him perfect. Very easy. We don't say no sex; we say illicit sex. So if you want sex, you become a gentleman, marry and live like a gentleman. Why illicit sex? There are many gṛhastha devotee. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu's direct associate, Nityānanda, He was a gṛhastha. Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself was a gṛhastha. He married twice. First wife died, he married second wife. So gṛhastha is not rejected. Simply it is not that simply sannyāsīs will go back to home. No. Everyone can go. Striyaḥ śūdrās tathā vaiśyāḥ. They can go also. But one must be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's recommendation is that you remain your place-don't try to change it artificially—but be Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is required. And that is also very easy, how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Read Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, you become Kṛṣṇa conscious.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Kīrtanānanda: It takes a long time to clear it, though.

Prabhupāda: Never mind. Do slowly, that is pleasure.

Kīrtanānanda: Well, we could do it much faster if we didn't try to utilize the wood, but we want to utilize.

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

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Oh. This side also.

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

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

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. You want to ride any further?

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

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

Prabhupāda: Just rightly. So much direction is there, perfect.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. So like that, then, when the..., once they bring these amino acids one by one, then they stick together, and that also process is done by enzymes. There are so many steps involved, and very intricate. It is actually done by a catalyst called enzymes. Enzymes are also very big molecules, actually they are also proteins, and in each step the enzymes are so specific that they do only one specific function just for the right purpose, and once this is done then slowly the protein separates at the right time and with the proper length and proper number of amino acids. In this way, actually we can prove in every case that...

Prabhupāda: Perfect direction.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, the direction of the Supersoul is a necessity. In whatever condition we look at, even in the molecules.

Prabhupāda: So nice management, there must be nice direction.

Rūpānuga: No question of chance.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham. Kṛṣṇa is in every atom.

Prabhupāda: Yes, and He... If somebody says how the atoms are working like that, the Kṛṣṇa's..., Brahmā says, aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham. He is within the atom also, the Supreme. Therefore it is acting so nice. Eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭim (Bs. 5.35). Whole material world is going on under His direction, and He is acting within the atom also. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham. As He is directing this cosmic arrangement, similarly He is directing from the atom, within the atom also. That is omnipotency.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There's one strange point here about calculating this that dawn of Brahmā about two billion years old. Now strangely these geological calculations, they also claim that at that time the first free oxygen in the air appeared, first time. The beginning there was no free oxygen. We can accept that? (laughter) Now from here, anyway, this is the basic point, that once this oxygen appeared, free oxygen, then the living entities began to appear slowly. That is the whole theory of this chemical evolution. The results for the chronology is just put it that dawn of Brahmā is two billion years old?

Prabhupāda: You can carefully read the Second Canto, Bhāgavatam, Third Canto. You'll get all the knowledge, how things develop. It is a question of development. So maybe there was something missing, but after development it is manifested there. That is possible.

Rūpānuga: In the day of, one day of Brahmā, there are fourteen Manus. And in the course of creation, re-creation of the same species from the previous day—they are re-creating the same species—it takes, there's some time, maybe one Manu, there's some species that are finished, but the next Manu...

Prabhupāda: That doesn't mean time. What is this Manu?

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

Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter. But he has got sympathy.

Devotee (2): Yes, he's very nice, sympathetic. But he didn't come to help us at all. And we approached him for life member, he said he would, but then he never did.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Slow... He'll come around.

Prabhupāda: The another medical man, he's also working?

Devotee (2): Medical man, he's very favorable. He comes every day to the temple.

Prabhupāda: So he's a devotee.

Devotee (2): He's moving in. He's going to take up a house here. He's very convinced.

Prabhupāda: He wants to give us some land?

Devotee (2): Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: Fifty acres.

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

Dr. Sharma: And at the Belior Math in Belior Math Daksinesvara in Calcutta. But I find that by really chanting... I was crying to God, literally, at night, that "Find me the path again," and then I found your movement. And I find it, yes, it does make a difference. I was also amazed that evening when the first two days ago I was thinking I will ask you five ślokas of Gītā to give me. Out of that, you discussed four. And I was meditating on Hardwar, where I was born. All the time your face was appearing behind Ganges, and it was very strange phenomena. I do not know when I will be fortunate enough to have your darśana again, but in the meantime, I'm slowly... I feel that this movement you have done supernatural thing. Now, somehow...

Prabhupāda: That's a great certificate, because it is coming from you.

Dr. Sharma: It's a supernatural thing. I do not believe that it is natural. It is in the world and eternal. I have been here... To be able to convert these people, to be able to make devotees, is unnatural.

Prabhupāda: Where is Svarūpa Dāmodara?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I don't know, Śrīla Prabhupāda. That indemnity bond? I think I can pack it away until New York City.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I could take care of that, pack it away until we get to New York.

Prabhupāda: Who will pack it?

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

Hari-śauri: Yes, a very low conscious level. The metabolism is very much slowed down. The breathing and heart rate and everything goes right down, and they stay like that, completely relaxed, for twenty minutes, and then for a few minutes they come out. That is the...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can also do that; we'll hit them with our shoes. (laughter) For twenty minutes they can go unconsciousness. Free, we don't charge.

Hari-śauri: This opening comment in this magazine is very good, it says, "What is surprising about the International Society for Krishna Consciousness is not its conquest of the West, the USA in particular. The cultural impact of this institution, borne on the shoulders of Westerners in the main, has already reached amazing proportions in India."

Prabhupāda: That is my policy.

Devotee (1): That's nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whew. That's why they are afraid of you in India, Prabhupāda. The government is very much afraid.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, government is alarmed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well how will they try to stop us?

Prabhupāda: Through restrictive government(?). (door opens) Who is...? Let him come.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's breaking the news to them slowly.

Hari-śauri: We did that in Melbourne. But then gradually we let them see. Then they took us out for a trial run and everything. (break)

Prabhupāda: Note down in the account book. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...presents us as a bona fide Vaiṣṇava, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Vaiṣṇava cult. Says that the ISKCON center, the Māyāpur..., "ISKCON plans to build in Māyāpur a world center for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It will comprise an enormous..."

Prabhupāda: This news has been very much advertised.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When will we begin?

Prabhupāda: As soon as we get the land.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The land is coming along?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The land is coming along?

Prabhupāda: Yes, government...

Room Conversation -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Poughkeepsie. Where it is?

Indian man: It is hundred miles north of New York. I work there. I am an engineer, and I have been trying to spread Kṛṣṇa conscious movement of yours, trying to teach from your Gītā to the Indian community, and I have been slowly trying to get American people also involved. And, as I see, more and more American people are now coming in. And in fact, those people who are very steadfast, who come to attend my class, are the American people. I am very glad to see that they are taking very great interest. And...

