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Thousand times (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation about Marriage -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: Nice if she does not marry, that's nice. Anyone who has got children, he should not marry, I think so. Because marriage means not for sense gratification. Putrāyate kriyate bhāryā, putra-piṇḍa-prayojanam. To get nice son, that is the idea of marriage. Not for sense gratification. Those who are after sense gratification, according to Vedic scripture, they are, I mean to say, recommended to go to the prostitute. Therefore in Hindu society, still, there is a prostitute class. They are allowed... They do not allow it within the society. I mean to say, extravagant sex life. Especially spiritual life. Spiritual life means gradually forget sex life. Material life means sex life. In the spiritual world there is no sex life because there is no birth, there is no death. That is stated in Bhāgavata. Although the women are very, very beautiful, many thousand times more beautiful than here... Their stature of body, their everything, youthfulness, everything. But still they are so much engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in chanting the glories, that they are not, I mean to say, influenced by the lust. That is stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavata, in the Vaikuṇṭha. There are women. They also, men and women there is, and they also go by airplane, fly in the sky for trip, and all of them are devotees to Nārāyaṇa, Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa associate. So these things are described. So similarly, amongst the gopīs also. So in the spiritual life there is nothing like this sex pleasure. And the more we forget sex life, that means we are advancing in spiritual life. So this should be the attitude, that women, Godsisters, they should be nicely treated so that they may not feel any... After all, they are weaker. That should be our policy. Anyway... And if somebody agrees to marry, oh, that is welcome. There is no objection. Marriage is allowed. And so many married couples, they are very nicely living. Those who have gone to London, they were not married in the beginning, and I got them married. Similarly, here also, Harṣarāṇī and others. In New York also, Balāi dāsī, Advaita. So if the boy and girl agrees to marry, it is very nice. There is no objection. If not, they should be given all protection. Is that all right?

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 11, 1969, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Brahmā also became astonished, and therefore he came to check "Whether He is my Lord or not?" (laughter) Yes. Bewildered. Muhyanti yatra sūrayaḥ. The Bhāgavata says therefore, even the great personalities like Brahmā, they are also bewildered to understand the personality. He, Brahmā also heard that at Vṛndāvana Kṛṣṇa has appeared and He is acting as a cowherd boy. He was also astonished. "Oh, my Lord? He has become a cowherd boy?" So he came to check. He, I mean to say, took away all the cowherd boys and cows and everything. And after a few seconds he came, he said Kṛṣṇa is playing in the same way. And although the, I mean, stolen cowherd boys and cows they, by the, I mean to say, energy of māyā, by influence of Brahmā, they were kept in a secret cave. They were sleeping. But Kṛṣṇa is playing. That means He has manifested again with the cowherd boys and cows. Then he was convinced, "Yes, He is my Lord." Then Brahma-stava is there. Ānanda cinmaya rasa pratibhāvitābhis tābhirya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). So Kṛṣṇa can expand in many, many thousand times. What Brahmā will do by stealing His... No, that is not possible. So Brahmā was also convinced. These things you'll find in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Brahma-vimohana. Even Brahmā is bewildered, what to speak of ordinary men like us. So Kṛṣṇa-līlā, to understand... There is no need of understanding. Simply you love Kṛṣṇa, then the whole business finished. Just like if you touch fire, if you understand it or not understand it, the warmness is there. Similarly, either you understand Kṛṣṇa or do not understand Kṛṣṇa, it doesn't matter. Simply if you love Kṛṣṇa, then your life is perfect. That's all.

Devotees: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: You can take this. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (offer obeisances) (end)

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

Pradyumna: But it's going pretty fast.

Hayagrīva: You want me to do Nectar of Devotion and then Kṛṣṇa and then Bhagavad-gītā, in that order?

Prabhupāda: Yes. So everything is all right, bṛhat-mṛdaṅga department? Major saṅkīrtana party. They are going, saṅkīrtana parties in different cities. That is junior. But your, this party, it is senior. You are sitting one place; you have to work thousand times more than them. Yes. You have to edit in such a way. Where is that water?

Brahmānanda: It's being offered, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: All right, all right. That's all...

Satsvarūpa: I have a question from the art department.

Prabhupāda: Art, yes.

