Somehow or other (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"somehow or other"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: These things are being done by so many other people, and we are doing something which is ultimate. The hospital gives some medicine when there is some disease, but that does not mean there will be no disease. Can they guarantee that "I give you this medicine—no more disease." We are giving that medicine, that no more disease. That is the best social work. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). We are giving this medicine, that after leaving this body.... So far this body is concerned, somehow or other you pass on. And as soon as you give up this body—tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9)—you'll have no more birth. And if you have no more birth, there will be no more death. And if you have no more birth, then there will be no more disease. This is our prescription. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). Not that he is finished. He goes back to home, back to Godhead. This is our program. So your question is answered or not? Huh? Your question is answered or not? Your question is answered or not?

Indian man: Not fully.

Acyutānanda: Do you understand?

Indian man: Yes, I understand.

Prabhupāda: Why it is not fully?

Indian man: It is, after all, question put by a layman.

Prabhupāda: Why you should "layman"? Why should not "wise man"? Why you should insist to remain a layman? Why you are persisting to remain a layman? Why?

Press Conference -- April 27, 1976, Auckland, New Zealand:

Prabhupāda: Ten years. I began this movement when I was seventy years old.

Interviewer: What were you before that?

Prabhupāda: I was householder. And I retired, and I was living in Vṛndāvana, a holy place in India. My Guru Mahārāja asked me to do this. So I could not begin earlier. So I thought it wise to begin at seventy years. So somehow or other, Kṛṣṇa has given us some opportunity to get cooperation of these young boys, and they're helping me.

Interviewer: What is your opinion of the Guru Maharaj-ji?

Devotee: What is your opinion of Guru Maharaj-ji?

Prabhupāda: Huh? Not only Guru Maharaj-ji, so many Mahārāja. So this movement is authorized. Others, they are some imaginary sentiments. That's all. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is authorized movement, Vedic culture. And they, in the name of Vedic culture, talking some nonsense. That's all. That is the difference. Do you know about Guru Maharaj-ji?

Interviewer: No, no.

Prabhupāda: None of you?

Interviewer: You've met him?

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

Prabhupāda: So there is agitation against chanting. That is also good. Yes, "Hare Kṛṣṇa is bad." (laughs)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They don't want to be bothered with Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They don't want to be bothered with Hare Kṛṣṇa. Go on with their hellish life.

Prabhupāda: So we want that. Let them chant Hare Kṛṣṇa somehow or other. (devotees laugh) "We don't want to be bothered by Hare Kṛṣṇa." That means chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee (2): Because our kīrtana party now, we have, we go on kīrtana, eighty men. We go two nights a week with eighty men. Huge kīrtana with five mṛdaṅgas and guitars, and we get huge crowd from the whole street.

Prabhupāda: That will make you triumphant. Go on kīrtana. That is very nice. Kīrtana, and book distribution. This is also kīrtana.

Guru-kṛpā: This is bṛhad mṛdaṅga.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So do it enthusiastically. Keep yourself pure. Nobody will be able to do any harm to you. Kṛṣṇa will give you protection. So? (break)

Devotee (2): Eight crores.

Hari-śauri: Didn't he say eighty crores?

Prabhupāda: One crore means ten million.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: That is the difficulty. Everyone sees that "Some way or other, I become guru. Then so many persons will offer me respect. Somehow or other, create some situation. Then I become guru." This is going on. Not bona fide guru. Bona fide guru is indicated by Caitanya, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā: "Become guru." Why ambition? Actually become guru. But how to become guru? Yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa-upadeśa' (CC Madhya 7.128). That's it, otherwise goru. So they will not take this simple method. They will drink, they will hunt after woman and have some attractive singing or dancing and become guru. What is meaning of guru, they do not know. Somehow or other become popular and become guru. This is going on. So with māyā you can attract these foolish rascals very easily. If you can manufacture.... You cannot, but if you can show some jugglery, then you become guru. People are after all these things, material things. They are not after Kṛṣṇa. They are after money and women. So if you give some mantra, then gold will be manufactured, and all women will be attracted, very first class.

Guru-kṛpā: You know, Śrīla Prabhupāda, they say that if anyone has power to induce anybody to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, therefore they must have some special power. Therefore that's their qualification.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: Many? What you...? Many followers.... The philosophy you present, it must be followed by everyone. That is wanted. You have got, say, ten thousand followers. That does not mean success. Everyone has got some followers. This.... What is that? Guruji Maharaja. He has got also so-called followers. The T.M., he has got also some followers. Everyone has got some followers. But what kind of followers they have? That is quality. Everything has quality. Simply quantity is not. There are many Christians. Even up to date, some Christian fair or.... Many millions will come. What is the quality? Quality is all meat-eater. But Christian means he should not kill. Where is the Christian? So we have to test by the quality, followers. Not many followers, the quality of the followers. My Guru Mahārāja used to say like that, that "If I get at least one quality disciple, then all my labor will be success." He was saying like that: quality, not the quantity. By quantity if one is amazed, then he is also goru. By quality—what kind of followers? That is the.... From the very beginning my strictures are there, that "You have to follow this"—quality. If I were..., "No, you can do like Vivekananda. Yes, what you can, whatever you like," then I think quantity would have been very, very big. But I don't say. I make him promise before the fire, before the Deity, before guru. (break) That one moon is taken into account. Who takes account of the millions of stars? Ekaś candras tamo hanti na ca tārā sahasraśaḥ. Quality. So we should be quality devotee, not quantity devotee. I have taken two glasses. Just see how nice water is, tap water. Here so many dobs are available, and this rascal is manufacturing RC and he is going as to be..., business. And for hearing Bhagavad-gītā they have no time, and they are trying to go to Vṛndāvana. Quantity, not quality. So civilization should be quality civilization, not quantity civilization. Do that. Bheḍyadāsana. Bheḍyadāsana (indistinct). Bheḍī, lamb, they are going, hundreds and thousands. They flock. So, and if one bheḍī, lamb, is somehow or other pushed into slaughterhouse stockroom, so all the.... All of them. You haven't got to take many. Some way or other, you induce one of them to go into the, what is called, shed, where stocks are kept for taking out daily and killing. So they do not mind that "We are being pushed into this room for future killing. Never mind. One has gone. Go." They'll go. So this is called in Hindi, bheḍyadāsana, that without any consideration, "One has entered. Let us all enter." That is bheḍī, means animal, their disciple like this. They liked the ceremony?

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Karnataka. Karnataka province, educated province, Karnataka, South India, Karnataka, very educated. So he has immediately ordered thirty sets of books in different libraries. He has appreciated so much.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The professors in Bombay, some of them are already reviewing Prabhupāda's books very favorably.

Prabhupāda: So you just touch the topmost men. But if, somehow or other, if you see some of the topmost men of the China, "You kindly read our books at your leisure."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You can't approach those men.

Prabhupāda: Then give it up. If it is too difficult, don't waste time.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not only difficult, it's impossible.

Prabhupāda: Then don't waste time.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Completely impossible.

Prabhupāda: Give up this idea.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It may be possible fifty years from now.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Our descendants will try for that. But let us try where it is favorable. Don't waste time.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were really, you know, just looking for any loophole, but there is no loophole.

Room Conversation -- May 5, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: But a devotee's view is that whatever may be her inquiry, if she purchases one book, she'll be benefited. This is the point. But you, as big moralist, you, (laughs) you think that he has cheated. He has not cheated. He has benefited her. Somehow or other he has given a book to her. Someday she'll read and she'll benefit. But you people, you think that why we should sell like that, that, "Yes, there is some solution of power shortage." Actually there is, but you think that he has lied. Just like there are sometimes the father's child is suffering from fever. So the father wants that the child may take the medicine, and promises, "You take the medicine. I'll give you this cake." The purpose is not to give the cake actually. The purpose is the child may take the medicine. That is the purpose. But when the father promises that "If you take the medicine I'll give you the cake." But cake is dangerous for the child who is suffering from fever, but still the father allures him. "If you take the medicine and I'll give you cake." So is the father wrong or right?

Room Conversation -- May 5, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, similarly, if somehow or other one can sell one book to a person it is good for him. Don't take how he is selling, but he's giving the book to that person and he's paying something and that is good. But big moralist, they cannot understand. They'll see, "Why the father has spoken lie to his son. He's not a good father." They'll mistake. Father is always friend. Father cannot be enemy. But for the benefit of the rascal child sometimes he has to say like that. That "If you take the medicine I'll give you cake." So those who are mundane moralist, they cannot understand this thing, because they are mundane platform. The another example is that Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja. He was asked by Kṛṣṇa that "You speak lie to Dronācārya that 'Your son is dead.' " Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja refused. For this he had to see hell. He was more moralist than Kṛṣṇa. For this moral activity he had to visit hell. This philosophy cannot be understood by neophyte devotees. Our purpose is why we are pushing so much this sales of books. Because our missionary activities will be very widely known. That we want. Somehow or other let him purchase a book. That is our mission. There is no question of transgressing moral principles. Arjuna. Arjuna was arguing with Kṛṣṇa that this killing of my relatives, it is horrible, abominable. Better I beg and maintain myself than I kill my relatives and become a king. Did he not say? That is ordinary man's argument. But as Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja refused to speak lie, (break) Arjuna in spite of his conviction that it is sinful to kill my relatives, he still agreed to kill. Why?

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: And the gopīs were thinking "What this rascal says, say?" (chuckles) They are so sorry that, "We have come leaving everything and this rascal is giving us moral instruction." This is love, they can chastise Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...somehow or other, black market, white market, red market. Let them make... And as soon as there is taste, there will be very good demand. And this black marketeer will make profit and they'll do. This Chinese policy or the Russian policy will not stand. Simply we require to make ourselves strong. As soon as we become stronger than the communist movement, we shall finish it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Finish everyone?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You mean attack them?

Prabhupāda: That I shall tell later. You become little strong. We cannot allow them. Because Kṛṣṇa's policy is, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtam (BG 4.8). You have to take that policy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In Vṛndāvana, one day, on a walk you were saying that Kṛṣṇa's soldiers will walk all over the world and they will approach everyone and say, "Do you believe in Kṛṣṇa?" And if they say, "No," immediately, kill them.

Prabhupāda: Not kill them with weapon, but kill them by saṅkīrtana. They are already dead, so physically killing is for very big, big, strong man like Mao, or this Lenin, like that. Not common people, they have to be shown mercy.

Hari-śauri: More a question of revival, for the common people, more a question of revival.

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Mahendra: All of their successes are accidental. Just like they discovered the planet called Pluto. The way it was discovered was one man recognized that there was a fluctuation in the orbit of the planet Neptune, and so he made some calculations and figured that the fluctuations were caused by another planet that must be further away than Neptune that no one has discovered yet. So he made many calculations and figured out where the planet should be, how big it should be, how much it should weigh, how far away it was. So then he told other scientists about it, and they looked in their telescopes, and sure enough, there it was. But it wasn't as big as he said, nor was it as heavy as he said, nor was it as far away as he said, and when they rechecked the data they found that the orbit of the original planet wasn't really wrong either. So all of his calculations were wrong, but still the planet was there. So somehow or other he stumbled upon it, but all of his calculations to find it were absolutely wrong. That's the planet called Pluto.

Prabhupāda: Recently there was an propaganda. That comet?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it would come and destroy,

Prabhupāda: There was no comet.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They said it would destroy...

Prabhupāda: Destroy...

Hṛdayānanda: They predicted a comet that never came.