Prabhupāda: Indians are not taking so much.

Indian man: No, sir, I'm...

Prabhupāda: Indians are baḍa sāheb(?) (laughs)

Indian man: Ah. You see they have been going to...

Prabhupāda: Ready?

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is the first study of Kṛṣṇa. ABCD. When we learn Bhagavad-gītā, then we can have some glimpse of idea of Kṛṣṇa. Then we go further in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Translator: He also admires very much that you have created disciples who are able to be very courageous in presenting your message. And that even though sometimes at first he was opposed to them, they were very peaceful always and always very nice to him, and this way they brought him slowly to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: That is preaching method. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has recommended, tṛṇād api sunīcena. You can explain that:

tṛṇād api sunīcena
taror api sahiṣṇunā
amāninā mānadena
kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ
(CC Adi 17.31)

This is the method by the preacher.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Someday, if they come in contact with a real devotee, they'll appreciate. Just like you are coming. So they have to meet some devotee, then they'll be benefited. With the present idea there will be very slow progress. Practically no progress, but even there is little progress, very slow. So unless they come in contact with a pure devotee... Then...

Hari-śauri: Your books.

Nandarāṇī: If we distribute your books and prasāda, then that is as good as them coming to meet you personally.

Prabhupāda: No, personally also, you can do. If they come, you instruct them. But the prasādam and book distribution, very important line. If he's intelligent, by reading books will help him. In Europe and America, you have got intelligence. By reading books, they are coming to the sense. And in this part of the world they are not so intelligent.

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Hari-śauri: They get a bit confused because God has to... Like that man last night was saying not even a blade of grass can move without God's sanction. So they think because God sanctions...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is so many times explained. Just like a child wants to do something. The father says, "Don't do it," I have said several times. Reluctantly, "All right, do it." I have given this example of my practical experience in 1925 or '26 when my son was two years old. There was a table fan, "I would like to touch it." And I said, "No, no, don't touch." This is child. So but it's a child. He again tried to touch it. So there was a friend, he said, "Just slow the speed and let him touch." So I did it, slowed the speed and he touched-tung! Then he would not touch. You see. So this sanction was given, "Touch it," reluctantly. Now when he gets experience and I ask him, "Touch again?" "No." So this sanction. All of us who have come to this material world, it is like that. Reluctantly. Therefore God comes again to inform these rascals that "Now you have tried so much, better give up this, come to Me again." Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). Sanction was given, certainly, and he has experience, very bitter, but still he won't... This is obstinacy.

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: God can help. Other airplane cannot. If God likes, He can save you.

Hari-śauri: You were saying that if one is intelligent he can just accept the father's instruction, and he knows it will be good. But most people have such bad experience that every time they've accepted instruction they've just been cheated, that they're a little slow to...

Prabhupāda: What is it? No, you said, cheated or...?

Hari-śauri: You were saying that by intelligence one can just accept what the father says will be good for him and he'll do it, but most people have such a bad experience in the material world, they get cheated so often...

Prabhupāda: That is his misfortune, if the father is cheating him. So that means he's most unfortunate. Father is not expected to cheat the son, but if he's cheated by the father, then he must accept himself as most unfortunate cheated in the world. Then there is no help. Because he's so unfortunate that he's under the care of a cheater father, then what can be done? Nobody expects that father will cheat. And nowadays it is coming. Mother is cheating, mother is killing, father is cheated. Yes. It is Kali-yuga.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Virus.

Guest: Virus. (Bengali) Now we know even the inanimate is animate, but by biology only it is changing. All the unanimate subject is slowly being transformed into animate. We are all convinced the whole process is the same. It's a terrific science now, biology. Latest, we have discovered. I am also working on biology quite a bit for all the virus disease and all. And we can eliminate them by only vacuum. My whole cure, they call it miracle and all is nonsense, it is only creating a vacuum which automatically takes away.

Prabhupāda: This biology will be complete...

Guest: When we accept this.

Prabhupāda: ...when you accept this.

Guest: I know. (laughs) And I have accepted long ago. Because I felt, as a sincere worker, medicine doesn't interest me. What interests me is the cure. My profession is to cure, not to study the medicines. That is the cure.

Prabhupāda: Here it is very clearly stated that kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). The biology, infection. Kāraṇam, that is the kāraṇam. Kāraṇam guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Why there are varieties of life? One is very intelligent...

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

Prabhupāda: They admitted, "Rival to Nelson Column" in Guardian even. So who is strong enough? We are stronger than British Empire. Simply by Ratha-yātrā we are conquering. And actually that is being done. What I have got strength? Forty rupees beginning. Simply Hare Kṛṣṇa and Ratha-yātrā, that's all. That's a fact. They can see, they have got eyes.

Pradyumna: "The Indian government has been rather slow in picking up the ISKCON signals. One reason being that the genuine Kṛṣṇa devotees in the administration had been mighty pleased in the beginning with the idea of exporting Kṛṣṇa consciousness to America."

Prabhupāda: Genuine?

Hari-śauri: That means the genuine ones are here in India, and they were pleased with the idea of exporting Kṛṣṇa to America. So that means that the ones in America are not genuine.

Prabhupāda: So "You are not genuine. Therefore we are not appreciating." Genuine they appreciate. "But you are not genuine. Therefore we are criticizing you."

Room Conversation -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Śaṅkarācārya, he says that you are bhagavān.

Mahāṁsa: Yes. Also nirākāra. All these things they have been influenced. But practically now they are slowly coming to accept us. There is one Mr. Badanman who was the host of Śaṅkarācārya and for two and a half years he never came here, he never entertained the devotees.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That would be poison.

Mahāṁsa: Yes. But then since last six to seven months, he has been completely convinced about us and he has been going around collecting money from other Marwaris for the temple construction. He was simply convinced by seeing the Hare Kṛṣṇa film. And by seeing the Deities he was so much taken aback, and he was so much wonderstruck with the Deities which he saw on the film.

Prabhupāda: You were also present then?

Room Conversation -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Oh, there is no Kṛṣṇa...

Mahāṁsa: There is no Kṛṣṇa temple. What to speak of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. And their Deity is Kṛṣṇa, most of the Marwaris. So they will now slowly all of them will come. We had a very hard time. This Inani who was wearing the turban. He's the chief of the Marwaris. If he gives five thousand rupees, then all the Marwaris will give five thousand rupees in that Ganj area. Whatever he gives, the others will have to.

Prabhupāda: He is the head.

Mahāṁsa: He's the head. He himself never gave. And we went a hundred times to him.

Prabhupāda: And now he saw the film...

