Teacher (Conversations 1967 - 1973)

Expressions researched:
"teacher" |"teacher's" |"teachers"

1967 Conversations and Morning Walks

Discourse on Lord Caitanya Play Between Srila Prabhupada and Hayagriva -- April 5-6, 1967, San Francisco:

Hayagrīva: Did He have a spiritual master?

Prabhupāda: So He accepted spiritual... Not spiritual master, but a sannyāsa-guru. That is also master, but he's not spiritual master. But he's also considered as sannyāsa-guru, spiritual master who offers him sannyāsa. Just like myself, I took initiation from my Guru Maharaja, but I took sannyāsa from a Godbrother who is a sannyāsī. So my original guru is that spiritual master who initiated me, but he's also a śikṣā guru. Like that. Teacher. Then His renunciation of householder. He became sannyāsa. Now when He was, after taking sannyāsa, when He was going towards Vṛndāvana, He became always almost mad. So Nityānanda, He was with Him. When He saw that Lord Caitanya is in ecstasy, He misled Him just to... His plan was that "I shall take Lord Caitanya to the house of Advaita, and then I shall call His mother to see Him for the last time. If Caitanya goes away from this very point His mother will not be able to see Him."

Discourse on Lord Caitanya Play Between Srila Prabhupada and Hayagriva -- April 5-6, 1967, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Brief summary... In this scene Caitanya Mahāprabhu became the student. Not exactly student. He inquired and Rāmānanda Rāya answered. So the importance of the scene is that Caitanya Mahāprabhu does not follow the formality, only the sannyāsīs should be the spiritual master. Anyone who knows the science of Kṛṣṇa, he can be spiritual master. And to show this example practically, although He was sannyāsī and brāhmaṇa and Rāmānanda Rāya was a śūdra and a gṛhastha, householder, still He became like a student and inquired Rāmānanda Rāya. Rāmānanda Rāya felt some, I mean to say, hesitation that "How can I take the position of a teacher to a sannyāsī?"

Discourse on Lord Caitanya Play Between Srila Prabhupada and Hayagriva -- April 5-6, 1967, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Don't hesitate." He stated that either one may be a sannyāsī or he may be householder or one may be a brāhmaṇa or śūdra, it doesn't matter. Anyone who knows the science of Kṛṣṇa, he can take the place of teacher. So that was His, I mean to say, gift. Because in Indian society it is simply taken that the brāhmaṇas and the sannyāsī can be spiritual master. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "No. Anyone can become spiritual master provided he's conversant with the science." And the summary of the discussion was how to elevate oneself in the highest perfection of love of Godhead. And that love of Godhead was described, existed, I mean to say, superexcellently in Rādhārāṇī. So in the bhāva, in the feature of Rādhārāṇī. And Rāmānanda Rāya, in the feature of Rādhārāṇī's associates Lalitā-sakhī, both of them embraced and began to dance in ecstasy.

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Interviewer: Guru means teacher.

Prabhupāda: Guru means not exactly teacher. Guru, the word, means heavy. Heavy. H-e-a-v-y, heavy.

Interviewer: Is guru and swami the same thing?

Prabhupāda: Swami means practically the same idea. Swami means the master of the senses. One who has not control over senses, he cannot become guru. The renounced order means he's strictly away from all kinds of sense gratification, especially sex life. Therefore, he's called swami. Swami means the master. One who has become the master of the senses, he can become the spiritual master of the society. That is the idea.

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Yes. A sannyāsī means itinerant teacher. He will wander and teach from door to door.

Interviewer: When was it that you arrived from India with $2?

Prabhupāda: It was in September, 1965.

Interviewer: Several years ago.

Prabhupāda: About three years before.

Interviewer: Now, you met a gentleman by the name of Harvey Cohen?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Yes, there are two different processes of acquiring knowledge. One process is to research oneself by his own endeavor, by his limited sense speculation. And another process is to know from the authority. Just like deductive process, we say, man is mortal. This knowledge is received from higher authorities, just like our teacher or parents, we understand that man is mortal. Another process is one can make research whether actually man is mortal.

Morning Walk at Stow Lake -- March 27, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Whether Kṛṣṇa is being satisfied by his activities? Just like you are engaged in different activities. But as soon as you bring your money and engage in the Society's cause, oh, I am very gratified. I do not inquire... Of course, we do not encourage impious activity. That is not the meaning. But phalena paricīyate. Because you offer the result of your activities to Kṛṣṇa, that becomes pious. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). So that is the standard of pious activity. Now, this is also pious activity, heeding before teacher. That if by satisfying the poor teachers one becomes pious, how much pious he is who is trying to satisfy the supreme teacher, Kṛṣṇa. He's also a living creature. He's also individual person. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). (pause) So have we finished our walking? Not yet?

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee: I didn't get any new members today. I went all over... I went over to McGill, and not very many teachers, professors there know about the temple, especially the chemistry professors. I don't think chemistry professors go too well with Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: No. Every... You have to convince them that chemistry or philosophy or anything, without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is all useless. Svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya saṁsiddhiṁ labhate param.

Questions and Answers -- Montreal, August 26, 1968:

Prabhupāda: There are restriction. A brahmacārī can, but he can accept on behalf of his spiritual master, not personally. These are the rules. So He was learned brāhmaṇa, and people used to present Him profusely, so He had no economics problem. Not that He renounced the world on account of poverty or some strain. He had no poverty, He was opulent. A brāhmaṇa does not require any great amount of wealth just to pull on his family. So that much amount was more than that He was receiving. He was teacher also. Paṭhana, pāṭhana, yajana, yājana. Brahmin's business is to teach and to become a very learned scholar and teach people how to worship Kṛṣṇa and become devotee himself, and accept charities from others and distribute it again.

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Interviewer: What are your teachers called, those who teach the members of the community of Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Are they also gurus or anything similar to the gurus of the Hindu faith?

Prabhupāda: The original guru is Kṛṣṇa. And just like He taught first the Kṛṣṇa consciousness principle to Arjuna. And how Arjuna understood, that is also there. So anyone who follows the principle... Just like my great grandfather told something, "This is watch." Then my grandfather told, "This is watch." Then my father told, "This is watch." So I am also telling, "This is watch." So there is no difference of opinion between the old great grandfather and me because we are following the same principle. Similarly, whatever is spoken by Kṛṣṇa five thousand years or forty millions of years, it doesn't matter. If you are simply following the same principles, then you are spiritual master.

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Interviewer: Then your teachers are called spiritual masters? You are the spiritual preceptor, your holiness. And do you use the word guru?

Prabhupāda: Our guru or spiritual master comes down from that disciplic succession. It is not that, that somebody all of a sudden becomes guru and manufactures his own philosophy. We don't accept such nonsense. We must accept somebody who is actually bona fide, coming in disciplic succession, not others.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- February 12, 1969, Los Angeles:

Interviewer: Yes, but so have all of the great teachers been concerned with consciousness. It's a question of whether or not it's achieved. I presume that's why you work at this.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But thing is that there are two processes for understanding the Absolute Truth. One is ascending process, and one is descending process. We accept that descending process. Ascending process means trying to understand the Absolute Truth by dint of one's limited knowledge. Our knowledge... However I may be great, my senses are imperfect. You see? I cannot understand the sun, although I see every day sun, without understanding the sun as it is from authoritative books. Simply by seeing, by, simply by sense perception, we cannot understand. Now, this machine, simply by seeing, I cannot understand. But if I hear from authorities that "This is this; this is that," that understanding is right. Similarly, Absolute Truth cannot be understood by mental speculation, however a great thinker he may be. It must be understood from the authorities.

Room Conversation -- April 12, 1969, New York:

Rāyarāma: That was the day after our initiations. They initiated the night before. We had two days feasting.