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

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

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

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

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Darsana -- June 28, 1971, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Sannyāsī should be always preaching. Parivrājakācārya. Four stages of sannyāsa: kuṭīcaka, bahūdaka, parivrājaka, and paramahaṁsa. In the beginning... Because according to Vedic civilization everyone has to take sannyāsa at a certain age. So as a matter of routine if he takes sannyāsa... Just like this old man I was asking that "Now you have children grown up, why don't you take sannyāsa?" But he is hesitating. Nobody likes, because sannyāsa life is difficult. So first there is kuṭīcaka means he gives up the connection of the family life, takes sannyāsa officially, but he is not accustomed to maintain himself independently; therefore, he goes out of the village and makes a cottage and lives there. And the foodstuff, the home supply, that is called kuṭīca. Kuṭī means cottage. Then when he is little practiced, then he says family members that "Don't bring foodstuffs. I shall go to every village man and ask something for my food. I shall depend on them, not on you." That is called bahūdaka. Bahū means many. Not accepting food from one place but from many. Then when he is prac... Because first problem is problem, when he is practiced, "Now Kṛṣṇa is giving us food, so why shall I remain in one place? Let me preach." That is called parivrājakācārya, when he is preaching. Parivrājaka. Parivrājaka means wandering all over. Then when he is experienced, when his preaching is done, he can sit down in one place. At that time, he can chant simply Hare Kṛṣṇa like Haridāsa Ṭhākura. And if he imitates from the very beginning, he will be spoiled, that's all. Because in the beginning, if I take Hare Kṛṣṇa, then it is (indistinct). (laughter) Don't do this. Always be busy. First stage, last stage. When one is paramahaṁsa just like Haridāsa Ṭhākura, three hundred thousand times, no eating unless he finishes his chanting. No eating, no sleeping. That is another thing. "I shall eat so much, I shall sleep so much, and I shall do nothing, simply chanting." No. That is not recommended by my Guru Mahārāja.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: No, he has got full individuality, but he sacrifices individuality for pleasing Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says, "You surrender unto Me." So he voluntarily surrenders. Not that he has lost his individuality. He keeps his individuality fully. But because Kṛṣṇa desires that he should surrender, he never minds. He's individual. Just like Arjuna, in the beginning he was declining to fight on account of his individuality. But when he accepted Kṛṣṇa as his spiritual master, he became śiṣya. Then whatever He ordered, "Yes." That doesn't mean he lost his individuality. He voluntarily accepted, "Whatever Kṛṣṇa says, I shall do it." Just as all my disciples, they have not lost their individuality, but they have surrendered their individuality. That is required. Just like if a man does not use sex, does that mean he has become impotent? If he likes he can have, thousand times sex life, but he has voluntarily avoided it. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 9.59). Sometimes we fast, that does mean we are diseased. We voluntarily fast. It does not mean that I am not hungry, I cannot eat. But we voluntarily fast.

Bob: Does the devotee who surrenders keep his individual ...

Prabhupāda: Yes, in full.

Bob: ...taste for different things?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Bob: Does he keep his individual likes and dislikes?

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything he keeps, but he gives preference to Kṛṣṇa. Suppose I like this thing. Kṛṣṇa says, "No. You cannot use it." Then they are sacrificed. It is for Kṛṣṇa's sake. Nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe.

Bob: Let us say a devotee has a liking for one food over another food.

Interview -- July 5, 1972, New York:

Prabhupāda: The other day we were talking with some scientists. We came to this conclusion, that the scientists, big scientists, they are simply concerned with the laws of nature, because the laws of nature are very stringent. For example, there is death. Everyone will die. So nobody can check death. However great scientist he may, he cannot stop death. By laws of nature one is becoming old. By your scientific advancement you can stop first of all. So the science means they are trying to overcome the stringent laws of nature, but so far... Not so far—even in the past in the human history they could not. In the present also they are unable. They say in future they will be able. But how we can believe it? Because in the past they could not; in the present also they are unable. How they can overcome the laws of nature in the future? History repeats. Same failure there is (indistinct). Therefore the divine means, as we define, the divine means the controller of the laws of nature. Laws of nature there is, and everyone is under the laws of nature. Nobody can overcome the laws of nature. Just like state laws. Every citizen is bound to abide by the state law. He cannot overcome it. If..., if he overcomes it then, or violates it, the violation of law, and he becomes punishable. Similarly the laws of nature means laws of God. Just like your president is the giver of your state law. Similarly, as soon as we say laws of nature, there must be giver of them. In our śāstra, the Vedic literature, it is said, dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Dharma, religion, means the codes given by God, and we have to abide by those laws. When we do not abide by those laws, then we violate the laws of nature, of God, and we become punishable.

Now, who is that person, or the authority, who is giving that law, who is controlling that law? That is divine search. But that divine search cannot be completed by the speculation of our imperfect senses. Our senses are imperfect; therefore whatever knowledge we gather by speculating our imperfect senses, that is imperfect. Just like the sun. The sun is very big, bigger, fourteen hundred thousand times bigger than this earth, but with our imperfect eyes we see just like a disk. If we remain satisfied with this imperfect knowledge, then we remain in darkness.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with David Wynne, Sculptor -- July 9, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: He's not in want. He's complete in Himself. But when a devotee gives Him love and faith, He accepts: "All right. Thank you." That is another thing. Otherwise, He doesn't require anything from him. What beautiful thing you can give to Kṛṣṇa? He can create thousand times beautiful thing than you... What power you have got? Why should you desire like that? But if you are devotee, either it is beautiful or ugly, it doesn't matter. If you give to Kṛṣṇa in good faith, He'll accept it. It doesn't matter. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). He doesn't require anything. But bhaktyā, in devotion and love, if anyone offers even a little leaf, a little flower, tad aham aśnāmi, "I accept." He says. A little flower and little leaf, what benefit you'll do to Kṛṣṇa, unlimited? But He says, "Still, I accept because it is offered in faith and devotion." So that is a different thing.

