Translating my books (Conversations, 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"translatable" |"translate" |"translate" |"translated" |"translates" |"translating" |"translation" |"translational" |"translations" |"translator" |"translators"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I had one question about this play by Girish Ghosh. The Girish Ghosh was a debauchee, and wouldn't it be better to take, make dramas from your Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam? Then the sound vibration is coming from pure source. Or does that not matter? If the man was...

Prabhupāda: No, no. First of all you see how it can be utilized, whatever translation is there. Then we shall purify it. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlānam (CC Madhya 19.167). Just like this microphone. It is prepared by the meat-eaters. How we are utilizing it? Everything has got a proper process to purify it.

Morning Walk -- January 20, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Place for the crows.

Prabhupāda: Bas. That's all. Not for the swans. They are admitting. Otherwise how it is selling unless they are admitting the value? Maybe a few, but they are realizing. I told you that one young man, very respectable, he came to me in airport, maybe Japan or some place. So he said, "Swamiji, can I talk with you?" "And yes, why not?" "Where you have got so vast knowledge?" And "This is not my knowledge. I am simply translating. That's all. It is Vyāsadeva's knowledge. It is not my knowledge." Mean... He appreciated the vast stock of knowledge. That is a fact. And this rascal says, even in India, that Bhāgavata is not written by Vyāsadeva. It is latest, within Christian era.

Morning Walks -- January 22-23, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Saṅga-tyāgāt sato vṛtteḥ. So that's a don't.

Prabhupāda: No, no. There is don't's and do's also. Sato vṛtteḥ. This is do's. Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because it's translated as "Don't associate with the nondevotees."

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. All the ślokas, they are... In some śloka the do's are prominent, some ślokas don't's prominent, but in every śloka there is do's and don't's. Everywhere there is. In the Bible also: "Thou shall not do. Thou shall not kill." The don't's. (break) You are learning śabda-rūpa, dhātu-rūpa.

Morning Walk -- February 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...well, let them translate all our English literature. We shall publish in Bengali.

Morning Walk -- February 25, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: :If we translate into Russian then they'll probably take.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we shall consult. First of all, let them take. Then we shall propose them.

Jagadīśa: Actually, Bhagavad-gītā has already been translated into Russian. I have seen one copy.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They have translated a lot of books like Rāmāyaṇa also in Russian.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't think they are bona fide translations, not by a devotee.

Indian devotee: We have got a Polish devotee in London, a woman, and she's trying to translate.

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: What is the...? (reading) "No work in all Indian literature is more quoted. Because none is better loved in the West than the Bhagavad-gītā. Translation of such work demands not only knowledge of Sanskrit but an inward sympathy with the theme and a verbal..." What is called?

Devotees: Artistry.

Prabhupāda: "Artistry."

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: "It is an exhaustive plan of original Sanskrit text in Devanāgarī, then a translation, English synonym... What practitioner of philosophy cannot but be attracted to this serious student and scholar of Sanskrit language and Hindu religion and philosophy? The viewpoint of a devotee cum scholar has the advantage of making the philosophy meaningful to any practical-minded person."

Devotees: Jaya.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: The material civilization means ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. By false egotism they are bewildered and rascals. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has translated this, that jaḍā-bidyā jato, māyāra vaibhava: "All this material advancement of civilization is the paraphernalia of māyā." Because you cannot enjoy it, but you are thinking, "I possess so much. I possess so much." You'll not be allowed to enjoy, but still.... Therefore all these material possessions are the paraphernalia of māyā.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Reporter (1): Sir, whom do you find more responsive to your movement, women or men?

Prabhupāda: Everyone. Everyone. They are very fortunate. And I am very much indebted to them because they have helped me. Yes.

Reporter (5): Helped in what sense?

Prabhupāda: Helped in cooperation. Without their cooperation.... Now, these books I am writing surely, but they are pushing on, even facing great danger. They are helping me in my translating work, in typing, in composing, in printing.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Reporter (1): Swamiji, you write originally in English or these books are being translated from some other language into English...

Prabhupāda: No, translated, but I give my purport. That is.... They like very much. Present the purport in such a way they can understand it. The original verse is there, but they are explained by me.

Morning Walk Excerpt -- April 2, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is distance for you, not for them. Just like a small ant. It goes from here to here. It is a great, three hundred miles, but for you, one step. Why do you study Kṛṣṇa like you? Why do you think that Kṛṣṇa was like you? Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). Kṛṣṇa can do anything, so His associates.

Pañca-draviḍa: In the Upadeśāmṛta, in the translation you refer to this, the līlā-aṣṭa...

Tripurāri: Aṣṭakāla-līlā.

Pañca-draviḍa: Aṣṭakāla-līlā. What is that exactly? Eightfold līlā or some...?

Prabhupāda: Eightfold, but..., eight grahas.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They said Rāmāyaṇa by Tulasī dāsa, translated in English, and it was finished within a week. They have got little sympathy for Indian culture.

Morning Walk -- April 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So immediately, (growls) "Aww!" (laughter) And there was sound, "Aww!" Then he saw the photo, I mean, the reflection, and immediately jumped over.

buddhir yasya balaṁ tasya

nirbuddhes tu kuto balaṁ

paśya siṁho madonmataḥ

śaśaḥ kena nipatitaḥ(?)

A śaśa, the rabbit, killed a big lion by intelligence. The Aesop's Fable was imitated from this Hitopadeśa.

Dr. Patel: Yes, all are translated more or less.

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: One night Prabhupāda rang the buzzer; it was twelve-thirty.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda was translating.

Prabhupāda: Yes, sometimes earlier.

Dr. Patel: I get up at three-thirty. It is not possible to get up at one o'clock. You must not be sleeping...

Prabhupāda: Not more than three hours. I go to sleep at ten and I get up at one.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: This is scientific. It is not the question of religion. It is religion.... According to Sanskrit, the dharma, the word dharma, that is translated into "religion," and religion means a kind of faith. But it is not like that. It is a science to understand your real identification.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Formerly they used to speak in Sanskrit. Therefore it is recorded in Sanskrit language. It can be transferred to any language. The thoughts are there. That is real point. Just like we are translating the thoughts in English, in Spanish, in Portuguese, in French. The real thing is the thought, not the language. But in Sanskrit language you'll find very, very high thoughts. That is because it is very old language.

Brian Singer: Do you find that in the translation from the thoughts and the Sanskrit to the English words, then from the English words to the mass of the people's heads, do you find that there is much loss?

Prabhupāda: No, if you have grasped the thought, that you can express in any language. But if you cannot grasp the thought, then you cannot express. So the.... Our translation is that we have to receive the thoughts as it is by the paramparā system. Therefore it is presented so nicely, and people like it.

Room Conversation -- April 30, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: Yac chreyaḥ syāt, yac chreyaḥ syāt tat brūhi me niścitam. So the spiritual master's duty is how to benefit the disciple, śreyaḥ. What is the translation?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me clearly what is best for me."

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) They sent one translation of Tulasi dāsa's Rāma-caritra-mānasa. It was sold, all, in a week. And therefore they have stopped now.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, really?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guru-kṛpā: It is Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: They sent (indistinct), Bhagavad-gītā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes I wonder that—of course we want our books to be translated by our own men—but in the absence of sufficient translators...

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) ...that thing you see that er, our men means they know the philosophy. Otherwise they do not know, that is the difficulty.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Supposing we have—I'm just using this hypothetical...

Prabhupāda: Any, "our man" who knows Russian language, he should check.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Professionals may translate, but one of our men may check?

Prabhupāda: Yes, just like our books are being done in Germany now.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Yeah, then you can have quite a few books translated. Because if we only depend on our men for the entire translating work, it will never get done.

Prabhupāda: No, no, then get professional man, but he may not create the havoc.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, he must be checked by someone who knows. Whew, this is exciting. I'd love to see your Bhagavad-gītā, the most widely read blackmarket book in Russia.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Devotee: Sometimes he said when he's speaking, the translator will not say what he is saying because it's...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes he forgets-usually he speaks very carefully-guarded words. But once or twice he says, he starts speaking direct Krishna consciousness and the translator looks at him and won't translate it into the local language. Sometimes he forgets himself and starts speaking about Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the translator suddenly looks at him. Usually he covers everything.

Prabhupāda: He has done a good job.

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

Reporter: Are there many decisions that people asked you to make, about whether the movement should do this, or should do that, or do they bother you of that now, or are you just busy writing and translating?

Prabhupāda: No, we do not accept any—what is called?—defective suggestion. We do not accept. We have got our program. This program is coming directly from Kṛṣṇa. The Bhagavad-gītā is there.

Reporter: OK.

Prabhupāda: So we are simply giving a practical set(?) of the instruction of Gītā. This is our business. We don't manufacture any imaginative thing.

Morning Walk -- June 7, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Smārta is also counted amongst the sahajiyās.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was really.... That's another problem, Prabhupāda. All of these boys that take part in this Sanskrit-Bengali translation department, they all become like this, because they read these other books. As soon as they learn Bengali and Sanskrit, they start reading so many books.

Prabhupāda: Āula bāula, kartābhajā, neḍā, daraveśa, sāṅi sahajiyā, sakhībhekī, smārta, jāta-gosāñi. They are all counted in one group.

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

Prabhupāda: Illusion is another punishment. We wanted to forget God, and God's illusory energy is giving him facility to forget God. This is called illusory energy.

Arnold Weiss: In the beginning, when we were first part of God, as I understand from reading Bhagavad-gītā and some of your other translations and purports, which I enjoy very much—I thank you for making them available—I understand that our souls are also part of God, as a drop of water is part of that ocean. How... Is there any knowledge or information of how we incurred this first separation from God?

Prabhupāda: Separation... Generally, when we want to become God, there is separation.

Morning Walk -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: ...surprised that you have written so many books. They cannot understand how you could write so much. They wonder whether you were a great Sanskrit scholar for many years, so they try to guess. They just can't imagine anyone writing so much.

Prabhupāda: We are exceeding all material authors except Vyāsadeva.

Rāmeśvara: Vyāsadeva.

Prabhupāda: One book, seventeen volumes, Caitanya-caritāmṛta. That is also.... So many, our Godbrothers, attempted. Everyone is...

Hari-śauri: Have any of your Godbrothers translated anything?

Prabhupāda: They died half-way finished.

Hari-śauri: Śrīdhara Mahārāja never did anything?

Rāmeśvara: They wonder where you have made the time to study so much about ancient Indian culture that you could write so much. They cannot understand that. They read.... There is a biography of Your Divine Grace in the Bhāgavatam, that mentions different things, and they just can't understand how you could know so much. It is beyond material...

Prabhupāda: One young man in Tokyo or some airport, very nice young man. He came. I was sitting. "Swamiji, can I talk with you?" "Yes." So, "I have seen your photograph. Where you have got so much vast knowledge?" (laughs) And I..., "It is not my knowledge; it is Vyāsadeva's knowledge." So his first question was, intelligent boy.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. When He comes here, He comes for everyone. When He teaches Bhagavad-gītā, is it for Arjuna? Everyone. (break) ...play is not distinct in the record.

Kṛṣṇa-kānti: Not distinct enough? I can make it louder.

Prabhupāda: Harer nāma, harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21).

Indian (devotee?): Prabhupāda, do you want me to send it to you?

Prabhupāda: Eh? You have translated?

Indian: Yes, I have here the first chapter.

Prabhupāda: Oh, you go on reading.

Indian: Adhunika...

Hṛdayānanda: (trying to read something in Bengali) ...jijñāsa... (pause) ...gayi.... haya hi.... mamana.... mana.... gagane...

Prabhupāda: Oh, this is.... (says something in joking disgust, devotees laugh loudly).

Jayādvaita: I can read like that too. (more laughter)

Prabhupāda: (break) ...written these two pages?

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: ...that to do the book Scientific Basis would take two weeks.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Then let him come. (break) ...so many items, so many books can be translated into English.

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

Prabhupāda: Go on, second.

Hṛdayānanda: Purport?

Prabhupāda: No purport, translation.

Hṛdayānanda: Sanskrit also?

Prabhupāda: Or translation. No, Sanskrit also. The mantra, hearing, that is very valuable. These are all Vedic mantras. If you simply hear, it helps you spiritually.

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

Hṛdayānanda: Uśattama te 'ṅghri-mūlam.

Prabhupāda: "Therefore kindly engage me in Your service." What is the translation?

Hṛdayānanda: Of the whole verse?

Prabhupāda: Of this verse, yes.

Hṛdayānanda: "O most powerful, insurmountable Lord, who are kind to the fallen souls, I have been put into the association of demons as a result of my activities, and therefore I am very much afraid of my condition of life within this material world. When will that moment come when You will call me to the shelter of Your lotus feet, which are the ultimate goal for liberation from conditional life?"

Prabhupāda: Hm. Is there a purport?

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

Jayādvaita: I can.... Why Śrīla Prabhupāda is coming, he's visiting different centers around the world. I can fill you in on most of the details about the society and dates and times and so on. You might prefer to ask Śrīla Prabhupāda a little more about the philosophy of our movement.

Kathy Kerr: Ah. Very well. Okay, I understand that this is an extension of Hindu religion. Is that not correct? No, it's not. Does it have any basic tenets of the Hindu religion?

Prabhupāda: There is no such word as Hindu religion. You do not know. There is no such word as Hindu religion, at least in the Vedas. The religion is translated into Sanskrit as "characteristic." Religion is not a kind of faith. Just like chemical composition. Sugar is sweet—that is religion. Sugar must be sweet. Sugar cannot be pungent. Or chili must be pungent. If chili is sweet, we reject it, and sugar is pungent, you reject it. Similarly, our Vedic system is to train the human being to the ultimate goal of his life.

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

Prof. O'Connell: He spent some time in Vṛndāvana during the Second War, became a Vaiṣṇava, devotee, I believe, and then wrote this lengthy German life of Caitanya. I don't think it's translated yet.

Prabhupāda: There is one, my Godbrothers also, you perhaps know, Sadānanda. He came to India in 1935, Gauḍīya Maṭha. And my Guru Mahārāja first initiated him with hari-nāma. Two gentlemen came: one Ernst Schulze, another Von something. But later on they left. This Schulze was my intimate friend.

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

Prabhupāda: So they are not very favorable to the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. (laughs)

Indian man: How long did it take for Swamiji to write the seventeen volumes, translation of Caitanya-caritāmṛta?

Prabhupāda: It can be finished, but I have to look after this management, that is the difficulty.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He's asking about the Caitanya-caritāmṛtas.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā, it is finished.

Hari-śauri: How long did it take?

Prabhupāda: Oh. It took one year and six months.

Guest (1): When do you usually write?

Prabhupāda: I write in the night. I get up at half past twelve. I go to bed at half past ten, and I get up at half past twelve. Then I finish my chanting, if there is any balance, and then I begin dictating. And the morning they take it and type it. So this dictaphone is always with me, wherever I go, so my writing book is not stopped. Maybe few pages, but something is there daily. Little drops of water wears the stone. So in that way we have translated so many books. About fifty-four books are already published, besides the small booklets. And, how many we have published, Bhāgavatam? About twenty-two?

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

Indian man: Is there any other bhāṣya other than Baladeva-bhāṣya?

Prabhupāda: No, many others.

Indian man: Gauḍīya, Śaṅkara...

Prabhupāda: No, other ācāryas. Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya and Vallabhācārya. Then our Gauḍīya-bhāṣya, this Jīva Gosvāmī, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. And Rādhāramaṇa Gosvāmī, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī's descendant.

Indian man: Is there any plan to translate into English? Is there any plan to translate Jīva Gosvāmī's Jīva-bhāṣya?

Prabhupāda: No, no. I am taking help from all these Gosvāmīs and giving a summary. Where is that book? That green book? (probably referring to Prabhupāda's green Bhāgavatam with eight commentaries) (break) First comment I find, Viśvanātha Cakravartī and Vīra-rāghavācārya, the Rāmānujācārya sampradāya. Vīra-rāghavācārya.

Indian man: Ādhunika bhāṣya.

Prabhupāda: It is not ādhunika. It was written at least two hundred, three hundred years ago. Ādhunika, who is care? Who cares for Bhāgavatam? Technology, hammer..., cuta-cut-cuta. Nobody is now interested in philosophy or English literature. The professors say. I have got.... So read the names of the commentator, any chapter. Who are.... Śrīdhara Svāmī.

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

Prabhupāda: Why there is so many strikes? Why there is protest? There is no happiness. But they are thinking... Whole thing is based on ignorance, māyā. Anartha upaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje. And the direct method for subduing these anarthas, unnecessary troubles-bhakti-yoga. There is no other. Anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje, lokasya ajānataḥ (SB 1.7.6). People do not know it. Vidvāṁś cakre sātvata-saṁhitām. Therefore Vyāsadeva, most learned scholar, he has made this Bhāgavatam. Anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣāt. (break) I was translating the Bhāgavata, Eighth Canto, Twelfth Chapter.

Hari-śauri: How many chapters is there?

Prabhupāda: Twenty-four. Half-finished, half-finished, Eighth Canto.

Kīrtanānanda: What is Eighth Canto like? What does Eighth Canto contain?

Prabhupāda: Eighth Canto? Churning of the ocean and producing nectar, and the demons they did not receive the nectar. There was fight.

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

Prabhupāda: He was describing about that factory. So they are working in the factory, what do they care for hell? Even if we go to hell, they will get some good salary, that's all. Money required, then I can drink nicely. The standard is there. Now this qualification, abhayaṁ sattva-saṁśuddhir, what is that? It does not strike them at all, these qualities are high qualities. Is it not? This is the... What is the translation?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "Fearlessness, purification of one's existence."