Devotee: I came into San Francisco looking for a spiritual teacher and I came to prasādam and I never left.

Gargamuni: I think that's what hooked all of us. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Prasāde sarva-duhkhānāṁ hanir asyopajāyate. (pause) Thank you. Govinda dāsī has become very good housewife. Yes. (pause) Rāyarāma, come. Kṛṣṇa baṛo doyāmoy koribāre jihvā jay sva-prasād-anna dilo bhāi. No more.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Allen Ginsberg: In Harvard many years ago. And then he went to India and found a teacher, and is now a disciple of Hanumānji or a devotee of Hanumān. And he said that, we were talking about māyā and the present condition of America...

Prabhupāda: Have some fruits?

Allen Ginsberg: In a while. Well, we can talk as...

Prabhupāda: Accha.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: No, no. I can talk with you whole night. (laughter)

Allen Ginsberg: So he said that his teacher in India told him that LSD was a Christ of the Kali-yuga for Westerners.

Prabhupāda: Christ?

Allen Ginsberg: of the Kali-yuga for Westerners in that, as the Kali-yuga got more intense, as attachment got thicker and thicker, that also salvation would have to be easier and easier, and that...

Prabhupāda: (aside:) (Bengali)

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: Yes, he apparently fits into, in the West what is called the Gnostic tradition, which has similar ideas and similar bhakti attitudes to the Buddhist and Hindu traditions. Similar cosmography, cosmology. He was my teacher.

Prabhupāda: He did not give much stress on this material body.

Allen Ginsberg: No! At the end of his life, he didn't count on the material body.

Prabhupāda: So, there is a spiritual concept of life in his poetry.

Hayagrīva: Blake died on chanting. I don't know what he was chanting but he died singing.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. He is known as Sūradāsa.

Allen Ginsberg: Teacher of Tulasī Dāsa, or student of Tulasī Dāsa.

Prabhupāda: He may be different, but Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura, he was also blind. He made himself blind. You know the story of Bilvamaṅgala?

Allen Ginsberg: No.

Prabhupāda: Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura, in his previous life, he elevated himself to the loving stage of Kṛṣṇa. Not exactly, just previous, bhāva. It is called bhāva, ecstasy. But some way or other, he could not finish, so according to the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, he was given birth to a nice brāhmaṇa family. (aside:) You can call that Bengali lady. She can hear. So very rich. Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe (BG 6.41), in that way. Rich family, at the same time, brāhmaṇa family. But richness, generally, sometimes glide down to wine, women, and intoxication. So by bad company he became woman-hunter, prostitute-hunter. So he was too much addicted to one woman, Cintāmaṇi. So his father died, and he was... He did not marry.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

John Lennon: Yeah, we've gotta go around. Yoko never met Maharsi. We're asking advice of how to, you know, how to stop. You can go on forever. I know people that have been wandering around for years, seeking gurus and spiritual teachers. I mean it's doing them all quite well.

Prabhupāda: Bring prasādam.

John Lennon: I mean, we can only judge on a material level by looking at your disciples and looking at other peoples' disciples and looking at ourselves, you know. And, of course, if there's thirty disciples, seven of them look fairly spiritual, another ten look okay, and the others just look as though they're having trouble... You know. So there's no...

Yoko Ono: It's the same thing.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1970, Bombay:

Haṁsadūta: There's another letter. It says, "Your leading article on the Kṛṣṇa cult makes interesting reading. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, the Indian founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, ISKCON, and his American disciples repeatedly told K.R. Sundarajan, the author of the article in the Times Weekly, November 8th, 1970, during their brief stay in Bombay that theirs was not strictly a Hindu movement. They explained to him that Kṛṣṇa was above all religions, the universal teacher, the supreme man, the purification of the Absolute Truth. If it is so, then why can't they go to Pakistan and China for chanting of Kṛṣṇa's name and ask them to vacate aggression? The soil of this land where the great master was born..."

Prabhupāda: Now, now, we have to serve the political, politicians. Eh? Because they cannot do, so they are asking us.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: So you can inquire from me. In my presence, you can inquire from me. Because, after all, they are my students, they may not be able to reply thoroughly. So if you have got any inquiries you can ask from me.

Guest (4): Yes. Yes. Mahārāja, I am a teacher of Sanskrit and English in one of the higher secondary schools here and I am very much interested...

Prabhupāda: So you join us. Simply lip sympathy will not do. Just like these boys and girls, they have joined wholeheartedly. So I do not find any Indians.

Guest (4): I am ready to join but for my family liabilities. Is there is some...?

Room Conversation -- December 15, 1970, Surat:

Prabhupāda: That's all right but do not take the position of a teacher unless you have assimilated the whole thing. Simply by hearing others you may misunderstand, you may not present the real thing. Therefore I'm asking you...

Guest (1): (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (indistinct) but you must know. Another thing is that you must know Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from a bhāgavata, whose life is bhāgavata. First of all you must know what is bhāgavata. What is bhāgavata? Can you give me idea what you have understood? Instead of going through the instruction, first of all let me understand what do you understand about this (indistinct) Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That is essential. So you cannot explain what is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. You have read Bhāgavatam from the beginning? Dharma projjhita kaitavo atra. You have read?

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: That is stated in our Kṛṣṇa Book. Within a few days He became expert warrior, expert magician, expert yogi, every..., so many things, all arts. But He learned from a guru. He is perfect Himself, Kṛṣṇa. He is called Yogesvara. He knows all the yoga process, but still, in order to teach us, because He is playing the part of a teacher, He shows us that you must learn from guru. "I am learning from guru." So any science, you cannot learn it automatically by yourself. No, that is not. Then we shall create so many mental speculators, so many things. That will be not a science. Even all scientists, they accept a formula from an authority: "law of gravitation." They accept it. Then their physical, so many things they discover. But accept one formula. Just like this formula is given by Sir Isaac Newton. So they accept guru.

Discussion with Indians -- January 18, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: No, no, I am not speaking my own views. I have got my ācāryas, my teachers, Rāmānujācārya, Śaṅkarācārya, Madhvācārya. So it is all right. It is all right. I have got so many authorities. What authority you have got?

Guest (2): I am, myself, in my own senses...

Prabhupāda: Now, you are not authority.

Guest (2): I am not but my own...

Prabhupāda: I am following so many authorities. Then... Then there is no question.

Discussion with Indians -- January 18, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is not understanding, I understand. But I am understanding from my teacher, just like I told you, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī, Lord Caitanya. There are so many stalwart teachers, practically whole Hindu community.

Guest (6): But every successive teacher has added some interpretations of the knowledge, no?

Prabhupāda: First of all let him be successor.

Guest (4): You are the successor of somebody.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:

Prabhupāda: Now, this picture... This is Viṣvarūpa. It was shown to Arjuna. Now, Arjuna, before understanding Bhagavad-gītā, was a fighter, warrior. And after understanding Bhagavad-gītā, he remained a fighter. So we don't want to change the position. Just like you are a respectable professor, teacher. We don't say that you change your position. We have come to convince you about our philosophy. That's all. So just like the same example: Arjuna, he was denying to fight, "Kṛṣṇa, I do not like to kill my relatives. I don't want this kingdom." But he was taught Bhagavad-gītā. And at the end, when Kṛṣṇa inquired, "What is your decision now?" he said, kariṣye vacanaṁ tava (BG 18.73): "Yes, I shall act accordingly, as You say." That means his consciousness was changed.