Śyāmasundara: It's funny, too. When David went to see the Queen one day, he took fifteen of our small rubies. They're not worth much compared to her crown jewels...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Certainly.

Śyāmasundara: But he told her that they were like... She said, "Well, what shall I do with them?" And he said, "Well, they are... Consider them, Your Majesty, like flowers offered to you by one of your subjects." And she became very pleased to see it like that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. What, what is the value of those jewels to her? But if some citizen offers in good faith and love, she accepts. That's all.

Room Conversation With Three College Students -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: No, no, I am giving an example. No, officially, she is the supreme of England. That you cannot deny. If you do so, then your position, you know. Similarly, anything... "Call a spade a spade." If everyone says that this is electric lamp, and if you say, "No, I don't say," then what can be done?

Student (3): We can see an electric lamp, but we can't see Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: No, that... That is... You have to see through the śāstra. śāstra-cakṣuṣā. Just like you see the sun just like a disc, but when you go through the śāstra, authorized books, you understand that it is fourteen hundred thousand times bigger than this earth. So what is the value of your seeing? Why do you believe you're seeing so much? Your all seeing is defective. You cannot say that you are perfectly seeing. You cannot say that.

Student (1): Do you believe that there are other ways...

Prabhupāda: There is no question of belief. Now let us quest... We believe that "If I see, that is all right," but what is the value of your seeing? You cannot see beyond this wall. Does it mean there is nothing? So what is the value of your seeing? First of all you consider. You are questioning that "I cannot see," but what is the value of your seeing?

Student (3): My seeing the electric lamp tells me that it is...

Prabhupāda: Now, now, now, but you are seeing the electric lamp, but why do you believe so much on your seeing power? You cannot see so many things, even though you have got the eyes.

Student (3): I have no reason not to believe.

Prabhupāda: No, that is not good. If you say, "I cannot see beyond this wall. There is nothing," nobody will take your words.

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

Prabhupāda: Therefore they're mūḍhas.

Reporter: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). So India cannot be happy being guided by the duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ narādhamāḥ. It is not possible. This request I made to Gandhi That "You are..." People accepted him as a spiritual man all over the world. So if Gandhi would have taken this movement sincerely and scientifically, it would have grown thousand times.

Reporter: Yes, yes. But that... What Gandhi said? Did he reply to your request?

Prabhupāda: No.

Reporter: No. Hm.

Prabhupāda: But it did not go to his hand-hands of his secretary. They thought, "What is this nonsense propaganda? Now let us become prime minister."

Reporter: (laughs) Yes. But how problems of India, like poverty...

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Reporter: Like poverty, and this lack of balance between rich and poor. How these problems can be solved?

Room Conversation with Anna Conan Doyle, daughter-in-law of famous author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: No. Yes. That is natural. Only the strong devotees, they don't like. "No, I don't want to see anything. I want to go immediately to Kṛṣṇa." That is strong devotion. Because they are after, mad after seeing Kṛṣṇa. Yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam, śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvam. For them, the whole universe is vacant for want of Kṛṣṇa. Just like if you love somebody, if he's not seen, you see, in spite of so many cars, you see the whole city of Paris, void, void. You don't give you any pleasure. A strong love for Kṛṣṇa. Śūnyāyitam. Śūnyāyitam means everything vacant. Without seeing Kṛṣṇa, everything is vacant. What is the value of this house or this city? He doesn't take. So higher planetary system means better standard of life. Just like if Indian comes here, materially, they see the higher standard of life in Paris, in London. But because we are interested in Kṛṣṇa, we do not take very much care of this higher standard of life. So higher planetary system means many, many thousand times better standard of life. Many, many thousand times. Just like Brahmaloka, the one day of Brahmā, described, you cannot even calculate mathematically. Just find out: sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). This is the topmost planetary system, Brahmaloka, and the duration of life in Brahmaloka is described in the Bhāgavata, Bhagavad-gītā. Sahasra... S-A-H. Sahasra-yuga-paryantam.

Bhagavān: This is Bhagavad-gītā.

Anna Conan Doyle: Oh.

Guru-gaurāṅga: Just like before you said you had a distaste for sight-seeing in Paris, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Room Conversation with Anna Conan Doyle, daughter-in-law of famous author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: What is the purport? Read.