Prabhupāda: And who is fearless? Everyone is fearful. And fearlessness is good quality, who understands it? Ahara-nidra-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca, this is animal life. To eat, sleep, sex and become fearful, that is animal life. And one has to become fearless. So who cares for it? They are thinking to become fearless means to keep gun. That is also one way. Then, fearlessness and...?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "Purification of one's existence."

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It is a fact though that the repository of Indian culture and religion is Sanskrit. So are you saying then that the harijanas or these class of people...

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is Sanskrit, but the Vedic mantras are received not by learning Sanskrit, but by hearing from the authorized person. Therefore it is called śruti. It is in Sanskrit because there was no other language. Sanskrit was the only language. So now they're being translated into English. So it doesn't matter whether it is in Sanskrit or English, one has to learn it by hearing from the proper person. That is wanted.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Will mantras lose their sanctity or holiness if they are not in the Sanskrit language?

Prabhupāda: Mantra in Sanskrit language, it may... The letters may be different, but it is a transcendental sound. The sound must be vibrated. You cannot translate it. The sound as it is... Just like Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, the sound must be produced. You cannot translate. Then it will be artha, arthavad. That is prohibited. You cannot interpret or do other way... The sound vibration must be there. Then it will continue in sanctity.

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

Pradyumna: There's just one more thing. What's the minimum knowledge one must have to...

Prabhupāda: God is great. That's all. God is great. Kṛṣṇa proved that He's great. Therefore He's God. Everyone says, "God is great." Allah akbar, Muslims say. God is great. It is translated, "God is great." And Hindu says, paraṁ brahma. So God is great. So Kṛṣṇa proved that He is all-great. Therefore He is God. Kṛṣṇa, when He was present, He proved it that He is the great. Therefore He's God. If you accept God is great, and if you find somebody, he is great in everything, then he's God. How can I deny it? At least, you can see Kṛṣṇa great by His Bhagavad-gītā. It is still going on. Five thousand years passed, still Bhagavad-gītā is accepted as the greatest book of knowledge all over the world.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Viśākhā was wondering who..., if you have any idea or choice who should do the Hindi translation or Bengali translation and speaking for the film like this. Did you have anyone in particular in mind, or inquiry should be made?

Prabhupāda: It requires some professional man. Laymen cannot go with the film.

Hari-śauri: It needs a trained speaker.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Hari-śauri: Needs someone who's trained to speak nicely.

Prabhupāda: Anyone can do. We can do also.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But it may not come out so nice.

Prabhupāda: But it may not be perfect.

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

Dr. Sukla: We have started teaching your Gītā at Georgetown University, where I teach. Before we had, we have two years course of Sanskrit, and we had some excerpts from Mahābhārata and some Pañca-tantra and so on, but there was no Gītā. So I decided and we were using the entire Gītā for the second year. Your contributions can't be duplicated.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.

Dr. Sukla: And same thing with Bhāgavatam. We all know what a great book that is, and what I really appreciate about the whole thing is, number one, that there are no misprints in the book. So that's a great delight. Especially, for people who do not know Sanskrit, for them, there's no difference between the wheat and the germ that comes with it. The translations are very accurate. So it's real scholarship there. And people who were not aware of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they know that if the intellect is so powerful, the spirit must be powerful too. Our library, of course, has several copies, and our bookstore has almost all the...

Prabhupāda: All over the world they have given standing order.

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

Dr. Sukla: I think you should maybe some day in the future also put out a grammar, Sanskrit grammar, whether yourself you write or somebody.

Prabhupāda: Grammar?

Dr. Sukla: :Grammar of Sanskrit language published by the Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: We have got grammar, Jīva Gosvāmī, Harināmāmṛta-vyakāraṇa.

Dr. Sukla: Is it in English, available in translation?

Prabhupāda: No, not here.

Dr. Sukla: Well, I mean for the foreigners.

Prabhupāda: But here is grammar. Harināmāmṛta, all examples, words are harināmāmṛta. Yes, these are the list of, apart from European, America. "Cc" means Caitanya-caritāmṛta, "SB" means Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, standing order.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In addition to other works also. This is within the last few months. They just started after our Māyāpura festival.

Devotee (3): In Europe, Śrīla Prabhupāda, there's a very nice Hungarian boy, he's a translator. He doesn't know English expertly, but I kept talking to him, he was working on translating.

Prabhupāda: How he'll translate?

Devotee (3): He's a Hungarian and he knows Russian also.

Prabhupāda: If he does not know English, how he can translate?

Devotee (3): He knows English quite fluently, but he feels not so expert in it. He's developing his expertise for English too.

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

Dr. Sukla: Have the writings of Vidyāpati come to attention, and if they have...

Prabhupāda: That is very higher, not for ordinary persons. Vidyāpati's writing is meant for realized souls, not ordinary. Ordinary, they will take as love affairs between girls and boys. Therefore it is not for them. Those who are already advanced, liberated, then these love affairs of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā, they will be discussed.

Dr. Sukla: Is there any plan of bringing those things out, publishing them, his poems and translations?

Prabhupāda: It is not for ordinary. Cāṇḍīdāsa, Vidyāpati. Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to discuss Jayadeva's books, Vidyāpati's books, very confidentially amongst a few devotees. Not publicly.

Dr. Sukla: So you think they might be misused.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they are being misused. They take Kṛṣṇa as debauch. They do not understand.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: ...bora bora phet, lanka dinga ke matta kare het(?) It was translated by a Mr. Roe, a professor in the Presidency College, he translated "Big, big monkey, big, big belly, Ceylon jumping, melancholy." When the problems of life is read, then they are melancholy, all these big, big scientists. Ceylon jumping melancholy. Hanumān, one monkey, he jumped over the Ceylon. So other monkeys also, they were very much proud that a monkey jumped over the ocean. And as soon as he was challenged, "Can you jump over?" melancholy. Ceylon jumping melancholy. Big, big monkey, big, big belly. These are the translation by Mr. Roe, a professor of English in Presidency College. So what is the proposal now?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We want to discuss about the journal that we are proposing to have from the Institute.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Pradyumna: Sa-vijñānam

Rūpānuga: Sa-vijñānam. So we can say "Sa-vijñānam, Journal of the Bhaktivedanta Institute." Is that all right?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Sa-vijñānam.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Do we need some sort of translation?

Devotee: On the inside cover we can have this verse...

Prabhupāda: You can give this verse.

Devotee: Give the verse on the inside. That can be the motto.

Prabhupāda: Is that nice title?

Pradyumna: Scientific.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, sound very...

Rūpānuga: It's a very good title.

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

Mr. Boyd: I don't think it makes any difference who made the statement, it was just a comment that somebody wanted the Gītā without Rāma, which indicated to me that they didn't want the whole picture, they didn't want the total fact. But otherwise I couldn't put the two together, because Barbara must have taken the Bhagavad-gītā back to Germany with her.

Dr. Sharma: Actually here is a one-to-one translation. (Sanskrit)

Prabhupāda: The Tulasī dāsa's Rāmāyaṇa means Rāma-carita. It is not Rāmāyaṇa. Rāma-carita Manas. He was devotee of Lord Rāmacandra. So as he was thinking of Lord Rāmacandra, he has written. So he was a learned scholar, brāhmaṇa, he must have read Bhagavad-gītā, Bhāgavatam. So all his translation is there on the basis of the śāstra, especially Bhāgavata and Bhagavad-gītā. You'll find many parallel passages. But Gītā is the summary of all Vedic literature, and it is spoken by the Personality of Godhead. So if we fix up our attention on the Bhagavad-gītā, then you can get advantage of all other śāstras.

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

Dr. Sharma: I have a Ph.D. in chemistry, a Ph.D. in biochemistry, a Doctor of Science in clinical endocrinology. I have a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry of London, which is a higher Ph.D. I am in computer information and control engineering...

Prabhupāda: Royal College of... That... What is is called?

Dr. Sharma: Royal Institute of Chemistry, London. And I have a law degree. And I am in computer information and control engineering.

Prabhupāda: (laughing) You are such a big man. Kindly join us and help us.

Dr. Sharma: I would be most honored, and I'm slowing trying to work it out in such a way that I can...

Prabhupāda: No, the formula is all given in this Bhagavad-gītā.

Dr. Sharma: I find your Bhagavad-gītā most illuminating as compared to other Gītās I have read, the translations.

Prabhupāda: We are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is, that's all.

Dr. Sharma: How can we best serve the movement? By joining it? I have joined it in a...

Prabhupāda: Prāṇair arthair dhiyā vācaiḥ: "By life, by money, by intelligence, by words." Either four or three or two, at least one. Then it will be all right.

Dr. Sharma: I'll be writing...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Sharma: ...about the movement in scientific journals.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Sharma: That I'll be writing.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. So I shall again stay in New York? Nice place.

Ādi-keśava: From this window here you can see the Empire State Building and all the big buildings in New York.

Prabhupāda: Oh, very nice.

Rāmeśvara: There will not be any noise here either, because this is the eleventh floor.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: So it's very peaceful for translating work.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. (pause) My Guru Mahārāja left alone, so he has sent so many gurus to take care of me. You are all my Guru Mahārāja's representatives.

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

Prabhupāda: Hmm. What does he say?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Prabhupāda, ācārya-founder, born Abhay Caran De in India in 1895, the founder, future founder-ācārya, spiritual leader of ISKCON, came under the spiritual direction of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, ascetic scholar and preacher who had devoted his life to the spread of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Three years later, shortly before he died, Bhaktisiddhānta ordered Abhay to spread the Kṛṣṇa faith in the English language. One of the ways that Abhay, now known as Prabhupāda-'one at whose feet masters sit'-did that was to begin to translate the classic Vedic literature, but it was not until thirty years after he was charged by his spiritual mentor that he was able to make a trip to the United States. He arrived in Boston in September, 1965, a spry but grim-faced passenger of seventy years on the steamer Jaladuta. He had forty rupees in his pocket and a metal suitcase full of his books and translations. Finding his way to New York City, he set up a storefront temple at 26 Second Avenue in the East Village section. Gradually he drew a small coterie of students around him, mostly through his preaching in Tompkinson Park. As his movement grew, he found backers among his converts. Hare Kṛṣṇa centers were established in Boston, Buffalo and San Francisco, and an appreciation of Prabhupāda's Vedic translations by American university authorities, Columbia, Princeton, Yale professors among others, permitted the establishment of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust in Los Angeles. The Trust launched a promotion of Prabhupāda's translations and original works under the logo of the Living Library of Transcendental Knowledge. Remarkably, in the face of a worldwide economic recession, the Trust's book and magazine sales reached nine million in 1975, up 34.5 percent over 1974. Some of this was due to the determined promotion of groups such as the hundred-man Rādhā-Dāmodara group which criss-crosses the country in six Greyhound-type buses and ten vans giving lectures and kīrtanas at college university campuses. Now eighty-one years old, Prabhupāda still works at his writings and the spiritual direction of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. His translation of Bhagavad-gītā, the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, the most widely used in the Western world, is in great demand by professors of Indology and Vedic literature."

Prabhupāda: He has given advertisement for our books.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes, very favorable.

Comments on Bhagavad-gita Play -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So what is your opinion, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes, nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They also have a performance to show you of Satish Chandra Ghosh's play. Satish Chandra Ghosh, remember that play that we received in Māyāpura, that Nitāi had translated? "Lust and Envy," you gave it to Madhudviṣa, myself and Sudāmā, and you were saying "Just think how to perform this."

Prabhupāda: Satish Chandra?

Sudāmā: Ghosh. He's a playwriter. In Māyāpura we received two scenes from the entire translated in Vṛndāvana—in January when we were there together.

Prabhupāda: Satish Chandra or Girish Chandra?

Devotees: Girish Chandra.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, Girish Chandra.

Prabhupāda: Girish Chandra Ghosh.

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

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

Rāmeśvara: I see. There must be management.

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

Prabhupāda: That's right. Try this experiment.

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

Prabhupāda: Hm, yes.

Rāmeśvara: Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

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

Rāmeśvara: People are interested to know about you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. And if they take an interest in you, then they will automatically be interested in your books also. They are very eager to know about the author of all these books that we are selling.

Prabhupāda: But these books, books... We'll speak about the books. Does it depend, what the author was doing previously?

Interviewer: You are the translator of many books, from what I understand.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So that translation, the book, will speak how I have translated.

Interviewer: Um hm. I was wondering...

Prabhupāda: You read the books, Then you'll understand. Instead of asking me, you better read the books. That is real understanding.

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

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

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

Interviewer: Yes, I have. You translated all of those. (pause) (break)

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

Interviewer: A question: you are now the leader and the spiritual master. Who will take your place?

Prabhupāda: That Kṛṣṇa will dictate who will take my place.

Interviewer: Kṛṣṇa will tell you that?

Hari-śauri: You want that verse, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Hari-śauri: This is the translation of what the Sanskrit...

Prabhupāda: No, you can read the Sanskrit also.

Hari-śauri:

ananyāś cintayanto māṁ

ye janāḥ paryupāsate

teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ

yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham

(BG 9.22)

"But those who worship Me with devotion, meditating on My transcendental form—to them I carry what they lack and preserve what they have."

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

Interviewer: How do you spend your days? You do an awful lot of traveling I understand.

Prabhupāda: Traveling is going on throughout the whole world and wherever I go, at night I write books.

Bali-mardana: Translates.

Prabhupāda: Translate. And daytime I meet devotees.

Bali-mardana: Manage.

Prabhupāda: Manage.

Interviewer: You arrange the marriages?

Bali-mardana: Manage.

Prabhupāda: They have to ask me, final decision is taken from me. From all over the world, from all over the world letters are coming some problem, some problem, some problem. Although I have got about twenty secretaries, still they have to consult, I have to give them advice.

Hari-śauri: In the evening Śrīla Prabhupāda goes to bed at ten o'clock and gets up at eleven-thirty to begin translating.

Interviewer: You just sleep a couple of hours, then?

Prabhupāda: No, one and a half hour.

Interviewer: That's it?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Of course in daytime I take rest two hours. So in this way altogether about three to four hours. Our philosophy is not that you sit idly and God will send everything, no, not like that. We know God will send everything, still we work. Without God's sanction nothing can come. But we must be qualified to receive the favor of God. That is our philosophy.

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Bali-mardana: He's saying did you think of these things yourself, to chant on the beads and follow the program in the morning, have you made these up yourself?

Prabhupāda: No, this is the disciplic process.

Bali-mardana: Disciplic process.

Interviewer: Yes, who originated those steps?

Prabhupāda: It is since time immemorial.

Bali-mardana: Time immemorial.

Prabhupāda: Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find, satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ (BG 9.14). Find out this.

Interviewer: Well I understand you do a lot of work translating and that you only sleep two hours a day. Is that right?

Prabhupāda: Not two hours, I sleep about four hours.

Interviewer: Four hours? Four hours.

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: Well I understand you do a lot of work translating and that you only sleep two hours a day. Is that right?

Prabhupāda: Not two hours, I sleep about four hours.

Interviewer: Four hours? Four hours.

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: Are all of these translations that you've made Your Grace? I don't blame you for sleeping only four hours a night. I tell you, just to produce a half a dozen books in a lifetime is quite a job you know.

Prabhupāda: It is very difficult, but I have already produced eighty books.

Interviewer: Eighty? Eighty?

Prabhupāda: Eighty books.

Interviewer: Eighty?

Prabhupāda: Eighty. Eight zero.

Interviewer: Translations of the Vedic scriptures.

Bali-mardana: And commentaries.

Interviewer: Translation and commentaries.

Prabhupāda: And all world scholars, professors, universities, they are receiving so nicely.

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

(break) (Prabhupāda moves outside)

Indian woman: ...and translate into English.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Do it. You do. Give him the book. Simply book. Why you are taking the...? Yes. (Indian man speaking in Hindi about "Nature, the Enjoyer and Consciousness" for several minutes)

Indian man (2): (Hindi) Should I read the translation in Hindi?

Prabhupāda: Yes, so that...

Kṣīrodakaśāyī: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: You can explain this. Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Bhagavān: This will be Kṛṣṇa book, 650 pages.

Jayatīrtha: This will also be coming out?

Bhagavān: Yeah. This is just the press proof. It needs improvement.

Prabhupāda: Fifty thousand?

Bhagavān: Twenty-five thousand. The translators have been working day and night for the last two weeks to get everything ready. They are now in Italy. We are printing this book in Italy.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Cheaper?

Bhagavān: Very cheap. Very cheap. Including composition, the book cost $1.75.

Prabhupāda: Oh, very cheap.

Bhagavān: Sixty-four color pictures.

Prabhupāda: It is very nice.

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

Bhūgarbha: He wants you to mention something about the translations. He wants to express his opinion about the translations that the French translators are doing of your books.

Prabhupāda: He is doing?

Bhūgarbha: He wants to give his opinion.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Bhūgarbha: He's asking permission to give his opinion.

Prabhupāda: It would be very nice.

Bhūgarbha: He says it is very interesting, very important that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam be translated in the same way as the Gītā. The Bhagavad-gītā has been translated many times into French, but the Bhāgavatam was only translated once, and that also in the last century.

Prabhupāda: This is our translation?

Bhūgarbha: No, it's another one. In 1800 it was translated.

Prabhupāda: And they simply translation, or elaborately like we are doing?

Yogeśvara: Just translation. Sanskrit on the left-hand page, French on the right-hand page, but no commentaries.

Prabhupāda: That is difficult to understand.