Television Interview -- July 29, 1971, Gainesville:

Interviewer: As confirmed by all the Vedic scriptures and by the great sages in the disciplic succession, He has a body made of eternity, bliss, and all knowledge. God has infinite forms and expansions. But of all His forms, His original form, His transcendental form, is as a cowherd boy. A form which He reveals only to His most confidential devotees. So go the teachings of Kṛṣṇa as laid down in the Vedic literature. And of the sages in the disciplic succession, which I mentioned, one is our guest for this conversation today. He is His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, foremost teacher in the West of the Kṛṣṇa philosophy, which, moreover, he teaches not only by word, but by example. He came to this country in 1965 on orders of his spiritual master. As a Kṛṣṇa disciple, he is the present human exponent of a line of succession going back five hundred years to the appearance in India of Lord Caitanya, and beyond that, to a time five thousand years ago when Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself was on this planet and His words were recorded. Welcome, sir. What is Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means that every living being, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa has got many expansion. That is called personal expansion and separated expansion. So separated expansions we are, we living entities. But although we are very intimately connected with Kṛṣṇa, somehow or other we are now separated by contact of material nature. So we have practically forgotten that we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Actually that is the fact.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1971, Detroit:

Mohsin Hassan: Oh, yes. I have almost all of your printed, but I'm trying to (indistinct)... Ramakrishna, they have big library and bookstore, and this is where goes most of their income. I was wondering. And many..., they have so many scholars for this movement because they are for a variety of religions. And one argument I always receive from some teacher, they say this movement insists on the chanting and they are not trying to open all the other doors for other religions. And I have no answer to them.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Mohsin Hassan: They tell me that..., the Ramakrishna Mission, they offer all kinds variety of books about every religion.

Prabhupāda: We have got varieties of books.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1971, Detroit:

Mohsin Hassan: I thank you very much for this wonderful interview. I hope, I'll give you a copy of what you said as soon as I type it out, and I shall keep in contact with you in the future. There are many, many teacher of DePaul University—I am of DePaul University—interested to meet you, and this just to invite you in the future for some lecture.

Prabhupāda: So you try to understand our philosophy from any angle of vision and we shall be able to answer. There will be no difficulty, because we are taking our lessons from Kṛṣṇa. So there is no difficulty to answer any opposite element.

Mohsin Hassan: Thank you again. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1971, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: So we are publishing all our books in a scholarly way so that professors, teachers, philosophers, they, they can read it. And it is very easily done. Word-to-word, Sanskrit word, English, and diacritic marks. So we are working very hard. So if it is introduced among the scholarly sections, professors, teachers, it will be very beneficial to the human society.

Mohsin Hassan: Do you do your printing in Japan and America?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. I am... Whenever I travel, I travel all over, around the world.

Interview -- July 29, 1971, Gainesville:

Interviewer: All right. (aside to associate:) You're going to cue me, right? (addressing audience:) Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as confirmed by all the Vedic scriptures and by the great sages in disciplic succession. He has a body made of eternity, bliss and all knowledge. God has infinite forms and expansions, but of all His forms, His original form, His transcendental form, is as a cowherd boy, a form which He reveals only to His most confidential devotees. So go the teachings of Kṛṣṇa as laid down in the Vedic literature. And of the sages in the disciplic succession, which I mentioned, one is our guest for this conversation today. He is His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, founder of the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, foremost teacher in the West of the Kṛṣṇa philosophy, which, moreover, he teaches not only by word but by example. He came to this country in 1965, on orders of his spiritual master. As a Kṛṣṇa disciple he is the present human exponent of a line of succession going back five hundred years to the appearance in India of Lord Caitanya, and beyond that to a time five thousand years ago, when Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself was on this planet and His words were recorded. Welcome, sir. What..., what is Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa consciousness means that every living being, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa has got many expansions. That is called personal expansion and separated expansion. So separated expansions we are, we living entities. But although we are very intimately connected with Kṛṣṇa, somehow or other we are now separated by contact of material nature. So we have practically forgotten that we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Actually, that is a fact.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: But experimental knowledge of scientific handling must he have learned from somebody else.

Dr. Weir: That's a different thing.

Prabhupāda: Therefore he has a teacher. You cannot say that, or he has taken the techniques of other scientists and he has experimented. In the laboratory appliances he cannot say that he has, he invented the laboratory appliances.

Dr. Weir: No, but his power of observation was important.

Prabhupāda: That is all right. That is all right.

Dr. Weir: That's in him and nobody else.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Of course, when you accept the... That is not fear. That is obedience, respect. Respect. That's not fear. Just like my students—they are not fearful of me. Because I came from India so what business they have got to be afraid of me. Neither I'm very..., a greater man, but they receive the philosophy, they understand the philosophy, therefore they have got respect for me. The teacher should be offered due respect. That is not fear. That is not out of fear. It's out of love.

Room Conversation with Dr. Karan Singh, -- November 25, 1971, Delhi:

Dr. Singh: (Sanskrit) That is the position actually. What is this little story, these two little things standing here? Some time back you called the drowning of the son of our teacher. Is this from the Bhāgavatam?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian woman (Mrs. Singh?): See these two little things standing here.

Malatī: It's Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa's teacher's son was stolen, so He got him back. Guru-dakṣiṇā. The guru asked Kṛṣṇa, "I have lost my son. You can..." "Oh, yes." Guru-dakṣiṇā. That is how to (indistinct) satisfy the spiritual master.

Malatī: Sāndīpani Muni has...

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

Prabhupāda: That explanation is there. Why you are asking me? That is... I do not remember exactly what is the features of Vaibhava. That is there. But the vaibhava, prabhāvā, vaibhava, vilāsa, there are detailed description of Kṛṣṇa's expansions. They are described there. You can refer to. Prabhāvā, vaibhava, vilāsa, they are expansions of Kṛṣṇa's different avatāra, incarnation, and part, part of incarnation. So it is a huge list, and it's not always possible to remember them in detail. Better refer to the book. Is that all right?

Devotee (2): Yes.

Prabhupāda: The teacher will remember all the work of the dictionary. (laughs) You can refer to the dictionary. (laughter) (end)

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 12, 1972, Madras:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughter)

Guest: He was very happy, and he was very good and I love..., I have great love for him, and he was a very just man. He was a teacher of...

Prabhupāda: In Calcutta he was a professor...

Guest: ...politics, not of the Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest: Now, would you allow me to think aloud...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Then?

Bob: What do you think is the proper duty of the teacher?

Prabhupāda: No more. Huh?

Bob: What is the proper duty of the teacher in society? Let's say a science teacher. What should he be doing in the classroom?

Prabhupāda: Classroom, you should simply teach about Kṛṣṇa.

Bob: He should not teach about...

Prabhupāda: No, that will include everything. But his aim should be how to know Kṛṣṇa.

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

Prabhupāda: Man and woman. So if you want to get liberation from this material world, then that attachment should be reduced to nil. Otherwise, simply for that attachment, you'll have to take birth and rebirth, either as human being or as demigod or as an animal, as a serpent, as a bird, as a beast. You have to take birth. So this basic principle of attachment, increasing, is not our business. It is decreasing. Pravṛttir eṣā bhūtānāṁ nivṛttis tu mahā-phalam. This is the general tendency, but if one can reduce and stop it, that is first class. Therefore our Vedic system is that first of all a boy is trained as a brahmacārī, no sex life. Brahmacārī. He goes to the teacher's home. (pause—a devotee chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa over loudspeaker is very loud.) Who is this?

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, to become honest is also good karma. How to become good man, they're described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Daivī sampad and asurī sampad. These are very elaborately described in the Bhagavad-gītā. So if you become qualified with the daivī sampad, then daivī sampad vimokṣāya (BG 16.5), then you'll be liberated. And nibandhāyāsurī matā. And if you are qualified with the demonic qualification, then you'll be more and more entangled. Unfortunately, the modern civilization, they do not know what is liberation and what is entanglement. They're so much ignorant. They do not know... Suppose if I ask you, "What do you mean by liberation?" Can you answer? And if I ask you, "What do you mean by entanglement?" Can you answer? These words are there in the Vedic literature. Liberation and entanglement. But at the present moment they do not know even what is liberation, what is entanglement. They're so ignorant and foolish, and still, they're proud of their advancement in knowledge. Can you answer what is liberation? You are a professor, teacher, but if I ask you, can you explain what is liberation?