Śrutakīrti: "The duration of the material universe is limited. It is manifested in cycles of kalpas. A kalpa is a day of Brahmā and one day of Brahmā consists of a thousand cycles of four yugas or ages, Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali. A cycle of Satya is characterized by virtue, wisdom and religion, there being practically no ignorance and vice, and the yuga lasts one million, seven hundred and twenty-eight thousand years. In the Tretā-yuga vice is introduced and this yuga lasts 1,296,000 years. In the Dvāpara-yuga there is an even greater decline in virtue and religion, vice increasing, and the yuga lasts 864,000 years. And finally in Kali-yuga, the yuga we have now been experiencing over the past five thousand years, there is an abundance of strife, ignorance, irreligion and vice, true virtue being practically non-existent, and this yuga lasts 432,000 years. In Kali-yuga vice increases to such a point that at the termination of the yuga, the Supreme Lord Himself appears as the Kalki avatāra, vanquishes the demons, saves His devotees and commences another Satya-yuga. Then the process is set rolling again. These four yugas, rotating a thousand times, compromise one day of Brahmā, the creator god, and the same number compromise one night. Brahmā lives one hundred of such years and then dies. These hundred years, by Earth calculations total to 311,000,040,000,000 Earth years. By these calculations, a life of Brahmā seems fantastic and interminable, but from the point, from the viewpoint of eternity, it is as brief as a lightning flash. In the Causal Ocean, there are innumerable Brahmās, rising and disappearing like bubbles in the Atlantic. Brahmā and his creation are all part of the material universe, and therefore they are in constant flux. In the material universe, not even Brahmā is free from the process of birth, disease, old age and death. Brahmā, however, is directly engaged in the service of the Supreme Lord in the management of this universe. Therefore he at once attains liberation.

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: In the hole of your room, you'll find hundreds and thousands of ui. Who is feeding them, within the hole? Unless they're eating, sleeping, the same thing are there. How they are living very nicely? But who is giving them food within the hole? A small hole. You did not provide that hole. You did not provide their food. But there are hundreds and millions of ants. They're living there within the hole very happily. Sometimes they come out. We see: "Oh, wherefrom so many hundreds coming?" So eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. That is God. He's supplying food. So there are 8,400,000 different forms of living entities. Out of that, 400,000 are human beings. Out of that, many are uncivilized. The uncivilized aborigines live in the jungle. They have no economic problem. They're also human being. They never come to city for food. They are maintaining themselves. The elephants are maintaining. The ants are maintaining. Why the civilized, a few men, they have got so problem, so many problems? Because they... We are not the only living entities. There are 8,400,000 different forms of living entities. They're all being maintained by the Supreme Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya mūrtayaḥ sambhavanti yāḥ: (BG 14.4) "As many forms are there, in all different species," ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā, "I am the Father." The father maintains the sons, as we see actually. He's maintaining. So why you are so much...? Our father is rich. He's not poor. God is not poor. Ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṇa. Six kinds of opulence fully. So why are you talking of this over-population, scarcity of food? Why? Actually the father is God. He's maintaining. And factually we see how many human beings, civilized human beings, are there. The other living beings are many hundred thousand times bigger quantity. If they can be maintained by God, what we have done, that He'll not maintain us? He'll maintain us. He's maintaining. So many people they say, "India is starving." I am Indian. I never see any man starving and died. I've never seen. This is simply advertisement. What is your opinion?

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

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We do not accept this.

Prabhupāda: How can I accept it? Because in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ: (BG 8.17) "The Brahmā's one day is equal to one thousand combination of yugas." The combination of yuga means forty-three-hundred thousands of years. So such thousand times makes Brahmā's one day of twelve hours. Similar period, his night. Then day and night, it becomes full twenty-four hours. Then such thirty twenty-four hours makes one month. Such twelve months makes one year, and such hundred years he will live. So how you can calculate? It is beyond your arithmetical calculation. We have to go through the śāstras. So this is in one universe. And there are millions of universes and millions of Brahmās. And all of them live, taking the advantage of one exhaling of Mahā-Viṣṇu. Yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ (Bs. 5.48). All these Brahmās. So just see. How you can calculate? That is inconceivable. That is inconceivable.

Hṛdayānanda: Yeah, can't think of it.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But that is their mathematical equation, where these elements fall very uniformly, the law, the natural law, the physical law.

Prabhupāda: No, that is already there, we know. What is the new discovery?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So then, putting this physical law then, it fits everything.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: (Sanskrit) (break)

Girirāja: "You are air, fire, water, and You are the moon. You are the supreme controller and the grandfather. Thus I offer my respectful obeisances unto You a thousand times, and again and yet again." (break)

Prabhupāda: Here is paramparā. Now, if we follow the footsteps of Arjuna, and we should surrender like that...

Dr. Patel: (next verse, Sanskrit) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...studying Bhagavad-gītā. If somebody recommends that "We accept this false," then what kind of business this is? Everyone says, "Oh, we have studied Bhagavad-gītā." (laughs) What you have studied? You are attached to some false imitation, and how you have studied? So am I right, Mr. Sar?

Dr. Patel: You are always right.

Prabhupāda: No, no. You are not properly answering. (laughter) I know that. Now...

Dr. Patel: You come into altercation unnecessarily.