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, anything. That is stated in the Bhāgavata. So therefore people are trying to get money somehow or other. Then he knows, "I get all power." The present struggle is everyone is trying to get more, more, more, more money. Because everyone knows if I get money then I.... (static) Just like the Beatles and others. Actually what they have got qualification? They have got money. (static) That's all. What qualification? Singer. Singer, according to Vedic culture, third-class, fourth-class man.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śūdra.

Hari-śauri: Most of these famous guys, they are all really the lowest grade people as well. Very low grade.

Prabhupāda: Otherwise, this John Lennon, how he dares to photograph naked with his lover? How lowest class man he is, that he has no shame even. And he's also big man. Press reporters go to take his opinion on certain subject matters. They do not know where I am going to take opinion. What is the value of this man? But people are after money. Why? "I have got money." That's all.

Devotee: They hold great sway with the general public as well.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: One of the reasons why they did not want John Lennon to be allowed to stay in the United States is because they said that he had too much influence with the young people.

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

Rādhāvallabha: It's happening quite often in South America now.

Hari-śauri: Yes. That's going on everywhere. There was a, John Paul Getty's nephew in Italy, he was taken by kidnappers, and they petitioned Getty, "Give us so many millions of dollars, otherwise we'll kill your nephew." So he refused. So after a long, long time the nephew was returned somehow or other, and one of the times when they demanded a ransom, they chopped off his right ear and put it in an envelope and sent it through the post: "This is proof that we have your nephew, now give us money." And still he refused. And then eventually the boy was returned minus his ear.

Hṛdayānanda: And you were saying, Prabhupāda, that even when they have so much money they want more. This man is one of the richest men in the world, and for his own family member he would not pay some money to save him.

Prabhupāda: Who was that man?

Hari-śauri: Getty. He just died.

Hṛdayānanda: Just a few days ago he died.

Rādhāvallabha: In England. One of the richest men in the world.

Hṛdayānanda: Two of the richest Americans have just died.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Sadā samudvijña-dhiyam asad-grahāt. As soon as you accept material things as everything, immediately bhaya. Āhāra nidrā maithuna bhaya. (japa) (break) ...country, they'll not allow any individual person to live so comfortably. No, illegal. If you have got money, then give it to the government. The ministers will enjoy it. This is democracy. Democracy means "Somehow or other, I capture the government, and whatever money you have got, I snatch it from you, and then I enjoy." This is democracy. Dasyu-dharma. In Bhāgavata it is said dasyu-dharma, the business of the rogues. How is that? If I can earn some money and keep it for myself, I have no right? This is communistic idea: "Make everyone poor." Here is police, two cars. Police we saw.

Hari-śauri: They can't raise the standard up, so they bring it all down.

Rāmeśvara: That's their idea of equality.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Rāmeśvara: That's their idea of equality. All men are equal, so no one should have more money.

Hari-śauri: Make everyone a śūdra.

Rāmeśvara: That's what you wrote in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that communism is a movement of śūdras.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they're śūdras.

Hari-śauri: There's a very popular slogan now in Australia.

Room Conversation with Mother and Sons -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Because they are spiritually enlightened. That is the cause of brightness. And materially involved-moroseness. Because it is ignorance. Material life means life of ignorance. And spiritual life means life of enlightenment. That is the difference. Material life is called tamas. Tamas means darkness. Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya. This is the Vedic mantra. Don't remain in darkness. But people cannot understand. "I am living in the light. Why I'm darkness?" Darkness means without any spiritual enlightenment. That is darkness. So the Vedic injunction is "Don't remain in darkness. Come to the light." The light is my spiritual life, and material life means darkness. Because he does not know what is going to happen next. You are under the laws of material nature. The nature will act according to the association you make, exactly. You do not know that you are infecting some contagious disease. You may not know it, but it will act. In due course of time, you'll develop that disease and suffer. Similarly, without knowledge, in ignorance, imperceptibly we are associating with a certain law of nature, and we shall be victimized. We may not know it, but we shall be victimized. That is the life of ignorance. A child does not know that if he touches the fire it will burn and it will cause some disease, some sore. He does not know. But he, somehow or other, if he touches fire, these things will come. This is the life of ignorance. You do something, you do not know what is the effect. But the effect will come, and you'll have to suffer. You know or not know, it doesn't matter. That is ignorance. Life of darkness. The Christian theologicians, they say that "Why shall I suffer for my...?" They do not believe in the karma, fruitive activity. But that means ignorance. They have no sufficient knowledge. Karma is there and effect is there, but they do not know it. Poor fund of knowledge. Therefore it is failing.

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Satsvarūpa: Yes. They have.... People who are addicted, they come and live there voluntarily and say "I'd like to try to stop." They call it "half-way house," because they are half still addicted, but they're trying to stop. So maybe six of such addicts are living...

Prabhupāda: Only six.

Satsvarūpa: Yes, not many. Here's the place, right here. And some monks live there, and somehow or other they try to get them to stop.

Prabhupāda: Which year I came first? Bhagavān was in charge.

Ambarīṣa: I think it was six years ago from last year. So that would be '69.

Prabhupāda: At that time I'll see, here is the signboard "For Sale."

Satsvarūpa: Same one.

Prabhupāda: No one is purchasing. Why? Suggested Bhagavān that "Why don't you purchase this land?" I see the same signboard is still going on (indistinct).

Ambarīṣa: Nobody wants to buy property on this street. It's very dangerous and rundown.

Prabhupāda: Similarly, in that quarter where we have got our temple, the same position. Therefore we got cheap. (laughs) Otherwise, it is very costly building.

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

Prabhupāda: No, the things is.... Suppose a person, by his right, has to get so much money from his father's property. If somebody does not give him that money or somehow or other checks him to get the money, so that's a very heinous act. If he is actually inheritor of the father's property, he must get it. That is justice. Similarly, in the human form of life, one can get this education. If this education is lacking, that means we are envious. We're not giving the opportunity of fulfilling the right. And without this education, there is chance of falling down. Just like tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Another body you have to accept. If you do not give proper education, then next body may be lower than human being. There are so many different types of bodies, 8,400,000. So according to our mentality, we get another body. Nature's law. Nobody can check it. This life I may be very satisfied, that "I have got this body, let me enjoy without any responsibility and become an animal." That's not very good civilization. They do not believe in the next life. Big, big educated men, they have no brain even to understand that we are changing every moment the body, and they don't believe that body changes and the soul continues. Dhīras tatra na muhyati. Find out this verse.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Hmm? No, I do not wish to interfere. You manage now. I want to see that you are managing without my interference. Now practically I want to concentrate more, or absolutely I want to do that. But sometimes this mismanagement gives me too much anxiety. I do not wish to see that somehow or other we have built up a nice institution, on account of lack of management it may be hampered. That is my only anxiety. Now what is the position of the Gurukula in Texas? Our Gurukula, I have repeatedly said that we want simply to know English nicely—English is international language—and Sanskrit just to read and understand our literature. But we don't find any progress in that way.

Jagadīśa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, when you say that we don't find any progress, do you mean just on account of Pradyumna's testimony? Or do you see beyond that, also, that there's no progress.

Prabhupāda: No. Pradyumna, of course, personally saw. But when I was in Dallas I could not find any good progress.

Jagadīśa: How do you judge that progress?

Prabhupāda: By the chanting of the Sanskrit verses. Not all of them could do it very nicely. It is only practice, and.... Apart from Pradyumna. So his complaint is that he cannot write even 1, 2, 3, 4, up to ten.

Jagadīśa: I know we have some good people.

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

Prabhupāda: Although they are poor, still they can understand it easily, very easily, that you are not this body; there is God; if you don't become devotee, you'll remain in this material world. These things they will immediately understand.

Hari-śauri: How is it that, say, obviously they must be backed by very great pious activity, but somehow or other, they...

Prabhupāda: Therefore they have taken birth in India.

Hari-śauri: Is that special mercy that they seem to be impoverished?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Hari-śauri: Is that special arrangement that they seem to be impoverished? Say like the villagers, they're not very wealthy, or, uh...

Prabhupāda: That is due to misgovernment. There is no king; all rogues and thieves are in the government. Mismanagement. It is the government duty to see that everyone is doing nicely so that they can live peacefully, happily. There must be direction. Just like parentless children. Nobody is to take care; they'll be wretched. So India's position is like that. The parentless children. There is no good government. And they supply this control wheat that is not even touchable. Unfit for human consumption. There is a worm...

Hari-śauri: Control wheat?

Prabhupada Inspects New BTG -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Śrīla Prabhupāda: "Yes. Just like in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness society. You come to consult me about every activity because I can give you the common cause. Otherwise there will be fighting. The government should be very expert to know the aim of life, the common cause, and they should train the people to work for the common cause Then they will be happy and peaceful. But if people simply elect rascals like Nixon, they will never find a common cause. Any rascal can secure votes by some arrangement and then he becomes the head of the government. The candidates are bribing. They are cheating. They are making propaganda to win votes. Somehow or other they get votes and capture the prime posts. This system is bad."

Reporter: "So if we don't choose our leaders by popular election, how will society be governed?"

Prabhupāda: "You require brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras. Just as when you want to construct a building you require engineers. You don't want sweepers. Isn't that so? What will the sweeper do? No. There must be engineers. So if you follow the division of varṇāśrama, only kṣatriyas are allowed to govern. And for the legislative assembly, the senators, only qualified brāhmaṇas. Now the butcher is in the legislative assembly. What does he know about making laws? He is a butcher. But by winning votes he becomes a senator. At the present moment, by the principle of vox populi, a butcher goes to the legislature. So everything depends on training. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness society we are actually doing that. But in the case of politics they forget it. There cannot be just one class. That is foolishness. Because we have to engage different classes of men in different activities. If we do not know the art then we will fail, because unless there is a division of work there will be havoc. We have discussed all the responsibilities of the king in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The different classes in society should cooperate exactly as the different parts of the body do. Although each part is meant for a different purpose, they all work for one cause, to maintain the body properly."

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

Prabhupāda: So vittam, money. Money is the criterion, not family. Formerly, there was family, respectable family, aristocratic family, brāhmaṇa family, kṣatriya family. All these things are gone now. If you accumulate some money some way or other, then you are respectable, never mind what you are. That is Kali-yuga symptom, that position in society, if you want to be respectable man, you somehow or other gather money. Never mind how we have gathered, what is the method. It doesn't matter. Get some money and you become respectable. Vittam eva hi.

Pradyumna: Vittam eva kalau nṛṇāṁ janmācāra-guṇodayaḥ.

Prabhupāda: Ah, janmācāra. First of all, janma, the family, heredity, was taken into consideration, but that is now forgotten. Get money. Just like in England the British empire's policy was that you bring money from outside and deposit in the government treasury and you become lord. Is it not? Bring money, some way or other. So that was going on, exploiting, they used to go to the foreign countries and somehow or other accumulate money. Just like Lord Clive. He was a street boy, but he made some policy. In this way, diplomacy, he entered into Bengal and got some money, and Lord Clive, he became Lord Clive. So money is the criterion. Some way or other, bring money. That's all. That's a fact. These are the symptoms. Just try to understand.

Pradyumna: Vittam eva kalau nṛṇāṁ janmācāra-guṇodayaḥ.

Prabhupāda: If you have money, then you are aristocratic, then whatever you do, it is all right. Janmācāra, then?

Pradyumna: Guṇa.