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It says, "Any activities sanctioned in the revealed scriptures and aiming at the satisfaction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are accepted by saintly teachers as the regulative principles of devotional service. If somebody regularly executes such service unto the Personality of Godhead under the direction of a bona fide spiritual master, then gradually he rises to the platform of serving in pure love of God."

Prabhupāda: That nonviolence. Kṛṣṇa is number one violent. (chuckles) Number one. There is no limit of His violence. Just see.

Yadubara: Don't you have... In the material world, sometimes you have to stand up for what you think is right and sometimes use violence?

Room Conversation with Dai Nippon -- April 22, 1972, Tokyo:

Prabhupāda: Oh. Yes. So our program is that, as I have already explained, the success of everything depends how Kṛṣṇa is satisfied. So if you try to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, then whatever you want, He will give you, benedict. I will give you one instance. It is stated in Kṛṣṇa Book. Kṛṣṇa was a student of Sāndīpani Muni. So when Kṛṣṇa finished His education, it is the system that the disciple gives some, I mean to say, reward, presentation to the spiritual master, because he has educated. So the disciple requests his spiritual master, "Now I have finished my education. I am going home." Formerly the student used to live with the spiritual master. "So how can I serve you?" So at that time the spiritual master, whatever he wants, the disciple will supply. So in the case of Kṛṣṇa, the teacher knew that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So when Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma asked his teacher, "How can I satisfy you?" so they requested, "My dear boys, I lost my child very young. If you kindly bring them, then I shall be very much pleased." So Kṛṣṇa went underneath the sea and brought his son back. This incident is there. So my point is that whatever you want, Kṛṣṇa will give you. You try to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That's all. (Japanese)

Conversation with Dai Nippon -- April 22, 1972, Tokyo:

Prabhupāda: I am traveling all over the world. There is no such department. They have completely evaded or set aside because they cannot make any solution whether there is... I talked with one Mr. Kotovsky, a Russian professor in Moscow. I was in Moscow. He said, "Swamiji, there is no life after death." Just see. He's a big professor and his knowledge is so imperfect that he says that there is no life after death. So that is the position everywhere. Those who are teachers, they are with imperfect knowledge. The teachers in the universities, they are with imperfect knowledge. Now, life after death, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is very easily explained that just like a child has next life, boyhood. The boy has next life as youthhood. The youthhood has next life, the old age. So why not the old age next life? If we are passing through so many stages of life from birth or from the womb of the mother, then what is the reason that one does not believe there is no life after death?

Room Conversation -- June 14, 1972, Los Angeles:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: The inclination may be right, but the spiritual education is lacking. They don't have the teacher.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: Education.

Prabhupāda: That is the defect of modern education.

John Fahey: Well, they go to college, and so this is where the idea started. It got bigger and bigger and bigger, and now it's out of control. (laughs) It's terrible. It's all-pervasive. (indistinct) I don't kill animals.

Devotee: Vegetarian?

John Fahey: Now, yeah.

Devotee: He's vegetarian.

Room Conversation -- June 14, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That John Lennon, there is a picture in his sitting room, standing naked. This is madness. That is not natural life. If you go against your natural life, that is madness. Just like a madman walks on the street naked. So these are... So our mission is to advise everyone, educate everyone to become exactly like human being. That you can become by understanding God. The books, educational institutions, are meant for human being, for knowledge. All the books all over the world, they are not meant for cats and dogs. They are meant for human beings. The schools, colleges and universities, institutions, they are meant for human being, not for the cats and dogs. So we must take advantage of these books, institution, knowledge, teachers. That is real human life. Just like your guitar.

Room Conversation -- June 29, 1972, San Diego:

Prabhupāda: That is the process, Vedic process. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet samit-pāniḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham (MU 1.2.12). You have to learn. Just you learn so many things from teacher, similarly, these things also you have to learn.

Guest (2): In other words, this question of there being another world, it could be actually learned. There is no belief in word in that.

Prabhupāda: It is a fact.

Guest (2): You could actually find out, experience yourself that there is another world.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes. Just like you have come to America. (laughter) Yes, similarly.

Room Conversation -- July 4, 1972, New York:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes. Jaya.

Devotee (5): Śrīla Prabhupāda? I am one of the teachers in the gurukula...

Prabhupāda: Ahh.

Devotee (5): ...and one of the boys, Ekendra, his mother, Kalindi, she wants to take him away from the school.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee (5): She wants to take him away from the school. So she's leaving it up to you, to your decision, as to whether the boy goes with her or stays in the gurukula school. He's progressing very nicely at gurukula. The school is just starting. He's very intelligent boy.

Prabhupāda: So why he is taking? Why she is taking?

Room Conversation -- July 4, 1972, New York:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Śrīla Prabhupāda, what are your instructions to the parent..., to the teachers as to how they treat parents? I have heard several parents sometimes complain that..., that they don't get enough news about their children from the teachers. Should teacher let the parents know about the children?

Prabhupāda: So our, the small children teaching...

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes.

Prabhupāda: ...means they should learn alphabet.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes.

Prabhupāda: How to read and write. That is the first thing.

Room Conversation -- July 4, 1972, New York:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: He's another teacher.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee (6): Can I ask you a question?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Devotee (6): That many, many devotees have, have since I have arrived here, have asked me questions about how, how to treat the children, how to, how to teach the children, and they have, you know, there are many children in other temples besides gurukula who are either are not, not of age yet, or who have not been sent yet...

Prabhupāda: Everyone is of age. That is all right. It is not that there is no age limit. Anyone who can remain, that is the best thing. But with very small children, I think nowadays after three years children can begin.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: Just see how this girl is being trained. So similarly you are teaching our students, small children, we have ordinary school at Dallas, to, because these boys and girls they're having children, they're being trained up. We are creating a new generation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Sumati Morarjee: I tell you, we have got a very good Manipuri teacher.

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Sumati Morarjee: Last year I was in Manipura, I took this girl with me, my (indistinct), and I stayed there eight days went to Govinda's temple and all these places.

Prabhupāda: I, we cannot pay, we have no money.

Interview -- July 5, 1972, New York:

Prabhupāda: It is the training period for going back to home, back to Godhead. So that after giving up this body or after this time's death, others who are dying they do not know what next life they are getting. They, although they are proud of education, but they do not discuss what is the constitutional position of the soul, how he is transferring from one body to another, how it is to be done. This science is unknown to the modern education. Is it not? They do not know. They simply speculate. That is the defect of modern educational system, and actually everyone is seeking for spiritual emancipation. Therefore in your country, in spite of so many big, big universities, you are producing hippies, hopeless population. Am I saying right or not? Your are university teacher. I have seen in so many universities.

Interview -- July 20, 1972, Paris:

Frenchman: (indistinct) ...history of many masters and many great teachers such as Jesus Christ and many others... (indistinct) ...come to... (indistinct) ...message. (indistinct) ...today on the same level.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because from God's side there is always an attempt to make the people right. As soon as they're wrongly directed, some messenger comes like Jesus Christ or Buddha or, before Him, Lord Kṛṣṇa. So what we are preaching that is not new. It is God consciousness. And all the great messiahs they came. But the thing is that people are changing in their different education mentalities. So we have to present things in such a way that intelligent person can accept the old teachings in the western countries. Like Lord Jesus Christ... Either they're not being followed or they're not properly understood because in London I saw hundreds of churches are vacant. That means that it's so practical that people have no more interest in Christianity or the Christian people could not convince them of the spiritual necessity of life. Many churches are for sale. That's not a good sign. That means people have lost interest in spiritual life but fortunately the younger generation, they are taking to this spiritual movement.