Prabhupāda: No, no, there must be paripraśna. There must be paripraśna. Paripraśna is required, but in submissiveness with reasoning, not like vagabonds, no. Paripraśna must be there. Now, after reading Bhagavad-gītā, if somebody says that "Here is an imitation God accepted," is that very nice thing? This should be discussed. Otherwise, if we stick to our original principle and go on reading Bhagavad-gītā three times a day, then what is the use? What is the use?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: In our festival let them come and show. What is this? That man? What is his name who showed Gaurāṅga līlā?

Gurudāsa: Yes, Harigovind.

Prabhupāda: It will be hundred times better than that.

Gurudāsa: Thousand times. Ten thousand, yes.

Prabhupāda: So show this nonsense that "We can do better than you."

Gurudāsa: It's much more beautiful.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayatīrtha: They're coming to Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gurudāsa: Yesterday at the love feast they did Pralambāsura, and the guests loved it. Wonderful.

Jayatīrtha: They applauded.

Prabhupāda: They must love it. It is very nice, very nice. Organize this very nicely. We have got so many boys and girls. They can play simply. And they haven't got to speak. This system is very nice. Let them play. What is this called, system?

Hṛdayānanda: Narration.

Room Conversation with Professors -- February 19, 1975, Caracas:

Prabhupāda: No, we must first of all understand that our senses are imperfect. Just like we are sitting in this room. We have got our eyes, but we cannot see what is there, going on, beyond this wall. The sun is fourteen hundred thousand times bigger than this earth, and we are seeing just like a disc. So the eyelid is just near the eyes, but we cannot see what is the eyelids. If the light is off, we cannot see. So we can see under certain condition. Then what is the value of our seeing? If we, even if we manufacture telescope, that is also manufactured by the imperfect senses, so it is also not perfect. So anything understood by manipulating our imperfect senses, that is not real knowledge. So our process of understanding real knowledge is to take it from the person who has the real knowledge. Just like if we contemplate or speculate who is my father, it is never possible to understand who is my father. But if we receive the words from mother that "Here is your father," that is perfect. Therefore the process of knowledge should be not to speculate but to receive it from the perfect person. If we receive knowledge from a mental speculator, that is not perfect knowledge.

Professor (Hṛdayānanda): What would be the mechanism or process to get this perfect knowledge and to purify our senses?

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: No, just like if you want to understand sun, say... what is called? Geography? Then you have to learn from the person who knows geography. You cannot learn from a person who has superficially studied. Then you have to go to the person who knows scientifically, astronomically, that sun is fourteen hundred thousand times bigger than this planet. You have to go to the astronomer. How far the sun is situated from us? So you have to go to the particular person who knows it. You cannot say that his knowledge and the child's knowledge, who is seeing the sun as a disc is the same. That you cannot say. If you want to know further enlightenment of the sun then you have to go to the person who is studying sun scientifically. So one who has studied the sun scientifically, his knowledge and a casual person seeing the sun, his knowledge is not the same. That you cannot say. Although everyone is seeing the sun, that's all right, but the knowledge of the sun, there are different.

Devotee: That seems to answer all of your three points at once.

Atreya Ṛṣi: One thing here is that we are not talking about religion or designation.

Guest: In that case I think we have no (indistinct).

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes, it's not a religion.

Radio Interview -- May 25, 1975, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: You are thinking this is Oriental civilization, but that is not the fact. The fact is this is human civilization. There is no question of east and west. Every living being, not only human being, even other beings—there are 8,400,000's forms of life—and Kṛṣṇa claims that

sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya
mūrtayaḥ sambhavanti yāḥ
tāsāṁ brahma mahad yonir
haṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā
(BG 14.4)

So Kṛṣṇa is for the aquatics, the animals in the water. The vast sea, there are so many animals. Then, from the water, the trees are coming out. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. In this way evolutionary process is going on. But all of them, living entities, and part and parcel of God, Kṛṣṇa. So by the evolutionary process they come to the human form of life. Now there is developed consciousness. Now, the human being has to decide which way he has to go, again to the lower species of life or higher forms of life. The higher forms of life are there in the upper planetary system.

Their duration of life, material standard of living, very, very comfortable, thousand times better than here. So Kṛṣṇa says that if you like to go to the higher planetary system, you can go there. That it is said, yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25). If you cultivate yourself for going to the higher planetary system... But first of all we have to understand that we are eternal, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. We are simply changing body. This is material condition. Either lower grade of bodies or higher grade of bodies, but we have to change. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13).

Morning Walk -- October 20, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: Standing in one place for ten thousand years? Why should you prolong your life? For suffering? You are suffering, that is your problem, so what is the use of prolonging your life? This is foolishness. What do you gain by prolonging life if you are suffering? Stop suffering. That is wanted. How you can stop suffering? With suffering, prolonging life, what is the benefit?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Just means more, longer suffering.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And even if you prolong life, how long you'll prolong? There are trees. They are thousand times prolonging than your life. In... What is called? San Francisco, the Golden...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Redwood trees.

Prabhupāda: Redwood trees. One redwood, already seven thousand years old, they told me. So what is the benefit, seven thousand years standing in one place, very long? Hm? What is the benefit? You are trying to prolong life. Very good idea. But what is the use of prolonging life while suffering? One side, you are trying to prolong life; the other side, for acute suffering, one is committing suicide. So why this contradictory proposal?