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

Bhūgarbha: He feels that the French public is very demanding in questions of editing and writing, and he feels that the French that's used in our translations should not, he said, smell of English. Sometimes French translations seem like English written in French. He said those should be in perfect French, and that in the French language there's a need to make things more compact and condensed. He's wondering if we can condense them more than in English.

Prabhupāda: So one of us who knows French nicely, he can do that. But there is no difference. They are taking the ideas from English and translating.

Yogeśvara: He says, Professor Chenique wishes to know, would it not be more valuable if our men spoke Sanskrit and could translate directly from the Sanskrit into French?

Prabhupāda: There is no much difference. Sanskrit is there and the Sanskrit translation is there. Where is the difference? We are giving the Sanskrit and then word-to-word translation.

Bhūgarbha: He says that when one translates from Sanskrit into English and from English into French, that it's not exactly the same thing in French that it was in Sanskrit, he feels...

Prabhupāda: No, if from Sanskrit to French can be translated, I have no objection. But we have no such arrangement.

Yogeśvara: We have no Sanskrit scholars in French yet, no.

Prabhupāda: Not only scholar, not only scholar, he must be a realized soul. Simply scholars will not help, simply scholarship will not help. There are many Sanskrit scholars in India. There are many Sanskrit scholars, original Sanskrit scholars in India, they cannot understand Bhāgavata.

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

Yogeśvara: Professor Chenique's point is that we are seeking to introduce these books on a university level, and there's a certain standard that must be met.

Prabhupāda: What is that standard?

Bhūgarbha: He's just saying that the style of French, he feels that it's too many words.

Prabhupāda: French, he must be French, expert in language, at the same time, a devotee. Then he can explain. Otherwise no. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's secretary, Svarūpa Dāmodara, he asked that brāhmaṇa, bhāgavata paḍā giyā bhāgavata sthāne:(?) "Go and study Bhāgavata from bhāgavata." I have discussed this in the beginning of translation of Bhāgavata. So Bhāgavata, that is the limit of education. Vidyā bhāgavata vadhiḥ.(?) One has to study and take education up to Bhāgavatam. That is, if one understands Bhāgavatam, he's finished his education.

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

Professor Chenique: I was, up to recent time, I was commenting Bhagavad-gītā in the camping. For eleven years every summer I am commenting the Gītā in the camping. I commend very warmly this edition of the Bhagavad-gītā. I think it's the best that you may find in France. But when I'm reading the commentary for my students, I find some sentences which are not good French. I think because it is not a very good style, and I hope it won't be that matter with... (French)

Bhūgarbha: Perhaps Professor Chenique could go over our translations and make any suggestions.

Prabhupāda: I have no objection.

Yogeśvara: Professor Chenique is offering to re-read our publications. To read them and when he sees something he thinks can be corrected, he will make some indication.

Prabhupāda: I have no objection. It is welcome.

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

Yogeśvara: (devotee enters) This is Hayeśvara. Hayeśvara dāsa, in charge of the Dutch publications, Dutch translator. He has done the Bhagavad-gītā, this edition, in Dutch.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. Thank you very much.

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

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

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

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

Yogeśvara: No, something like this, very small.

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

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

Prabhupāda: Where is that Chinese?

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

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

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: The more you chant God's name, your heart becomes cleansed. (Ātreya Ṛṣi translates) Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). So God has many names. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has recommended God's name must be... It doesn't matter the language is different. Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktiḥ. In each name the full power of God is there.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Hussain Prabhu says that his goal in life is to translate your Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Oh, very good.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes, he's a very, very sincere boy.

Prabhupāda: So do it immediately. Somebody, some Arabian student made some translation?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes, there was some translations of Īśopaniṣad.

Prabhupāda: Where he is, that boy?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Into Arabic. He's in Europe. He is a Palestinian boy. Hussain is asking how should this translation be done, what is your recommendation, if you have any suggestion.

Prabhupāda: Of course, I am not well versed in your language, but you simply, if you understand that English and translate it into Parsi, that will do. As it is, you translate. Don't make any change. Then it will be all right. And when there is difficulty, you can ask Ātreya Ṛṣi.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: If they understand any book, Īśopaniṣad, if they understand, they will get improvement.

Nandarāṇī: Any book. Some Bhagavad-gītās I do, but it's an exceptional Iranian who can even read the book, what to speak of understand the concepts. Īśopaniṣad is easier for them. We are very eager to translate into Persian.

Prabhupāda: Īśopaniṣad.

Nandarāṇī: Īśopaniṣad, yes. I think that will be our first big attempt. Some essays we will try to do. "Who is Crazy?" is very good for them, they appreciate that article, and...

Prabhupāda: They appreciate?

Nandarāṇī: Yes, we have explained to some of them the concepts in "Who is Crazy?" and Īśopaniṣad is a good book for them.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Come on, bring. Come here, forward.

Parivrājakācārya: This is Ali. He has helped me translate one article on vegetarianism. He's very qualified in that area.

Prabhupāda: Our...He'll understand English?

Parivrājakācārya: Very well.

Prabhupāda: Our mission is not to make the nonvegetarian as vegetarian. That will automatically be done. Our mission is to teach people how to love God.

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Give me one piece. For any intelligent man, Bhagavad-gītā is perfect knowledge. There is no doubt about it. But unfortunately most men are rascals. That is the difficulty. Otherwise, there is perfect instruction. There is no doubt about it. How can I deny? God is speaking personally.

Jñānagamya: I met a man on the plane coming here just recently Prabhupāda, and he had translated Bhagavad-gītā into Parsi, the Persian language, and I invited him to come here, but he is not coming. He is afraid to meet you, I'm sure. And I told him... He was smoking cigarettes and was buying, purchasing liquor on the plane, and I said, "Why are you doing this?"

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: In America we have got the facility for selling books. Contribution there is, but our main source of income by selling books. We are selling books to the extent of sixty...?

Harikeśa: Sixty thousand dollars.

Prabhupāda: Sixty thousand dollars daily. Sixty thousand dollars daily. America and Europe. Europe we have got other language publication. Have you got the German?

Jñānagamya: We had French books, Bhagavad-gītā, Prabhupāda, it was sold. We had one German Bhagavad-gītā too.

Prabhupāda: We have published Chinese Bhagavad-gītā. Bring it. It is translated by one Chinese student. Give it to Mr....

Mrs. Patel: I can read Japanese, but not Chinese.

Arrival Conversation -- August 13, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The whole thing is being done in one week. I just got the whole text from Nirañjana on Sunday from England. We've got it composed, it is going into printing tomorrow, it will be ready by Vyāsa-Pūjā. It's a Hindi Back to Godhead on Janmāṣṭamī...

Prabhupāda: Nirañjana is helping to translate it?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, and he's the most reliable. The others I find are not reliable. Even with Yaśomatīnandana, I give him a book, it gets stuck for three months. But now we are moving very fast. The first Hindi Back to Godhead we printed up forty-five thousand, it is sold. So I'm reprinting thirty thousand more in Delhi, and in Bombay, we are producing a new Back to Godhead with thirty thousand first print. Forty-five thousand of first printing is almost sold. People can't believe it. Even Hitsharan Sharma couldn't believe it that we distributed forty-five thousand Hindi magazines in two months.

Prabhupāda: We are distributing millions in English.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Sadācāra is there. But these people, asadācārī, and passing as sannyāsī. Cigarette, meat-eating and everything, drinking. We are asking common men to give it up, and they say, "Oh, what is the wrong there?" They do not know what is the wrong there. This time in Iran we initiated some Iranian. Some Afghans also coming.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We have Arabic Īśopaniṣad ready for printing that was translated by your Lebanese disciple.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that he has done. He promised...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Motaji. He told me to give it to him and he'd print it on his press.

Prabhupāda: Give this light. (break)

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Indian man: Chinese, German, French, Italian, English...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Swedish is coming.

Prabhupāda: Dutch. Dutch.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Italian is at the printer. Italian Gītā.

Devotee: French Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: French Bhāgavatam. No, Dutch Bhāgavatam? Dutch also. No, they have printed, I have seen it.

Devotee: Spanish also.

Prabhupāda: They may read and translate. And why in India where there is Bhagavad-gītā? Apart from all other Vedic literatures, set aside, the gist of all Vedic knowledge, Bhagavad-gītā, there is. And still, people are kept into darkness. How much lamentable. Still, big, big leaders, at least, they want to preach Bhagavad-gītā—without Kṛṣṇa. They have set aside lakhs of rupees for preaching Bhagavad-gītā, but condition is if you preach without Kṛṣṇa. Just see. Bhagavad-gītā in every page it is written "śrī-bhagavān uvāca." Not even it is said "kṛṣṇaḥ uvāca." Because some rascal may take Kṛṣṇa as ordinary human being, therefore Vyāsadeva has specifically said... People know it, "kṛṣṇaḥ uvāca," but he says "śrī-bhagavān uvāca." The bhagavān word. People may not mistake that Kṛṣṇa is somebody else. And they want to banish Kṛṣṇa from Bhagavad-gītā. Even Gandhi did it. So you explain Bhagavad-gītā as it is there in Ahmedabad?

Yaśomatīnandana: Yes.

Prabhupāda: They like it?

Yaśomatīnandana: Yes. Many young people are very attracted.

Prabhupāda: Yes, when real thing will be presented, it will act.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Yaśomatīnandana: Many people frankly admit that they had a very vague idea of religion. It is not so...

Prabhupāda: Not many, all of them. They do not know what is religion. Therefore there are so many rascal religionists. And Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam begins dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra (SB 1.1.2). All cheating type of religions kicked out from here. This is beginning. And Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura has translated,

pṛthivīte yāra kichu dharma-nāme cale

bhāgavata kahe tāhā paripūrṇa chale(?)

Whatever is going on throughout the whole world as religion, Bhāgavata is condemning them as simply cheating. Very clear translation. Cale and chale. Chale means cheating.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: People are begging us for books in Bengali written by Your Divine Grace. We tell them that... There's no time.

Prabhupāda: That Subhaga translated. But his translations are not so...

Gargamuni: No. There's always trouble with translation in local languages, Hindi or Gujarati.

Prabhupāda: They do not know the philosophy.

Gargamuni: No. And they do the wrong words.

Jayapatākā: Now they have a... I put a two-man team. A two- or three-man team. Subhaga, there's one boy Kiśora, and Tatpur. Between the three of them they check and recheck.

Prabhupāda: Tatpur is educated?

Jayapatākā: He's got a B.A. or something.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Jayapatākā: He doesn't write himself. He writes in old fashion. But he corrects for double-checking philosophy. Editing. And this Kiśora, he was a M.A. and he previously used to write. He was an honor student at Calcutta University, and he used to freelance write in Bengali. So his style is very nice.

Prabhupāda: Why not engage him in simply...

Jayapatākā: He is translating now our...

Gargamuni: That's all he does.

Jayapatākā: That and he greets the guests. He's also good at membership.

Prabhupāda: Gītār Gān has become popular.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: I showed your "As Brilliant as the Sun" to Tarun Kanti Gosh and one other minister, and when they saw that, then after, for ten minutes, all they could say was how Prabhupāda, how he is empowered by Lord Gaurāṅga.

Prabhupāda: They said like that.

Jayapatākā: Yes. That's a good movie because it simply shows how you are doing so many books.

Gargamuni: We also showed that to that Atul Krishna Goswami. He came to Māyāpura. When he saw that he was so..., that movie, they had never seen such a thing, the process of printing the books.

Prabhupāda: He has good idea about...

Gargamuni: Oh, yes.

Jayapatākā: He has translated Caitanya-caritāmṛta in Hindi, they say.

Prabhupāda: He presented me one.

Jayapatākā: Many people ask that if the Gītār Gān could be put in Hindi.

Gargamuni: This Gītā Press, they have these little books selling for one rupee, and they've sold lakhs. If we can put Gītār Gān into many languages, it will be bigger than this Gītā Press.

Prabhupāda: So you can... It is poetry.

Jayapatākā: That's the difference, that Prabhupāda put it in poetry. Who has got that inspiration?

Prabhupāda: It is gān, gītā, song. One can chant it singing.

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

Harikeśa: "Arjuna said: My dear Kṛṣṇa, O infallible one, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy and I am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared to act according to Your instructions."

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is real... That is translated in Bengali,

nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema sādhya kabhu naya

śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya

(Cc. madhya 22.107)

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

Vāsughoṣa: This man has come to read the Oriya book. He can read Oriya. So... He wanted someone to translate. They have come.

Prabhupāda: Where is that Oriya book?

Harikeśa: The one Gargamuni...

Vāsughoṣa: Yes. Orissan language, Orissan language.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: If anyone wants to go to Bhagavān then he has to make this material world voluntarily nothing. Niṣkiñcanasya. Niṣkiñcana means nothing. You understand, you translate. You know the meaning of niṣkiñcana. Kiñ-cana means something and niḥ means not. Then nothing. So one who has made this material world as nothing. How it is made? Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). Because with this something, as soon as one will stick to this something, he'll suffer.

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

Aksayananda: Ācāryam upasaṅgamya rājā vacanam abravīt (BG 1.2).

Prabhupāda: Yes. What is the translation?

Aksayananda: "Sañjaya said, 'Oh king after looking over the army gathered by the sons of Pāṇḍu, King Duryodhana went to his teacher and began to speak the following words.' "

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Jaya. That's all right. I think you can understand Hindi? No.

Pradyumna: I am trying to. I can understand little bit. I am practicing.

Prabhupāda: You should learn Hindi, Bengali. You are learning?

Pradyumna: He talks... When he talks, he talks a little fast, when he reads the anuvada.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Pradyumna: Ah, Prema-yogi.

Prabhupāda: Ah, he is... But I am studying. He is translating nice. He is learned.

Hari-śauri: We wanted to ask you about... He was training up Prema-yogi to do the editing, but there's no one to do the transcribing. We'll have to send the tapes...

Prabhupāda: Transcribing? No, why?

Pradyumna: Why can't Pālikā do?

Hari-śauri: She can do it? I don't know.

Prabhupāda: Yes, she can do.

Hari-śauri: Pālikā can do it? That will be all right, then.

Prabhupāda: You also learn.

Hari-śauri: Typing.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Jagadīśa: These are new books in French, Kṛṣṇa Book and Upadeśāmṛta. This devotee has just brought them from Bhagavān dāsa.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Thank you. When you have come?

Devotee: Two days ago.

Prabhupāda: Oh. You know French language?

Dr. Kneupper: Yes. Yes, I saw a copy earlier today at the... The man who did the translation, I forget his name. He worked on the translation. It's very beautiful.

Prabhupāda: Oh, you have seen it.

Dr. Kneupper: Yes. I forget his name. It's very nice.

Prabhupāda: This is French book, Kṛṣṇa.

Jagadīśa: Umāpati.

Dr. Kneupper: Yes, Umāpati.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Umāpati. He is here.

Dr. Kneupper: Yes, I met him this afternoon. (break)

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kneupper: Do you think if a person is to be a real believer in God he has to also worship Kṛṣṇa or speak of Him?

Prabhupāda: No, God means Kṛṣṇa. He has to understand it. Therefore so many books. God has many names, millions, of which Kṛṣṇa name is the most important. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. Then you have to understand the science of God. How Kṛṣṇa is God, that you have to understand. But for that reason we are publishing so many books. We have already published eighty-four books, simply in English language. And they are being translated in German, French, Portuguese, then Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Bengali, like that.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kneupper: I wanted to know if Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, you'd have to read Sanskrit, wouldn't you?

Prabhupāda: No, we have this English translation. This is in French translation, in German translation.

Dr. Kneupper: How does one decide... There are so many translations. How does one decide...

Prabhupāda: That depends on your philosophy. You are reading so many books. How do you select, "This is nice." That depends on your philosophy. But if you accept it that it is spoken by God, then there is no argument.

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Mr. Saxena: Thank you, thank you, thank you. You must have also this missionary spirit. (Hindi conversation) So I am at your disposal now.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You give him one single room. So we have given word to word meaning, translation, purport. This book also we are selling, millions.

Mr. Saxena: I see.

Prabhupāda: We have published the small book and big book, eighty-four.

Mr. Saxena: Eighty-four. In that film I saw, that how those foreigners, they are working in the press and preparing all those books and sending abroad, I have seen that film. The only request is this that you once make us away from this saṁśaya. Saṁśayātmā vinaśyati. There should be no saṁśaya...

Morning Walk -- November 17, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...bring Hindi books.

Caraṇāravindam: Yes, we need Hindi books. I met one man in Meerut, Hindi...

Prabhupāda: Our Bhagavad-gītā?

Caraṇāravindam: Yes. And he is the brother of, he said, I think the nephew of Kṣīrodakaśāyī dāsa Adhikārī in London. His name is Mr. K.M. Gupta. I think he has taken initiation from you.

Prabhupāda: I don't think. K.M. Gupta has given. Kṣīrodakaśāyī is my...

Caraṇāravindam: Kṣīrodakaśāyī dāsa Adhikārī.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Caraṇāravindam: And he said that you have seen his one chapter of his translation and have approved it.

Prabhupāda: No.

Caraṇāravindam: No, is that not true? I asked him for a copy but he said that he only had one copy he was sending to London and one he was keeping for himself.

Prabhupāda: Oh, he is translating.

Caraṇāravindam: Yes. And he said if we wanted a copy we could send a man and he could copy it down. He's done the first three chapters.

Prabhupāda: Nonsense.

Akṣayānanda: What did he say his initiated name is?

Prabhupāda: He is not initiated.

Caraṇāravindam: The man who is translating is not initiated. His uncle, Kṣīrodakaśāyī dāsa.

Akṣayānanda: How many your program up to?

Caraṇāravindam: How many boys? Of our boys, we were seven.

Prabhupāda: Indian, or?