Interview with the New York Times -- September 2, 1972, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Of course there are good men and bad men, and good men are taking to this movement because it is a good movement. "Good" means not having illicit sex, not eating meat, not indulging in intoxication, and not indulging in gambling. If anyone observes these four principles, he is considered a good man, and if he does not observe them, he is a bad man. So good men will take to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, and bad men will not. We give distinct rules on how to become good, for if one does not become good, how can he understand God, who is all good? First we must become good men; then we can understand God. God is all good, and if we don't become good we cannot understand Him. That's all. It's up to us to make the choice. The past, present and future are open for everyone. There is no restriction; no one says, "This class of men shall be good, and this class of men shall be bad." Anyone can become good. If we educate a child nicely, he becomes good, but if we train him foolishly, he becomes a rascal. It is the duty of the government, of the father and of the teachers to make everyone good. If the government is bad, if the father is bad, and the society is bad—how can the child be good? Everywhere the government, father and society are bad; and therefore we are producing bad men, and therefore there is no peace and prosperity.

Conversation with Bajaj and Bhusan -- September 11, 1972, Arlington, Texas, At Their Home:

Prabhupāda: Yes, you'll realize when you satisfy actually. You have to take direction. Just like you are engineer or business administrator. You learn the art from a teacher, and then you can know how you are satisfying your master. Just like if you eat, then you can understand that "how we are being satisfied." You haven't got to ask anybody, "Am I satisfied?" If you are eating, then you'll be satisfied. Similarly, if you serve Kṛṣṇa according to the superior direction, then you'll understand that Kṛṣṇa is satisfied. First of all you have to learn how to satisfy, and then, reciprocally, you'll be aware that Kṛṣṇa is satisfied with you by the result.

Conversation with Bajaj and Bhusan -- September 11, 1972, Arlington, Texas, At Their Home:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) ...fruits... Just accept Kṛṣṇa, the most learned man. Follow His teaching. Your life is perfect. And practically you see. They have accepted Kṛṣṇa the supreme teacher, and how their life is becoming perfect. (Hindi) Kṛṣṇa ye bhaje se baḍa catura. Unless one is very, very intelligent he cannot come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa ye bhaje se baḍa catura. As Kṛṣṇa is very cunning, intelligent, so His devotee is also very cunning and intelligent. Kṛṣṇa ye bhaje se baḍa catura. Kṛṣṇa also says, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate: (BG 7.19) "After many, many births' struggling, when he actually becomes wise, jñānavān," māṁ prapadyate, "he surrenders to Me." Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ: (BG 7.19)

Morning Walk Conversation -- September 28, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What they will teach, what do they know? First of all you must know, then you will teach. You are rascal, what you will teach? That is another cheating. He does not know anything, he is a teacher. People want it. Just like these rascals are advertising, these gurus, they say "You haven't got to chant. You simply come to Guru Mahārāja." That means these people, because we have got so many restrictions, he has to chant, he has to follow, they think it is botheration. So that means immediately they want to be cheated. Therefore, another cheater is welcomed. They want to be cheated, so when a cheater comes, he is welcomed, "Oh, you are very nice. You are so simple, and this Swamiji is so strict." So they want to be cheated. Therefore God sends a cheater: "Go and cheat them."

Morning Walks -- October 1-3, 1972, Los Angeles:

Jayatīrtha: ...was saying last night to our scientist friend, than Kṛṣṇa is the perfect teacher. The spiritual master is simply repeating perfectly what Kṛṣṇa is saying. So if Kṛṣṇa is saying, "Surrender to Me," then the spiritual master is saying, "Surrender to Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayatīrtha: So in this way, the spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa are in complete agreement.

Prabhupāda: Thus he becomes the (indistinct) of Kṛṣṇa.

Rāmeśvara: The other teachers, they don't talk...

Morning Walks -- October 1-3, 1972, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: Our calendar says Tuesday. It's obvious when they talk about their teachers that they never talk of service to Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Therefore, they have no realization. Our relationship is service. So one who is not engaged in the service of the Supreme, he has no realization. Whatever little realization he has got, that is called śānta-rasa.

Jayatīrtha: Dāsya realization is (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Dāsya-rasa. (indistinct) (break) ...practical devotee, he cannot become (indistinct).

Morning Walks -- October 1-3, 1972, Los Angeles:

Jayatīrtha: (indistinct) what you were speaking about yesterday, that if someone claims to be a teacher but he doesn't actually have real knowledge, then he's simply cheating.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: There's nothing practical that they say.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Rāmeśvara: They say nothing practical.

Prabhupāda: That means they do not follow any practical. That is their rascaldom. Nothing practical means they do not know what is the practical realization of God. That is their ignorance. And still they are claiming to be teachers.

Morning Walks -- October 1-3, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is perfect intelligence. Therefore we say Kṛṣṇa is the perfect teacher. In the Fifteenth Chapter, sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca: (BG 15.15) "I am sitting in everyone's heart. All intelligence, memory, is coming from Me, and forgetfulness also is caused by Me." So He is the supreme controller in every respect.

Jayatīrtha: Why are some people remembering and some people are forgetting Him?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Not people. I am speaking of the leaders.

Indian man: Leaders. The new generation that is now coming up, they are mostly atheists.

Prabhupāda: These teachers came with that (indistinct), although they have been (indistinct). (break)

Indian man: Top-ranking scientists have begun to realize that they simply don't know anything.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Indian man: Modern science, these top-ranking scientists, not the middle ones, the topmost scientists, they all say that "We really do not know anything."

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is real (indistinct).

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 2, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No eternal, that can be understood by any child. First you have to accept that life is superior.

Karandhara: That is just a conventional superiority. That superiority is just conventional or relative.

Prabhupāda: Why conventional? Actually. Just like a child and a teacher, they are of the same. He is also human being and children also, human being. But still, the children are controlled by the teacher. Therefore superior. It is not convention. If you disobey the superior, you will be punished. That superiority is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Morning Walk -- May 3, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Then there are so many things they do not know. Still, they are scientists? And they are passing on as leaders of the society. Everything is "I do not know," and he is a leader, scientist. What is this? A child, and he is passing on as teacher.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Sometimes the problem is too serious. They take it just lightly.

Prabhupāda: That is another foolishness. The same thing, that the rabbits close the eyes. Yes. Monkeys. And when the monkeys face a tiger, immediately he closes his eyes and the tiger immediately attacks him. So it is like that. He cannot solve the problem—"All right, let it go on." And that is the position. Because our real problem is death. Nobody wants to die. So the scientist cannot give any relief from death. They are talking simply superficially.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not that. (laughs) That Kṛṣṇa was requested by His teacher that, when He was offering that "Now I am going home. What shall I present to you, guru-dakṣiṇā, giving to the guru?" So he requested, "Kṛṣṇa, I have heard that You are so powerful. I lost my two sons. If you bring them..." So Kṛṣṇa immediately went and brought them from within the ocean. This is God. Similarly, Devakī also requested Kṛṣṇa that "Kṛṣṇa, before Your birth I lost seven children. Your maternal uncle killed them. So I want... I have heard that You have returned back the sons of Your teacher. Why not my sons?"

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: You cannot avoid it. So everyone is under the laws the nature. Let us decide on that. Now these laws of nature, these also controlled by somebody else. As we gave the example that every individual person within a state is controlled by the laws of government or laws of king. Now it is governed by democracy. Formerly it was under the king. So king is a person. He gives the law, and under that law all citizens are controlled. This is a fact. Therefore the laws of nature is controlled by somebody, controller, and we get this information from Vedic knowledge. And practically it is so, that just by the example, law must be given by somebody. Law is not blind, or something dropped from the sky. Law is law. It is made by somebody. That is law. It is working systematically. That is law. So when there is systematic law, there is systematic law-giver, controller, supervisor, superintendent. So we are not imagining, but we'll take it from authority, Vedic information, which is accepted by a great culture, great ācāryas, great teachers.