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

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Don't divert your attention.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: " 'I shall never be alone,' one should think. 'Even if I live in the darkest regions of a forest, I shall be accompanied by Kṛṣṇa, and He will give me all protection.' That conviction is called abhayam, 'without fear.' This state of mind is necessary for a person in the renounced order of life. Then he has to purify his existence. There are so many rules and regulations to be followed in the renounced order of life. Most important of all, a sannyāsī is strictly forbidden to have any intimate relationship with a woman. He is even forbidden to talk with a woman in a secluded place. Lord Caitanya was an ideal sannyāsī, and when He was at Purī His feminine devotees could not even come near to offer their respects. They were advised to bow down from a distant place. This is not a sign of hatred for women as a class, but it is a stricture imposed on a sannyāsī not to have close connections with women. One has to follow the rules and regulations of a particular status of life in order to purify his existence. For a sannyāsī, intimate relations with a woman and possessions of wealth for sense gratification are strictly forbidden. The ideal sannyāsī was Lord Caitanya Himself, and we can learn from His life that He was very strict in regards to women. Although He is considered to be the most liberal incarnation of Godhead, accepting the most fallen conditioned souls, He strictly followed the rules and regulations of the sannyāsa order of life in connection with association with women. One of His personal associates, namely Choṭa Haridāsa, was personally associated with Lord Caitanya along with His other confidential personal associates. But somehow or other this Choṭa Haridāsa looked lustfully on a young woman, and Lord Caitanya was so strict that He at once rejected him from the society of His personal associates. Lord Caitanya said, 'For a sannyāsī, or anyone who is aspiring to get out of the clutches of material nature and trying to elevate himself to the spiritual nature and go back to home, back to Godhead, for him, looking towards material possessions and women for sense gratification—not even enjoying them, but just looking toward them with such a propensity—is so condemned that he had better commit suicide before experiencing such illicit desires.'

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

Prabhupāda: Saṁskāra... The real aim is to bring the rascal to the platform of knowledge. That is called saṁskāra. Janmana jāyate śūdra. By birth everyone is the same, śūdras, means without any knowledge. But the saṁskāra means śūdra, rascal, without any knowledge of spiritual life, to gradually bring him to the spiritual platform. That is called saṁskāra. And saṁskārād bhaved dvijaḥ. That is essential. The human life is the opportunity for understanding what he is and what is the aim of his life. The aim of life is back to home, back to Godhead. We are part and parcel of God. Somehow or other we are in this material existence. So aim is again come to our spiritual life, spiritual existence, where there is no struggle for existence, blissful, happy life. Because actually we want happiness, blissful life. That is not possible in the material world. That is in the spiritual world. That is the aim. So every human being should be given chance. That is real education. That is called saṁskāra. So these saṁskāra, there are dāsa-vidha-saṁskāraḥ... So in this age it is very difficult, but if one chants Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra without any offense, being trained up by the spiritual master, all the saṁskāras automatically become done and he comes to his original spiritual position, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, "I am spirit soul. The Kṛṣṇa is Param Brahman, and I am Brahman." As Arjuna said, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12). Kṛṣṇa is also Brahman, I am also Brahman. But He's Supreme Brahman, I am minute Brahman. So my business is to serve Kṛṣṇa. That is teachings of Lord Caitanya, jīvera 'svarūpa' haya (sic:) nitya kṛṣṇa-dāsa (CC Madhya 20.108). So if he engages himself in his original spiritual business, to act as the servant of Kṛṣṇa, then all reformation is done. So that advantage is given in this age: kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ param... (SB 12.3.51). Reformatory process is meant for purifying him so he becomes mukta-saṅgaḥ. Mukta-saṅgaḥ means liberated from all this bad association of material existence.

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

Prabhupāda: Now they can amend. By simply by writing by the government men, that's all, it becomes a law. There is no question of its validity, but because it is spoken by government, therefore the... In other words, the government men should be so honest and so elevated that actually their words should be law. But this is democracy. Any nonsense can take vote and go to the government, and then whatever he will say, that will be law. Who cares that he's a rascal? Somehow or other he has gotten vote and he's in a position. Who is considering that? And in the Vedic age only the first-class brāhmaṇas and sages, they would... Manu-saṁhitā. That is law, not that any rascal goes into the legislative assembly and passes some law. Of course, whatever government says, that is law, but what is the position of the government now? And similarly everything. A yogi is actually worshipable. But what are these yogis, rascals? So these are asuric. And it is said... What is that?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Dhana-māna-madānvitāḥ.

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

Prabhupāda: Dhana means money. So if you have got money, then everyone will respect you. Personally you may be less than a dog, but because you have got money, people will respect you. Is it not? (laughs) In England I was guest in John Lennon's house. He has taken a photograph, naked. And he's a big man. He gives opinion to the newspaper reporter. People go there to take his opinion about some serious subject, and he speaks, and the man is so shameless that he is standing naked, and he's important man—because he has got money. Especially in the Western countries this is very prominent. If you have got money, then you have got everything. Therefore they are after money only, that "If some way or other, if I get money, then I get everything. I get respect, I get honor. I get everything. Bring money somehow or other." This is the attempt. Therefore there is so much hard struggle. From early in the morning, four o'clock, they are going to the office to get money. To get more money, more money, that is the Western civilization. Now in India they have also learned. And our philosophy is "Don't try to get money." Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayeteta. "You should simply engage your life for advancing your Kṛṣṇa consciousness." So who will hear us? We say, "There is no need of working so hard for money." Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). This kind of working hard is done by the hogs and dogs, so why a human being should work so hard simply to get the necessities of life? (break) ...and dogs, they are getting necessities of life in that way. (break) This association, this meeting, this talking, is meant for the human body; it is not for the cats and dogs. This is human civilization. Naimiṣāraṇya meeting going on, all the big, big learned brāhmaṇas, sages, they are talking how to do welfare activities to the human society. What is this civilization? Simply money, money, money, money, money. And as soon as you get money, then you begin all nonsense, illicit sex, meat-eating, drinking, gambling. What you will do with the money? You do not know how to spend it. Hm. Dhana-māna-madānvitāḥ.

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

Prabhupāda: This is the result. What is their explanation of the varieties of life?

Rādhāvallabha: They say, due to evolution over many millions of years...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The strongest, somehow they survive, and other, weaker species, they become extinct.

Rādhāvallabha: They say the origin of species is genetic.

Devotee (3): They say "Somehow or other..." Then...

Prabhupāda: Is that science? "Somehow or other." If I say, "Somehow or other, you'll become a dog," (laughter) what is the wrong there? If things are taking place somehow or other, so I say somehow or other you'll become a dog. Our explanation is complete. They accept somehow or other is a means. So somehow or other, you are going to be dog. How can you deny it? If that is your position, that things are taking place somehow or other, so how can you deny, somehow or other you'll become a dog? Hm?

Rādhāvallabha: They will say that "We have seen that these other things have taken place..."

Prabhupāda: But then it is not that "somehow or other." This argument cannot be. Nothing happens somehow or other. We don't believe that. Here is the cause. Tān ahaṁ dviṣataḥ krūrān kṣipāmy andha-yoni... What is that?

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

Prabhupāda: With pilot. 747, you have to pay expert pilot, but here with pilot. Make this. Simply talking. Not only mosquito: at night we see so many, just like full stop, the same mechanical, flying from here, there, from here moving. Airplane, exactly in the form of... Similarly standing and... That is our challenge. Challenge this. Go in public meeting. Bring these so-called scientists, "Why don't you make any...? Why do you talk all this nonsense and cheat people?" Simple. Why first of all Sunday? There is no Monday first. I think never this question's raised, anybody. Fool's paradise. The Western world is fool's paradise. Actually this is the time they are getting enlightenment. Otherwise they are all fool's paradise. No social life, no religious life, simply get money somehow or other and enjoy wine, women, meat. That's all. This is their civilization. Do live comfortably; there is no harm. But why misconception?

Hari-śauri: At least be honest.

Prabhupāda: Yes. How can you deny God? All the scientists, they deny God. This simple fact that there is... (break) ...is mother, and beginning from grass to the highest form of human being there are children. The mother is there; the children are there. Who is the father? How you can say there is no father? If the mother is there, then child is there, there must be father. I do not know how they can deny a supreme father. Anyway, this New Vrindaban life will attract people gradually, this peaceful life. They are searching after alternative.

Room Conversation -- July 1, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: And people, leaders of India, they are thinking, "Where is this Vedantist?" In foreign countries, what is their position?

Hari-śauri: Somehow or other, they seem to think that the Vedānta is something better than any of the other śāstra. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam doesn't seem to be so popular in India as Vedānta or something like that.

Prabhupāda: It is very popular amongst the Māyāvāda people. You speak also... Now the so-called Vedantists they are speaking on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, distorting. Akhoyananda, Akandananda, Karpatri, the rascals. Because they have no subject matter to speak, they are distorting the meaning of Bhāgavata. This boy appears to be nice, this fat boy.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Kīrtanānanda said he's the only local boy who has taken interest. He's from hereabouts.

Prabhupāda: He said that "I've wanted to see you since a long time." So, keep friendship with... Giving them prasādam?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Kīrtanānanda Swami cut up some watermelon, and we distributed it to the guests.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, shall I lock this up?

Prabhupāda: Hmm. (end)

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

Prabhupāda: In Bhagavad-gītā it is said bhaktyā mām abhijānāti: (BG 18.55) "One can understand Me through bhakti." And the Vedic injunction is that "If one knows Me, or knows the Absolute Truth, God, then he knows everything." Yasmin vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati. If somehow or other one knows the Absolute Truth, then he knows everything. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati. That is the benefit of knowing the Absolute Truth. So a devotee knows everything. How it is possible? That is explained in Bhagavad-gītā,

teṣām evānukampārtham

aham ajñāna-jaṁ tamaḥ

nāśayāmy ātma-bhāva-stho

jñāna-dīpena bhāsvatā

(BG 10.11)

One may challenge, "How a person can know everything?" So Kṛṣṇa immediately replies that "I help him specifically." Teṣām evānukampārtham. "Just to show My personal, especial favor upon him, I light up the torch of knowledge, and he knows everything." So if Kṛṣṇa helps one to know everything, who can check it? That is not possible. This science must be there. We are not all-powerful. Kṛṣṇa is all-powerful means He can do everything.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is also further described about this Absolute Truth as vadanti tat tattva-vidas... (SB 1.2.11).

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Everything will be very harmonious and come to a common conclusion. But so long as...

Prabhupāda: We are giving the solution, let them take it. This is our greatest contribution.

Viśākhā: The problem is they believe what they see.

Prabhupāda: Believe or not believe, we shall have to give the people by books, by knowledge, by film.

Hari-śauri: But if somehow or other that sun-moon thing can be proved, then they'll all be finished, completely.

Prabhupāda: It will not be finished because some rascals, fools will remain to support it.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's always like that, just like in Mahābhārata...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: there was two, demons and the...

Prabhupāda: So this is his world of duality. You cannot have all support on your side. It isn't...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, we always expect opposition.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. That is...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We must be ready for...

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

Devotee (4): Śrīla Prabhupāda, you say in your books so many times that somehow or other we have fallen into this material world due to our enviousness or our independence.

Prabhupāda: Many, there are many reasons.

Devotee (4): I can't seem to get a grasp on this at all. If we in our original constitutional position as part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, and in that position, that original position of full knowledge and full bliss and being in our eternal nature... Now I have some experience of how strong this material energy is and how māyā works somewhat, but if I had known this and had this full knowledge, then I would have had this knowledge of how māyā works and how I might fall.

Prabhupāda: You read the life of Jaya, Vijaya, Hiraṇyakaśipu, Hiraṇyākṣa? They were Kṛṣṇa's doorkeepers. How they fell down? Did you read it? Did you read the life of Hiraṇyakaśipu or Hiraṇyākṣa?

Devotee (4): Yes, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So how they did fall? They are from Vaikuṇṭha. They are Kṛṣṇa's personal associates, keeping the doorkeepers. How did they fell down? Anyway, there is chance of falling down at any moment.