Caraṇāravindam: There was one Indian boy but he was very sick. We took him with us. He was very sick so I sent him back here to Vṛndāvana. I took him because he had given one class in Hindi in the temple and Mahārāja said that you had liked that. He was too sick. Physically and mentally sick.

Akṣayānanda: He's okay now. (break)

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Guest (8) (Indian man): Your Divine Grace, there is Mukunda-mālā-stotra by Kulaśekhara Mahārāja. Are there any translations of that in the English and other languages? (indistinct) ...ślokas with you (indistinct) Kṛṣṇa mantra?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I think we have translated Kulaśekhara... It is not published, but I have translated.

Room Conversation -- December 20, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: If everything is clear, why should you interpret?

Guest: No, it is explanation I think.

Prabhupāda: Explanation, you cannot explain that Kurukṣetra means this, dharmakṣetra means this, Pāṇḍava means this. Why?

Guest: No, no.

Prabhupāda: Take Sanskrit. Take Sanskrit. Dharmakṣetre kurukṣetre. do not interpret to any other language. Take Sanskrit. Kurukṣetra is clear, dharmakṣetra is clear, Pāṇḍava is clear. Then why should we interpret? Why not take the particular verse. Everything, when there is a (indistinct), then please do not try to cut, or (indistinct) your (indistinct). If there is... (indistinct) ...but by translating the whole thing you mistake then what is the use of such translation?

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

Guest (2): Your Gītā and Cinmayananda's, two Gītās.

Prabhupāda: Cinmayananda is atheist. Atheist. He does not believe in Kṛṣṇa.

Guest (2): He has donated over three hundred books in that haṭha-yoga, that can...

Guest (1): Yes, in U.S.A., Santa Cruz.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he took some lakhs of rupees from Birla for distributing the Gītā. I know that.

Guest (2): He has also translated Gītā.

Guest (1): Shh! Swamiji's saying is this, that Gītā is interpreted by different people in different way. That is true. Understanding of Gītā is a very big...

Prabhupāda: He does not present Bhagavad-gītā as it is. According to his own whims... But the original śloka is there.

Guest (1): But interpretation is his own.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda is the author of all these books that you see. These books are being translated in every major language of the world.

Guest (1) (Indian man): How many books in number?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Eighty-four books of about 400 pages each.

Guest (2) (Indian man): How many in vernacular languages printing?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: About 21 different languages they have been translated.

Guest (2): In India?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, international. French, Italian...

Guest (2): In India? Indian languages.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Oriya, Bengali, Gujarati. Every major Indian language.

Guest (1): Can you tell us the different subjects covered by the...?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's Vedic subjects, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: We are stressing especially on Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Guest (3) (Indian man): Do you have special on each chapter of Gītā?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Each word. You can show Bhagavad-gītā.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: A very authoritative presentation. For example, here's the original Sanskrit śloka, word for word...

Guest (3): For example, sāṅkhya-yoga. You have a separate book? Then sthita-prajñā. You have a separate...?

Prabhupāda: No separately. It is there in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Room Conversation -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa says that this Bhagavad-gītā has to be received by the disciplic succession. And sa kālena yogo naṣṭaḥ parantapa. Because that disciplic succession is now broken, that yoga system is now lost. So all these interpreters, they are interpreting in their own way. Therefore it is lost. So there is no use of consulting this lost version.

Guest (3): So you just give it as it is.

Prabhupāda: That is... Therefore my Bhagavad-gītā is named Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. No interpretation.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Each word is the original Sanskrit śloka, English transliteration, word by word meaning, so there's no room for manipulation. There's a translation and purport. Every book that Śrīla Prabhupāda has written has the same format and each book is illustrated.

Guest (3): Do you believe that the Gītā should be followed as it is or interpretation...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. If you read somebody's book, you must read the author's version. Why should you bring interpretation? This is... You have no business. If you want to say something of your philosophy, you can say, but why do you take Bhagavad-gītā and give your own interpretation? That is very bad.

Morning Walk -- December 30, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ranganath was speaking from my book?

Devotee: Yes, he was quoting that śloka, I remember from First Canto, Part One. That one our life members... They were all the... All the big people, they goes there. So he told me when he came, he took a Bhāgavatam. He said that today Ranganath had your book. I said that they had bought two books from me. He opened that like this. Then he saw the cover of our book so he was quoting śloka from that and he was reading the purport and giving speech on that, because there is no such edition in English on Bhāgavatam except yours. So that I was very much pleased actually when I heard that.

Prabhupāda: In the beginning also they purchased. When I published three copies in Delhi they purchased because such translation is not there. So, that is all.

Devotee: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, of course if the Russians...

Prabhupāda: You can reprint this for distribution here, Russian ships.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. The only danger to this will be that if the Russian government finds out that we are translating Russian literature, because hearing "propaganda,"—this is what the Christians do—then they will crack down very hard on our disciples there.

Prabhupāda: Where is my disciple there?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, only a few you have, Ananta-śānti. And they won't let us go there at all in the future.

Prabhupāda: That doesn't mean we shall not do that.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Then they will think...

Prabhupāda: They'll think. It is. Why shall I not do it? All thinking actually. We must do it. So where is that card? Bring it. I shall dictate.

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

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There are too many people here. We don't need that many in Bombay for the Bombay construction.

Prabhupāda: So let him come to Bhuvaneśvara. I am going after Kumbhamela. And begin the work immediately. We have got one gentleman, professor. He is good learned scholar. I can engage him for translating.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oriya. Very nice.

Prabhupāda: He has writing... That machine... I can see the manuscript. In this way, arrangement make.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Very good. We just printed two books in Oriya, Topmost Yoga and one more. One more.

Prabhupāda: He likes Oriya language.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Who? Gaura-Govinda Swami? He is very sincere devotee.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, undoubtedly.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Very sincere.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa sent him. He... In Vṛndāvana, he said that "Please give me shelter." I thought that "There are so many Indian comes and go." So when he insisted, "All right, you stay."

Hari-śauri: Yeah. He took sannyāsa at the opening of the temple. I remember that.

Prabhupāda: He's a good boy.

Hari-śauri: He's stuck it out for a long time in Orissa. He's been there a long time, by himself a lot of the time too.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. He's organizing nicely.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He's very sincere. He follows all the regulations very rigidly. He gets up in the morning, ideal example.

Jagadīśa: He understands the philosophy quite well.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. And he is educated. He is B.Sc. He knows Hindi also.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He worked on Hindi translation for some time.

Prabhupāda: Where is that Hindi typewriter?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I never saw that typewriter.

Prabhupāda: Ask Yaśodānandana, Yaśomatī-nandana, immediately. You ask him for my brāhmaṇa... Yes. So very steadily do everything. Opposition will come. We have to face.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Trivikrama: All night he is translating. At night he is translating all night.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) ...machine. At night we translate. In daytime they type, and they send to the press, and the books are printed. Then they sell. So in this way I am bringing ten lakhs of rupees per month and investing in constructing these temples.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Rāma means Kṛṣṇa, the same. Rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā niyamena tiṣṭhan (Bs. 5.39). Kṛṣṇa is always existing with His different incarnation, expansions, rāmādi-mūrti-Rāma, Nṛsiṁha, Varāha.... There are hundreds and thousands of expansions. Advaita acyuta anādi ananta-rūpam. So Rāma is expansion of Kṛṣṇa. He's God. There is no difference between Rāma and Kṛṣṇa. Just like one candle, and if you light another candle, another candle, so one may be the first, second, third, like that, but in candle power they are all the same; similarly, Rāma is expansion of Kṛṣṇa. That does not mean Rāma is less than Kṛṣṇa. Rāma, Nṛsiṁha, Varāha. There are many.

Guest (1): That is what Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is, Kṛṣṇa and Rāma both.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (2): But the translation of the word Hare in...

Prabhupāda: Hara.

Guest (2): Hara, in English...

Prabhupāda: Original hara. Just like lata. The lata, when you address lata, it is late. Similarly, when you address hara, the sambodhana is hare. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Dhana-durmadāndhān. What is the translation?

Girirāja: "Are there no torn clothes lying on the common road? Do the trees, which exist for maintaining others, no longer give alms in charity? Do the rivers, being dried up, no longer supply water to the thirsty? Are the caves of the mountains now closed, or above all, does the Almighty Lord not protect the fully surrendered souls?"

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

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

Hari-śauri: Bon Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: And he's the rectum of... (laughs) He can pass stool very nice. (laughter). There was no second printing. And so many scholars , MA, PhD, and so on, so on, so on. Our Dr. Kapoor wrote some books. It was given to some Benarsi. They first of all took it, then they refused, "No. We cannot publish."

Hari-śauri: They won't publish his books.

Prabhupāda: Who will take it? A philosophical textbook. There's nobody interested. Actually there is no customer for philosophy nowadays.

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

Prabhupāda: Somehow or other it is interesting.

Hari-śauri: Yes. It's so full of...

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

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

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

Girirāja: It has a very nice purport.

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

Pradyumna: Oh, I know.

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

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

Prabhupāda: So you take your rest now. Then you shall come and go on talking.

Rāmeśvara: I'm not actually tired.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He's not tired.

Rāmeśvara: I'm feeling completely rejuvenated just seeing you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Yes. Utsāhān. This kind of utsāhā required. Utsāhā means enthusiasm. Utsāhān dhairyāt. So did you write to Dr. Sukla for sending the translation? So do it enthusiastically. It is a new peaceful revolution throughout the whole world.

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Guest (6) (Indian man): Asato mā sama grad? You said, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Sad gamaya.

Guest (6): So the translation of it?

Prabhupāda: Sad means "Try to come to the transcendental platform, sat, and don't remain in this asat." Asat means which is temporary.

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Pradyumna:

yamadūtā ūcuḥ

veda-praṇihito dharmo

hy adharmas tad-viparyayaḥ

vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt

svayambhūr iti śuśruma

Prabhupāda: What is the translation?

Pradyumna: "The Yamadūtas replied: That which is prescribed in the Vedas constitutes dharma, the religious principles, and the opposite of that is irreligion."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Rāmeśvara: And I found an article in the Time magazine about another translator of Bhagavad-gītā, Christopher Isherwood.

Prabhupāda: He is rascal, another rascal.

Rāmeśvara: They have reported that he is a homosexual.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Now, who cares for all these nonsense?

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: At least when you go to Hawaii you always get a good rest and there's no visitors, and it's very... Your translation work increases tremendously. It's very nice there.

Prabhupāda: Our immediately problem is toward my health. I am not digesting food, so therefore there is some swelling in the hands and the legs.

Rāmeśvara: That's due to the kidney?

Prabhupāda: Kidney or whatever it may be.

Rāmeśvara: So is it affecting your translation work?

Prabhupāda: That is not affected. That is going on. I have translated today seventeen volumes (verses?). That does not affect.

Rāmeśvara: So what to do? (Prabhupāda turns on dictaphone, then off. On again-reading verse) This is the twenty-fourth chapter, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: When I was there, there were many doctors and lawyers, and I think all of them have been murdered. I think the only Hindus that are left are the poor people. But while I was there the teachers and the lawyers... The most prominent lawyer was Hindu. Doctors, all educated men.

Prabhupāda: Dead.

Gargamuni: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Just see the policy.

Gargamuni: But they, I think annihilated all of the... Anyone who had any education... Just like that boy. He was translating your books? They shot him in front of firing squad. One boy. I printed one book there in Bengali, I think, three thousand copies: The Peace Formula and Who is Crazy, I think. It was about fifteen pages. They gave me some donation. Even the Gopāla... His name was Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Brahmacārī. He also gave me from his pocket. And I printed... We had it translated in Bengali, but then...

Prabhupāda: He was killed?

Gargamuni: Yes, for translating. He was shot in... Not him but this other brahmacārī, young boy, very nice boy. His name was Karuṇāmayī.

Rāmeśvara: For translating it they did it.

Gargamuni: Yes, for translating. They wanted to annihilate anyone who had any literary talent. That was their idea. Or anyone who had any education. So that after they left the country there wouldn't be anything. Because they knew they had to leave one day because of the revolutionary spirit. So they thought, "Let us ravage the whole country and then leave." And that's what they did. Their main attack was the university. When I was there that was their first attack 'cause that university was a very old one and...

Prabhupāda: Yes, Dacca University next to Calcutta University. Just see how human beings are becoming less than ferocious animals.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: Even one man, he was making a plaque in your name in thankfulness for preaching this Vaiṣṇava-dharma. He was making a wooden plaque, and he was a doctor of physics at the university. And one night they came in and shot him and his whole family, this man. He was very helpful to us while we were there.

Prabhupāda: Only fault that he was making some...

Gargamuni: No, his fault was that he had some education. Anyone who was doing anything... This one boy who was translating your books, he was a very educated person. He was about thirty years old.

Prabhupāda: Hindu.

Gargamuni: Hindu. Yes. He was brahmacārī there at the āśrama. He was the chief pūjārī. But he joined us. We toured a few areas, and he came with us and arranged for everything. And he joined us, and he was translating.

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Now take this.

Gargamuni: And we printed the book. I saw it. But then the war broke out a few days after it was ready, so I had to leave all the copies there. When I go there I will try and find it. Maybe it is still there. We spent about five hundred rupees. Five, six hundred rupees.

Prabhupāda: What Pakistan has gained by this separation? Actually they have not gained.

Room Conversation with Sannyasis -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: So we have new reviews too from two professors in Finland. We have one who is a man in the Department of Nuclear Physics. He said the Indian astronomers... First... He read the Fifth Canto, with all its scientific descriptions. First he says that he did not think that they possessed instruments to measure distances, but anyway, he said their understanding is truly remarkable. Then he goes on to say... He compares it with Western astronomy. It's a long review.

Rāmeśvara: What did he say about Prabhupāda?

Satsvarūpa: There wasn't much in that way.

Prabhupāda: But they can measure the distance from one planet to another? Their astronomical measurement?

Satsvarūpa: No. Just by theory.

Prabhupāda: So how they can...?

Rāmeśvara: Read it out loud.

Satsvarūpa: He wants that you... He said, "The translator frequently adds comments containing information from other Vedic scriptures, for instance, ancient astronomical calculations referred to by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. It would be highly interesting to have a compilation of such astronomical texts translated into English. One can only hope that the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust endeavors to do this to the great benefit of the historians of science."

Prabhupāda: We shall do it. I am searching after some astronomer.

Room Conversation with Film Producer about Krsna Lila -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Guest (1): We have taken some rasa, merely some songs of Jayadeva.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That is also dealing with the gopīs. Dehi pada-palavam udaram. So these things are not ordinary things. You should understand that. If you make, propagate, then the people... I have seen one book one rascal Bhaṭṭācārya has written. And the United Nation or something like that supported, gave him, them money. And in the cover of the book he has given a picture of Rādhārāṇī sitting naked. This is going on.

Guest (1): No, sir, the pictures you were having, this rasa līlā, this is also these very things. We have seen those pictures.

Prabhupāda: No, but... No, that's all right. That picture is in the book. That book is... We are translating Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And what...

Guest (1): No, even in mandir there is a big photograph of Rādhā, Hari Gopāla(?) rasa-līlā.

Prabhupāda: That is not presented in that way. So we do not say... But these warnings that... It is... We must understand it is very confidential thing. It is not for ordinary men. If we present as ordinary thing, that is distortion. Our... I have got stricture that we don't present...

Guest (2): (showing picture?) This is our... Here. You made this. This is...

Prabhupāda: This is Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. That's all right.

Room Conversation -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: That Ananta Vāsudeva, my Godbrother, he printed so many Gosvāmī literatures, but it was not successful.

Satsvarūpa: Even when I went to the convention in America, one convention, this woman professor, they were all excited. She has just translated Vidagdha-mādhava. But she had no understanding. She was talking about what the rasa is and Rādhārāṇī, but it's all like psychology or sex literature.

Prabhupāda: That's all. They say, "Sex religion. Religious perfection through sex." That is their idea. That Rajneesh is doing that. Rajneesh?

Room Conversation -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Guest (1) (Indian man): ...cultural affairs, Orissa government. Here there is a large stack of palm leaf manuscripts. Palm leaf manuscripts. We are editing the Sanskrit manuscripts, correcting them and publishing them.

Prabhupāda: Sanskrit?

Guest (1): Sanskrit.

Prabhupāda: It is published in Sanskrit?

Guest (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: Palm beach?

Guest (2) (Indian man): Palm leaves.

Hari-śauri: Some manuscripts on palm leaf.

Prabhupāda: Oh, palm leaf.

Hari-śauri: They're translating and publishing. So he is the editor in charge of all that for the government.

Guest (1): What is the...?

Prabhupāda: What is the śāstra?

Hari-śauri: What is the name of the śāstra?

Guest (1): Śāstra. I told yesterday Bhakti-bhāgavatam of Kavisurya Baladeva(?).

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, yes.

Room Conversation -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Guest (1): Virudāvalī should also be translated.

Prabhupāda: Virudāvalī, Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana's?

Guest (1): No, Rūpa Gosvāmī.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Rūpa Gosvāmī, yes.

Guest (1): (quotes long Sanskrit verses from Virudāvalī)

Prabhupāda: Very good. These are for higher devotees, not for the neophytes. For neophytes we have translated Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Nectar of Devotion. You have seen our books?

Guest (1): Yes, I have seen some.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Guest (1): The whole problem... We have not read Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So now read it. No, it is better late than never. You have never read Bhagavad-gītā; now read it. The movement is there for this purpose. Now read it.

Guest (8) (Indian man): The simple version is there also for a layman like us who do not know?

Prabhupāda: Even layman, if you offer your obeisances to God, it does it require any...?