Mahāṁsa: Yes. And today also he was there in the morning. Now he will definitely give. You had also previously said that they are very conservative. But once they take it up, then they will take it up very nicely.

Prabhupāda: And I also explained, "Nā rūpya, nā rūpya." (laughs)

Morning Walk -- August 31, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Devotee: A form of prāṇāyāma, breathing. The scientists, or doctors, say it takes so many muscles in the body to laugh and so many to frown, and it takes less to laugh, so they say why waste energy? Everyone should laugh instead of frowning all the time and be happy. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...Ninth Canto, I shall take up Eleventh and Twelfth.

Devotee: Someone was explaining about these Cantos that you start like the feet from Kṛṣṇa and as you read through the Cantos you slowly move up the body of Kṛṣṇa and the Twelfth Canto is the...

Prabhupāda: Head.

Devotee: Is His head. The Twelfth Canto must be a really beautiful book, too. (Hindi) (end)

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

Prabhupāda: So why it is empty? Have it filled up.

Mahāṁśa: How to fill? It has to come by itself. The water comes from the recuperation from the soil, so it is not in our hands to fill it. It just comes by itself slowly. It takes six days. If we empty the well it takes takes 6 days to fill it.

Prabhupāda: No, no. By the... By digging a well or something you cannot...

Mahāṁśa: If we do a boring, then that's, the well can be filled. We have a pump and we can fill it. But now as it is, it's fifty feet deep.

Prabhupāda: Why not make boring?

Mahāṁśa: That is my plan, that is what I was telling...

Prabhupāda: Why plan, why do it now?

Mahāṁśa: Yes. now...

Prabhupāda: Keep it always filled up.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So why don't you order more?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Right now I don't have much money, so I'm going slow. But when we sell, we'll get the money back, print more.

Prabhupāda: No, I can give you some loan.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We will do that. We may need a small loan because... Also the printer came to see me. I told him to bring down the Bengali Gītār Gān price, and I'll think we'll print only one lakh here because his quality is much better than a small letter press in Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: So if you regularly do businesslike, I can give you loan.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We may need a small loan, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I'm not asking till it becomes...

Prabhupāda: No. For printing books I'll give you loan.

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: It is very dangerous. And if there is some force, you become suffocated. So still, people were going slowly. By grace of Kṛṣṇa nothing happened. But same thing happened later years when Jawaharlal Nehru was present. So many people crashed and fallen in the river Yamunā and died.

Hari-śauri: Drowned in the river.

Prabhupāda: The rush came, and there was no protection.

Hari-śauri: We'll have to be very careful if we go to bathe in the river.

Prabhupāda: No, now they make arrangement, section by bamboo, so the rush may not be very pressurable. Section by section. So section they go. Now the arrangement is better. But formerly the arrangement was not... It was open, and people come. As soon as there is little rush, pushing, there is great danger.

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And if there is little push, then this poor child

will be finished. We were going very slow, and we did not know. I like... I remember that, that "I have come in a very dangerous position." Perhaps 1928, or about fifty years ago.

Hari-śauri: The reason for the Mela is because there was some drops of nectar from the...

Prabhupāda: It is actually a religious conference. All the different groups, they gather in that holy place, and they propagate their philosophy, discussion, like that. India is country of religion. They know how spiritual life more important than this material life. That is India. Now they are diverting their attention to the material; otherwise whole India, they are for spiritual life. They don't care for material ... This material life is brought from Western countries, these railways, these..., so many things, bridges and so on, so on.

Letter to Russian -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: If he's enthusiastic, let him do.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. He knew that we gave to Dr. Poliwal so he said, "I will do it. Don't let her do it." So at the present moment three people are doing the Gītā. There's another professor in Lucknow who I told to do also. We don't know whose will be perfect. But I think Rajiv is most enthusiastic to do it. I think Poliwal's will be little slow. And then we can see whose Hindi was the best.

Prabhupāda: That you do not know very much.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I was going to present it to some scholar and then to you. This man I brought today, that assistant editor, I think he will help. I can gradually give him work, and he's in Bombay. His Hindi is very good. He's assistant editor, so...

Prabhupāda: So you do that. Get the help of composition and monotype.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. This is the biggest... The Teachings of Lord Caitanya I gave for composing four months ago, and still they're going so slow.

Prabhupāda: The hand set-up is not...?

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: We are the number one publisher of religious, philosophical...

Indian (1): Printing and writing attractive, everything is such a nice... That man is attracted, and he goes through the books and writes... (break)

Devotee: So now in America we are slowly starting to understand by Śrīla Prabhupāda's mercy what is the real purpose of Bhagavad-gītā, real purpose of yoga. Unfortunately we are finding in India people have misunderstood Gītā. And...

Indian (1): Misunderstood Gītā. Now even they are not study. You see, there is no study at all. It is an unfortunate thing here. In our educational system, the slave system coming from British regime, still it is not changed. Unfortunately, whatever change we see, that change goes anti-religion. So the present generation is suffering.

Prabhupāda: Change means we have lost our culture.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What?

Guest (2): There would be Kali-yuga. Then there will be Satya-yuga after. Is it not so, predicted?

Prabhupāda: I don't think. That is stated, what you are saying, that in Kali-yuga people will be so fallen. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā (SB 1.1.10). They are mandāḥ, bad, or very slow. Mandāḥ. And they have got their own manufactured ideas, sumanda-matayo. Not only mandāḥ, but they have got their own manufactured idea. And manda-bhāgyā, unfortunate. And upadrutāḥ. The first thing, three things, upadrava, disturbances... One disturbance is there will be no rainfall, and therefore there will be scarcity of food, and government will tax like anything. People will be so harassed that they will leave their hearth and home and go to the forest. this is awaiting in the Kali-yuga. But if you take to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, you'll be saved.

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Medical science do not accept the soul. Then how it is possible, next birth?

Dr. Patel: They have to accept. In the teaching of physiology, what we call certain vital forces which we don't understand, they are, this is nothing but God there. What is vital force? What is vital force? It's the soul, sir.

Prabhupāda: Vague idea. Not clear.

Dr. Patel: They will become clear later on. Slowly, slowly, the cloud is clearing away from them.

Prabhupāda: No, when... There is clear idea already. Nothing is going to happen, but because they are less intelligent, therefore next stage is when their intelligence will happen. Things are already there.

Dr. Patel: The greatest scientist of the world, Einstein, was a great believer in God, and he was a moral just like a ṛṣi.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have seen his picture.

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: It is Kali-yuga for all of us, for the good and the bad.

Prabhupāda: Kali-yuga means mandāḥ. Mandāḥ-two meaning. One is "slow"; another meaning is "bad." So mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā (SB 1.1.10). Four times this word used: mandāḥ, sumanda-matayo, manda-bhāgyā.