Devotee (4): Well, in his family they wanted to enjoy the material world.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, the falldown is there. So because we are living entities, we are not as powerful as Kṛṣṇa, therefore we may fall down from Vaikuṇṭha at any moment. Icchā-dveṣa samutthena sarge yānti parantapa. Find out this verse.

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

Indian man (2): It's difficult to collect money from the Indians. That is my experience, and I...

Bali-mardana: Because they are thinking of rupees. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: That means they do not like Kṛṣṇa.

Indian man (2): I don't know. Somehow or other, I myself am totally confused about Indian community in this country. I have no comments to make, but I found out that they are the least charitable community among all communities. I lived in Canada almost ten years, and I found out other communities are very charitable. Even if you go to other community, at least they will give something, but Indians...

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Every Indian should come to the temple and become a devotee.

Indian man (1): I think more and more people are really coming to the temple and becoming part of it, as I think most of the devotees around here know, in the last few years. Everybody I know of...

Prabhupāda: "More and more coming" means not all are coming. (laughter)

Indian man (1): All of them would be the desirable thing.

Prabhupāda: What is the objection?

Indian man (1): There are so many other temples. Hindu temple, Sindhu(?) temple... There's organization of community of Indians, they are trying to develop their own.

Prabhupāda: There is Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deity?

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, because they were all godless, so he said, "There is no God, but you stop this animal killing." That was his mission. And he said, "There is no God, but whatever I say, you accept." So they agreed. But he is God. That is cheating. Superficially he said there is no God, but he is God. Somehow or other, if people stop animal killing and accept Lord Buddha, then he becomes at least one step forward to God realization. So in a cheating process he made good to others.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna:

tataḥ kalau sampravṛtte

sammohāya sura-dviṣām

buddho nāmnāñjana-sutaḥ

kīkaṭeṣu bhaviṣyati

(SB 1.3.24)

Prabhupāda: Translation.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "Then in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Añjanā, in the province of Gayā, just for the purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theists."

Prabhupāda: To delude them. Read the purport.

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

Prabhupāda: He was so much insulted. Because every European countries were harassed, they had very bad idea about this Napoleon. Unnecessarily expanding the interest of France. "France and Napoleon, one." Now where is that rascal? France is there. This is going on. British Empire means bring money, hook or crook, in London, and you get the title, "lord," "baron," this... This was their policy. "Sir." All hooligans, thieves, rogues, they were made big, big respectable people. A deposit in the government, this lord family means they have to deposit, say, ten million pounds, like that, and the government takes that money as fixed deposit, and the interest the family will maintain the aristocracy. This is the lord's family. Some way or other you deposit ten million pounds and your family becomes lord's family. So people become mad after money, somehow or other bring money. There was no other culture. In order to introduce their Manchester cloth, how they killed the home industry of India, cloth merchant, this weaver... Just like we are trying. It is very long time, this, the handloom. They cut the finger.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The British did that.

Prabhupāda: The British did that so that the weavers could not work, just to introduce their Manchester's cloth. So many things they did. It is in the history.

Rāmeśvara: In America you never hear such history, in school...

Prabhupāda: They simply killed the Red Indians, that is the only.

Rāmeśvara: But in the schools they never tell you these things.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Interviewer: Did you stand on street corners and chant?

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

Interviewer: No, I understand that.

Bali-mardana: Thompkins Park.

Prabhupāda: By Thompkins Park I was chanting, and these boys gradually came. First picture was published by the New York Times. Then we started branches in San Francisco, in Montreal, Boston. And then Los Angeles. In this way...

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

Prabhupāda: Ultimate is that you are spirit soul, you are being materially engrossed, you are creating different situations and you are being transferred to different bodies. That is different situations.

Interviewer: But for what purpose and to what end? What's the final end?

Prabhupāda: Yes, so final, that unless you are spiritually realized, you do not know what is the final end. The final end is that we are part and parcel of God. Somehow or other we are in contact with this material atmosphere. So our final aim is to go back to home, back to Godhead. Unless we know this and we practice how to return back again to Godhead, then we have to remain within this material world, transmigrating from one body to another. Therefore the human intelligence is meant for understanding the spiritual identity and the goal of life and act accordingly. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. It is an educational movement to enlighten the people from gross ignorance to the highest enlightenment of spiritual understanding.

Interviewer: Is it an internal educational process or external?

Prabhupāda: It is internal but externally... Just like externally, behavior makes internal inclinations. If you associate with some bad company, the internally also you develop bad propensities. And if you associate with good company, then internally you develop good propensities. So internally, externally, they are interrelated. By external behavior we influence our internal energy. And by internal atmosphere we get the external body.

Interviewer: I'm trying to find out whether the consciousness lies within us, brought out...

Room Conversation -- July 27, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Just like George. What is his value? He's artist, that's all. From educational point of view, from things other view, he does not know anything. But he has got some money on account of his artistic play on it(?), and he's big man, that's all. Somehow or other get money, you become a big man. There is no question of culture or anything. That is stated in the Bhāgavata. The money will be the criterion—no family, culture, education. These things will not be taken into account. If you have got money, then you are big man. Never mind what you are. Therefore people are after money. Who is going to be brāhmaṇa? If you become a perfect brāhmaṇa, who will care for you? Nobody is interested to become a brāhmaṇa. "Why we shall become brāhmaṇa? Starve? For starvation?" Nowadays the colleges, they're not interested in art, philosophy, English literature. No, they.... Nobody.... They go for technical, how they will get more money. They do not want. Some of the doctor, professor, they came to request us to give our student. They are not getting student. And after few years they'll be all dismissed. Who will pay them? Hayagriva told me. He's not getting any job. There is another, Mr., Dr. Henderson. He's also not getting any job. He's selling insurance. And Bon Mahārāja, his institute is suffering from the very beginning till now, simply begging, begging and paying, paying the professor. No student. First of all he started Vaiṣṇava philosophy, so doctorate, Ph.D. So especially in India, who is going to take Ph.D. in Vaiṣṇava philosophy and starve? So this is failure. It is already failure, but he is persistent.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Yes. That is the duty of the father and mother. Along with that, he can teach others also. These things are to be organized. But some way or other, our students should be given education and spiritual life, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Individually, collectively, somehow or other. The principle is laid down there, brahmacārī gurukule vasan dānto guror-hitam. That's the beginning. Everything is there, we have to simply follow it. We haven't got to manufacture anything. That is a waste of time. Whatever is there, you follow. Is that all right?

Devotees: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Devotee (1): ...silk.

Prabhupāda: Thailand silk.

Devotee (1): Yes. He has invited me to go to Thailand to meet the Prime Minister in October.

Prabhupāda: Oh, if there is an interview, you must go.

Devotee (1): Yes. Perhaps you would like to tell me on what level I should present our movement.

Prabhupāda: On the level of Bhagavad-gītā. God is the supreme controller. And we have to learn how to remain peacefully under the supreme controller. Just like citizens and the government. Good citizenship means one who lives under the control of the government. Similarly, a good person is one who is God conscious and lives according to the instruction of God. So there is instruction of God, we are presenting this all over the world.

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

Prabhupāda: Jaya. Thank you very much.

Bhūgarbha: This is the Dutch translation. Professor Chenique made the comment...

Prabhupāda: The idea is, suppose I am in France. I do not know French language, but there is fire in my room, and I have to call my neighbors. So somehow or other I call and take their help. (laughter)

Yogeśvara: Professor Chenique wishes to know whether we cannot do one very small pocketbook edition that will sell very inexpensively. Something like I think in India they have done.

Hari-śauri: Like the abridged version in America they did?

Yogeśvara: No, something like this, very small.

Prabhupāda: I have no objection. It is nice proposal.

Hari-śauri: Like that Chinese one? First six chapters.

Prabhupāda: Where is that Chinese?

Bhūgarbha: He feels that if we bring out a very small, compact edition, it will sell very nicely.

Prabhupāda: First of all, we printed seven hundred copies. And now we are going to print five thousand.

Bhūgarbha: He said we're making the highest record in distribution.

Professor Chenique: Oh, yes, for this kind of book.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: That was my policy from the very beginning, that if the Americans accept, then my mission will be successful. And that is being done gradually, and I am insisting that, preach in America vigorously. If America accepts, then whole world will accept. That's a fact. Anywhere, although America may be fallen, the ideal is American, everywhere. Because they have got money. Kali-yuga means money. If you have got money, then you have got culture, you have got education, you have got everything. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Formerly, they were attached, family, aristocracy, culture, education. Nowadays there is no such thing. Get money and you get everything. It is not? Somehow or other, if you have got control over money then you have got everything. Bring that black Bhāgavatam. What is that sound coming? There is goat?

Parivrājakācārya: I think a lamb, sheep.

Prabhupāda: Lamb.

Parivrājakācārya: Yes.

Prabhupāda: They keep lambs for?

Parivrājakācārya: For sacrificing.

Prabhupāda: They sacrifice at home?

Parivrājakācārya: The Koran says that you should sacrifice the animal at home with his head pointing toward Mecca.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: The building belonged to a big zamindar. So Prabhākāra arranged. So it was to be given to me, and I wanted to start the League of Devotees from there. So I spent some money, whatever money I had, and it was going on. But in the meantime, this Lilavati Munshi, Mrs. At that time she was wife of the governor. Her husband, K. M. Munshi. She had some organization of foreign women. So somehow or other she got imagination that "This house is very nice." She was governor's wife. So it was not given to me rightly, but I was using. So she wanted that house. Through collector and through all government officials pressure. She wrote me later on, that "Bhaktivedantajī, you wanted to organize, but you could not. But I have got this institution. Why not give it to me?" So, of course, there were many lawyer friends. They advised me that "You do not give up. You should litigate." So I thought, "Who is going to litigate? Let me go to Vṛndāvana." So I left. So at Mathurā I delivered the Deity to this Keśavajī Gauḍīya Maṭha, and I made my place in Vṛndāvana.

Gargamuni: You had such a hard struggle in the beginning.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Gargamuni: Because that place, I saw in the photo, everything was there. Nice big sign.

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

Prabhupāda: They are doing that. You can see from this big, big person. Gandhi used to say that he believes in Gītā and Gītā gives him solace in difficult times and so on, so on. But has he ever preached about Kṛṣṇa? Tilok has ever preached about Kṛṣṇa? Radhakrishnan has ever preached Kṛṣṇa? Nobody. Their policy is take Sītā and kill Rāma. Rāvaṇa's policy. Take away Sītā. Take away Gītā and kill Kṛṣṇa. So Rāvaṇa's policy will never be successful. Rāvaṇa's policy means he will be destroyed. You cannot do any harm to Rāma, but he will be destroyed. This policy, that take Sītā and kill Rāma, means he will destroy himself. So this is going on. Take Gītā and kill Kṛṣṇa. This will destroy the whole thing. This Rāvaṇa's policy. And Hanumān's policy is somehow or other rescue Sītā and get her seated by the side of Rāma. Therefore he's worshiped, Vajrāṅgajī. That is the difference between Rāvaṇa's policy. Sītā is the via media. But one is trying to bring back Sītā and seat her by the side of Rāma, and another is trying to take away Sītā and kill Rāma. This wrong policy will not take. We have to accept the instruction of Gītā and accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Lord. Then everything will be all right. Prasāda? So thank you very much for your coming. So, kindly if you will agree to take the instruction of Gītā, I am always at your service. I'll give you such guidance, our men, our everything. But you have to decide this. You cannot take up this policy, take Gītā and banish Kṛṣṇa. That is wanted.(?) (end)

Morning Walk -- August 23, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Indian man: Then that means in that case no rebirth.