Guest (8): I don't mean, sir. I mean about Bhagavad-gītā, the book. It is readable version, I mean? We don't know Sanskrit very well.

Prabhupāda: It is explained in English.

Guest (8): Ah, that is what I want.

Guest (1): It has been translated into fifteen languages.

Prabhupāda: Yes. These are all Bhagavad-gītā. These are Bhagavad-gītā. We have translated English, Chinese, Japanese, all European languages-Spanish, Portugal, Dutch, Swedish, Italian. They are accepting it. This is the process to know. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. The whole world is chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. We are known as "Hare Kṛṣṇaś." You read another verse aloud. Māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate.

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: Practically speaking, we've hardly got any books translated into any other languages except for English.

Prabhupāda: No. We shall gradually do. When the English language there, from English you can do any language.

Hari-śauri: Yes. There's unlimited field.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Sanskrit is very difficult. But when I have given in English language, you can convert into any other. English is known everywhere. This is international. So far I have seen—I've traveled all over the world—English language is understood.

Room Conversation -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Pṛthu-putra: They have big, big universities in Cairo and in every places in North Africa, because now they try to be educated. The white Africans, they have some intelligence to understand to a certain extent philosophy, because when I was talking about the Bhagavad-gītā, when I showed the table of contents, they more or less agreed to take interest in it because they didn't see anything specific about another religion, another God. They were seeing the titles like "Confidential Knowledge," "Transcendental Knowledge," "Karma-yoga," "Jñāna-yoga." They are very interested about knowing these things.

Prabhupāda: That is good the first, beginning, let them come. Let them sit down, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and take prasāda. In Iran we are doing that. Gradually it is becoming interesting. You had been in our Iran, Tehran?

Pṛthu-putra: I went there also some time, long time ago. But Iran is a different concept. They're not so strict about following the Koran. For example, these Arabic countries like Algeria, Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia, they don't recognize Iran like being part of them. Iran and Turkey and Afghanistan they think is another Muslim world. For example, in Iran there is much more Sufis, the different... But in these Arabic countries like Egypt, they're really conservative. They're very strict.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Conservative means fanatical.

Pṛthu-putra: Fanatical, yes, that's the word. So my idea, when I went there... Because I have an Arabic boy who is translating. So I have one Śrī Īśopaniṣad completely translated into Arabic which can be printed.

Prabhupāda: So print.

Pṛthu-putra: But it's a very specific work. So my idea was to print something more like Topmost Yoga System for a first try, or Easy Journey to Other Planets for a first try.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Pṛthu-putra: To like approach. Because Śrī Īśopaniṣad is too specific.

Prabhupāda: Specific and little strict.

Pṛthu-putra: So I have one boy in Paris who is translating for me. He is coming regularly to the temple, he chants, and he's coming every Sunday or sometimes three or four times a week.

Prabhupāda: Somebody, some Arabian boy, translated?

Pṛthu-putra: Yes. (break)

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Actually we started looking some on this astronomy thing. About this Sūrya-siddhānta. Sadāpūta is especially interested because he's a mathematician. So normally astronomy is subject of mathematics. So he found this copy in Princeton just recently, last month or so. There we found that the idea is very similar to modern science in the Sūrya-siddhānta. But we heard that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Prabhupāda translated Sūrya-siddhānta, but we are not getting a copy of it. So he asked me to look in Calcutta, and some astrologers.

Prabhupāda: He had some disciples, some astronomer. His name can be had from Calcutta.

Pradyumna: Mohinī-mohana?

Prabhupāda: Ah! Mohinī Śāstrī. Mohinī Śāstrī. He was his disciple.

Pradyumna: I went to try... He's dead now.

Prabhupāda: He is also. He's passed away.

Pradyumna: And I saw his son. I saw his son. I asked if he had any of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books on jyotir, but he did not... He is practicing jyotir, but not...

Prabhupāda: Mohinī Śāstrī's son?

Pradyumna: His son. Sāmba...

Prabhupāda: My Guru Mahārāja was a great astronomer.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I think that would be our proper research, to look into it.

Prabhupāda: From Sūrya-siddhānta he got the "Bhaktisiddhānta." He got this title Sūrya-siddhānta. So when he became Vaiṣṇava... A Vaiṣṇava he was as a Bhaktisiddhānta.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We saw some translations in English, Sūrya-siddhānta. That was in Library of Congress in Washington. But the translation there was very... Was not good. It was all wrong interpretations.

Prabhupāda: Who translated?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Some English authors, outsiders.

Prabhupāda: He was also astronomer?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I think he was from Germany. He knew something about Sanskrit, but translation was just like to criticize those Indian, old Indian astronomers. Something like, very..., not even using even respectful words, but offensive sometimes, so we didn't bother to go through those books.

Pradyumna: There's copy of Sūrya-siddhānta by Bhaktisiddhānta in London at India Office Library. They have a copy in Bengali.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In Bengali?

Pradyumna: Yes, they have original, these. But they do not let... They have a funny... You cannot copy the whole book with a xerox there. You only can see it and copy by hand. They won't let you do it. But there's a copy there, Samadhi Press.

Prabhupāda: It must be very old paper.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: I know that they made some books already. Why they are being rejected? Then again you make, and again rejecting. That is unnecessary.

Satsvarūpa: I see.

Prabhupāda: They can better translate in French so many books, the husband, wife. And the children's books there are already. (break) ...excess book had to be cancelled. They have already made.

Satsvarūpa: They have quite a number of books.

Prabhupāda: Then?

Satsvarūpa: No, I don't know what's wrong with them. They seem to be all right. But the thing is they want to make a book that will be so nice that any teacher, elementary school teacher, would say "This is very good."

Prabhupāda: No, everything is good, and again sometimes, again improvement, again...

Hari-śauri: I think their idea is that if they have a good quality, then they could even be distributed to the schools.

Prabhupāda: That is to be decided by the GBC. How can I know what is good quality, bad quality? But I know there are some books made. Again you translate; again you make another.

Satsvarūpa: In one sense, it's not so good that they come and ask these questions. Better that Jagadīśa...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Jagadīśa also not very intelligent. You GBC...

Satsvarūpa: All the GBC.

Prabhupāda: Hm. (yes.)

Satsvarūpa: Make this one of the topics for the whole GBC to discuss.

Prabhupāda: I simply know there are some books. Why they are being rejected?

Satsvarūpa: Actually, you think a better engagement for him would be that along with his wife to go back to French translation rather than so much attention on the children's books.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: That last letter that he wrote, he mentioned to you that now there are other devotees who are qualified to do the jobs that he was doing, and he wanted to get more into organizing the Gurukula, because they need someone to organize.

Prabhupāda: That is another... That is all right, Gurukula organize. But the former books, why they should be rejected? (end)

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

Gargamuni: When we were in Rangoon and Bangkok, they were most interested in those Russian reviews, and we got very good response there. In Rangoon they're doing reviews, and they loved the books. They treated them as gold. They said, "This printing and Sanskrit and word-for-word... We have never seen such a translation!"

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Did you go to our center, Bangkok?

Gargamuni: No. I didn't have the address. And I heard they were giving up the house because it is not... They have to...

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Gargamuni: There was very good response. And they're all writing reviews on our books. They have never seen such a translation of Bhāgavatam, they said. They said, "We have only seen the summary study, but we have never seen such word-for-word study." So I'm planning a tour of all the Southeast Asian countries, in Hong Kong and all these areas, to do standing orders.

Prabhupāda: So, no new book?

Rāmeśvara: It is coming.

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

Rāmeśvara: "It publishes it in eighteen languages..." But now we see it's twenty-three languages. Made a mistake. "...including Russian. The books are predominantly translations of Indian classics by the movement's founder and director, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda."

Prabhupāda: But why "director" and not "ācārya"?

Rāmeśvara: Why director?

Devotees: Why not ācārya?

Rāmeśvara: Oh, that's the wording they used. We told them you are directing the whole movement, so probably they used that word...

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Cow is so important. They'll eat and they'll pass stool and urine. That is also important. If they supply milk, it is well, very good. Otherwise the stool and urine is also important. From that point of view we should give protection. So they are doing this cow slaughter business. (aside:) For you. Therefore they are suffering so much. So Kṛṣṇa has given you very nice occupation, translation work, and you are earning your livelihood independently. So do it very nicely. And if there is strain to work, then don't work. We shall pay you for the rent, etc... It doesn't matter. But you must maintain your status of translating work. That is very good. If you can work, you can work. Otherwise don't worry.

Bali-mardana: Just like we were paying Hayagrīva something just to maintain to edit, so he could edit. And if he wants to just translate, then we can...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hayagrīva wife has come? No.

Rāmeśvara: No, she has left.

Prabhupāda: Then what is his maintaining? (laughter)

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Bali-mardana: So when you come there the house is waiting. It is very peaceful place for translation, and there's no winter. There is no winter. Seventy-five degrees, wintertime.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Bali-mardana: Very nice.

Prabhupāda: And the summer?

Bali-mardana: Summertime, eighty-five. A little hotter.

Prabhupāda: Not...

Bali-mardana: But it rains. Summertime is rainy season, two or three months rainy season, so it is also...

Prabhupāda: Near the sea?

Bali-mardana: Thirteen miles from ocean.

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Trivikrama: He has brought you one Chinese script.

Hari-śauri: What does it say?

Devotee (3): This is Chinese character scroll. It says, "Books are the basis, preaching is the essence, utility is the principle, and purity is the force." It was translated wholly by myself, and the characters were written by...

Prabhupāda: Is that all right?

Devotee (5): I can read, but I don't write. Ah... That's not purity. It should be... It's not so exact.

Prabhupāda: What did he say in the trans...?

Devotee (5): It's cleanliness rather than purity.

Bali-mardana: He has translated purity as "cleanliness," not quite exact.

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

Rāmeśvara: It's now... Now this magazine that we're printing in Los Angeles, ninety-five percent is sold in Canada and America. We used to ship some of it to England, but now they want to print their own in England. We find that all over the world they don't want to import from America, but they want their own. The public feels, "Why should this be an American import? Why not print it..."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: So therefore it seems like, more and more, this magazine is just for America. It's becoming like that.

Prabhupāda: So that's all right. They're printing in England. That's all right. So why not the same magazine, but different article?

Rāmeśvara: I once asked Hṛdayānanda, "Why not have your men just translate the articles into Spanish from English and print the same magazine, since we have already done the layout?" And he said, "Because the photographs are just Americans. Now, to use this in South America, we want to have photographs of Latin Americans, and we want the preaching to be more specific, more current events and relevant..."

Prabhupāda: This is not very good argument.

Rāmeśvara: He says the people are offended by Americans in Latin America.

Prabhupāda: They have got that tendency.

Rāmeśvara: Jayatīrtha used the same argument in England. He said that the people do not like the idea that this is coming from America.

Prabhupāda: That you discuss. What I can say?

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What about that Russian?

Harikeśa: Ah. The Russian book was Easy Journey and the talk with Professor Kotovsky. And the Īśopaniṣad is now being translated.

Prabhupāda: In Russian?

Harikeśa: Yes. Dvārakeśa, he's now a Swedish citizen. Dvārakeśa. I sent him to Poland. You know Dvārakeśa? He was that boy who was going to go to Hungary? He's a Hungarian. He was going to go back to Hungary and become a Hungarian.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Harikeśa: So he's become a Swedish citizen. Now he can come and go as he likes everywhere. So now he's in Poland, and in Poland there are many Russians and it is very easy to get a book translated by them. Otherwise with Dvārakeśa it takes so long.

Hari-śauri: There's a man in New Vrindaban who speaks fluent Russian. He graduated in Russian.

Harikeśa: Really?

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Harikeśa: I did not know this.

Prabhupāda: What is his name? He is initiated?

Hari-śauri: Yes. He's initiated devotee. He's been around for years.

Prabhupāda: Oh, he should be... Ask him to come.

Harikeśa: To come to?

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

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Rādhā-vallabha: Jagannātha dāsa has done synonyms for Brahma-saṁhitā. For the Brahma-saṁhitā printing, Jagannātha dāsa has done some synonyms. Would you like to use the book also? I have the book here.

Prabhupāda: No... Yes. (Prabhupāda apparently looks them over) (break)

Rādhā-vallabha: So they're okay?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Rādhā-vallabha: Good. When we print this book, should we distribute it freely? Should we distribute this book to the masses?

Prabhupāda: No harm. So what is the arrangement?

Rādhā-vallabha: I was thinking that it would be nice to do it the way we do Bhāgavatam, with the devanāgarī, transliteration, synonyms, translation, and purport, say size of Īśopaniṣad.

Prabhupāda: Why not this boy help? He knows Sanskrit.

Rādhā-vallabha: Yes. He works on every book. He proofreads the Sanskrit and Bengali.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So Jagannātha-sūta should be strictly advised not to become very learned to correct authorities. No.

Rādhā-vallabha: Jagannātha dāsa.

Prabhupāda: Jagannātha? He is Jagannātha-sūta or where he is?

Rādhā-vallabha: Jagannātha-sūta is Back to Godhead. Jagannātha dāsa is Sanskrit.

Prabhupāda: Oh. That's it. He should not be very learned.

Rādhā-vallabha: I think that instruction you gave will help him very much about even if he thinks there is some mistake, just forget about it.

Prabhupāda: He is mistake. He should not think his authority mistake.

Rādhā-vallabha: He didn't know what he should do. He didn't know...

Prabhupāda: So why he should be given this business? He's such irresponsible man. He should not be given any responsible work. Our first business should see how he is advanced in devotion. We don't want so-called scholars.

Rādhā-vallabha: They just leave us.

Prabhupāda: Leave, I don't mind. Just like he became a big scholar.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nitāi.

Prabhupāda: Nitāi, he's a rascal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Big rascal.

Prabhupāda: I think that Jagannātha is within his group? Nitāi?

Rādhā-vallabha: Jagannātha was somewhat affected by Nitāi, but he's...

Prabhupāda: I know that.

Rādhā-vallabha: I think he understands what the problem was. I think he understands what his problem was, and that's why he won't do anything without asking you.

Prabhupāda: Don't allow him to do anything.

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, now that this system of no corrections anywhere, that makes it very simple. Then he can't do anything. I don't think he wants to, either. It makes it more simple for him. It makes him very uncomfortable.

Prabhupāda: No corrections. He can write that synonym, that's all, according to the translation. Who is writing the synonym?

Rādhā-vallabha: Jagannātha.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. According to the translation. Not that he becomes a greater scholar than my Guru Mahārāja.

Rādhā-vallabha: I don't think that's possible.

Prabhupāda: Alpa-vidyā bhayaṅkare.(?) This is the Western countries' deficiency. They learn little, and they consider that he has become very learned scholar. This is the defect.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Like a Professor Frog puffing up and then bursting.

Rādhā-vallabha: Nitāi burst.

Prabhupāda: Where he is now?

Rādhā-vallabha: I don't know. I heard that he was heading for America, then wanted to go back to India, some nonsense. I could find out if you want me to. (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He wrote Prabhupāda, "Your blessings..."

Rādhā-vallabha: I saw the letter.

Prabhupāda: "...to find out better guru."

Rādhā-vallabha: That's like trying to get blessings to find a light brighter than the sun.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: He was polluted by the..., that Puruṣottama.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. That Mr. Dalmia's guru.

Prabhupāda: No, no, not that Puruṣottama. Another, my... He says my Godbrother.

Rādhā-vallabha: The one that was making corrections in your books. Rascal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He has very intimately mixed. I think that he arranged for delivering books, this Nitāi.

Rādhā-vallabha: He used to send me corrections all the time, this Puruṣottama. I would throw them in the garbage.

Prabhupāda: Still he sends corrections?

Rādhā-vallabha: No, no. This was years ago. Nonsense corrections too. His own opinion.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'll just tell those men. They are waiting

Prabhupāda: So, you can take this. He can... On the basis of the translation, he can make the synonyms. And this boy is good. He should be engaged. He should guide. He knows Sanskrit letter. And I very much appreciate his writing. Tell him. He has done very nice.

Rādhā-vallabha: I will. I'll let him listen to the tape.

Prabhupāda: He should be encouraged.

Rādhā-vallabha: All right.

Prabhupāda: He is good boy.

Rādhā-vallabha: I have other things to ask you on other books. Would you rather I ask you a different time?

Prabhupāda: Not now.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- February 28, 1977, Mayapura:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Every day in the radio, all Manipur radio, they have Caitanya-caritāmṛta reading at one o'clock. They read Bengali. One reads and another translates. It is a regular feature. And Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaṇa. These are radio programs.

Prabhupāda: Just see. So why not? I may go or not go, but let the leaders take up this process to make Manipur an ideal state of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Room Conversation 'GBC Resolutions' -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What about the French printing and translation? That is stopped now?

Hṛdayānanda: No, it is not... It is not altogether stopped, but some members have left.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Some members have left, but...

Prabhupāda: Why?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja was just there in France. He just paid a visit, so he'd be... What is your report, Hṛdayānanda, about the French BBT?

Hṛdayānanda: Well, some of the important members have left.

Prabhupāda: Why they have left?

Hṛdayānanda: Well, they were dissatisfied with Bhagavān.

Prabhupāda: That should be rectified. They are important members. They are translating.

Rāmeśvara: How will that be rectified?

Prabhupāda: What...? Why they should be dissatisfied? If the workers are dissatisfied, then who will work books?

Brahmānanda: Bhagavān claims that the BBT printing is still going on, that next month a Back to Godhead is coming out and also a Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: No, book...

Rāmeśvara: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam within three months, in three months.