Harikeśa: Well, only some people commit suicide. As far as I'm concerned, I'm very happy. I have my car, my air conditioner...

Prabhupāda: That means you are fool number one. That means you are fool number one. As soon as you say, "I am happy," it is immediately proved that you are a rascal, fool number one.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But everyone is afraid of death. They don't like the idea of dying. Put if off.

Room Conversation -- December 14, 1975, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They follow, some gentleman. And because at that time it is good living, somebody takes charge, "Alright let me take this pup." And the children also like, so he gets some shelter. So similarly, according to different body the activities begins. Therefore body is the field of activities. A snake, because he has got the field of activity of a snake's body, from the very beginning he is very, very envious. The same, trying to bite others. In this way our activities begin according to the body. And this change of bodies take place in the lower animal life automatically, by nature's law. Prakṛte kriyamānāni guṇai karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ. But when comes to the form of a human being, on account of developed consciousness, he has got responsibility. He has to make his choice. He is suffering in this material world changing different types of bodies, one after another, and the propensity to lord it over the material world is going on. Now he has to change the consciousness, whether he wants to continue this propensity for lording over the material world, or he wants to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. This choice has to be made by the human being. If he makes his choice after getting good education from the right source, that "I am going on in the wrong way, by the desire to lord it over the material nature but I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa therefore I must surrender now. Bahūnā janmanām ante jñānavān mām... This is wisdom. And if we do not get this wisdom, simply like animals we continue to lord it over the material nature, by acquiring money. Dharma, artha, kama. Then we are spoiling our life. Separate times we become religious for being promoted to higher standard of life, economic development, big, big scheme, plans, how to make gorgeous city, buildings, roads, cars, slaughter house, scientific, how to cut throat very scientifically. These plans are going on. Some of them are trying to be religious to go to the heaven because he has heard, and that's a fact also, that heavenly planets the standard of living is more opulent, hundreds and thousands times, the sex enjoyment, is hundred and thousand times better. So by so-called religious functions and sacrifices, they are engaged the same, how to satisfy the senses. The dog is also anxious to satisfy his senses. As soon as he finds a female dog, he wants to make friendship with her and have sex.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: ...take shelter at the lotus feet of Nitāi. Nitāi-pāda-kamala, koṭi candra suśītala. Because the shelter is so cool, a thousand times cooler than the moon.... Where is that..., Yaśomatīnandana? He is not here? Yesterday he met Mādhava Mahārāja. So he had some talks. (chuckles) In that talk he mentioned that "Your Guru Mahārāja was previously a businessman, so.... And we are, from our childhood, we are Vaiṣṇava. So therefore he is doing business and getting money."

Devotees: Whew.

Harikeśa: Kick him on the face.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) No, don't say like that. But the thing is.... Business means.... Business means four things. Yes, we are businessman. I was student of economics. I know how to do business, and the business principle means you require four things: land, labor, capital, organization. So, ordinary man cannot do that. Otherwise, everyone would have done some business and become millionaires. But it requires these four things: land, labor, organization, and capital. So where you have got these? You have neither land, neither capital, neither place. So how you can do business? I am doing business because I have got all these things. I went to America-land. Then I worked-labor. Then I earned some capital, and I have got brain how to do it. (to Lokanātha) Hare Kṛṣṇa. So why you are becoming paramahaṁsa? This is paramahaṁsa dress.

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: If you have lost Kṛṣṇa, that is paradise lost.

Dr. Patel: Paradise lost, that is. My paradise, everything, is lost.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) And this night I have explained, chanting outside the temple and chanting in the temple, it increases the value thousand times. That I have explained, this evening, this last night.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Chanting in the temple increases the?

Prabhupāda: Value.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The value.

Prabhupāda: Potency, thousand times. Otherwise, why they are going to the Vṛndāvana? (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya.

Dr. Patel: Sir, what is the difference between mānasī chanting and chanting...

Prabhupāda: No, mānasī chanting, that is smaraṇa. That is another thing. But chanting means the tongue must work. That is real chanting.

Dr. Patel: But if only tongue works and the mind does not work, it has no value.

Prabhupāda: So mind will... You chant loudly, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa"; the mind will come.

Dr. Patel: This mind, buddhi, and the jīva in it, all the three must carry on...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then it is real chanting.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Here is the process. You are drinking water, and "Oh, how Kṛṣṇa, God, is so glorified. I was so much thirsty, and just drinking this water, this is quenching my thirst." This is glorification.

Guest (2): I like that. That's good. I like that.

Prabhupāda: So that is the difference. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means know how to glorify God, not theoretical-practical. Here is practically example. Everyone drinks water, and while drinking water he can glorify thousand times. That we are teaching. Prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ. As soon as you see sunlight, "Oh, we are suffering for want of sunlight. Here is God's glory. He has sent the sunlight." This is practical. So one must know how to glorify God practically. Then his life is successful. God is always glorious. There is no doubt about it. But for us, how to glorify God.... Similarly, when we worship the Deity, here is God. Just offer Him flower. Just offer Him dress. That is love.