Prabhupāda: Rebirth means that... You are eternal. So by karma you are put into this material world. So it is a struggle. Just like a fish, somehow or other taken from the water and put onto the land. So he's all life struggling. So he has to be put again in the water. Then his life is perfect.

Indian man: It is back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian man: What is the mystery in that case of universe or divine bringing up this life?

Prabhupāda: Bringing up this life? What is the mystery to bringing one to the criminal court? What is the mystery?

Indian man: Karma.

Indian man: But we must be some start somewhere. Is it not so?

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

Prabhupāda: Therefore, Bhagavān concludes at the end, "You rascal, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam (BG 18.66)." This is dharma. To surrender to the Lord. That is dharma. In another place, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). Without this, all cheating. If there is no bhakti, surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, all these kind of dharmas, they're all cheating. Therefore in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra (SB 1.1.2). On this, Śrīdhara Svāmī has commented, atra mokṣa vañca api nirastam.(?) Dharma artha kāma mokṣa (SB 4.8.41, Cc. Ādi 1.90). So according to this principle, they're all cheating. So-called religious system, artha, economic development, sense gratification. Just like that, we have created so many social dharmas. Saṁsāra-dharma, gṛhastha-dharma, this dharma, that dharma. So in that way, they're all-cheating. Therefore, our request is that yajñārthe karmaṇaḥ anyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9). In the Bālajī's temple, mostly poor cultivators. I have seen, they go. And they want to give something to the Lord. Yajñārthe. So the karmīs, they're advised, yat karoṣi kuruṣva tad mad arpaṇam. "Give me." So these karmīs, somehow or other, by their great fortune, they're giving something to the Lord. Yajñārthe. That money should not be utilized for any other purpose. That is our message. It must be utilized for the purpose to fulfill the mission of the Lord. Mission of the Lord is sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam (BG 18.66). How people can be trained up to give up all these nonsensical type of dharma, and how to become a devotee of Lord. For this purpose this money should be spent. Then it will be all right.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. If he's serious to become free from this material world and go back to home, back to..., you welcome him. We don't make any discrimination. Ābāla-vṛddha-vanitā. Bāla means children. Vṛddha means old man, and vanitā means woman. They are most helpless. Ābāla-vṛddha-vanitā. Vanitā. Beginning from the child up to the old man, and... But coming here, if they plan for sense gratification, that is very dangerous. Come here, stay with us. We shall somehow or other provide him with prasāda and place, but be advanced. And the simple method is recommended,

yasyāṁ vai śrūyamāṇāyāṁ

kṛṣṇe parama-pūruṣe

bhaktir utpadyate puṁsaḥ

śoka-moha-bhayāpahā

(SB 1.7.7)

Very simple. Yasyāṁ vai śrūyamāṇāyām. Simply hear Bhāgavatam. And actually if anyone seriously reads Bhāgavatam, he'll become saintly, no doubt about it.

Akṣayānanda: Your Bhāgavata. There are no others actually.

Prabhupāda: Vyāsadeva, the words of Vyāsadeva. I am simply trying to explain, that's all.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So that is done by medical men also, so what is the excellence. Huh?

Hari-śauri: One man said that once he was traveling in his car and a train came, and the train hit the car and he was thrown out, but somehow or other he survived. He said he was thrown out to the left hand side and the train stopped, came to a sudden standstill just as it hit the car. So then he said he went to see Sai Baba, and then Sai Baba looked at him and he said, "Oh, you have been in an accident and your car was hit by the train. But I stopped the train and threw you to the left and therefore you were not injured." Like this. And he also mentioned that at that time you should think of God.

Prabhupāda: If he can do so, can he save him from death? If he's so powerful.

Indian man: That is very easy. I can also do that. (laughter) I know the trick.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the trick?

Indian man: I'll not tell it to you. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: No. These tricky things are... They have no...

Hari-śauri: Sometimes he conjures up different items in his hand. Like he can conjure up a watch. Or there's a particular type of nut that is found in Nepal. So some American scientist was trying to get him to...

Room Conversation -- September 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Whatever your father and mother has chosen, that's all. He's your worshipable husband. This is the... This point I wanted to bring. And her father was surprised. "How is that? I got you married with an old man? Somehow or other, circumstances I was obliged. How is that you have picked up one young man?" He chastised her like anything. Then when he came to understand that the same old man has become now young man by medical treatment, then he was satisfied. So you cannot change. I have seen it. One, my father's friend, he was very old man. My father was also... He was at that time not less than sixty-five. But his wife died, and he was married with another young girl. But his sister forced him to marry. That "Unless you marry, who will look after you? You have no children." But I have seen that young woman who was married with that gentleman... In our childhood we used to called her didi. Didi means elder sister. So the relationship was very thick and thin. But that old man, not less than sixty-five, and this young woman, utmost twenty to twenty-five. She was serving the husband like anything. We have seen it. There is no question of changing or being dissatisfied.

Hari-śauri: Now they bring them up to be independent.

Room Conversation -- September 16, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No encouragement. They are simply staying somehow or other in their original culture, but there is no encouragement by the leaders. But the leaders have lost. This is the position. Just like Jawaharlal Nehru, he was a complete rascal about Indian culture. He did not think that Indian culture has any value. Therefore he wrote the book, "Discovery of India." You know that? He has... It is little popular. "Discovery of India." So long India was not discovered by opiate or something like, as the Russians say. Now it is now discovered. And that its leaders have to become Anglicized or Europeanized. Industry, the Western way of living, eating, and everything. Pollution. Everything.

Harikeśa: Abortion.

Prabhupāda: Yes, also. Otherwise, we have seen in our childhood how happy people were. They were. Simple. If one has five rupees income per month he's happy. I've seen it. Husband, wife, a small family. If he has got five rupees income, they can maintain very nicely, happily. Why not? Suppose he has got five rupees income. The rice was selling at four rupees. So two person, say one-fourth kg., one-fourth share each. A gentleman cannot eat more than that. So means half a share. And the whole month, fifteen share. It is about one rupee eight annas. And further, one rupees eight annas add for vegetables and other things. With three rupees they can maintain, the husband and wife. And two rupees still there. He can spend for other purposes. I have seen it. Fresh vegetables, rice, this and... Just like with banana leaf. The pots were of earthen, the wife is cooking and she's utilizing dry foliage as fuel, a little temperature, everything is cooked. The husband takes one banana leaf and spreads, and the wife gives sufficient rice, vegetables. And things were so cheap. I have seen it. And fresh.

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: They didn't leave you very much choice.

Prabhupāda: I thought, I could not do something tangible. That's a fact. (indistinct) Somehow or other, I thought, let me go to Vṛndāvana. What is the use of fighting? Otherwise, all the big lawyers in Jhansi, they were my friends. They said that "You not go. We shall arrange." I thought that "I have left my home, for this reason I am going to, again litigation. I don't want this house. Let her do something."

Hari-śauri: The League of Devotees, was that Godbrothers again? Was that some Godbrothers that you joined up with or was that just...

Prabhupāda: No, after leaving Jhansi I went to this Godbrother.

Hari-śauri: Keśava.

Prabhupāda: I lived there for few months. Then I went to another Godbrother, that Imlitala, Delhi. Then I left there. I used to live alone in Delhi. Then I took one house in Keśī-ghāṭa. Then the Rādhā-Dāmodara men they called me that "You can live here. We give you two rooms. We don't charge. We give you the place." I came to Rādhā-Dāmodara. And from Rādhā-Dāmodara temple I went U.S.A.

Hari-śauri: I was just wondering what exactly the League of Devotees was.

Room Conversation -- November 24, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So write that. (pause) This article, if it is presented, the whole case, it is lost...

Hari-śauri: Most of this magazine is... Somehow or other, in all the articles there's something about how the chanting is actually producing greater intelligence, clearing the mind.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Akṣayānanda: Books and devotees.

Prabhupāda: This issue is very important. There's so many evidences. (break) Who are present here...

Akṣayānanda: Who are present here.

Prabhupāda: ...their charges, including their... Write the names and the work in which department he's in charge. That I want to know.

Devotee (1): Would you also like to know the... 'Cause some of them are not in charge of certain departments but they work within a department.

Prabhupāda: Oh. He is assistant.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Can you see? So soul is within the heart. When the soul goes away you cannot explain what happened. You say, "heart failure." So why the heart failure? The nerves and the bones and the muscle and the blood, everything is there, and still, you say that "It stopped. Heart failure." So just like machine is running but somehow or other stopped, but you do not know what is the cause of stopping. The cause is that the heart, when it goes away, then the machine stops.

Guest (3): God is within the soul also.

Prabhupāda: Yes. God is along with you. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). He is there.

Guest (4) (Indian man): Swamiji, in Bhagavad-gītā it is telling karma also and surrendering also. Now, how it is possible? In karma-kāṇḍa (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Karma, if you do... Just like we are preaching so many people to surrender to Kṛṣṇa but will do not do. Do you think our, this instruction, that "You surrender to Kṛṣṇa," is taken by everyone? Do you think? Suppose you are all here. We are preaching the same thing, that "Surrender to Kṛṣṇa." But these boys, they have surrendered, but you have not surrendered.

Guest (4): (indistinct)

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

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

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

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

Guest (1): I think you are absolutely right. (laughing) Psychologically, somehow or other, anything that is...

Prabhupāda: And long, long ago, in the beginning, one friend wrote. I replied in that letter, that "You have finished your cows. You are importing powdered milk. Now you have to import brāhmaṇas also from America. (laughter)

Guest (1): True, absolutely true.

Prabhupāda: Now, you see that we are establishing so many temples. They are being maintained by imported American brāhmaṇas. You cannot get.

Guest (1): Same thing in Aurobindo. I went to Pondicherry also this...

Prabhupāda: You cannot get here now brāhmaṇas. They have learned how to eat meat, how to drink, how to have illicit sex. They are finished.

Guest (1): No more brāhmaṇas. You are right. That's tragedy. That's a fact.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Guest (2): Some of them must be non-greedy, not greedy, eh?

Press Interview -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He is not a scholar. He's a rascal. We have to follow the ācāryas. The ācāryas never said. There are so many ācāryas. They never say. So, we have to follow, ācāryopāsanam, not the rascals. We cannot worship the rascals. Worship ācāryas. They are guide. So śāstra says... Find out sa evāyaṁ mayā te 'dya yogaḥ proktaḥ purātanaḥ. Purātanaḥ, Kṛṣṇa says that imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1), "I spoke this science to Vivasvān, the sun-god." So if you calculate sun, this sun, Vivasvān, is the father of Manu, Vaivasvata Manu. And if you take, calculate, it becomes forty millions of years. So this Bhagavad-gītā is spoken, according to the Bhagavad-gītā, according to the version of Kṛṣṇa, forty millions of years ago. Now He says that science was known to the people by paramparā. And that paramparā is lost somehow or other. Therefore as... (break) Suppose you are born in Bombay, but you do not know how the state is being managed, then what is my jñāna? If you do not know how the state is being managed then what is your jñāna? That jñāna is, dogs and cats, they have also jñāna. How to eat, how to sleep, how to use sex life, how to defend. This is not jñāna. Everyone knows it. If you know God, who is conducting the whole, that is jñāna. So if you do not know who is the supreme controller...

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Then... You think... I do not know, but manage somehow or other. I want that prasāda distribution must go on. People should come in numbers, increase. Whatever you can produce, spend for that purpose. We are not going to produce foodstuff for our starving... It is for them. When they'll understand, they'll work voluntarily: "Yes, it's for us." We are not capitalists.