Dr. Patel: But one thing about Kali-yuga is that by doing small amount of good work or doing little bhakti, it has a greater amount of benefit than you would get otherwise in Satya-yuga, Dvāpara or Treta. Is it not, sir? No...

Prabhupāda: Good work or bad work, you have to enjoy, good or bad.

Dr. Patel: But in Kali-yuga a little bhakti will do much good than a good amount of tapaḥ in Satya-yuga, thousands or millions of years.

Prabhupāda: Bhakti is different. Bhakti is transcendental. It has nothing to do with this material world. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato. That is bhakti. And karma, if you do good, you'll get good result, and if you do bad, you'll get bad result.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Then we shall do that.

Rāmeśvara: But for many people who live in the cities, they have their jobs already. They don't want to give it up.

Prabhupāda: (train slows down) What is the nonsense? No, there is a station? No station.

Jagadīśa: Why does this train keep stopping? (train stops)

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya.

Jagadīśa: Why does the train keep stopping?

Prabhupāda: Who is this gentleman?

Hari-śauri: Pradyumna?

Prabhupāda: Oh, Pradyumna.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: Europe? Germany...

Hari-śauri: Germany is bad.(?)

Jagadīśa: North America would be... South America?

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda, if you did come to America, the best idea is if you went to a farm like the New York farm and just made that your headquarters. And the devotees could visit. They could come and see you. Otherwise, the country in Pennsylvania is very beautiful in the spring and the summer, very peaceful.

Hari-śauri: New Vrindaban you could go when the palace is done.

(long conversation at end of tape about deprogramming and psychology—Rāmeśvara talks most of the time—can be transcribed if the tape is slowed down and the train noise is reduced.) (end)

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Protect the animal? This is not protecting. This is another slaughterhouse.

Hari-śauri: This is slow slaughter.

Prabhupāda: Slow slaughter. They have no independence. (laughs) This is not protection.

Hari-śauri: This is prison.

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is prison.

Bhāgavata: There's cottages here, Śrīla Prabhupāda, where you can live right on the lake. Very beautiful place.

Prabhupāda: How many days? Three days?

Bhāgavata: Up to seven days, I think.

Prabhupāda: Seven days.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Again making. These rascals can promise...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Slowly.

Prabhupāda: While slowly, then life will be automatically finished. Instead of seeing success, he'll be... He will die. Sarthe sarthe dal puriya gelun.(?) One man was to go to a fair, so he began to dress himself nicely. So dressing, dressing, in the meantime the fair is finished. (laughs) This is their program. You require water immediately: "All right, after three hundred millions of-water." This is science, all rascals. I use very strong word, but actually... Simply promising, no solution of problems. They do not know even what is what. But big, big words, jugglery of words... They are themselves rascals, and some rascals praise them, "Oh, you are..." Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ (SB 2.3.19). What they can do? Real problem, there is no solution. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Big, big scientists, why they not make provision that "My dear students, when I shall be dying, you give this pill and I shall again...," or "I am manufacturing another brain like me. You can utilize it"? Where is that science? The scientific brain of Einstein, he could not prepare another brain like his. Hm? Was he able to do that?

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: This professor of mine, he was very much against at the beginning of the theory. Then, when I gave this lecture, he invited me for home, in his home, and his wife supported our theory, so he came around, saying that "Yes, science says earth is only 4.5 billion years old, and there are so many defects. So they have to accept that "No, we cannot be correct." So people are coming around slowly.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) Kavirāja Gosvāmī says, śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-dayā karaha vicāra, vicāra karile citte pābe camatkāra; (CC Adi 8.15) "Just see what kind of merciful is Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and if you consider it perfectly, you'll see it it wonderful." Vicāra karile citte pābe camatkāra. "Oh, here is Caitanya." Caitanya. Caitanya means living force. He says, vicāra, "Just try to understand by logic, by philosophy, by argument." That is vicāra. We are not following Caitanya Mahāprabhu blindly. That is not our position. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna argued with Kṛṣṇa in so many ways. At last, he accepted, "Yes." Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitram: (BG 10.12) "You are the Supreme Person. The rascals, they do not understand Your personality, but Vyāsadeva, Nārada, Asita, Devala, they have accepted, and I also see. Therefore, whatever you say, I agree. That's all" This is experiment. Arjuna did not accept Kṛṣṇa blindly. He knew, but for our sake he gave so many arguments. At last, he accepted. We have to follow Arjuna. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare. (break)

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So it's better in some cases to be a little cautious, low key. Better to go slowly sometimes than very...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not become aggressive.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But then again, not too slowly.

Prabhupāda: So in our Argentina we are no longer...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no more.

Prabhupāda: So...

Brahmānanda: They arrested some of our Argentine devotees.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Five devotees were arrested.

Brahmānanda: Americans were not arrested.

Prabhupāda: We cannot bring any case?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, no. They are the government. The government has arrested. There is no real law system there right now. It is a dictatorship, military dictatorship, a very volatile situation.

Prabhupāda: Like Russia.

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What you have to pay?

Rāmeśvara: Five hundred dollars a month. Pays for rent and gas and food.

Prabhupāda: He pays that five hundred. Hm. But he is very slow nowadays in editing.

Rāmeśvara: He finished editing the Kapila book, and he finished the first volume of the philosophy book since he last saw you.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Do whatever you think is good.

Rāmeśvara: Well, after we finish the second volume of the philosophy book, there will not be any more work for him.

Prabhupāda: Then?

Rāmeśvara: Jayādvaita is editing the Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Here to talk with you. Yes. Send him a telegram.

Harikeśa: Ah. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They'll meet and they'll talk.

Harikeśa: And the Polish book, we were working like crazy but couldn't finish it in time.

Prabhupāda: No, should not be done... Slow...

Harikeśa: It will be ready in one week. That one is Easy Journey.

Prabhupāda: Slowly but surely. And the small book, first of all print.

Harikeśa: And Yugoslavian Īśopaniṣad, that will be ready within, I think, one month, one and a half months.

Prabhupāda: If there is scarcity of money, you ask me. I shall pay you. You can pay me later.

Harikeśa: Actually there's no scarcity.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1977, Mayapura:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is only disadvantage here. Otherwise he's ready to print. That they can do fast.

Prabhupāda: So there is no harm. We can do there.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Where? In Los Angeles? But I don't know. Things are too slow in the West to communicate.

Prabhupāda: No, you can go. In your presence you can get it done.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I requested our Bharadvāja Prabhu a long time ago to... Our Bhaktivedanta Institute, that he design the logo. It's almost two years. He said he would do it, but I think he's also very busy. Things too slow on that...