Guest (2): Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Every item, there is practical.

Guest (2): We think that also to glorify God is to obey His...

Prabhupāda: You think but you see also practically that how these people are practically doing.

Guest (2): Excuse my manner of speech. I've come to know that to glorify God and that is to obey His will and do His will.

Morning Walk -- June 6, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Did I say?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. You said that Jesus only gave shelter to his few followers, but Vāsudeva Datta prayed that the whole sinful activities of the whole universe...

Rāmeśvara: "Be on me, I'll take them."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You said, I think it said, he was a thousand times greater. You wrote that in the purport.

Prabhupāda: Nature's law is not like that, that you suffer for me. No. I suffer for my. It is magnanimity that I'll suffer. Sometimes they do so, but actually nature's law is different. If you have committed theft, you will suffer; why I shall suffer? Even if I say in the court that "I'll go to jail," he'll not go. (break) ...city in the world except in America, such nice roads.

Hari-śauri: The Americans are expert at building highways.

Prabhupāda: They have got money and all these.... They want to do it (laughs) (unclear) money.

Rāmeśvara: They use these arguments that they are civilized, that they are making progress.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Rāmeśvara: Americans.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that I say also. That you are fortunate. Take Kṛṣṇa consciousness and be the best nation in the world. Simply you take Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Morning Walk -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Because he has approached God, therefore he's pious. Even though he has got material desires. Akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā mokṣa-kāma (SB 2.3.10). One day, he'll become devotee. Just like Dhruva Mahārāja. He went to search God for some material benefit, but when he became perfect, he became pure devotee. (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: ...are better off than the godless philosophers and jñānīs? These people are better off than the mental speculator jñānīs?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, oh, yes, thousand times. (break) ...gentleman has not come?

Devotee: Yesterday? No. Bhāgya.

Prabhupāda: So 'haṁ bhāgya (Hindi conversation)

Indian: (break) ...initiated devotee, and he follows those four regulative principles and chants sixteen rounds, will he go back to Godhead?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Mām evaiśyasi asaṁśaya. Kṛṣṇa says. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru mām evaiśyasi asaṁśaya (BG 18.65). Asaṁśaya, without any doubt.

Indian: But by taking initiation, will that speed up the process?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I inquired yesterday. (break)

Morning Walk Conversation -- June 20, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Because they are not devotee. Paśyanti jñāna-cakṣuṣā. Mām ebhyaḥ param, mūḍhā nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ parama-avyayam. Paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ. Paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ. They have no knowledge.

Satsvarūpa: They think that if they follow, they'll still be misled. "Why should I believe? It may not be true."

Prabhupāda: But you are already misled. Why not be second time misled? You are already misled, thousand times. Why not try once more. You are making so much arrangement to live comfortably, but you are kicked out. Are you not misled? Bahir-artha-māninaḥ. You are thinking that by adjustment of this external energy, you will be able to live very happily. Is it possible? You are trying, problem after problem, problem after problem. So you are already misled.

Satsvarūpa: You've said, "Just give this one life to Kṛṣṇa. You've misgambled so many lives. Why not give one to Kṛṣṇa?"

Prabhupāda: You are misled already so many lives. All right, be misled another life. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66).

Hari-śauri: They're taking a photo today for the BTG, so they'd like if you would pose for five minutes.

Prabhupāda: Why not? (end)

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

Prabhupāda: About the foretelling of Bhāgavatam. The other day I recited so many verses. One of them, long hairs. Now see how practical. And now this is confirmation of the foretelling. Who knew five thousand years that people will keep long hairs and think of themselves as very beautiful? It is mentioned in Bhāgavata. How it is possible unless they can see actually what is going to happen? That is foretelling. And other description, they are also fact. Everything is there. And all this is five thousand, two thousand years' foretelling. The millions and millions of years' foretelling they are. What will the eighth Manu, and how they will..., ninth Manu, tenth Manu, up to fourteenth Manu. All the Manus together, forty-three lakhs, thousand times. This is all the Manus' time. And the whole history is concluded that "Now I have mentioned past, present and future." It is not difficult. Just like tomorrow for my daily routine, what I shall do tomorrow from morning to evening, I can say. Is it very difficult for me? So it is a question of Brahmā's one day. So it can be said by them, not by us. These rascals think only in their standard of thinking: "I cannot live in such such, such condition; therefore there is no living entity." This is their idea. "I cannot live within the water; therefore there is no living entity. I cannot live within the fire; therefore there is no living entity." Kūpa-māṇḍūkya-nyāya, the same. "Whatever is in my experience, three feet water... How there can be unlimited?"

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

Prabhupāda: You can make, by arrangement, artificial, cross-breeding.

Hari-śauri: But that cannot be counted as one of the 8,400,000 forms. I was thinking last night when we were coming down this road that it's very nice and smooth, but then I thought you were saying the other morning that in the heavenly planets they are made from coral and so many different things. Here we're using tarmac.