Trivikrama: Now there's ārati, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Girirāja: It is a big philosophy, that everything is simply based on following the order of Kṛṣṇa without any expectation of any gain.

Prabhupāda: Then you are success. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66). This is success. Kṛṣṇa says, "Do this."

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. If people actually taking like that, then there will be a revolution in Western country.

Hari-śauri: I don't see how they can stop it. They can't stop it.

Prabhupāda: Huge quantity selling. Either Kṛṣṇa's desire... It is Kṛṣṇa's desire. Otherwise a religious book which is not their religion, Bhāgavatam, Indian. So somehow or other it is being distributed, and they say it is spreading like...

Girirāja: Epidemic.

Prabhupāda: Epidemic. So it is a kind of revolution.

Hari-śauri: And it's not just in one place. It's every country our men have been to.

Prabhupāda: Every country. Whole Europe and America. What business they have got to purchase our books in Christmas? They have no business. Why they are purchasing? Huge quantity. I never dreamed even (laughs) that my books would be sold in large quantity.

Hari-śauri: They sold over one million...

Prabhupāda: Bon Mahārāja published a portion of the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. Eleven hundred books. Still lying for the last ten years.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Hari-śauri: They can't... None of these men, they just don't seem to have any realized knowledge. They write things, but it's so dry that no one wants to read it. It's so distasteful. But when you read one of your books it's so full of life. It's just to the point. It exactly describes how everybody's living, how they're thinking, what the troubles and tribulations they're going through, how...

Prabhupāda: Somehow or other it is interesting.

Hari-śauri: Yes. It's so full of...

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Otherwise why people take it? When I was... I thought that I am giving my imagination, who will take it? It is my imagination. Of course with reference to the modern politics, sociology, everything. Whenever possible I touch.

Hari-śauri: But your preaching is so practical. These other men when they speak, it just comes out... It's just not practical or they don't know how to translate it into action.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I try to write. I explained in that verse, kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ (SB 1.10.4). I've touched all the points in the modern...

Girirāja: It has a very nice purport.

Prabhupāda: Find out that. Kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ (SB 1.10.4). Parjanyaḥ...

Pradyumna: Oh, I know.

Prabhupāda: I've touched the slaughterhouse, brothel...

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Hari-śauri: Somehow or other, Kṛṣṇa's in the center. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: I am happy that Kṛṣṇa is center. That's all. This is the beauty of this movement. Although we are put into some difficulty, but center is Kṛṣṇa.

Hari-śauri: The difficulty actually is increasing our thinking of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The papers are publishing, "Kṛṣṇas, they are bad. They are so on, so on, so on." That's all right. Kṛṣṇa is center.

Hari-śauri: Yes, what you said this afternoon... Actually, I found out, one of the arguments that they're using... These deprogrammers, they're very clever. They've done a lot of research, because they're using that statement of Dr. Radhakrishnan's in the Bhagavad-gītā, where he says that man-manā bhava mad-bhakto, "Kṛṣṇa does not mean think of Him," they're using that against us to say that "This man Radhakrishnan was the president of India, and he says that the Bhagavad-gītā is not meant for thinking of Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: Just see how much great harm he has done.

Hari-śauri: Yes. So now they're trying to use that to say that we are misinterpreting the Bhagavad-gītā..

Prabhupāda: But we don't say Radhakrishnan is authority. We take Caitanya Mahāprabhu as authority.

Arrival of BBT Manager -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That's all. And if we have to take contribution, take ISKCON. They're free. But for Bhaktivedanta Trust there is no need of contribution. Then there will be exemption certificate required and so on. We don't want any contribution. If anyone wants to contribute, let him contribute to the ISKCON. They're tax free. And here there is no tax, no tax free. That's all. Print book and sell and spend. Follow this policy there and here also, and push these books. That is our main preaching. Somehow or other, it must go, from door to door, hand to hand. Then our preaching is successful. Anyone who will read, he'll get some benefit. That is sure, because such literatures are not available throughout the whole world. It is a new revolution to the people in general. Am I right or not?

Rāmeśvara: Definitely.

Prabhupāda: That's all. (laughs) Then do it now. And I shall spend all this money for advertisement. That's all.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: One of the biggest bookstores in Bombay, International Book House, has arranged a whole window display of your books.

Prabhupāda: That is useless.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Many people were seeing it.

Prabhupāda: Useless. I know these men. But you can get some customers. That's all right. Do they purchase or simply display?

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

Prabhupāda: Never mind.

Rāmeśvara: That's no problem.

Prabhupāda: No.

Rāmeśvara: And they have to have long hair or wigs, or else they grow it. But somehow or other, they cannot be shaven-headed Hare Kṛṣṇaś.

Prabhupāda: Long hair is not... We should not do that.

Rāmeśvara: They have to have wigs then.

Prabhupāda: Why wigs?

Rāmeśvara: Because in America all the musicians have hair, because that way people become attracted to them.

Prabhupāda: No, we cannot take hair. That is not possible. We cannot become hippies.

Rāmeśvara: No, not hippies. So then, rather than growing their hair, they should wear wigs. Just like our book distributors do not grow their hair long, but they wear wigs.

Prabhupāda: But do you mean to say unless you have long hairs, they will not hear your song?

Rāmeśvara: Medium.

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

Prabhupāda: That's all right. A famous man must be famous. He cannot be famous, famous. What you have done that you'll be famous? You are swine. You cannot be famous.

Rāmeśvara: They are subscribing to our newsletter. They somehow or other get our newsletter, and they read about our Māyāpur city costing so many lakhs and crores. So they became envious. That's all.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That's all right. We are selling books. That is my book. I can spend in such a way.

Rāmeśvara: It was just envy.

Prabhupāda: Envy is envy. But it is my book. I am selling. So I can take the price anywhere. That is my right. You have nothing to say. You stop your men to purchase, that's all. Otherwise I'll sell anywhere and I shall spend anywhere. I have got the right.

Rāmeśvara: Normally they do not attack you.

Jagadīśa: We are voluntarily doing all this.

Rāmeśvara: We're voluntarily. But one of their main arguments is that before someone joins the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement he has great affection for his father, his mother, his brothers, his relatives. And after he joins the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement he has nothing to do with them anymore, and sometimes he even calls them demon.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the fact.

Room Conversation on 1976 Book Scores -- January 16, 1977, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Mimeograph. Ha ha ha. So we were selling about five hundred copies, and gradually... But still, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa was selling almost major portion. Then I asked Brahmānanda that "Why not print?" So he took quotation from different printers, and Dai Nippon, we gave them, printing, this Teachings of Lord Caitanya. So he took quotation, ten cents per copy. But they want twenty thousand. So we were selling about one thousand, and it is a question of twenty thousand. So I consulted Tamāla in San Francisco. So he gave me some encourage. I asked Brahmānanda, "Yes, print twenty thousand." So from five hundred to twenty thousand, great jump. Somehow or other, it began like that. Now what we are printing per month?

Rāmeśvara: What? Hardbound books?

Prabhupāda: No, no, this Back to Godhead.

Rāmeśvara: 750,000. It is averaging like that.

Prabhupāda: So the first attempt was only 20,000. I calculated. Anyway, Kṛṣṇa is giving us all facility. Let us utilize it to the best of our capacity. We have no other ambition. We want to see that everyone may accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead and be happy. This is our mission. We have no other ambition, not to make any cost-profit. But when we see that so many people are reading Kṛṣṇa book, that gives us very good encouragement. Otherwise what...? Two capatis we can get anywhere.

Rāmeśvara: We wrote in the newsletter to the Society that even though our movement is being attacked is so many ways, the best counterattack is through book distribution.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So they are servant. So every one of us is a servant. But this service has not pleased us. Therefore we are seeking other service, the service of the Supreme.

Guest (1): Sir, what is the way to serve the Supreme?

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. Just like a servant, when he is not pleased, somehow or other, with the master, he seeks another service. Is it not? Similarly, the service in this material world will never please us, neither the master. Take for example Gandhi. He gave so much service to his country, to his countrymen, but what was the result? He was shot dead. So who can please more than Gandhi? So we should take lesson from this, that if you are engaged in rendering service to the material world, neither you'll be happy nor the master will be happy. It is simply waste of time.

Guest (3): Waste of time.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (3): No, those who are fighting for the country...

Prabhupāda: Eh! Any way, any way, material service is simply waste of time.

Guest (1): Sir, actually what is spiritual service?

Prabhupāda: Spiritual service—to render service to Kṛṣṇa as Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Then you'll be happy.

Room Conversation -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: Well, we found out that the government has now taken an interest in buying this property, all the properties on the beach. The government is looking for different excuses. Maybe someone violates his lease or he doesn't keep the property according to the lease. Somehow or other, the government wants to develop the land for hotel. So our idea is that there's two properties which are good for us. One of them the government is already committed to buying, and the other one the government is interested in buying but has not yet purchased. So for the first one we can approach the government officials directly.

Prabhupāda: No, then this Kartanai(?) can help.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. And their main interest is foreign exchange from the tourists. So if we offer them U.S. dollars to purchase the property, they may think, "Why should we waste our time developing when they will give us lakhs in U.S. dollars, and let them develop?"

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: So they may sell it to us on that basis.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We shall develop. (break)

Evening Darsana -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No, no. Nowadays it is topsy-turvied. There is no system, Kali-yuga.

Guest (2): Today somebody is a brāhmaṇa, tomorrow's he's kṣatriya, and day after tomorrow he's something else.

Prabhupāda: Udaraṁ bharatā. Dakṣyaṁ udaraṁ bhāratā. Bas, Kali-yuga. Somehow or other, if you can fill up your bellies, then you are very expert. That is going on. If you can maintain your family nicely, then you are dakṣya. Dakṣyaṁ udaraṁ bhāratā. These symptoms are there in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Because the Kali-yuga, it is so condemned that it will be difficult to maintain one's body and soul together, that udaraṁ bharita is very expert. He's maintaining. (laughs) Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā (SB 1.1.10). All unfortunate, they have no certainty. In Western countries they have voluntarily given up regulative life, the hippies. No certainty where he shall eat, where he shall lie down. Voluntarily. Coming of very nice family. In Europe, America.... Especially in America there is no question of becoming poor. Everyone has got sufficient means. But still, voluntarily they have accepted this poverty. Voluntarily. A father is rich man. Grandfather is rich man. And besides that, the government maintains. If you have no engagement, the government will give you at least $25 per week. Is it not?

Satsvarūpa: More than that.

Prabhupāda: More than that. You were in the welfare department. What is the minimum?

Satsvarūpa: It keeps going up. I think it's more like forty, fifty dollars for one person.

Conversation During Massage -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: That is only pretext.

Rāmeśvara: You have already defined violence as "Anything which does not save a man from repeated birth and death, that is violence."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Violence, I take it in this way, that you have got right to possess this. If I do not allow you to possess, that is violent. Somehow or other, I check it, and that is violence.

Hari-śauri: Yes. We have a natural right to understand God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. There is natural right, and they are checking. That is violence. To check one from his rightful position is violence. That is called hiṁsā, that... Kṛṣṇa therefore says, amānitvam adambitvam ahiṁsā. You should not check anybody from his natural advancement, spiritual life. That is ahiṁsā.

Satsvarūpa: What about the platform of just not killing anyone? Is there any credit to that?

Prabhupāda: You are not killed. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, "Who kills and who is killed?"

Satsvarūpa: But, say for political reasons, Stalin would kill.

Prabhupāda: No, that is politics, that.

Satsvarūpa: But Gandhi would say, "No, don't kill because..."

Evening Conversation -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Left side paralyzed. I do not know how we were saved.