Hari-śauri: To design the logo?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. The design he told me. That was in New York when Śrīla Prabhupāda was in New York, and he talked very seriously of this request to do it. He's the expert... (end)

Room Conversation -- March 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: World Health Organization. Rascal, who is healthy? Everyone is going to die. "World Health Organization." They are manufacturing. They do not think that "Where is health?" Such foolish things are going on all over the world. So organize something reality and spread, slow but sure.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We shouldn't be impatient to compromise just to...

Prabhupāda: There is no question of becoming impatient. You have got diamond. No buyer of diamond—that does not mean you have to throw it away.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And sell something less.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Diamond is diamond. It must be purchased by the suitable customer. Because there is no customer I shall throw it away? So we have got diamond. It is not possible that everyone will purchase it, but there must be diamonds. People must know that "Here is diamond. If I want it, I must pay the proper price." That I want to establish. Why India's culture should be lost in this way, in the wilderness?I am not cheap patriot like Gandhi and... I want to give Indian culture to the whole world. I'm not going to cheat people, taking Bhagavad-gītā and speaking all nonsense. I want to present Bhagavad-gītā as it is. That is my mission. Why shall I cheat you, a gentleman? (Hindi)

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Gargamuni: So I told them that as far as I know there was no plan of Your Divine Grace...

Prabhupāda: No, because Manipur has not supplied. Otherwise, it was program that I shall come back, and after I shall go to Manipur.

Gargamuni: And Upendra is there, so I told him that he should come. Jayapatākā said that the government has approved in principle of the land acquisitions. They would acquire land slowly.

Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter.

Gargamuni: Not all at once. But they would acquire this land and if they see that it is being used nicely, then they will give another...

Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter.

Gargamuni: He said he'll be sending you a letter.

Prabhupāda: This is a great, nice, very... Activities are nice.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Go to...

Devotees: Jaya, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Guest (1): Slowly about the program is that. I am trying to liquidate my assets in Allahabad because all this my dead father, dead mother, brother, all the properties are gone now. So when that is free, I'll take up this property here.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Guest (1): That I am doing at home.

Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say that we are inviting, people may come, live peacefully, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is an attempt. Otherwise, we could have built some apartment house... (break)...the J.P.?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya Prakash Narayan.

Prabhupāda: Jaya Prakash Narayan. Even in old days they were dealing with this politics. What they will do good to the people? But they do not know. This is disease. They do not study the whole history of the world. What Gandhi has done? What Hitler has done? What Napoleon has done? And what they will do? But they are applauded. "He is promising within one year poverty will be driven away." All false propaganda. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). Vimūḍhātmā. Rascals. They are promising so many things. They will never be able to do anything. And they are applauded.

Morning Talk -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They can give immediately, take. Although that is not very good, still, by lecture and by some strong medicine they can give him immediately. People like that. And Āyur-veda is long term, and people cannot wait.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. The cure is very slow.

Prabhupāda: And that is also not very sure, because the Ayurvedic physicians, they have not taken many cases. They cannot experience. Everything requires experience. These are the difficulties in Āyur-veda. Still, some of the patent medicines, they are effective. Just like cyavana-prāśa, nava-yogendra, yogendra-rasa.(?) If they are properly prepared.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (aside:) Some water spilled next to Prabhupāda's desk. I was looking for a cloth.

Bhavānanda: (indistinct)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. Bhavānanda Mahārāja could get you some ḍāb water if you like. Prabhupāda was liking some ḍāb water.

(break)

(new conversation)

Prabhupāda: ...community. If the one community said, "Within our religion, there is no need of education..."

Room Conversation -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They do that sometimes.

Prabhupāda: They do that. This is going on. They do actually, I know. Unnecessarily, little distilled water, and take from him five rupees. If he gives him mixture, he cannot charge from him. But these innocent persons, they have earned. "You want to be treated very quickly or slowly?" He says that "I am earning twenty rupees per day. If required, I will give you so much money. And give me quickly." Everything cheating and... I know. I was in the medical line. Dr. Bose admitted. He was talking with me very freely because I was just like his son. "My dear boy, I sometimes cheat. We are most sinful." He said like that. "As soon as we find some rich person, unnecessarily we harass."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's the business of the doctors and the lawyers.

Prabhupāda: Right.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So while we are still here, he can come here in the daytime for working with me. Prabhupāda said. And even when we're traveling, after you get your copy corrected, you can send it to him, and he'll write out a fair copy and then send it for printing. Plus he can do his own translating work also. That'll be good. Otherwise Gopīnātha would be slowed down if he had to write everything once again.

Prabhupāda: He is doing nicely. He has got control over language.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One advantage I see also is that because he's been to the West, he is not so enamored...

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because he has already been to the West, his mind is not so much agitated with thinking to get something from this movement.

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes that is a problem here in India.

Prabhupāda: Both of them.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So let them begin the foundation.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Gurukula.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Let it go on slowly, but it must begin.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. What is the idea there?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I mean, what is the idea in "Even if it goes slowly, it must begin"?

Prabhupāda: No, if there is no money, it can go slowly.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But at least the work should be there.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Something should be seen to be going on.

Prabhupāda: Somebody has promised there. So as you get help, you go on. But it must be begun.

Conversations -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And then, if it works, we can bring him. I'm still not fully satisfied. I think it works, but I'm not sure.

Prabhupāda: Working very slowly.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This isn't bad. You like slow rather than suddenly.

Prabhupāda: Slow and sure.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. But let us see. When it is so slow, it's not sure yet. If you want, you could take a little rest before your massage, Śrīla Prabhupāda. You didn't get much rest outside.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. (break) I think they have suffered, regularly living with rats.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Calcutta and Delhi.

Prabhupāda: Poor quarter. Still they are happy. The rats are jumping over your body.

Conversation with Bhakti-caitanya Swami-New GBC -- June 30, 1977, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Not possible.

Trivikrama: I was also with Gopāla when we saw Mr. Rajpa in Jhansi(?).

Prabhupāda: That Surendra Kumar is going. Not to disturb them. Yes. That is our...

Bhakti-caitanya: Slowly, slowly, they will be convinced if they will see our activities.

Prabhupāda: And even they are convinced of the importance of this movement...

Bhakti-caitanya: Right.

Prabhupāda: ...still, they are politicians. You do not expect wonderful thing.

Bhakti-caitanya: No, they are always sly. Today they are (indistinct). Tomorrow they will be...

Prabhupāda: Viśvāso naiva kartavyaḥ strīṣu rāja-kuleṣu: "Never trust politicians and woman." That is the instruction of Cāṇakya.