Prabhupāda: The more you go higher planetary system, the standard of living is many, many thousand times better than this. Many, many thousand times.

Rūpānuga: We can't even imagine it now.

Hari-śauri: What to speak of the spiritual world.

Prabhupāda: Just suppose here are stones, there are pearls. You cannot imagine.

Hari-śauri: Lying on the roadside. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...Western scientists, philosophers, they are all Dr. Frogs. They simply calculating three feet water, that's all. As soon as you speak to them about Atlantic Ocean, they say, "Oh, it is impossible." Froggish brain. (break) ...word has come, kūpa-māṇḍūkya-nyāya, the frog in the well.

Hari-śauri: Prabhupāda, is that example also given in the Bhāgavatam? Frog in the well? Sometimes you use all these different examples, and they are all there in the Bhāgavatam. I was just wondering if this frog in the well was also there.

Prabhupāda: No.

Morning Walk -- August 27, 1976, Hyderabad:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Built by the Americans?

Indian man: Yes. Behind this is a fruit farmer's lot. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...the tomb? Very big.

Harikeśa: I was just thinking that this was really a case of decoration of the dead body.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, see the Taj Mahal. That's thousand times better than this.

Prabhupāda: In the gate it is said that bicycle prohibited. (break) ...tomb was constructed before Taj Mahal. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...improvement on this park.

Indian man: the last two years the have rebuilt this park.(?) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...there are similar buildings.

Hari-śauri: In Rome?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Old. And hundreds of tourists go to see them.

Hari-śauri: That Coliseum is very famous all over the world. That Coliseum?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Quarantine. Simply by thinking that "I shall not be allowed to go out of this room..." It is not a room; it is a big house, but still, I was feeling uncomfortable: "How is that? I shall not be free to go out." And that three days was actually suffering to me, "I cannot go out of the door." Simply by feeling this. I do not do practically. I sit down. But if I feel, "No, I cannot go out of this room," that's a great suffering. Whole day, I am sitting here. That's a fact. But I have got this intelligence that "I can go out as I like." But if you say that "You cannot go out," then it is a great suffering, psychologically. So creation or no creation, there is suffering. Rather, when there is creation it is less suffering, because he's mad, so he's engaged in some way. (laughs) He's thinking, "It is happiness." Eating, sleeping, sex is there. That is going on. That is māyā. Therefore this creation is another mercy of Kṛṣṇa. That I was reading this night. One creation, so many millions of years... There is calculation. One Brahmā's day, twelve hours, you cannot calculate. Sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). One yuga—forty-three hundred thousand years—one yuga, thousand times. Forty-three hundred thousand years equal to one yuga. Such thousand times. That is Brahmā's twelve hours. Then another twelve hours, night. That is also another trouble, when Brahmā's night. Everything merge into water, pralaya-payodhi-jale **. Not all the planet. At least half the universe plunge into water. This earthly planet and up to Svargaloka everything is inundated.

Arrival of Devotees -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: I am not feeling very well, but I am living in Vaikuṇṭha. I am not fit for this place. It is Vaikuṇṭha. Hm?

Rāmeśvara: This is inconceivable to us.

Rādhā-vallabha: If you're not fit, then we should leave immediately.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Always Hare Kṛṣṇa is going on. I am hearing. Where is such place throughout the whole world?

Rāmeśvara: The appearance of our center here has improved at least a thousand times from last year.

Prabhupāda: On account of that building.

Rāmeśvara: And also the gardens and the lawns being kept nicely.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Even big, big men, they are... Tarun Kanti he said, "Vaikuṇṭha."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He said so.

Gargamuni: He landed by helicopter.

Prabhupāda: Everyone likes.

Rāmeśvara: (aside:) They're coming in this morning.

Gargamuni: The jumbo jet arrived. There was at least one hundred dignitaries of Air India, TV, radio, watching the plane land on the airport.

Prabhupāda: When it is arriving?

Room Conversation with Alice Coltrane -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: But one who cannot, minimum, sixteen rounds.

Alice Coltrane: That only an experience (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Otherwise Haridāsa Ṭhākura, he was chanting three hundred thousand.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Per day.

Prabhupāda: Without chanting three hundred thousand times, he won't take his food. Nāmācārya.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Haridāsa Ṭhākura.

Prabhupāda: So that is not possible for everyone, but there is no limit. Twenty-four hours you can chant, if you can.

Alice Coltrane: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Otherwise, minimum sixteen.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She asked, how does she get Kṛṣṇa's instructions while chanting?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa's instruction are there in Bhagavad-gītā. Don't you find Kṛṣṇa's instruction? Is it difficult? All instruction are clearly given there. What is the difficulty?

Alice Coltrane: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything...

Page Title:Thousand times (Conversations)
Compiler:MadhuGopaldas, RupaManjari
Created:17 of Apr, 2013
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=32, Let=0
No. of Quotes:32