Hari-śauri: Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: And one girl, that captain's wife, she studied astrology. She said, "Swami, if you can survive your seventieth year, then you'll live for one hundred years." (Hari-śauri laughs) So, somehow or other, I survived my seventieth year. I do not whether I shall live for hundred years, but seventieth year was severe-three heart attacks and paralysis.

Hari-śauri: All in the same year.

Prabhupāda: Then without any family. At that time none of you were with me. I was alone. I was completely dependent on anyone.

Hari-śauri: Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: But on the ship I saw that "Kṛṣṇa is with me." I was going for this reas..., Hare Kṛṣṇa. So they are not here, some prasāda to eat?

Hari-śauri: There's a little extra. He can take some. They'll all be eating Jagannātha prasādam.

Prabhupāda: We shall be eating also. No? No? Jagannātha prasāda?

Hari-śauri: Well, he was going to cook.

Prabhupāda: Which is better, eh? Jagannātha?

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Somehow or other, it must come. He has promised that he will collect half.

Satsvarūpa: That's right. And whatever he collects, you said you would...

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Satsvarūpa: I heard that he was told whatever he collects you would match that or match half of it.

Prabhupāda: Hm, hm, hm. Gargamuni may go and organize in Dacca. That will be a great service. He was speaking of going to Dacca. That will be greater service.

Satsvarūpa: I thought they were going mostly for the library work.

Prabhupāda: Whatever... No, he says there is possible, that Gauḍīya Maṭha. If in Pakistan, in Bangladesh, if he can organize one center, it will be great triumph.

Satsvarūpa: Dacca.

Prabhupāda: Kīrtana and prasādam distribution. This is our preaching mainly. And if they hear little philosophy, that is very good. Otherwise simply kīrtana and prasādam distribution is sufficient. Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to do that. He was not speaking philosophy to everyone. Kīrtana and prasāda distribution. So our men can perform very nice kīrtana, and if they come to take little prasādam, that is preaching. You have to maintain this standard, that kīrtana must go on and prasādam should be distributed.

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Kīrtana and prasādam distribution. This is our preaching mainly. And if they hear little philosophy, that is very good. Otherwise simply kīrtana and prasādam distribution is sufficient. Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to do that. He was not speaking philosophy to everyone. Kīrtana and prasāda distribution. So our men can perform very nice kīrtana, and if they come to take little prasādam, that is preaching. You have to maintain this standard, that kīrtana must go on and prasādam should be distributed.

Satsvarūpa: And take collection for that, to continue that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. By selling books, by contribution, somehow or other maintain. Everywhere.

Satsvarūpa: Our movement has changed in America in the past six years or so. Now devotees are not much seen on the streets chanting. So there's different feelings. Some say it is all right, because everyone is now distributing books more.

Prabhupāda: That is also nice.

Satsvarūpa: That's also a kind of kīrtana. But then the public, they hardly ever see us anymore. They used to say, "Oh, the saffron-robed people chanting on the streets."

Prabhupāda: But they come to the love feast.

Satsvarūpa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Satsvarūpa: Yes. It's not necessary to emphasize that street chanting.

Room Conversation -- February 3, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So go on with fighting. We are not the Vṛndāvana bābājīs: "No, we are so perfect we do not go out of Vṛndāvana, and chant... Chant or not chant, we have got three dozen widows." This is going on. Sahajiyā. Still they are better because they have accepted Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Lord, than these demons. Our Guru Mahārāja said that although we condemn these sahajiyās, but they are better than the Māyāvādīs because they accept Kṛṣṇa as Supreme Lord. Their character is not good. But still, because they accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Lord somehow or other, they are better than these Māyāvādīs.

Bhāgavata: Sahajiyā.

Prabhupāda: Sahajiyā means they have taken everything very easy. That's all.

Bhāgavata: Cheaply.

Gargamuni: Would you like to rest a little bit?

Prabhupāda: No. Why rest?

Bhāgavata: 9:20.

Gargamuni: 9:30.

Prabhupāda: So we go at ten?

Hari-śauri: 10:15.

Prabhupāda: 10:15, that's all.

Gargamuni: See how you're going to pack?

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: And then come back to Bombay?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. Then I'm coming to Bombay.

Prabhupāda: Now work very strenuously. You are all young men, and somehow or other, dead horse, you have given life. Otherwise the last fortnight I was thinking I am dead now. I was thinking like that, 'Now life is finished." Life can be finished at any time. That is not wonderful. To live, that is wonderful. If my life is finished, that is not wonderful. Nobody will lament. "Oh, he was old man, eighty-two years old." But if I can live for some days more, that is wonderful. If I die, that is not wonderful.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kṛṣṇa is wonderful.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is wonderful always.

Bhavānanda: And you are wonderful.

Prabhupāda: I am wonderful so long I serve Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise useless. No value. If I can serve Kṛṣṇa, then I am wonderful certainly. We don't want to become cheap wonderful. We want to become really wonderful by serving Kṛṣṇa. That is our mission. Kṛṣṇa is wonderful undoubtedly. Who can become more wonderful than Kṛṣṇa? Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). Always remember, Kṛṣṇa is wonderful. Don't take Kṛṣṇa very slightly like one of you. That is foolishness. Kṛṣṇa is wonderful always. He's the most wonderful person, and He can, does... He can do anything wonderful.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Even there was no such suffering. Just like I am suffering now. It is due to so many irregularities. So many. For preaching I have violated so many things. What can be done? As far as possible, I have kept pace.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (chuckling) No one could do what you have done, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: How I can... Main business is how to... Gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe. "Let them first of all, somehow or other, yena tena prakāreṇa. Then I shall impose rules and regulations and regulative..." He has... You have not seen from the very beginning. They have seen. I worked very hard. Two times lectures, cooking, and meeting and twenty-four-hours writing book, typing. Not a single moment, and still I am not wasting single moment.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Always thinking of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: I was giving two tapes daily.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I remember.

Prabhupāda: Two tapes daily regularly. Bhagavad-gītā and Bhāgavata. Sometimes Brahmānanda was typing, sometimes Satsvarūpa, sometimes one boy, Neil, he was typing. He was very good typist.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Stryadhīśa.

Prabhupāda: Sometimes in San Francisco one girl was typing. I was giving them sufficient work. Hayagrīva was typing.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the ultimate. That is stated by Rūpa Gosvāmī,

yena tena prakāreṇa

manaḥ kṛṣṇe niveśayet

sarve vidhi-niṣedhā syur

etayor eva kiṅkarāḥ

that "Somehow or other, bring him to chant Kṛṣṇa or to become little Kṛṣṇa conscious. Then, when he's little purified, then the vidhi-niṣedhāḥ..." He's not rejecting the vidhi-niṣedhāḥ. Vidhi-niṣedhāḥ means regulative principles. It is not rejected, that... But when he's a little purified, this vidhi-niṣedhā syur etayor eva kiṅkarāḥ. Just like one... First of all let him become rich, get some money. And then, when he has got money, he can keep some servant, some assistant, some secretaries, like that. First of all earn money.

Rāmeśvara: So one step at a time.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But organized business means there must be so many men, secretary, manager. That is regulated. So in the beginning, "All right, bring some money somehow. Then I shall..." So you cannot reject this organization because he's chanting. Then what is the use of writing so many books, the nāma-aparādha and other discussions, if anyone can chant?

Rāmeśvara: So it definitely has to lead them to that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So we must come to that point. In the beginning you may be very liberal: "All right, chant." We do like that, and I have done it. There is no regulation. But that does not..., that it should be neglected. He should be given affirmed, "By simply, whimsically chanting this..." No, that is not.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were saying the cows, when they know there is something there, they stay away.

Prabhupāda: No. They can understand that "These people are going to kill us. These people will not kill us." They can understand. You know that when I was in America some incident took place, that some slaughterhouse livestock, the..., somehow or other, it was open, and they were fleeing away, going away. Something happened. They were going up on the slaughterhouse, and some of them were shooted.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The cows were running away?

Prabhupāda: Hm. Unless they could understand that "We are kept here for being slaughtered," why they were running away?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They speak of peace, such nonsense. How can they expect peace when they're slaughtering?

Prabhupāda: All do. It is very, very demons', the Western civilization. No social structure, no mercy. All good qualities devoid. Simply animals in good dress. That's all. (end)

Conversation with Italian Woman with Translator -- February 28, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: It has nothing to do with spiritual advancement. It is body. So that is animal conception. Tell her.

Translator: She's still insisting, should she stay with her husband, should she stay alone so she can...?

Prabhupāda: The same thing. Because it is body, bodily connection, either you live alone or with somebody, it has nothing to do with spiritual life.

Translator: She lives in Milano and she would like, somehow or other, to help people through yoga. So she wants to know if she is able to do it or not?

Prabhupāda: What help she can do?

Translator: She says she would like to help spiritually other people.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So first of all you realize yourself.

Translator: She says sometimes she calls you, and she can feel your presence, and she wants to know if you can feel her presence.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I'm ready to help, but spiritually.

Translator: So she said that probably would be the first and last time she will see you, so she wants to know if she can continue to contact you.

Room Conversation First Day in Juhu Quarters -- March 30, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. We played caitanya-līlā in our younger days. So we brought one very famous man, Amritlal Bose. He is one of the three chief men who started theatrical performances in Bengal. Amritlal Bose, Girish Candra Ghosh, and one some Pathan. This Amritlal Bose was a big author also, for writing comic books. And very expert lecturer. So somehow or other, we contacted him, and we used to call him, (Bengali:) dādā-mahāśaya. Dādā-mahāśaya means grandfather. He was of our grandfather's age. In the evening he was drinking. Very luxurious. So when he came, he said, "Yes, I will give you direction. You are all aristocratic family. But you must know that what is the difference between this professional and this aristocratic family." So he explained that "Caitanya-līlā, in the public theater, anyone can pay eight annas." That eight annas was third-class ticket. Eight annas, one rupee, two rupees and five rupees. "So they can see Caitanya-līlā. Then where is the difference between your playing and their playing?" So he explained that "There must be some difference, that the public, after seeing your playing, they should appreciate so much that they will agree they will never see. So I want to train you like that. Are you prepared?" His first condition. So we were boys at the time... "Yes, sir. Yes. Whatever you say." Then he said, "Then I take charge of training you." So his next condition was that "You cannot play unless I say it is all right." So we practiced for more than one year. Still, he did not say that "You are all right." He did not say. By force, practically, that "Now we shall play, sir." "All right, you can play, but it is not to my perfectional ideas."

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: March?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. It is quite a... It's about two weeks old. Somehow or other, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the mail is... This was sent to Hyderabad, this letter. So that accounts for it. "BBT Trustees' Meeting. 1) Yogeśvara dāsa was appointed the Los Angeles production manager for all international publications and will also act as assistant to the English production manager, Rādhā-vallabha." Yogeśvara dāsa was already in Los Angeles, and the various different foreign BBT's were com-plaining that they weren't getting the proper help from L.A. BBT.

Prabhupāda: He?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They were complaining that they weren't getting things timely. So Yogeśvara will handle all the international business of the L.A. BBT.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. He's very good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "2) Rādhā-vallabha will train up Vipra dāsa in New York to oversee the color printing done at Tandem Press." The reason for this is that every month, at least once a month if not more, Rādhā-vallabha has to fly to New York.

Prabhupāda: No, this should be stopped. Extravagance.

Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 23, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, it is a fact. When Subhas Bapu... He was always pleading, "Gandhiji, these people are not to go by your nonviolence, and we have to take to violence." Gandhi would say, "I will not fight. Sva-rājya." Then Subash went outside India. Somehow or other, he organized. And when the Britishers saw that "The military force, they are joining national movement. Now it is no hope..." Because the Gurkhas and the Sikhs and other military races, they were cooperating with the Britishers, therefore they were maintaining. They could not bring soldiers from their country. And when they saw, "The soldiers are joining Subhas," they left. "Now independence." This is a fact. Otherwise Gandhi he was patting, "Mahatmaji, you are such a great man."

Mr. Dwivedi: In the... I used to meet in northly country in the late 20's, 1929 and '30, when Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru found League for Independence of India. Subhas Bapu was the second.

Prabhupāda: I was present in that meeting.

Mr. Dwivedi: So I was in the working committee with Shrinivas Iyengar from the South and this Ganesh Shankar Vidyapati from Kanpur. Subhas Bapu used to be very plain. When we used to put certain question to Jawaharlal, then he would say, "If you don't believe in Gandhi's ahiṁsā, you get out. Who will follow him, eh? Where shall I get the crowd to hear me?"

Second Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 24, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And you are inviting Mr. Jetthi. So it is good opportunity. Let us...

Mr. Dwivedi: Failing that... If, somehow or other, he's not free... Because time is short, and if Jetthi says yes, then I have to go to the Chief Minister, because on previous occasion I told him I wanted him on a particular function. He said, "You do this. Then get this straight. Otherwise the president of our league(?) becomes expensive, so the expenditure will go over the head of the state." He showed me the way. So then immediately after, he said, "Yes." Then I, right from Delhi itself, I made a telephone call to the Chief Minister, and I said, "Such and such appealing, Mr. Jetthi is going, and I want to be present in the matter, and I request you also that you please participate."

Prabhupāda: Now the Chief Minister...

Mr. Dwivedi: Is Mr. Sukla there. Because then they'll have to make other arrangements.

Prabhupāda: Sukla?

Mr. Dwivedi: Yes. Camartan(?) Sukla.

Prabhupāda: Oh. He was a Kanpur man?

Mr. Dwivedi: Pardon?

Morning Talk -- April 25, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Animal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Animals are envious also.

Prabhupāda: Envious is everywhere. So the whole civilization is so defective. Somehow or other, you come to the power, and you do whatever you like, and the people in general will have to depend on such leaders for their welfare. How they can be happy? If the whole system is defective, how they can be happy? The same man, in one day he's very important, in the next day he's the most degraded. And the most degraded man, previously he was praised by millions of people and next day he's condemned. That means who elevated her to the post, they're all rascals.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right.

Prabhupāda: Śva-viḍ-varāha-uṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ. So what is the value of such election, and what is the value of such important men? Therefore the whole system is condemned. Is it not the fact? Everywhere, not only in India. Not that the actual good man is on the head of the ruling power.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, rather, they look upon good qualities as weakness.

Prabhupāda: Whatever... That they'll achieve.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If someone is humble, they think it is weak.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Talk About Varnasrama, S.B. 2.1.1-5 -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They occupy only one room. Their everything is like that. Pay for. There is no botheration of cooking or purchasing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You mean, different families occupy one room only?

Prabhupāda: Well, different family, different room, but they can live very humbly. Those who have little income, they'll somehow or other take one room, live in. And in that house, everything is there. You can purchase. And you earn money.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes you see a very wealthy may living in only two, three rooms with his whole family.

Prabhupāda: That's all. And generally one room. Otherwise two rooms—one stock room, one sleeping room. They live very economically and save money.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Frugal.

Prabhupāda: Frugal, yes. And when there is enough money, they construct their own house. Then they live very luxuriously. In the beginning, no.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. And they'll work sixteen hours sometimes.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. As much as possible. Very hard-working.

Śatadhanya: And their sons also work with them.

Prabhupāda: And whatever money saved, they purchase ornament. They don't deposit in the bank.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. That's one of their things.

Conversations -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Cheating propensity is so strong. There is cheating propensity in different way. From Brahmā it goes. That is a bad qualification. That should be finished. But they are trying to increase it. I have got some bad qualification; my business is to finish it. So what is the use of increasing it? I am a thief. I have got some habit, to steal. So shall I try to stop it or increase it? Which one is human?

Śatadhanya: To stop.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because they think this life is all in all, they think better somehow or other...

Prabhupāda: That means they are rascals. They are going all wrong.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mahātmā Gandhi.

Prabhupāda: No. Nothing. Simply false life, that's all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And these are the people that we are preaching to.

Prabhupāda: That is our duty.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You preach to us.

Prabhupāda: In the distinction between two civilizations, they, they want to increase the bad qualification; we want to decrease them.

Śatadhanya: And yet they say we are bad.

Prabhupāda: They'll say. That is natural.

Room Conversation Varnasrama -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That's what I... Similarly, weaver, that cloth weaving, "kat, kat." The wife is spinning, her husband is weaving, the children is weaving, and combinedly at the end of the day there is a cloth. And people were satisfied with simple necessities. They would not charge very much for the labor. And one nice cloth requires half a pound cotton. Half a pound cotton means maybe one rupee. Another one rupee for the labor. So now they are paying twenty to thirty rupees. Unnecessarily he has to earn this money and pay to the millionaires, and he will keep three dozen motorcars, so another man will be engaged in motorcar industry. In this way time is being wasted without any search after spiritual realization. Time is wasted in such so-called technology advancement. And the real purpose of life, jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā, that is missing. And when you present that "This is the most important business of life," they say, "It is brainwashing." And they fight to check us, Communists and others, that "It is useless, God consciousness." (break) (long pause) So... Jāniyā śuniyā biṣa khāinu. Because they are missing the aim of life, they are committing suicide. And this varṇāśrama-dharma was planned in such a way that everyone would be spiritually advanced. The weaver will get, the potter will get, the blacksmith will get, the brāhmaṇa is already there, kṣatriya will get—everyone. For them, lower-class men, demigod worship. At least they are accepting there is some higher authority. Among the blacksmith there is viśvakarma-pūjā. One day they will wash all the instruments of blacksmith. Somehow or other, all are cleaned. And with the fruit, with flower, candana, they'll worship.

Room Conversation Varnasrama -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This Kauśalyā girl was loitering in the street.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Kauśalyā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kauśalyā. In Hawaii.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No protection. Somehow or other, she came to see me when I got into Los Angeles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In that way you saved all of us, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A very nice letter came from Yamunā devī with a few photographs. Would you like to see it?

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali)

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You shouldn't try to fast until death.

Prabhupāda: No. That is useless. Do you recommend that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, definitely not. I recommend that, somehow or other, you go on lying there, and we'll go on chanting, and we'll pass until March-April '78. Then we'll take you to Māyāpur for the festival, and then we'll do a world tour.

Prabhupāda: That is very nice program. You can read Bhāgavata from the point where I have stopped.

Pradyumna: Daśāma-skandha?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very good.

Prabhupāda: Is it possible? Eh?

Pradyumna: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: And when he is tired, kīrtana. Let go on. Kīrtanānanda. This is mahājana-mahā-kīrtana. And as far as possible, let me lie down like this. What can be done? Is that conclusion all right?

Upendra: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Room Conversation With Svarupa Damodara -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...some way or other it has become successful.

Bhāgavata: There is no question of thinking, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It is a fact. It is reality that you have become successful, because you have converted even now the scientists. Even the scientists are becoming encouraged to take up Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and their minds are being changed. It is history, and we are seeing it right before our eyes. That is another one of your great contributions in your spiritual conquests, that you have converted the scientists. As Caitanya has conquered the Māyāvādīs, you have conquered the scientists. That's why we are very much eager that you shall remain with us more and more, to carry on these conquests, that we can somehow or other in some small way just help you. But your presence is definitely required. Actually all the devotees are just living to see you from time to time, so that they can get your darśana.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's a fact that we live only by Śrīla Prabhupāda's mercy. (break)

Abhirāma: Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, even though you're simply lying in bed, whatever instructions you give, those are being broadcast all over the world. Simply from this bed you can preach all over the world. You have established such expert system for preaching, your BBT... You have so many disciples. So now, even lying in bed in Vṛndāvana, your preaching is going throughout the world. In so many languages even. Whatever you are speaking here, the GBC's and older devotees, they're taking back to so many different countries and translating into so many languages-Spanish, French, German, Italian. The devotees all over the world are just waiting to hear every word that you speak.

Room Conversation -- October 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This is already uncomfortable.

Bhavānanda: I think that this doctor's desire you have seen through. His desire was to remove you from here somehow or other. First to remove you for an x-ray, then...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Another trick they have is that you have one trouble, so they give you a medicine, but the medicine causes a worse trouble. And eventually such bad trouble is created that they get you depending on them, and then they say, "Now the only thing left, you must come to the hospital for operation." Then they kill you.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, injection, operation.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was asking us, "Does your Guruji have any...? Will he take an injection?" So we said, "No." He was hopeless. He was guessing.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, he didn't know the real cause.

Prabhupāda: They do not know. They use machine. Their means of knowing-machine. They do not know.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I have many medical friends. They frankly admit that oftentimes they kill the patients in the name of treating. It comes out that it was their own medicine that they gave.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Recently that Dalmia secretary... What is his name?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hita-sarana Sharma.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So what about kavirāja? He might think it is a whimsical. And that was my last desire. You could not.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: That kavirāja, I wanted. Somehow or other, it has not happened.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't feel that it's conclusively not happened.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Simply, one after another, frustration.(?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. First we had that Madhva..., not Madhva. Rāmānujī came from Śrī Raṅgajī temple, and he seemed to be a cheater. Then this one... We got this medicine from that śakta-kavirāja, and that medicine turned out to be poison. And now this kavirāja who's supposed to be coming from Calcutta, it's become a mystery where he is. The temple was called, and they said that they've left. They called twice to Calcutta, and they said they've left, and yet he's not here. I don't know what to make of it. Very puzzling situation. I think that if by tomorrow noon they have not arrived, then Śatadhanya can go to Calcutta to bring them. If they're going to arrive, they'd arrive by tomorrow noon.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, at the latest.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At the latest absolutely. I mean, to me, for them to arrive by tomorrow noon is not... From the very beginning I would not have felt it was out of the ordinary.

Prabhupāda: They said they have left!

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You write. You are intelligent. I cannot do anything. I only want...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that point.

Prabhupāda: (crying) I am very poor man, and somehow or other, I built up. And still in my...

Kavirāja (1): (Hindi or Bengali)

Prabhupāda: Aiye. Aiye. (Hindi)

Guest (2): What is the actual problems?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The problems are that... The biggest problem...

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where is the urine report? Where is Bhakti-caru?

(break) (kavirāja and Prabhupāda—Hindi)

Bhakti-caru: Since when is that dropsy?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The dropsy is more than one year.

Prabhupāda: No, one year... Less.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...krama on the palanquin, practically it is very pleasant.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You look very much like you're enjoying when we take you around. It's very nice to see that you're happy then. (break) Śrīla Prabhupāda, when someone is ill as Your Divine Grace is, it's always a case of lamentation, but somehow or other, because of your most wonderful Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is simply nectarean to be with you. (break) ...Indian Overseas Bank. So Prabhupāda's idea is that all of you should get sufficiently everything that you require, that you should never feel any difficulty. But he is very concerned that the money should not be squandered. (break) ...going to deal with the letter. He simply instead told you to come.

Vrindavan De: I have sent money twice. Once in Vṛndāvana and Bombay.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we got the 870 rupees. That we received here.

Vrindavan De: But took from Prabhupāda personally.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. But so far, the payment to the BBT has not come.

Vrindavan De: No, BBT is being arranged. I shall send check.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think your outstanding bill is about 25,000 rupees.

Vrindavan De: Yes, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So that has not been paid.