Room Conversation 'GBC Resolutions' -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So if you are satisfied that things are going on, that is different thing, but so far... What is his name? Yogeś...?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yogeśvara.

Prabhupāda: Yogeśvara and his wife, they were doing very nice. Why they should leave?

Rāmeśvara: Bhagavān told me that Yogeśvara wanted to change his service because of family problems.

Gargamuni: He told me that also in Bhuvaneśvara, that the reason why he was leaving is because he wanted to work with his mother, who has some type of public relations job in the United States.

Brahmānanda: Bhagavān claims that all these men who signed this letter, they were spiritually weak.

Prabhupāda: So what you have decided? Yogeśvara was doing nice in translation, his wife was doing nice. So why should we lose these important hands?

Rāmeśvara: He hasn't been working at the French BBT for many months. He gave that up some time ago and was working with his wife at the gurukula.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He told me that he was frustrated. That's why he gave it up. When he was in New York he told me that had become discouraged.

Prabhupāda: So if Bhagavān and he does not agree, then he should be given better place that both husband and wife, they can go on with the translation work. It is not that he has to remain under the control of Bhagavān. That is not necessary. Let him translate independently, and wherever he likes, he can remain. What do you think?

Hṛdayānanda: He is not so much a translator.

Rāmeśvara: His wife.

Prabhupāda: You see, nobody is translator. We have to accept whatever is offered. Kānā māmā (blind uncle). Without māmā, better a blind māmā. That's all. That is our policy. So to remain without māmā is not very good choice. Must have a māmā. Never mind he is blind. That is our policy. So now we are without māmā. Who is translating now?

Hṛdayānanda: The main translator, the most important translator is still working with Bhagavān, so the translating is going on.

Prabhupāda: Going on.

Hṛdayānanda: Yes. The most important translator has not gone away.

Prabhupāda: Then it is... But still, they should be encouraged. Why they should...? If they do not like, that is another thing. But our translation work, printing work, cannot be stopped. That is my request.

Hṛdayānanda: I don't think it will stop.

Prabhupāda: Then it is all right. You agree, all GBCs? All GBCs?

Room Conversation 'GBC Resolutions' -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So anyway, printing and translation must continue. That is our main business. It cannot be stopped. Must go on. Just like persisting, now we have got so many Hindi literature. (laughs) I was simply persisting, "Where is Hindi? Where is Hindi?" So it has come to some tangible form. And I was simply poking him: "Where is Hindi? Where is Hindi?" So he has brought into fact. Similarly for French language also, very important, we must translate and bring books, as many as possible. "Bring books" means we have got already book. Simply translate it in the particular language and publish it. That's all. Idea is already there. You haven't got to manufacture idea. So France is very important country. So printing and translation must go on. That is my request.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In America everything we print, we also have to consider special printings for the libraries and standing orders.

Gargamuni: The man at the Sampurnanand Sanskrit Library at BHU, when he saw the Hindi Bhāgavatam, he said, "I will order fifty sets for our various sub-libraries." He said, "This is wonderful." Because the only Hindi Bhāgavatam is that Gītā Press, which is useless. There is no commentary, it is so unattractive.

Prabhupāda: Prepared by nondevotees. How you can expect? Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). Without being devotee, who will understand Bhāgavatam? It is not so easy. Big, big paṇḍitas, they cannot understand Bhāgavatam even.

Gargamuni: In BHU all the scholars had great eagerness for this Bhāgavatam Hindi, because it is the only one.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Never been done before.

Gargamuni: No, there is only Gītā Press.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very surprising.

Gargamuni: That's all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But what about in Bengali, there must be...

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is rubbish. They do not what is Bhāgavata. How they will translate? Professional translation is not. Bhāgavata-pado giya bhāgavata sthāne.(?) "Whose life is Bhāgavata, go there and read Bhāgavata." That is the recommendation. That is the order of Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī. Ordinary men, what they will understand, Bhāgavata? Bhāgavata is not for ordinary men. Paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ vāstavam vastu vedyam atra (SB 1.1.2). In the beginning it is said unless one is paramahaṁsa, he cannot understand. Paramo nirmatsarāṇām.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

(break) (Prem Yogi leaves)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He is doing good translations.

Prabhupāda: People will appreciate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are. He is scholarly.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. And doctor

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is he actually a doctor?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We couldn't get to the Kashmir tourist office today.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Never mind.

Room Conversation about Harijanas -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the translation for the word jana?

Prabhupāda: Jana means person. Hari means the Lord. A government man. Hari's man. Like Nārada.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nārada Muni is a harijana.

Prabhupāda: Yes. All devotees.

Room Conversation -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Last night you were translating a little bit.

Prabhupāda: I began, but...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You stopped.

Prabhupāda: No, stopped not for my incapability, but I stopped it feeling sleepy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, I mean you are taking so little prasādam that it is not to be expected that you can do very much physical activity. But I can see one thing is that you are very now fully recovered and alert.

Prabhupāda: I think so.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: From Bombay, mango is sent everywhere in India also.

Prabhupāda: All over the world. Bombay apus.(?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are called langar?

Prabhupāda: Apus. Here in the Lucknagiri District, especially in that place, this mango grows. In India it is known as Bombay ām. In India, in Northern India, there is, there are so many mangoes, very nice. One is langara, another is a small. I forget the name. That is also very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about Alphonso?

Prabhupāda: Alphonso and apus, the same. Indians, they cannot say Alphonso. They say apus. (laughs) The big name Alphonso they have made short-cut, apus. So you can work together with your friend here. He will make fair copy and make translation.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: While we are here, he can sit here with Gopīnātha?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

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

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

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Read the original verse.

Girirāja: Oh, I'm sorry.

kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ

sarva-kāma-dughā mahī

siṣicuḥ sma vrajān gāvaḥ

payasodhasvatīr mudā

(SB 1.10.4)

Prabhupāda: Translation?

Girirāja: "During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira the cloud showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."

Conversation with Yadubara (after seeing film) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You can give in this course(?) Bhagavad-gītā, Sanskrit, dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). Or the English translation. You have got that abridged edition?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, we don't have a copy of it here.

Prabhupāda: How is that you don't have copy? Find out...

Yadubara: To show that on the film? At the end?

Prabhupāda: It is best to impress them: "You read this book; you get all information."

Yadubara: It's a little bit difficult to change the film.

Prabhupāda: No. That I am suggesting. If it is difficult, that is another thing. But this should be.

Yadubara: It should be there.

Prabhupāda: And actually, there is evidence.

Room Conversation Meeting with Dr. Sharma (from Russia) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: This knowledge you cannot have anywhere. Therefore scholarly people, man or elderly persons, many, they are accepting our books very nicely. In foreign countries... And Bhāgavata, it is not their religious book. We are selling... In Russia also we have got copies. What is that institution, they have ordered?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It might be named in Russian. It's the international institution which orders books.

Dr. Sharma: That is international library of the RSSR. That is... Huliyansa(?) He's the director. I have seen that letter. With their office. They asked me to translate it. I translated that letter not long ago. And I passed it on, request. So I am aware of what they are doing, and I know what they do not do also. I not only feel the heartbeat of pulse of the people of India, but I feel the pulse of the heartbeat in Communist countries as well. I am very happy that I am here after having missed the name of Lord Nārāyaṇa for six years in Soviet Union, where the people chant only Lenin's name. It is being duly compensated (indistinct). You made this possible. I have gone through ten volumes of your book that you have written. They are really...

Prabhupāda: Which book? Bhāgavatam?

Guest (2): Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Caitanya...

Room Conversation Meeting with Dr. Sharma (from Russia) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can select our any number of books you want. Let them read and understand.

Guest (2): He is good at translating also. He could translate our books.

Prabhupāda: If you kindly do that, you can. That will be a great service.

Guest (1): Into Russian he can translate.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And we can print them.

Guest (1): Someone else has to do the corrections?

Prabhupāda: No...

Guest: (indistinct)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Which book would you like to have translated into Russian, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: That he can select. You can see my books, and whichever you want to begin first. That will be great service. But actual communism, what is called, socialism, is there in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Room Conversation Meeting with Dr. Sharma (from Russia) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Dr. Sharma: Gurujī, I am no jasmine. I am only a thread. But when the thread is entwined with the jasmine, even if the jasmine withers and it dries up, this twine still maintains the smell of the jasmine. I am grateful to God that He has given me an opportunity to meet you all and be here...

Prabhupāda: So it is God's desire...

Dr. Sharma: And make myself worthy of the twine.

Prabhupāda: It is Kṛṣṇa's desire that you have come. So kindly take some responsibility. You, as far as possible, translate our books in Russian and...

Dr. Sharma: I will try my best.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (2): Would it be more practical if you write a separate booklet or a pamphlet for Russians who have never heard about God or the existence of God as Kṛṣṇa? These books are so deep, unless they are really...

Prabhupāda: That we have already sent, Easy Journey to Other Planets.

Guest (2): In Russian language?

Prabhupāda: You have got this copy?

Morning Talk -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, it's not possible. Neither it's possible that... Just like yesterday Kṛṣṇa sends you a man who says, "Sir, I would like to translate your books into Russian." You did not go canvassing for Russian translator. Every single thing is coming... Kṛṣṇa is sending to you.

Prabhupāda: So take shelter of Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet. That is the only way. Then everything is all right.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You have seen his small booklet?

Dr. Sharma: I read it.

Prabhupāda: Scientific Basis of...

Dr. Sharma: Yes. It's very interesting. I liked it.

Prabhupāda: So if you translate some of these small books, we can publish.

Dr. Sharma: Knowledgewise, I am a big man. I am myself that mūḍha still. But still I've made up my mind. I'll do my most.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is very good qualification, to remain humble and try to do something.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Dr. Sharma: It is interesting. It has been very well received.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Dr. Sharma: It's a very well written book.

Prabhupāda: Then that translation you have to...

Dr. Sharma: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: So encourage him to translate more books. (background conversation with Dr. Sharma) In Russia, if they allow us to speak, then we can convert many. There is no doubt about it. But they have restriction for outsider. Now, here is a scientific man. They'll not hear?

Morning Conversation -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Six thousand dollars, but we are ready to spend fifteen to twenty thousand dollars. Make it nicely, everything. We shall spend. Make worldwide propaganda. And there will be no scarcity of money. Tour. Make extensive tour, especially in Russia. In Russia send this film group, the scientific group, and if the Doctor is seriously our friend, let him translate. And that translation, it shall be good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He said it's very good.

Prabhupāda: And the person who is translating, encourage him. Do this.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, Harikeśa, we have to reply his letters, so I have noted down to tell him that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Let him translate as many as possible. And make this program. And that twenty thousand dollars should not be touched. It will be simply spent for this propaganda.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: "Any or other, take. Finish that business." Now I don't want. I don't care for them. Our temple is always crowded. My achievement is there. In the beginning I spent. Now every, all over India, they are praising me.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Architect of the Bhagavad-gītā boom." That's how they praised you in the newspaper yesterday.

Prabhupāda: That's a fact.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was amazed to see how much you translated last night. You translated more last night than in months, almost two hundred digits. I think it was 190. I think eating these pakorās at night is giving you strength.

Prabhupāda: No, not that. Something must be eaten. I was feeling weakness in the evening. But what can I eat? I have no taste for fruits. Milk also, not very much taste I have got. Naturally I won't eat now(?).

Morning Conversation -- April 23, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yeah. (pause) Last night you translated only a little bit?

Prabhupāda: Not feeling at all well.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not feeling well at all.

Prabhupāda: It is being continued. It is being continued now and then.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Feeling ill. I really had a bad..., also, from these... I took these noodles, and I felt like they were sitting in my stomach without being digested.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversation with Vedic Astronomer -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

Indian Astronomer: ...because as we prepare diagram on the basis of pañcama-skandha, Bhāgavata, all must be given there. (continues reading verses from Bhāgavatam in Sanskrit)

Prabhupāda: So you can... Why not begin it in my presence?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Begin the drawing now so that Prabhupāda can see it before he leaves.

Indian Astronomer: No, because I am not able to prepare the diagrams and other things. With the help of my friends only I can do. I give the translation to them and all do the work. Simply we can show to them.

Prabhupāda: I have tried to translate it as far as possible, but I am not satisfied.

Indian Astronomer: A deep study of the text is absolutely necessary.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Indian Astronomer: Deep study of text and also with a mind of preparing diagram, study of the..., that is... We ask Padma-bhūṣaṇa(?). How is Padma-bhūṣaṇa...

Prabhupāda: What is your idea of the seven planets, sun...?

Indian Astronomer: You see, planets, in our system planets comes in the history very late.

Prabhupāda: Very?

Evening Darsana -- May 12, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: India is meant for paropakāra. India is not meant for exploiting others. But unfortunately the knowledge is... Sarasvatī jñāna-khale yathā satī. We have got the store of knowledge, but we have kept it locked up, not distributed to the world. They are called jñāna-khala. One who has knowledge but he does not want to distribute it, that is, they are termed as jñāna-khala. So we should not be jñāna-khala. In India there is storehouse of spiritual knowledge, and every one of us should make our life successful by assimilating this knowledge and distribute all over the world. There is customer; there is appreciation. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. (Hindi) Why you should be jñāna-khala? Na sādhu manye. Jñāna should be distributed. The modern scientists also, they have... If they have discovered something new, they go and distribute for the benefit of the whole human society. Unfortunately we are distorting the knowledge in Bhagavad-gītā, interpreting in a different way according to my whims, and spoiling my life and others'. This process should be stopped. Present Bhagavad-gītā as it is. You'll be benefited; others... Don't distort. That is our duty.

Indian man (3): Sir, do you not consider it advisable to get the judgment that the Americans have translated into Indian so we can look?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That... We require an expert lawyer. There are some technical terms. Ordinary man cannot translate. If amongst yourselves there is a lawyer, if he helps us translate, we can publish it. There are so many legal... The judgment is wonderful judgment.

Indian man (3): Historical judgment.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was expecting to fight that case at least for some years, but by Kṛṣṇa's grace he has given on the first day the judgment.

Evening Darsana -- May 15, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ten after six, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, did you want him to translate, I mean, tomorrow?

Prabhupāda: Hindi? Hindi you have made?

Indian man (1): I have read it and translated two or three pages, but I don't know whether it will get approval. That's my difficulty.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Approval... You are a lawyer. You do it. Not that every common man can understand. Still, whatever you have done, you can read something.

Conversations -- May 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Viśvambhara: Many cows we have got now. One Dhanañjaya bought, she is giving thirteen kilos, fourteen kilos.

Indian man (3): Milk?

Viśvambhara: I bought it from Dhanañjaya. She is giving thirteen, fourteen kilos.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (Hindi conversation) And what about that Hindi translation?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That judge is making?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That has to be sent.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (Hindi conversation) (break) "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." So restaurant is going on in Jalni(?) building? No.

Short Dissertations -- May 24-25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Good news, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A translation has come from the...

Prabhupāda: Hm. Very good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He wrote a little note. Do you want to hear it?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Dear Mr. Secretary, First of all I take the privileged opportunity of tendering with folded hands my most respectful praṇāma to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swamiji Mahārāja, who was so kind to me during his stay here. Next I sincerely apologize for not being able to complete the task entrusted to me earlier, the reason being that I was taken ill for two days. Thirdly I confess that living out of touch with Hindi legal words, I could not properly reflect correct and appropriate Hindi equivalent words at some places, and therefore I have tried to explain the purport. The translation rendered and tendered..." Very nice way of speaking it.

Prabhupāda: Hm. This is lawyer, judge.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "...rendered and tendered herewith may not be treated as an authoritative, verbatim translation. There is much scope for improvement. For the present it may be used and circulated in a narrow circle."

Prabhupāda: We don't want much improvement. Your translation is...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then he says...

Prabhupāda: So arrange for...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Printing it.

Prabhupāda: ...pamphlets for huge distribution.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This will be made into a separate little pamphlet all about the court case.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Any photographs, perhaps, of the persons involved? Any need of that? I think we can leave it up to Gopāla. He's in charge of printing.

Prabhupāda: No, not... We have said.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We should give a little background introduction of the court case and then this translation of the final verdict of the judge.

Prabhupāda: And "Translated by such and such judge." It will carry some weight.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: What is the name?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sardar Singh. Judge Sardar Singh.

Prabhupāda: What is the spelling?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: S-a-r-d-a-r.

Prabhupāda: Sardar.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Singh, S-i-n-g-h. He says, "I will come to Śrī Vṛndāvana by the 20th of June, and then I will be able to correct the mistakes and use proper words after seeing the dictionary. Lastly it is prayed that my name not be associated with the translation." Do we have to abide by his desire?

Prabhupāda: If there is some official objection...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, he says in it that "so that the people may not make adverse comments," because it's not, you know, it's not verbatim. He's done it quite lengthy, though.

Prabhupāda: You can write, "Translated by a qualified judge."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a wonderful court decision. He sent the original back also.

Prabhupāda: So do the needful.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So did you say you didn't want Gopāla to translate it, Śrīla Prabhupāda? To publish it?

Prabhupāda: Hm? Why you misunderstand?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I couldn't hear. That's why I'm asking.

Short Dissertations -- May 24-25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Introduction is there. Nothing. As it is.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just as it is. Okay. Little... It'll be a pamphlet for mass distribution. (pause) He did a lot of work, Śrīla Prabhupāda, twenty eight pages long, translation.

Prabhupāda: You can ask Dr. Premyadi to give a suitable heading.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. I'll let him go through it, and then he'll give a heading.

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Short Dissertations -- May 24-25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatākā's saying... He's translating what they were talking, that there's already a meter for electricity. This new meter is proposed simply for water, but the cost of water is so cheap, what is the need of a meter?