Letter from Yugoslavia--'Books!' -- June 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, they are not, especially the Chin...

Prabhupāda: Dog-eaters, caṇḍāla. The dog-eaters are the lowest of the mankind. They are dog-eaters. In Europe they do not eat dog. And they're Indo-European stock. These are dog-eaters. They're rejected. We accept them as living entities, but their quality is the lowest. So they are not yet prepared to receive such exalted knowledge. Better let that book be pushed slowly. Let them become fit gradually. Then we'll go. For the time being, they are not fit. They can be expert in... You see in your country, so many Chinese are now... What was their business? There... They went there as craftsmen, as carpenter, as..., not as professor or teacher of philosophy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mostly... A lot of them have these laundries also.

Prabhupāda: That's it. Laundry. They are dentist.

Śatadhanya: Shoe-maker.

Prabhupāda: Shoe-maker. That is their business, low class.

Room Conversation With Son (Vrindavan De) -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They have nothing to preach. What they have got to preach?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here's a picture. It shows only two pictures. Here is the difference between the Moonies and us. Here is a picture of some Moon woman. She has a picture of Moon on her button and her daughter waving the American flag. And then here's us, the devotees. "Hare Kṛṣṇa followers parade on the street." This is in New York. These are some of the New York devotees. "The drop-out rate is high, but there is a slow though steady growth rate among the small membership." This is from the New York Times. I know all these devotees.

Prabhupāda: Slow but sure.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. "Slow but steady growth rate." There's quite a difference. What does this have to do with anything, having an American flag? This is our trademark, this shaved head.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Shaved head and tilaka. They all have tilaka, and beadbags. And everyone is happy here.

Prabhupāda: So there is some agitation about our movement, that "How it is going on, whether it will stay." So anything more?

Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "You told us about three years ago when we first reported some of our success to you that this was only a beginning. Little did we know at that time how much truth was in this declaration. Now we are literally seeing your fame being spread all over the three worlds."

Prabhupāda: Slow.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Everywhere we go, people either know about you or they are very eager to find out about Kṛṣṇa and yourself by reading your books. Anyone who has distributed your books in the Communist countries will support my claim that nowhere in the world are people more appreciative of your books." He's been everywhere, Prabhupāda, and he says that your books are more appreciated in the Communist countries than anywhere else in the world.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are hungry. (break) What to speak of saintly men. (break) ...honest, satisfied with simple living. Where do...?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: People don't even know those things at all.

Prabhupāda: Everyone was satisfied with simple living. They did not want much income.

Room Conversation about Grhasthas -- July 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...and slowly moved, not that like...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no.

Prabhupāda: No. The whole siṁhāsana will move.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, I've seen that in India. Moves slightly. Sometimes for festivals, can...?

Prabhupāda: There it can be done. Just like you have four rings, and hang it, and very slowly.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: After They're installed, can They still be taken for... Sometimes They have special festivals. Is that all right? Because They've always traveled. They're not like a marble Deity. It's different. (pause) Your translating work is becoming a very regular thing now in the afternoons. Everybody I write to, I tell them that you have doubled your translation work, keeping with the doubling of book distribution. We got quite an encouraging letter just now, a full report from Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja about all the different things in...

Prabhupāda: Get this fan.

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Has he brought some books?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't know. I just got word that he was here.

Yaśomatīnandana: I think he has brought First Canto, Part Two, Hindi.

Prabhupāda: He is very slow, printing.

Abhirāma: Śrīla Prabhupāda? If this point was raised in Parliament, then that man could not be Jyotir Basu. That would be Jyotirmoy Basu. He is M.P. from West Bengal.

Prabhupāda: So whatever it may be, it is Communist plan.

Abhirāma: But he is expected to make such statements. He is always making so many statements, and no one listens, again and again and again. It is his style. They expect him to...

Prabhupāda: So they are their party men.

Room Conversations Bangladesh Preaching/Prabhavisnu Articles by Hamsaduta -- August 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Anyway, all blessings of Kṛṣṇa upon them. They are doing very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "Bali-mardana was there years ago, and he seemed to be doing well. It is just that with all these countries, visa is a great problem. They demand always so much foreign exchange. Please let me know what I should do. I have also six other men who have to leave. If I go to the Far East, I could not take them all, just one or two. If possible, telegram as mail is slow. I have three weeks as of today. By 30th August I have to go. Please reply this letter immediately." So we'll tell him to go to the... "Yes, I need my own field, perhaps due to my obstinacy, as Your Divine Grace pointed out. I cannot seem to blend in someone else's field. I am really engaged here and very happy by your grace. You will be pleased to know that we have made another devotee. Shree Lanka is definitely a first-class field for preaching..."

Prabhupāda: So maintain the branch by local devotee.

Room Conversations Bangladesh Preaching/Prabhavisnu Articles by Hamsaduta -- August 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That would be very nice. Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. Because if he leaves now, whatever he's done will be lost. Those new men are not ready yet to do on their own.

Prabhupāda: He can come and go.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. "The Singhalese and Tamil translations are going on slowly but surely. Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will be a tremendous success here. Simply books are required." He says, "To be swami is all right, but I also want to be a qualified gosvāmī some day. Is it possible for me?"

Prabhupāda: Yes, you are already. You are doing very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "P.S.: When is the scientific conference led by Svarūpa Dāmodara? We have also called for a meeting on the 20th August in the biggest hall in Colombo and challenged Dr. Kovoor to be present and produce life from chemicals. I doubt, however, that he will show up. But the audience will be tremendous, at least twenty-five hundred people to be sure. At all our programs we distribute halavā profusely. People here have never tasted such a thing. They love it. Halavā beats chemicals any time." So I can read you more later on, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break) What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: On the whole, they ...

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhagatji: ...slow, due to the difficulty of cement. Cement was the problem. But we have store now full. Gate will be finished within this month, one gate. The other gate will begin after finishing this.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That gate looks very good, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Bhaktivedanta Swami gate, Bhaktivedanta Swami Marg, Bhaktivedanta Swami Gurukula.

Bhagatji: (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma's garland, tulasī garland. Fragrant.

Upendra: Would you like to go back into sitting up here, Śrīla Prabhupāda? It's more comfortable. (pause) (break)

Bhagatji: (Hindi) For eleven days it stopped, and then from since last two days it has again become.

Prabhupāda: And rate have been...?

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Read slowly but correctly.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. (repeats verse slower and correctly) "Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who, for the creation of the material world, accepts the three modes of nature. He is the complete whole residing within the body of everyone, and His ways are inconceivable." Bhūyo namaḥ sad-vṛjina-cchide 'satām.

Prabhupāda: Purport.