Room Conversation With David Wynne -- July 9, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. You have to learn it. In the conditioned state we act according to "my whims." In the liberated state we act according to Kṛṣṇa's whims. That's all. That is the difference. That is the difference. Just see, Bhagavad-gītā. Arjuna wanted to act according to his whims, "Oh, He is going now fight with my grandfather, with my teacher." These are the problems. Kṛṣṇa... "No, I cannot fight." And then at last he agreed to act according to the whims of Kṛṣṇa: "Yes, kariṣye vacanaṁ tava. Naṣṭo mohaḥ smṛtir labdhā (BG 18.73)." Find out this verse. Naṣṭo mohaḥ. Whatever we are speaking, there is reference in the Bhagavad-gītā. We don't speak anything according to our whims. No.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes, we are always in wrong because we are born ignorant. Everything is wrong because ignorant, foolish. Madman's conception. This is all wrong, childish. Therefore we send our boys, children, to school, to correct the wrong ideas.

Mr. Wadell: But some of the teachers may not be correct.

Prabhupāda: No. The process is you have to go to the teacher. But if the teacher is a cheater, then the whole thing is spoiled. A teacher must be teacher, perfect teacher. But if he happens to be a cheater then the whole thing is spoiled.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: No, mixture of two, that may be, but the process is that we have to approach the real teacher. Just like I approach the mother. Mother is supposed to be not cheater. But if the mother happens to be a cheater, then I am cheated. I am cheated. I don't get the information of my real father. But it is expected the mother should not cheat.

Mr. Wadell: Yes, oh I know that it is expected of the teachers.

Prabhupāda: So it is my misfortune; if I get a cheater mother, then my whole life is spoiled.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Mr. Wadell: But the teacher may be wrong without wishing to be wrong.

Prabhupāda: No, he is not teacher. If a teacher is wrong, he is cheater. That is our proposition.

Mr. Wadell: Well, I'm sorry, this is a point which we must surely...

Prabhupāda: This is the real point. If you have to go to a teacher, you must go to a real teacher. You don't go to a cheater.

Mr. Wadell: But suppose I teach you something, a subject in which knowledge is not complete.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Then you should not be teacher. Then you should not be teacher. Then you are cheater.

Mr. Wadell: But... No, because knowledge is...

Prabhupāda: That is, that is, that is our... Teacher means... When I approach a teacher, he must be a bona fide teacher. He should not be cheater. If he has no sufficient knowledge, he should not pose himself as a teacher.

Mr. Wadell: Well, I am afraid I would be right out of court cause you see I have often to confess to my pupils that I do not know.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is going on, but that is not the system. If you do not know, you should not become a teacher. That is our proposition. (laughs)

Mr. Wadell: I see, well I am not at all sure that I could accept what you say. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: You must be sure that whatever knowledge you are giving, that is perfect. Then you are teacher.

Mr. Wadell: Well, you see, what you are... In that case, I should have to pretend, you see. I would have to pretend to know something which I did not know at all. Then I should be a cheater, wouldn't I. And that would be wrong. And there must be many things which I do not know.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is better to become honest. If I do not know anything perfectly I should not be teacher. That is right thing. And if I have got doubtful knowledge, perhaps, maybe, why shall I be teacher. I should, "No, no I cannot teach. The subject is unknown." That is our process.

Mr. Wadell: Yes. I must say that I, there are many things of which I haven't got knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is going on. That is going on. Therefore people are misled.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That admission, that's all right. But in that case, one should not take the post of the teacher. That is our Vedic injunction. One must know perfectly.

Mr. Wadell: You may well be right. (laughter) But actually, I think there are many things which, about which knowledge is changing. There are things...

Prabhupāda: That means cheating.

Mr. Wadell: I see you have here, certain bits of equipment which didn't exist...

Prabhupāda: That is described in the Vedic literature: andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ: (SB 7.5.31) "A blind man is trying to lead other blind men."

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Why not? That "engineer" word completes his situation. He is engineer.

Mr. Wadell: Well, you might say to me, "Teacher," but that would not be complete. That would not be a complete description

Prabhupāda: No, it is complete.

Mr. Wadell: It is true, but it is not complete.

Prabhupāda: But when it is true, it is complete.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: There is some prasādam.

Śyāmasundara: He is teacher just down the road in the school.

Prabhupāda: You take little this. Yes. Just take little.

Mr. Wadell: May I take just.

Prabhupāda: Just little. I am not giving you much. (lots of laughter)

Mr. Wadell: Oh, it's very good. Just a little.

Prabhupāda: It is very good, tasteful.

Mr. Wadell: Thank you.

Prabhupāda: All right. (end)

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: There are good teachers. We are teaching Sanskrit and English especially.

Guest (3): They teach Sanskrit, English?

Prabhupāda: That is what. We are preparing them so that they can read our literature which is in Sanskrit and English. As soon as they can read, that's education finished. They will understand, practical demonstration, ārati, worship of the Deity, and they play mṛdaṅga, they chant, they join Hare Kṛṣṇa chanting. They are not meant for any technology.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Weakness is hypocrisy. If you are weak, you cannot become priest. Because you are teacher, religious teacher. You should not take that post. That is hypocrisy.

Father Tanner: But perhaps this is the difference, or one of the differences between western and eastern civilization...

Prabhupāda: No, it is not the question of eastern or western...

Father Tanner: But in the East, your wise man is nearly always an elderly man.

Prabhupāda: Not always.

Father Tanner: Not always.

Room Conversation with Two Buddhist Monks -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. At night they were guests. They were talking very friendly, and there is no enmity. But in daytime they'll fight. (laughter)

Buddhist Monk (1): Yes. Gautama the Buddha, whom I follow, who is my teacher, a poor man came, and he found him panting, asked him, "Well, what's the trouble?" "Oh, I've got news that you're here. I want to see you." And the Buddha found that not only had he run... He asked him, "When did you last have a meal?" He said, "That's quite a few days ago." He said, "We cannot preach on empty stomachs. Ānanda, give this man a good meal before he could come to me." And this fine virtue of hospitality, much as we have treasured in the past, when people leave their shores, they are inclined to forget this. I've been addressing various groups. I do not confine myself to Buddhist groups only. Whatever group was interested, to foster some understanding, good will and peace, I addressed.

Room Conversation with Two Buddhist Monks -- July 12, 1973, London:

Buddhist Monk (1): I had last time an opportunity before coming to Southampton, I addressed some people from Śrī Laṅkā, and there were some people from Canada as well at Montreal. And I pointed this out. In this light, I find almost all the teachers that come from that part of the world and their followers are trying to live up to this noble virtue. And if people get together, live together and have meals, perhaps even that...

Prabhupāda: So these devotees, they have not been separately instructed about hospitality. But because they are devotees of the Lord, this hospitality automatically they learn. Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ (SB 5.18.12). If one becomes perfectly a devotee of the Lord, all the good qualities of demigods manifest automatically. The hospitality is also a good quality. So out of many good qualities, this is one of them.

Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Devotee: They were from the same... Those boys all came from the same school as those teachers. They're just up the road. They'll all come now.

Prabhupāda: They are understanding our philosophy?

Devotee: Very nicely, yeah.

Prabhupāda: Oh!

Devotee: They like. They had never come to the temple before. Just first time they came out. I said, "It is very difficult to understand."

Prabhupāda: So Bhagavān dāsa has gone?

Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: ...synopsis is very nice.

David Lawrence: You like the idea, do you?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes, very nice.