Jayapatākā: They're not making any claim for water. They say, "How much water you can use? It's a matter of a few paisa."

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Hṛdayānanda: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Jugupsitaṁ dharma-kṛte 'nuśāsataḥ sva... (break)

Bhāgavata: I wrote you one report about Orissa. So I'll be leaving in about ten days, twelve days to go to West. My visa will be expired in ten days. We'll begin our work. We'll see that all the books are translated into Orissan language and distributed throughout Orissa.

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Bhāgavata: And we'll put that building in Bhuvaneśvara and also Puri. (break)

Jayatīrtha: ...your book distribution every week.

Prabhupāda: How many devotees?

Jayatīrtha: We have about 120 devotees.

Prabhupāda: Everyone happy?

Jayatīrtha: Yes, they are quite happy, I think, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Of course, they're very distressed to hear about your illness.

GBC Meets with Srila Prabhupada -- May 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Satsvarūpa: Next we have a question about the BBT. At present, no translation work is to be published without your seeing and approving it. So the question is, is there any system for publishing works in the future that you may not see? For example, we've heard suggested that the Padma Purāṇa or the Ṣaṭ-Sandarbha may be translated. But what would the system be to insure the paramparā if you would not personally see these translations?

Prabhupāda: That you have to examine expertly.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In other words, there's no set principle that only the works which you have already translated can be published by the BBT. If there is some worthy translation of a bona fide Vedic reference, if it's properly done, the BBT could publish it.

Prabhupāda: That we are doing, just like Hindi. We are doing other languages. If it is properly translated, it can be...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even if it's a work which you have not yet translated yourself.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no, the principle is... Just like my translation, another person translating into Hindi or other languages, we are publishing. Similarly, if somebody has translated properly, it can be published. But amongst our disciples, I don't think there are many who can translate properly.

Rāmeśvara: None. We're not eager to publish anything which is not perfect, because you have already set the highest standard for the BBT. The name BBT means the highest standard right now in the world.

Prabhupāda: That is good answer.

Kīrtanānanda: Therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we think that you cannot leave us very soon.

Prabhupāda: I don't want. But if I am obliged, what can I do?

Kīrtanānanda: If you don't want, Kṛṣṇa will not want.

Prabhupāda: A realized soul, must be. Otherwise, simply by imitating A-B-C-D will not help. My purports are liked by people because it is presented as practical experience.

GBC Meets with Srila Prabhupada -- May 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Our translation must be documents. They are not ordinary... One cannot become unless one is very realized. It is not A-B-C-D translation.

Bhagavān: It's not a matter of scholarship.

Prabhupāda: And Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā (CC Madhya 7.128). One can understand the order of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he can become guru. Or one who understands his guru's order, the same paramparā, he can become guru. And therefore I shall select some of you. (hums)

Conversations -- May 31, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: The price that he is getting in India is very cheap. He says that he can do twenty pages a day, composing. He's got one place in Vṛndāvana that he uses and another place in Delhi. So if each place is doing one different book, two books can be done simultaneously at twenty pages every day.

Prabhupāda: Twenty pages and cost?

Rāmeśvara: It costs about a dollar a page.

Prabhupāda: Where? In...?

Rāmeśvara: In India. To compose.

Prabhupāda: And there?

Rāmeśvara: If we did it in America, it would not be less expensive. It might be even more expensive, because you have to order a special font for the Hindi alphabet. I've gone over this with Gopāla, and he says that so far, he is able to keep up with the translators. He is just now in Bombay, giving some more books in Hindi to the printer. Bhāgavatam 1.3 and Bhagavad-gītā in Hindi are going to the printer. And the translator is just still working on the first volume of Second Canto. As far as printing, this printer in Bombay called Usha is giving us very good service at a very low price. So it's a good place to print the books, the Hindi books. (pause) There's no question of buying equipment in India because it's too expensive for us to buy our own equipment.

Prabhupāda: No, that is...

Rāmeśvara: Plus it will not be repaired when it breaks.

Prabhupāda: That is very risky.

Rāmeśvara: We can tell these composers that "We are offering so many books for many, many years to come. We will give you so much business if you work faster."

Discussions with Devotees and Conversation with Dr. Ghosh -- June 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15). Jaya. (Bengali) Or if you like, you can travel with him, but your translation must be main work. If you like, you can go to the foreign countries along with him. (Bengali) So that program you planned, he can come.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No? What is that? Sādhu? What is that? Munayaḥ?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Says, "sādhu—this is relevant."

Prabhupāda: Relevant?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's what it's translated as, "this is relevant." May be a mistake.

Devotee (1): It's a mistake.

Prabhupāda: Munayaḥ?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Munayaḥ—of the sages; sādhu—this is relevant..."

Prabhupāda: The nonsense, they are... They are correcting my trans... Rascal. Who has done this? Munayaḥ is addressing all these munis.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You know, the real point is that the Sanskrit is often not translated properly in the translation, what Nitāi and others have done.

Prabhupāda: He's a rascal. That's... He's finding out guru and job for filling the belly. That is the latest news.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is he doing?

Prabhupāda: To find out some job to fill up the belly. Otherwise he'll starve if he doesn't get any job. And he's finding out guru. Job-guru. Now do the needful. Otherwise everything will be spoiled. These rascal editorial... That Easy Journey, original, this (indistinct) Hayagrīva has changed so many things.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think in addition to Satsvarūpa and Jayādvaita checking the English, that Bhakti-prema Mahārāja has to check all the Sanskrit of all of the books... He's translating now, so as he's translating, he can check. He's going, starting from the First Canto.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I think this is very appropriate, because checking English doesn't have any meaning without checking the Sanskrit, the original.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There was one verse in the Fifth Canto. From the way that they translated it, there was no way that anyone could possibly have understood what the verse meant. I mean, it was made unintelligible by the translation. So we were reading. Finally Bhakti-prema says, "Wait a minute. This translation is wrong. They have edited an extra statement here that is not there, and it makes it completely not understandable." Then suddenly, when he corrected the Sanskrit, it was easy to understand. It was very clear.

Prabhupāda: So what to do?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So I think we just have to be slow but sure. We have to go over all of the books and make sure that they're perfect before they're printed again. Not be in such a rush, print, print, and print all nonsense.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: One time I had a strong talk with Rāmeśvara Mahārāja about our article for printing in the Back to Godhead. I didn't want them to be printed in Back to Godhead because they made so many changes...

Prabhupāda: Oh, he has dared to change yours also?

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So they are doing very freely and dangerously. And this rascal is always after change, Rādhā-vallabha. He's a great rascal. (pause) Read.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Translation: Previously all the great sages rendered service unto the Personality of Godhead due to His existence above the three modes of material nature. They worshiped Him to become free from material conditions and thus derive the ultimate benefit. Whoever follows such great authorities is also eligible for liberation from the material world.

Purport: The purpose of performing religion is neither to profit by material gain nor to get the simple knowledge of discerning matter from spirit. The ultimate aim of religious performances is to release oneself from material bondage and regain the life of freedom in the transcendental world, where the Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Person. Laws of religion, therefore, are directly enacted by the Personality of Godhead, and except for the mahājanas, or the authorized agents of the Lord, no one knows the purpose of religion. There are twelve particular agents of the Lord who know the purpose of religion, and all of them render transcendental service unto Him. Persons who desire their own good may follow these mahājanas and thus attain the supreme benefit.

Prabhupāda: Read.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Next verse?

Prabhupāda: No. Yes. Here is... So this is the aim, that one should know Kṛṣṇa. And the human life is meant for that purpose. That is the distinction between animal life and human life. Therefore the next verse is yato bhaktir adhokṣaje. Find out.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So they are doing very freely and dangerously. And this rascal is always after change, Rādhā-vallabha. He's a great rascal. (pause) Read.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Translation: Previously all the great sages rendered service unto the Personality of Godhead due to His existence above the three modes of material nature. They worshiped Him to become free from material conditions and thus derive the ultimate benefit. Whoever follows such great authorities is also eligible for liberation from the material world.

Purport: The purpose of performing religion is neither to profit by material gain nor to get the simple knowledge of discerning matter from spirit. The ultimate aim of religious performances is to release oneself from material bondage and regain the life of freedom in the transcendental world, where the Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Person. Laws of religion, therefore, are directly enacted by the Personality of Godhead, and except for the mahājanas, or the authorized agents of the Lord, no one knows the purpose of religion. There are twelve particular agents of the Lord who know the purpose of religion, and all of them render transcendental service unto Him. Persons who desire their own good may follow these mahājanas and thus attain the supreme benefit.

Prabhupāda: Read.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Next verse?

Prabhupāda: No. Yes. Here is... So this is the aim, that one should know Kṛṣṇa. And the human life is meant for that purpose. That is the distinction between animal life and human life. Therefore the next verse is yato bhaktir adhokṣaje. Find out.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Seeing that the... Lord Caitanya did not let them escape so easily, seeing that the books would be very interesting, he requested both standing orders and several small books. Before leaving the city, I went to two international book shops. One book shop bought several books, and the other shop, an enterprise, wanted to translate two of your books into Yugoslavian language."

Prabhupāda: Eh? What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "One bookshop bought several books, and the other shop, an enterprise, wanted to translate two of your books into Yugoslavian language."

Prabhupāda: What is that book?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Gugalana(?), one of the few cities which had a theological seminary, was overpowered..." He doesn't say which one.

Prabhupāda: So make arrangement immediately. We shall allow them to translate and publish.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not yet. No devotees have ever entered. "As we are so fallen and incompetent, we beg that you will keep guiding us and allowing us to continue to serve you. We remain always desperately begging for your mercy. Your selfish servant, Ghanaśyāma dāsa, BBT Library Party." You want to try and translate this evening, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: What should I do?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think you should translate for... (break)

Prabhupāda: Absolute. Paraṁ satyaṁ dhīmahi.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? It's about nine, past nine o'clock now. Maybe you'd like to...

Prabhupāda: We can go.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...go upstairs now. Then you can translate for a while. (break)

Prabhupāda: "When I go to call to the..., mean, my nature's call, I go on horseback, I ride on a horse. And for passing stool, I go on a horseback." (laughs) I am a sannyāsī, beggar, but I am carried. "Carry me four, five miles." (Bengali) Get this pan.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that you gave that right in the purport. You called them (indistinct). See, you gave this huge... It says here, "However , the technical terms used in the astronomical calculations given by the Jyotir Veda are difficult to translate into English. Therefore, to satisfy the reader, we may include the exact Sanskrit statement given by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, which records exact calculations regarding universal affairs." And then you give this huge Sanskrit quotation. And from reading this, Bhakti-prema Mahārāja found out that there is space. Due to this purport we got that information. So it was perfectly put in here. It's very nice.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśodā-nandana: I don't want any logic. The scientists will come to the planetarium and ask...

Prabhupāda: How they can? Scientist is rascal. That is proved. They are insisting that chemical can produce life. He's a rascal. They have gone to moon planet. That's a rascal. So what is the value of so-called scientist. Why should we give any importance? I'm not giving any importance. If you become scientist, that so much ghee and so much āṭā makes puri, and we can eat very nicely, all right, you are a scientist. But so much chemicals, make it life—prove that. The confectioner is also scientist. He knows very well how to do his business. A carpenter is also scientist. Here is some work nice done by the carpenter. I cannot do it. You may be a great scientist, but me? It is not possible for me to do a carpentry work. In this way it is going on. (Bengali) You have learned something, you can do it very nicely. But I cannot do it. For me it will be beating by the rod if I am given this work. I can translate, my work. So everyone is scientist, his own field of activities, to some extent. You cannot make everyone agree. That is not... Vox populi you cannot. That is not possible. What is that vox populi?

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You can send one copy to Dr. Kapoor by post.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'll tell Gargamuni. It will be more impressive coming from Bombay.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And one to Bon Mahārāja at Vaṁśī-vaṭa(?).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughs) Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. "Śrīla Prabhupāda has taken on the monumental task of translating the essence of all Vedic..." I want to get to the... Here it comes. "All in all, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust library Encyclopedia of Vedic Knowledge includes at least one hundred published volumes. Scholars from all over the world have described Śrīla Prabhupāda as a literary genius after reading his treasure chest of Vedic knowledge. And now for the first time this treasure chest of transcendental knowledge is unlocked for everyone to dive deep into the ocean of transcendental bliss upon reading these classics." These words are nectar.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...Vyāsadeva is the basis of all education. " 'Later the saint Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, in commenting upon the life of the great Mahāprabhu Śrī Caitanya, brought to the highest level of understanding these principles in his immortal Indian classic, Caitanya-caritāmṛta. It is good fortune of the world that these two spiritual works presented as the Encyclopedia of Indian Culture have been translated and commented upon in the style of a true scholar by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. Śrīla Prabhupāda, out of his obviously great desire to inject the world with his vast storehouse of learning, has translated precisely the rich Sanskrit and Bengali ślokas. He has given the transliteration, word-for-word meaning, purports, and each volume filled with full color illustrations by his disciples. I therefore wholeheartedly recommend this encyclopedia of our culture and all other Bhaktivedanta Book Trust publications to all educational institutions, schools, libraries, and colleges concerned with the moral and cultural development of their students within the boundary of Maharastra and throughout the world.' "

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here's one from the Mayor of Bombay, Murali S. Deora. He's the new mayor. " 'The good work of the members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness is well known to me. It is especially commendable that the founder-ācārya of the society, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, has been able to convince so many foreigners all about the simple purity of India's exalted philosophy-plain living and high thinking. Swamiji is a very highly respected Vedic scholar, and he has seen to it that his numerous disciples from all over India and the world stick to the actual disciplines required of students of our ancient philosophy. The growing cultural and educational center now under construction at Juhu...' " He refers it as the growing cultural and educational center. He's understood your purpose, Śrīla Prabhupāda. " '...is an object of deep interest and pride to myself and all fellow Bombay citizens. The members of Kṛṣṇa consciousness are always well mannered and cheerful due to the blessings of their benign Swamiji. Anyone who reads Śrīla Prabhupāda's clear translations and commentaries of well-known Sanskrit and Bengali literature can understand his secret of success. I do not think such accurate scholarly and clear expositions of Vedic culture can be found in English elsewhere. His Bhaktivedanta Book Trust publishing house has made sure that the immortal words of our classics have been presented in first-class style. Among the BBT publications, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta, comprising an encyclopedia of Vedic knowledge, are especially notable. I have examined volumes of these sets and recommend these sets not only for our municipal corporation libraries and municipal-funded libraries, but for all libraries of the world...' "

Prabhupāda: They are approaching municipal libraries?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. " 'But for all libraries of the world, wherever people have a sincere interest to go into the depths of Vedic philosophy.' Signed Murali S. Deora, Mayor of Bombay."

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Everyone is recommending. All libraries.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: " '...should have on its shelf these works.' " Next is a letter from Trinvak Govind Meinpark(?), Professor of Sanskrit and Head of the Department at the University of Bombay. " 'His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, the renowned Vedic scholar and founder-ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, has translated into English the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta, the Encyclopedia of Vedic Culture.' " Now it's getting to be known like that. " 'The special feature of this publication is to be seen in the explanatory notes, added with a view to summing up the purport of the passages rendered. The Bhāgavatam is a classic of the Kṛṣṇa cult, and in the manner of sweetness, sincerity of devotion and purity of emotion, it surpasses all other texts of the Purāṇas, as well as other texts of the Bhāgavata religion. As such it is no wonder that it has become a veritable scripture of the devotees of this cult. Again, of all incarnations of the highest Lord, the Kṛṣṇa incarnation has a peculiar fascination for the Indian mind and has all along exercised a great influence over the Hindu religious mind—in fact, of all minds that have God consciousness. The Lord's grace, His interest and deep concern for His devotees and even for sinners, His great love for all beings without any distinction of order, caste, creed, and sex, His ever-willingness to look after all ardent devotees, His extreme sweetness, all these qualities have made Him the most easily lovable of the divine manifestations. The text of the Bhāgavata, scenes of the whole life of the Lord from His childhood to His withdrawal from the world, yet the philosophical aspects receive greater emphasis than the historical ones.' " Not simply that it's some stories, but full of philosophy. " 'Along with the Bhāgavata, the Caitanya-caritāmṛta has received as much care and attention in the translation by Śrīla Prabhupāda. The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust is presenting these two sets as an encyclopedia of our culture, and our university has made a standing order of these volumes, which our students delight in reading. There is no doubt that the Swamiji has immensely obliged all lovers of our Vedic culture and devotees of Kṛṣṇa cult by this simple, clear, faithful, and illuminating rendering into English. The notes bring out beautifully the subtle implications of the Sanskrit and Bengali text. The lay reader is thus greatly helped in appreciating and understanding the brilliant simplicity of the path of bhakti.' "

Prabhupāda: What he is?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He is the Head of the Department of Sanskrit at the Bombay University. " 'The printing is really excellent and the general get-up highly attractive. I have nothing but the highest praise for this splendid publication. The BBT's encyclopedia would be a valuable asset to each school and college library as well as all general libraries throughout the world.' " These reviews are as good as your books, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He is the Head of the Department of Sanskrit at the Bombay University. " 'The printing is really excellent and the general get-up highly attractive. I have nothing but the highest praise for this splendid publication. The BBT's encyclopedia would be a valuable asset to each school and college library as well as all general libraries throughout the world.' " These reviews are as good as your books, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're tremendous. Here is a letter from the member of the advisory board of the Sāhitya Academy. You know what that is Śrīla Prabhupāda? Sāhitya Academy? I think it's a literary academy. " 'No earthly writer today can match the vast outpouring of pure verse which our ancient sages, particularly the great Vyāsadeva, have left to the world. Motivated by a deep desire to give moral, cultural, and educational upliftment to all people irrespective of caste, creed or nationality, they have taught us the higher values of life through the medium of historical narrations, biographies, the lives of great men, and simple instructive stories. The unlimited wealth which they have left behind in the Devanāgarī script is sheer ecstasy to read for the poet, the student and the common man. Since dialectic differences began to splinter men into smaller groups, the original language, Sanskrit, was gradually forgotten. It is special grace upon the denizens of this world today that His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda has done such a tremendous job of meticulously translating into so many languages the sacred books of our heritage. Swamiji's most noteworthy achievement is his Encyclopedia of Vedic Education, the multivolume presentation of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta.' " One thing, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that this calling it the Encyclopedia of Vedic..., as he's doing...Everyone has always known the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but fewer people knew Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and now these two are lumped together as equally very important works.