Room Conversation Arrival of Jayatirtha and Harikesa -- October 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That's maintain all. So... (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How are you feeling this morning, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Not bad.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not bad. It may be that your pulse is like that because you're resting. After a long sleep the pulse can be weak and slow. (break)

Prabhupāda: But I think I cannot sit down.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I think we can wash you while you're laying down.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Would that be all right? If we sit you up and put pillows behind you, will you be able?

Prabhupāda: Try it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay.

Upendra: First we'll wash as much while he's laying down.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Upendra says first we'll wash as much of you as we can while you're laying down. Then after, we'll try to sit you up. Okay? Jaya. We'll stop the chanting for a little while?

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Go on with the chanting. (kīrtana continues) (break) You don't want to drink anything today?

Prabhupāda: Let me drink hari-nāma amiya-vilāsa.

Room Conversation -- October 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Persian civilization, very high, Aryan civilization.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: There was this Persian boy who was translating Bhagavad-gītā. He had come with me last month to Vṛndāvana to have your darśana. Then you had gone to London.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, things are going nice-slow but sure. You have got this Persian civilization and he has got the African civilization. (laughter) Black and white.

Bhakti-caru: Śrīla Prabhupāda? (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) (break) ...coming with the report of Persia and...

Hari-śauri: He's saying he's very much pleased when you gave the report of Persia.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: You should come and visit us, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: I am ready to go immediately.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Jaya. You will come, Śrīla Prabhupāda. There are millions of people waiting for you.

Prabhupāda: And now you have to take a bundle of bones. That is the difficulty. There is nothing... Bundle of bone.

Room Conversation -- October 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Go very slowly. Never mind. You all young men. All right. Go on chanting. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: What meeting is going on?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We had two meetings today. One meeting was the BBT meeting for the completion of the Bombay project. And then another meeting was about our community Gītā-nagarī. Describing how it will be... Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja has come with his brother, who's the architect. And we're having a meeting for planning this ideal community very exactly, everything. The people present at the meeting are Bhavānanda Mahārāja and Paramānanda, Vāmanadeva, Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja, Tripurāri Mahārāja, Balavanta, Rūpānuga. All these people have experience with..., you know, like Bhavānanda in Māyāpur. Balavanta has two farms, Rūpānuga, all of these people. In other words, we're just trying to plan out... And Surabhī Mahārāja. And Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja's brother is an architect. In fact I've just been told that his architectural firm is the same one that's designing the... What is that? Designing a big thing in Tehran for the Shah of Iran. It's a very big architectural firm. So we're just trying to plan a very ideal community. We don't want to make a hodgepodge of it. I mean it should be so ideal that it becomes one of the most wonderful preaching tools for our movement, to show that "Here is an ideal community based upon Vedic principles, and it's perfect in every respect." So it takes a little cooperative thought and planning. That's why we've invited so many people to sit in the meeting.

Prabhupāda: I was very happy when I heard, respectable gentlemen, out of love, they are washing dishes. You know that? Ātreya Ṛṣi told me.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So if Bombay is sufficient, don't bother in Delhi.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. I will do it slowly first of all to make sure that whatever we have done is going on nicely, then we can expand later on. But in India it is true that everybody I met, very respectful to Śrīla Prabhupāda's movement to what we are trying to do.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That much we want to keep. The people may not think of it as bogus.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Our chief guest for tomorrow has already arrived. And he's very impressed. I took a tour of our temples, also the Gurukula. And they're very impressed with the whole building and the whole program that we have here. Very nice. He brought also an architect. He's a retired engineer, Chowdury from..., together. Also we already have a mathematician from Delhi University for tomorrow. So I took three of them tour of our temple and gave them nice prasādam. They were very impressed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This has never happened before, Śrīla Prabhupāda. You are the real ācārya for this age, Śrīla Prabhupāda. You perfectly know how to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You're making people who would ordinarily never take interest in Kṛṣṇa consciousness become devotees.

Prabhupāda: In the beginning, when I was selling Back to Godhead alone, I wrote one practical businessman, Mr. Bande(?) I think. He said, "Swamiji, why you have made Vṛndāvana headquarter? (laughs) It is not a place for..." (break)

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Kīrtanānanda: So if we just go a little bit slowly, it will get us there faster in the end.

Prabhupāda: I'm very thin and hungry.(?) I'll take a little. And now, in the evening, they'll come about ten to twelve. Arrange for that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Prabhupāda. There's about fifty people going to come for prasādam?

Jayapatākā: Fifteen.

Dr. Kapoor: They will come in afternoon.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Twelve to fifteen. Okay. We'll arrange for their taking prasādam. So you'll bathe now, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Who can read Hindi?

Hari-śauri: Who can read Hindi?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Can you read Hindi? (break)

Prabhupāda: From medical point of view, you cannot give life. The life is finished. Where is medical point? Hm? According to duration of life, that is finished. You cannot give a dead body life.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Pradyumna: Putra-liṅganena sukhitāḥ santaḥ—they became overjoyed, or happy.

Prabhupāda: In the beginning they were angry that the cows were being attracted by the calves, but when they came down from up the hill, they were themselves attracted by their sons, and therefore they embraced.

Pradyumna: Śanaiḥ (kramaśaḥ)—slowly; kṛcchrāt (kaṣṭena)—with difficulty; apagatāḥ...

Prabhupāda: Śanaiḥ means "gradually."

Pradyumna: Gradually. They were old ones, old gopas. Apagatāḥ (āliṅganāghrāṇādi-vyāpārān-nivṛtāḥ).

Prabhupāda: These are the symptoms of affection, to embrace son and smell head.

Pradyumna: Tad anusmṛty udaśravaḥ (teṣāṁ sutānām anusmṛtyā anusmaraṇe udgacchanti aśrūṇi netra-jalāni yeṣāṁ te tādṛśāḥ jātāḥ). By the... Teṣāṁ sutānām anusmṛtyā anusmaraṇe.

Prabhupāda: So translate.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Let us try. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So read one after another. Slowly but surely. Next verse.

Pradyumna:

vrajasya rāmaḥ premardher
vīkṣyautkaṇṭhyam anukṣaṇam
mukta-staneṣv apatyeṣv apy
ahetu-vid acintayat
Rāmaḥ (baladevaḥ)

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In this way go very slow, but the discussion may be complete. So you can go on.

Pradyumna: The next verse?

keyaṁ vā kuta āyātā
daivī vā nāry utāsurī
prāyo māyāstu me bhartur
nānyā me 'pi vimohinī
(SB 10.13.37)
(Sanskrit-iyam to bhavati)

Prabhupāda: Balarāma was surprised, "This māyā may be some rākṣasī-māyā. But how rākṣasī-māyā can influence upon Balarāma? That is not possible. Therefore it must be the māyā of Kṛṣṇa." Therefore He inquired. What is there in the English?