David Lawrence: The thing that I felt strongly about really was the teacher's pack. You see, in this country, being an R.E. teacher of long standing, there is so little that really communicates an experience, and I think the teacher's pack can help, through the senses, for these young people to experience something, you know, so that, perhaps, if they feel alienated...

Prabhupāda: We have, we have got a verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam

kaumāra ācaret prājño

dharmān bhāgavatān iha

durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma

tad apy adhruvam arthadam

(SB 7.6.1)

From the very childhood, kaumāra... Kaumāra is the age from five to fourteen years, or fifteen years. This is kaumāra age.

Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So Prahlāda Mahārāja, he was a devotee when he was only five years old. And his father was atheist number one. So there was a great misunderstanding between the father and the son. The father was insisting the son that "You give up this line of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You become politician. You have to control over the kingdom and so on, so on..." But he could not give up. This is the misunderstanding between the father and the... So at, at the age of five years only, he was preaching. But how he was preaching? He was preaching... Because the father instructed the teachers, "Just look over this boy that he may not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Strictly. That is my order." So teachers were not allowing him. But he was taking opportunity in their tiffin hour.

Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: What is...

Śyāmasundara: Oh.

Prabhupāda: Recess. When the teachers gone and students are free to move. So he was calling his class friends and other, and he was preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Śyāmasundara: Tiffin hour.

Prabhupāda: So... We call "tiffin hour" in India. Because we, we take some tiffin in the school, and we eat during that...

David Lawrence: Hm hm.

Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: If it, had it been an artificial, they would not have been so serious, but it is a dormant consciousness. I have simply awakened. I have awakened. Otherwise... That is the statement in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that everyone is Kṛṣṇa conscious. Some way or other, it is now snuffed out. They have forgotten. But if an opportunity is given, then it can be awakened. So this movement is giving opportunity to arouse that dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness which is already there in everyone. So if you take that process and allow this Kṛṣṇa consciousness among the students, oh, it will be great service to the humanity. As a teacher, you will give the greatest service.

Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Therefore one has to understand first that "I am not this body."

David Lawrence: That's it. And you've got to believe... The teacher... This is the big thing, isn't it? The teacher has got to be God conscious.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

David Lawrence: So he believes that there is the God conscious experience.

Prabhupāda: He must realize that he's not this body. He is different from body. But I am encaged now in this body under certain condition. So at least this... This is called jñāna. Jñāna. So long one is in the bodily concept of life, he is affected with so many things. So many things. So this bhakti-yoga begins when one is purified from the bodily concept of life. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). Now, these boys, they are coming from different nations. But they never think that one is Englishman, another is American, another is Indian, another is African. No, we don't think like that.

Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Bhāgavata? Find out that. Fifth Canto, Fifth Chapter. How it is instructed. If you introduce these literatures in the schools for study—because you are religious teacher-oḥ, it will play...

David Lawrence: I think so. And, you know, we hope to...

Prabhupāda: ...revolution in the spiritual ideas.

David Lawrence: We hope to produce it so cheaply that schools will buy it readily. You know. Almost be, well, you know, not free, but handed out...

Prabhupāda: No, we can give you paperback, cheap edition.

Room Conversation with Malcolm -- July 18, 1973, London:

Śyāmasundara: If the science is available to everyone without impediment, then there must be the proper teacher, isn't it? There must be a teacher of the science...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: ...where people learn. That has been a difficulty here. There's been no real teachers until...

Prabhupāda: No, everyone gives his own opinion. Everyone will say... He'll not dare to say that he's speaking right, scientifically. He'll say, "It is my opinion." To avoid any difficulty, he'll say, "In my opinion it is this." I think he's speaking of that, (that) there are so many people, and they have got so many opinions.

Room Conversation with Dr. Arnold Toynbee, Famous Historian, at his home or office -- July 22, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: The people do not know all these things. They have no idea. They have no idea, neither... Even these things are there in the Vedic literature, they are not very much interested. And practically, in the darkness, they do not know what is next... I talked with Professor Kotofsky in Moscow. He, he is in charge of Indology. That gentleman told me, "Swamiji, after death there is nothing. Everything is finished." So I was surprised, that such a learned man, and he has no idea of the transmigration of the soul. These are the defects of modern civilization. Those who are leaders, teachers, they are not sufficiently in knowledge.

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: That means... these rascals, they have simply imperfect knowledge. Still, they are leader. That is our protest. That why you become leader? You have got so many imperfections. Why you are cheating people? That is our protest. You have no perfect knowledge. Still, you become leader. Why? Why you are cheating men like that? Just like the professor who was speaking that by four, combination of four chemicals, life has come. And as soon as he was challenged that: "If I give you these four chemicals, whether you can produce life?" He said: "That I cannot say." Then what is the use of speaking like that? So they're cheating, and people are being cheated. Still, they're given Nobel Prize. "Oh, here is a big man." They'll talk all nonsense. At, at the same time, they'll become professor, teacher. And people will accept. So at least let us protest against this system.

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Ceta etair anāviddhaṁ sthitaṁ sattve prasīdati. In this way, as the heart becomes cleansed, he revives his quality of goodness. And when he's situated in the quality of goodness, the other two qualities, passion and ignorance, cannot infect him. By this process. Rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ. Rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ. The example is kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye. When one is too much affected with the rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa, passion and ignorance... What is this kāma? Lusty and greediness. These are the symptoms of rajas-tamo-guṇa. So then therefore we see that all people are lusty and greedy. So as soon as he becomes cleansed, come to the standard of goodness, these two qualities cannot affect him anymore. Tadā rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye (SB 1.2.19). One has to take the process. And it is simple process. Simple... And that, that is actually happening, in our practical experience. They say, they say... They are all rascals, fools. They can say anything and everything. Pāgale kim abole chāgale kiṁ na khāoyā. In the Bengali it is said: A madman, what does he not speak? He speaks any nonsense. And a goat, what does he not eat? So if you keep a madman... They are keeping them mad... That is our protest, that why you are keeping all people mad, crazy, nonsense? And you are also teacher, university? They have no knowledge that what is the aim of life. That you have to protest.

Morning Walk -- August 30, 1973, London:

David Lawrence: ...in fact we're now able to think in terms of the date for the production of the booklet. And, and also for the teacher's pack. If you remember, that's a very important thing this teacher's pack. The record. And George has expressed very great enthusiasm about the booklet.

Prabhupāda: You saw him?

David Lawrence: I haven't seen him yet, but he'd left last evening I believe before I got up.

Śyāmasundara: I talked to him last night.

Prabhupāda: About this booklet?

Morning Walk -- August 30, 1973, London:

David Lawrence: One of the very important enclosures which we mentioned when I came up last, for the teachers' pack this was, not for the actual booklet, was a series of questions, what we would call sticky ones in the West, but I'm sure you'll deal with them with very great ease. I've tried to produce what I thought would be objections to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Not as such to theism, but more to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And if I could, Mukunda has got them in fact, there's about eight or nine. And if you could be pleased to perhaps answer them on tape, and I can have them transposed. We're going to produce this in the teachers' pack six or seven sheets of cyclo-styled notes for the teachers. So they'll be able to meet the objections perhaps, of their students. Some of the intelligent students may make points which clearly can be met.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- August 30, 1973, London:

David Lawrence: Let me think of one, yes, one that I asked which I know Mukunda has already answered for me, but we need it in the teachers' pack, of course, is the fact of the dating of the Vedas. You know, people like some of the archaeologists such as A.L. Basham and Mortimer Wheeler maintain that the Harrapa dig, so to speak, in the Indus Valley and Mahenjo-Daro and all those towns, show the dating of the Vedas in fact to be a great deal later, you know, and therefore to take away, some people would say this, to deprive the Vedas of a certain amount of authority because they no longer, according to these men, would appear to be the most ancient religious scriptures in the world. And that, that sort of question, which...