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Upendra: After some time I think it will go away with the massage. I mean from lack of movement.

Indian man (2) (Viśvambhara?): He said, "I am trying very slowly. He will not be able to tolerate if it hard massage."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He seems like a good massage man.

Prabhupāda: So, why not publish in large quantity of..., large number of books?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I think that's advisable. There has been some complaints again about no stock.

Prabhupāda: Why it is not being done? There is money?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatākā had some complaint today.

Girirāja: It may be that because we're dealing with one printer he cannot handle all of the work.

Prabhupāda: Why one printer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And Jayapatākā was thinking his parties are distributing Hindi books also, in Bihar and other places, and they ran out of books, and even though they went to Bombay, he could not get the books he wanted. There was no stock.

Prabhupāda: So what he recommends?

Room Conversation About 10th Canto -- October 16, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: If you like. Otherwise, make this verse correctly. Then take up the next.

Pradyumna: Yes. Everything was very nicely explained, Śrīla Prabhupāda, very...

Prabhupāda: Pick up the words? Set up in right place. It will be nice. In this way, slow but sure. Then, even in this condition, I can help you. There is no question of hurrying. Finish one verse, husband and wife, one day. And make it everything clear. Eh?

Pradyumna: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Vīrarāghavācārya, Sanātana Gosvāmī, Viśvanātha Cakravartī. We are just trying to explain their ideas. We are teeny.

Pradyumna: I think your commentary on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam will go down in history as one of the most..., one of the best commentaries. It will go down.

Prabhupāda: Let us try for that. (takes honey) Hm... Therefore I said "Upendra," (laughter) because it is solidified.

Room Conversation -- October 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Then I will give direction. Simply I want to know about the makara-dhvaja, consulting both the kavirājas. (pause) Why you stop kīrtana?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Go ahead, Pañca. (kīrtana begins, Pañca-draviḍa sings slowly)

Prabhupāda: Mildly kīrtana.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Mild kīrtana, tell him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mild kīrtana.

Prabhupāda: Where is Haṁsadūta?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You want Haṁsadūta's kīrtana?

Prabhupāda: Bharadvāja or...

Bhavānanda: Bharadvāja.

Prabhupāda: Eh? They are avoiding?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: They are avoiding me.

Room Conversation -- October 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I had no difficulty. You could circumambulate more.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: More.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We weren't sure how you were feeling.

Prabhupāda: I was quite comfortable.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Going little slowly, Śrīla Prabhupāda? Going little slowly would be better? It was a little fast today.

Pañca-draviḍa: Go slower?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It will take three hours to the Delhi airport. Then it will take..., say, three hours, then one hour before take-off is four hours. Two hours on the flight is six hours, and three hours to Māyāpur, total...

Bhavānanda: No. Four hours to Māyāpur, 'cause we'll go slow.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Anyway, within ten hours from this bed to your bed in Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Ten hours?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Maximum.

Prabhupāda: How ten hours?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Three hours from here to the Delhi airport. One hour at the Delhi airport makes four hours.

Prabhupāda: You are going to Delhi airport in three hours. Then?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then one hour waiting for the plane to take off. That's four hours. Two hours for the plane. That's six hours. And three to four hours to go to Māyāpur. Three hours to go to Māyāpur.

Bhavānanda: It always takes four hours.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (to Bhavānanda:) But that's four hours from the Calcutta temple, not from Dum Dum. No, I'm telling you, you don't have to go through Calcutta at all.

Bhavānanda: It only takes half an hour to get to the airport, and we'll go slow.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then four hours from the Calcutta airport to Māyāpur. Total of ten hours.

Prabhupāda: Four hours?

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhavānanda: So if you go too fast, then it's too bumpy. If you go slow, then it's reasonable.

Prabhupāda: So let us go. And keep me in the open air. (pause)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The main thing is that we must present it to the kavirāja that we are depending on his care. If you actually feel this kavirāja to be good and helpful, then we must present it in such a way that "We fully depend upon your treatment. Therefore, as you... We cannot depend on any junior man, because there may be complications at any time. Therefore, when you feel Prabhupāda is ready, you take us to Māyāpur. And if your other business in Calcutta is so pressing, then take us now." And in that way he'll be forced to feel responsible, because he'll see that we are going on his account.

Prabhupāda: Talk like that.

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (aside:) It's not as rough as traveling to Māyāpur, though, not one tenth as rough or one fiftieth. You know, all you got to do is go on a rough road. It's nothing. This palanquin is smooth compared to that, going slowly and being carried. I think the main point, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is that we have to consider going as opposed to staying here with the possibility of being at the..., under the care of this other kavirāja. That to me is the choice. This kavirāja will give medicines... First of all, we can try to convince him to stay, but failing that, he's giving a series of medicines which he expects will be proper according to the condition. But naturally the condition can change on any date. Then what will we do?

Prabhupāda: I say no medicine.

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhakti-caru: But, Śrīla Prabhupāda, don't you think that the medicine is working, is having some good effect?

Prabhupāda: If it is working, then why I'm not feeling any strength?

Bhakti-caru: That will come slowly, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Ah. That means I have to take the medicine and not that risking. The best thing is, whatever service you can give, you arrange. Leave me without medicine.

Bhavānanda: Why is that the best thing, Śrīla Prabhupāda? Why is that the best thing?

Prabhupāda: Because all, everything has failed.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Come, let us take the risk.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Go anyway. Let us take the risk.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: As your disciples, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we're all neophytes. We don't know what is right and what is wrong. But at the same time we feel that we're very hopeful that you'll get strength slowly and slowly. And this morning you were telling us that you get a little strength, so we are hoping every day that "Prabhupāda will gain even stronger and be with us for many more years." So we are taking advice from kavirāja that you take milk more and more, day by day, so that Prabhupāda will get stronger. Like kavirāja is suggesting that when Your Divine Grace gets stronger, he'll go with you in the parikrama, he will accompany you.

Prabhupāda: So let us make experiment in Vṛndāvana.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes?

Lokanātha: So we're discussing bumping, so won't be much bumping on the cart. Also, we always could go slow. If Prabhupāda wants to make an experiment, we could make one day...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: A few hours.

Prabhupāda: I am thinking I am lying here... (break)

Lokanātha: ...should ride in very nice carts, a chariot.

Prabhupāda: No, (indistinct). (laughter)

Lokanātha: I saw one in Maharastra. In Poona. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Hm. You can purchase immediately. (laughter)

Page Title:Slow (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:03 of Dec, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=137, Let=0
No. of Quotes:137