Prabhupāda: Veda means not religion, Veda means knowledge. So if you can trace out the history of knowledge, then you can trace out what is the date of Veda. Can you trace out? When...? Which is the date when knowledge began. Can you trace out?

Room Conversation -- September 1, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: You are teacher?

Guest: No, not anymore. It's not very transcendental.

Śrutakīrti: He's asking if his business is transcendental.

Prabhupāda: No, if it is used for Kṛṣṇa, then it is transcendental. If it is used for your sense gratification, then it is material. That is the difference.

Guest: Yes. And how do you know whether you're using it for Kṛṣṇa or not?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That requires training from the Kṛṣṇa's representative, guru. Just like these boys are being trained up in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So it requires little training. Just like you are mathematician. To make another student mathematician, you have to train him. You have to teach him how to calculate two plus two equal to four. It will never be five. If somebody says, "No, my calculation is two plus two equal to five." Will it be accepted?

Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Then, suppose, what you are? What is your business? What do you do? You're teacher, what is the subject matter?

Guest (1): I teach in law.

Prabhupāda: So if one wants to know what is law, he must become a student. It is not that simply asking "What is law, sir?" You can make him understand within a minute or within hour? Is it possible?

Guest (1): No.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, Dr. Suneson -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: Unless we accept the real leader, a perfect personality who can give us perfect knowledge, there is no success. That is our philosophy.

tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet,

samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham

(MU 1.2.12)

tad viddhi praṇipātena

paripraśnena sevayā

upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ

jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ

(BG 4.34)

We have to approach a person who has seen the truth in reality. Then our life is success. That is the Vedic injunction. And that is fact. Unless we are... Just like you are teacher, a professor. So therefore people are coming to you to learn. How can you say that he can follow his own philosophy? He's coming to school, college. He's taking lesson from the teacher. One has to follow. The selection may be right or wrong; that is another thing. But one has to select.

Room Conversation with Dr. Christian Hauser, Psychiatrist -- September 10, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: That is the Absolute Truth. He knows everything—how this universe is created, how it is maintained, how it annihilated, directly and indirectly. Just like, I always, regular, everyday thing, when I am massaged by my student, I see so many veins so I think that I claim, "This is my leg," but I do not know what are these veins. Directly I know this is my leg, but indirectly I do not know how this leg is working with these veins and nerves and muscles. I do not know. But so far God is concerned, He has created. He knows every veins and everything. That is called abhijñaḥ. In this way you analyze every word, you'll find volumes of meaning. The next question, "Where you got this experience?" You say He's abhijñaḥ, He knows everything. To get experience one must have teacher. But the next word is svarāṭ, He's experienced and self-sufficiency, svarāṭ, independent.

Interviews with Macmillan and various English Reporters -- September 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So you are teacher there? No.

Prof. Gombrich: I teach in Oxford, yes.

Prabhupāda: You teach in Oxford?

Prof. Gombrich: Yes.

Prabhupāda: But in India went to visit?

Prof. Gombrich: Yes, I lived for two years in Ceylon.

Prabhupāda: Ceylon?

Interviews with Macmillan and various English Reporters -- September 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: No I don't think so. Any religion, you follow nicely. Just Christian religion, there is God consciousness. So actually it is not this religion or that religion. People have given up religion. All over the world they have no more interest in religion. And especially I see that in your London that so many churches are vacant. Nobody's going there. So thing is that there is no more regular teaching of religious system. It has become a profession like. Neither the teachers are serious, nor the students are serious. So our principle is that not this religion or that religion. Whichever religion you may like, you can follow, but we want to see whether you are God conscious. If you are not God conscious, then we take it simply useless waste of time, these so-called religions. Śrama eva hi kevalam. You understand Sanskrit.

Room Conversation -- September 18, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They're servants of Kṛṣṇa. They are serving on behalf of Kṛṣṇa among certain people who cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. Just like a student in the primary class, he does not know what is M.A. examination. Therefore teacher is teaching according to his position. But he's a teacher, he's an authorized teacher, appointed by the school, authority.

Guest (2): So they're representatives?

Prabhupāda: Yes. But they're... Just like Lord Buddha. We accept him as incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. But he preached, "There is no Kṛṣṇa. There is no God. I don't care for the Vedas."

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

Prabhupāda: Their system is to remain a student and pose as teacher, their system. They're trying to learn it, and still they're posing as teacher. Teacher means one who knows. He does not know; still he poses in the post of a teacher.

Hṛdayānanda: So the system cannot be good because it does not purify their character. They still cheat.

Prabhupāda: No, they're cheating simply. Little knowledge, cheating. Little knowledge.

Yaśomatīnandana: They're simply like neti neti. "Not this, not this."

Room Conversation with Latin Professor -- December 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: And what is that? Good morning. Hare Kṛṣṇa. There are three stages. First stage of understanding is direct perception, by senses. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhuḥ. In the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find. Here, from the material platform, our source of knowledge is direct perception. That is crude, pratyakṣa. It is called pratyakṣa. That is crude knowledge, direct perception. Just like I am seeing the sun. I am getting some idea of the sun, but that is not the perfect idea, although I am seeing it daily. I am seeing just like a disc, but it is very, very big. So my direct perception cannot give me perfect knowledge. The first... Besides that, at our present stage, material condition, we are imperfect because we commit mistake. By direct seeing the sun, I am thinking that it is just like a disc. Then we are illusioned. We, sometimes we accept something for something. Then, with this imperfect knowledge, we try to become teacher.

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's all. Jugglery of words. That's all. Speculation means jugglery of words. Just like doctors prescribe. They give the medicine, and then water mixed. So they will never say "water" because ordinary people will understand. They'll write "aqua distillata." So ordinary man cannot understand whether it is water or medicine. But that is water. But they'll... So these scientists, they'll manufacture some word which you cannot understand... "Vyāghra mane śārdūla." One student asked the teacher, "What is the meaning of 'vyāghra' ?" He said, "Śārdūla." It is still difficult. You see ? This is going on.

Morning Walk -- December 12, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, if you are under direction of a perfect teacher, then your conclusion is perfect. The difficulty is that we are following imperfect teachers. Blind men. And what is the benefit of following a blind man? If the man is himself a blind man and if he follows another blind man, what benefit he will get? Both of them will fall into the ditch. That is going on. Just like this rascal Guruji Maharaja. He is a rascal and he is preparing so many rascals. And there are so many others. They are doing the same mischief, and there is no control by the government. The government is rascal. Government does not know who is real, who is imitation. Otherwise they should have checked immediately. But they do not check. They do not know.

Morning Walk -- December 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: "You are seeing the extra chemicals. They are not cause, they are effect." Sometimes when a rascal cannot understand two things, which is cause and which is effect, they misunderstand effect as cause or cause and effect. That is imperfect knowledge, illusion, taking the effect as cause. That is their mistake. Whole basic principle of their knowledge is mistake, illusion, on account of imperfect senses, and they are cheating. On account of imperfect senses, they cannot understand what is cause and what is effect. And without knowledge, they have become teacher. Therefore they are not teacher but cheater. This is the conclusion.

Morning Walk -- December 18, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is their jugglery of words, these rascals. (laughter) "Chromosome, promosome." He will manufacture some word. But where is your chromosome of child body? What is that child body? Where it has gone? If you know, "chromosome, promosome," where has your child's body gone? That is the difficulty. These rascals, they do not know anything. Still, they are teachers and manufacture some jugglery of words. That's all. That is the difficulty. "Chromosome." What is that chromosome? What does it mean, chromosome?

Prajāpati: It is a tiny structure of organic matter that can constantly reproduce...

Prabhupāda: That's all right. When reproduce, the last body is gone.