Prabhupāda: Complete.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's very much increased...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...the notice of Caitanya-caritāmṛta. " 'His treatment of the verses through his transparent translations and purports show that his scholastic and spiritually realized grasp of the text is incomparable. It is his understanding of the goal of all knowledge, as shown by his skillful pen, that makes him rightfully the founder and ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. I am very very happy to see that many different types of libraries and institutions of the world are snapping up his encyclopedia.' "

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And nobody is going to disturb you there. Make your own field and continue to become ṛttvik and act on my charge. People are becoming sympathetic there. The place is very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. He says, "The introduction of Bhagavad-gītā has been translated into Tamil, and I will have the second chapter done next. Then publish a small booklet for immediate distribution."

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "I have also found a young man to translate Singhalese language."

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "This coming weekend we have a two-day festival in Colombo. We expect about two thousand people per night."

Prabhupāda: Oh!

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It says, "The Society's founder is A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. He left India at an advanced age aboard the merchant ship Jaladuta with only seven dollars and a trunk containing scriptures he had translated into English. The ship's captain became Śrīla Prabhupāda's friend and purchased the first books distributed in the US. Śrīla Prabhupāda had been instructed by Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, his spiritual preceptor, to broadcast Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the English language. That request was made in 1922. In the years that followed Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote an English commentary on the Bhagavad-gītā and started an English magazine in 1944, which he wrote, printed and distributed himself. He arrived in America in September 1965, and by July of '66 he had formed ISKCON Incorporated. Historically this corporation is part of the spiritual tradition whose followers preserve the pure teachings of the scriptures such as Vedas, Upaniṣads and Purāṇas." He goes on and on. Should I read on?

Prabhupāda: Hm!

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "The tradition began long, long ago. The message of the scriptures was recorded by Śrīla Vyāsadeva in order to benefit men living in the present age. This historic event is even mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam..." (break)

Pranavdas Gupta: ...calculated is 1st September, 1896. The date is here. See the old calendar of..., that is Samvat 1953.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

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

Prabhupāda: Everything you do, it is... Now, utilize. So one book has come only.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I've got three books. Two you can keep. One... I'll give one to Prem Yogi, Bhakti-prema Mahārāja.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is his name in there?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, as the translator.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Translator? Anyway, it is the teachings.

Yaśomatīnandana: (reads Sanskrit verse, Hindi translation)

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Plus, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we're getting ready to print the Gujarati, Hindi and Tamil Gītās. We're going to do the color plates together.

Prabhupāda: Next you make Gujarati.

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

Prabhupāda: That would be very nice. Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: He can come and go.

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

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

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. The Gujarati Gītā will be ready in one month. I have already finished printing the color pictures for Hindi Gītā, Gujarati Gītā and Telegu Gītā. It's already completed. That Telegu Gītā is being printed in Hyderabad, and the Gujarati Gītā is also at the printers. And the Hindi Gītā is being composed. Plus we are doing a Kannada Gītā in Kanarese language.

Prabhupāda: Is it necessary?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We have a temple in Bangalore, and they need it for distribution in Bangalore. But this will be just your verses and translation, like they have done in Telegu two years ago, a small book which they can sell for one rupee or two rupees.

Prabhupāda: Don't keep money unnecessarily. Invest.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, Śrīla Prabhupāda, there's no money. (laughs) BBT is... I'm always asking Hari-śauri to make his payment quickly, because we have invested everything into printing.

Room Conversation -- October 9, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They are all Muslim. That quarter is very busy where the house, restaurant.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. It's only about five minutes from the Senate and the main Parliament buildings. Also the biggest museums are very nearby. Very good location. And one man has also joined, a local man who is very intelligent. And he has begun translating Bhagavad-gītā into Parsi. And in three months' time his translation of the entire Bhagavad-gītā will be completed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Did he come recently to India with Ātreya Ṛṣi?

Rāmeśvara: That's a different man.

Prabhupāda: It will be locally published.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Locally published.

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Do like that. Pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma.

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: Nandarāṇī and some other brāhmaṇas, some men who are there at the temple. She is especially a good cook. And in the evenings they play Hare Kṛṣṇa kīrtana tapes, mostly Your Divine Grace. People very much like the atmosphere because of the music. In Islam there is a tradition of chanting God's name and other mantras or prayers, so they appreciate the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa very much. When you enter the restaurant there is a big book table, so the first thing that one sees are japa beads and your books, and people buy the books from the table.

Prabhupāda: English.

Rāmeśvara: For now they are selling Bhagavad-gītā, Back to Godhead, and Satsvarūpa Mahārāja's book. That is also being sold. They are just now printing the first Persian Back to Godhead, and in three months' time the Bhagavad-gītā in Persian will be... Translation will be completed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who is doing the translation?

Rāmeśvara: One local man that joined us, very intelligent man.

Prabhupāda: So they are looking after a bigger place?

Brahmānanda: They're looking after a bigger place?

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Very warm nowadays?

Rāmeśvara: During the day it is just like here-80, 85 degrees. In the early morning and in the evening sometimes a little chilly.

Prabhupāda: At night snowfall?

Rāmeśvara: No.

Room Conversation -- October 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Some people even come, higher class people, and work. They give their service in the restaurant. They wash dishes. They serve tables. We engage them in bhakti-yoga.

Brahmānanda: What's the name of the restaurant?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Govinda.

Prabhupāda: So you make good profit.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: It's your mercy, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (Prabhupāda chuckles) They respect you a lot in Tehran. The royalty respects you. The businessmen respect you. They really respect Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Persian civilization, very high, Aryan civilization.

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

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

Room Conversation -- October 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think that our being here and chanting before you is spreading this movement, because the more we chant, the more love and dependence we develop for you, and that's making us strong in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and therefore our movement is getting stronger. Every day that we stay here, we become stronger in our devotion for you and dependence on you. (pause) I think that I should just tell them to end their meeting now. They're waiting for me, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Then I'll come back in a little while and chant. Actually you have to get better, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja has built this palace. It's only meant for you. We were seeing pictures of it today. It is so beautiful. It is exactly the place that you want to retire in and translate. And this community of Gītā-nagarī will be just proper place to give direction how to establish nice spiritual community. These two places are very close to each other-New Vrindaban and Gītā-nagarī. They're only three hours away from each other. Two very good communities for showing the example how to spread ideal Vedic life. We were discussing that actually it is not anything new that Kṛṣṇa can make His devotee better, because we were reading before in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta how sometimes Lord Caitanya would bring back to life someone who had even expired. And His associates were able to do that. And there is many cases. I think if we are very determined, then Kṛṣṇa will surely fulfill our desire.

Prabhupāda: Without fail.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Without fail.

Room Conversation -- October 12, 1977, Vrndavana:

Jayapatākā: In Bengal, because the people are so poor, so there we are giving the book and just taking five or ten percent profit margin...

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Jayapatākā: ...for the small books, for propaganda purpose, so that we can reach many people.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Whatever propaganda require you spend, but print books and distribute. Whatever English book we have got, if we translate into Bengali, we have got enough stock.

Jayapatākā: Yes. We have a treasure house.

Prabhupāda: In this way, in all languages, distribute. Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna: (chanting Sanskrit)

tad-īkṣaṇotprema-rasāplutāśayā

jātānurāgā gata-manyavo 'rbhakān

uduhya dorbhiḥ parirabhya mūrdhani

ghrāṇair avāpuḥ paramāṁ mudaṁ te

Prabhupāda: One line?

Pradyumna: Just read like this, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: One line.

Pradyumna: Ah, one line. Te (gopāḥ) tad-īkṣaṇotprema-rasāplutāśayāḥ (teṣāṁ sutānām īkṣaṇena udgataḥ yaḥ prema-rasaḥ tasmin āplutāḥ nimagnāḥ āśayāḥ yeṣāṁ te) jātānurāgāḥ (jātaḥ anurāgaḥ yeṣāṁ te) gata-manyavaḥ (gata-roṣāḥ) arbhakān (sutān) uduhya (utthāpya) dorbhiḥ (bāhubhiḥ) parirabhya (āliṅgya) mūrdhani (mastake) ghrāṇaiḥ paramāṁ mudam (atīva prītim) avāpuḥ (prāptāḥ).

Prabhupāda: Hm. So translation.

Pradyumna: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: So the word meaning you'll be able to translate into English?

Pradyumna: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Then I can explain the translation.

Pradyumna: Yes.

Prabhupāda: The... Kṛṣṇa has become everything. After Brahmā has stolen the original cowherds boys and cows and calves, Kṛṣṇa has expanded Himself. So on account of Kṛṣṇa's expansion, the cowherdsmen got a special attraction. First of all they were angry. The cowherdsmen were on the top of the hill. They did not like to come down. But on account of Kṛṣṇa, the boys were very, very attracted, and they immediately come down with special affection. Is it explained?

Pradyumna: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: It will help? Eh?

Pradyumna: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So you can do that.

Pradyumna: Yes. We can do every verse like this, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Little by little, few verses at a time throughout the day, the Bhāgavata will be completed.

Pradyumna: We can do as much as you were doing before. We can do.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We shall see how much we can... So on the head, I cannot hear properly.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I was thinking he could sit here on the bed, and I can sit on the other side with the tape, or I can sit here also, and tape everything carefully. So should he move over now?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Tataḥ (anantaram), you can translate? No, you can translate immediately. "Thereafter."

Pradyumna: Yes. Tataḥ-thereafter; pravayasaḥ (vṛddhāḥ gopa-janāḥ)—the elderly cowherdsmen?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Pradyumna: Tokāśleṣa-sunirvṛtāḥ (putrā-liṅganena sukhitāḥ santaḥ)—by embracing their sons.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

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

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

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

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

Prabhupāda: So translate.

Pradyumna: "By remembering their sons." Anantara vayaska gopa-gaṇa putrāliṅgane paramānanda lābha kariyā. Ati-kaṣṭe kramaśaḥ...

Prabhupāda: You can translate into English?

Pradyumna: "Thereafter, the elderly cowherdsmen," putrāliṅgane paramānanda lābha kariyā, "obtaining great bliss from embracing their sons..."

Prabhupāda: Feeling.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna: What does the editor say? Is this all right?

Jayādvaita: Sure it's all right. This is good. This plan is good.

Prabhupāda: So let us do that. So each word you read very distinctly. It doesn't matter it takes time.

Jayādvaita: And Pradyumna, you can work ahead on this translation, so that it can be read...

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Jayādvaita: Can you work ahead on translating, Pradyumna? So that can be done also, that as it's being read to you, the translation can already be done in advance by Pradyumna.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's good.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Jayādvaita: The translation of the verses can be done in advance, so that as the Sanskrit is being read to you, the meanings can also be done immediately.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is that all right, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Should I... One thing I can do. Since Arundhatī will be typing, I can sit here with the dictaphone rather than tape recorder. Then she can do just as she always did, typing off the dictaphone.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is that all right? And if you want, that way we can play back also very easily.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna: Premardher hetor autkaṇṭhyaṁ mukta-staneṣv api vatseṣu nava-prasūta-vatsatarīṇām api gavām ahetu-vit hetum ajānan acintayad iti.

Prabhupāda: You can translate?

Pradyumna: Yes. Premardher hetor autkaṇṭhyam, "Such enthusiasm on a cause of love, such affection," mukta-staneṣv api vatseṣu, "even among those vatsas who had given up milking... They were no longer milking at their mother," nava-prasūta-vatsatarīṇām api gavām, "and seeing that enthusiasm," I think, "even among cows who had newly given birth.... They had given..." They had some older calves who had finished milking, and they had younger calves who had...

Prabhupāda: Yes, still...

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna: Baladeva ei-rūpa cintā kariyā jñāna-cakṣu-dvārā dekhite pāilena ye samasta (etc. to pāiteche)

Prabhupāda: Can you translate?

Pradyumna: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Do it.

Pradyumna: "Thinking in this way, He was able to see with the eye of transcendental knowledge that all these cows and calves were expansions in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, these calves." (Sanskrit) "These calves, along with the cowherd boys," (Sanskrit) "were Śrī Kṛṣṇa, expansions of Śrī Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: Then?

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna:

naite sureśā ṛṣayo na caite

tvam eva bhāsīśa bhid-āśraye 'pi

sarvaṁ pṛthak tvaṁ nigamāt kathaṁ vadety...

(SB 10.13.39)

Prabhupāda: Try to...

Pradyumna: Translate as I...

Prabhupāda: Word to word.

Pradyumna: Yes, (he) īśa-O Lord; (he prabho kṛṣṇa)-O Lord Kṛṣṇa; ete sureśāḥ (gopālaka-rūpa-dharāḥ deva-śreṣṭhāḥ garuḍādayaḥ iti...

Prabhupāda: Word to word. Why you go?

Pradyumna: He says, "All these lords of the demigods..." He says that "The cowherd boys are actually the best of the demigods in the form of cowherd boys." Ete sureśāḥ.

Prabhupāda: No. They were all expansion of Kṛṣṇa.

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

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

Bhāgavata: We had one big book table set up in the conference hall yesterday with all of your books, all of your Śrīmad-Bhāgavatams, all the Caitanya-caritāmṛtas, and that bronze statue of yourself was there. And the books by the scientists, by Sadāpūta dāsa and by Svarūpa Dāmodara, which were explaining the scientific theories in light of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all those books were there, and the scientists were appreciating them very much.

Abhirāma: When news gets out, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that you've started to translate again, all the devotees are going to be ecstatic. They'll feel like their life has come back. It will remind us of... Just like Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja. He was in such a condition that he couldn't move practically from his lying position, nor could he see. So many senses were failing. But he spoke or wrote down such an incredible book. (break)

Prabhupāda: Bhagatji?

Bhagatji: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Prabhupāda says by activating his muscles, by massaging, that will generate energy. That will bring appetite. (break)

Abhirāma: ...started translating last night.

Bhagatji(?): Hmm?!!

Abhirāma: Śrīla Prabhupāda started translating Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam last night. Pradyumna was reading, and Śrīla Prabhupāda was giving the explanation of translation.

Prabhupāda: Try... (Bengali)

Bhāgavata: Everyone is eagerly awaiting the new issues of your books all over the world. What to speak of the devotees, the scholars, the professors, the librarians, and just the general reading public who are patronizing your books, literally millions of people all over the world are eagerly awaiting new issues of your volumes. When the news gets out that you are again translating and that the new volumes of Tenth Canto will be available, everyone will be in ecstasy.

Prabhupāda: I have got some letters from New Vrindaban appealing for the books.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Everybody appreciates, even the scientists, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Jayapatākā: He already answered that question. Gaura-Govinda, he's already translated sixteen chapters of Bhagavad-gītā in Oriya, and he's translated three small books in Oriya.

Prabhupāda: Let him bring. There is fifty thousand rupees in Orissa.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Dayānanda: It's very encouraging to hear that you're...

Prabhupāda: Restaurant.

Dayānanda: Yes, it's doing very nicely, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We're getting a lot of nice...

Prabhupāda: You are all happy?

Dayānanda: Yes. We are also happy to hear that you're translating, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Trying. So at night there is no need of giving juice. Tomorrow. Eh?

Upendra: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. No. Tomorrow. Fruit juice at night is not good.

Prabhupāda: No. People are appreciating our movement?

Dayānanda: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We are trying to speak to people who are more intelligent, people who are more...

Prabhupāda: There are many intelligent persons, Iran. Eh? Is it not?

Dayānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere dull-headed, intelligent... You are working at computer?

Dayānanda: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So, what salary they gave?

Dayānanda: Little over a thousand dollars in a month, about 1,200 dollars.

Prabhupāda: Hm. So how you are spending that money?

Dayānanda: Now I live in my own apartment, I'm giving fifty percent to the ISKCON Tehran projects, and fifty percent I keep for maintenance.

Prabhupāda: So there is no scarcity? Eh?

Dayānanda: No, there's no scarcity, Śrīla Prabhupāda. In my spare time I am working in the restaurant, helping to manage the restaurant.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Makara-dhvaja is a Ayurvedic medicine. So this kavirāja was preparing makara-dhvaja.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is that the one with musk in it?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes, we have that medicine.

Bhavānanda: That we have, Śrīla Prabhupāda. He has prepared it. We have it here.

Prabhupāda: So, why not try it?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What did the kavirāja say about it?

Bhavānanda: Er, I'll get Bhakti-caru.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You dreamt that.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hm.

Prabhupāda: What is the time now?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's seven o'clock now, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yesterday you were really on fire, lecturing and translating.

Bhavānanda: Bhakti-caru has gone to the kitchen to bring some... But I recall that when we went to see the kavirāja he said... We had showed him your urine when it was muddy, filled with pus. He said he wanted that before this medicine could be given, he wanted to see that your urine had cleared up. But he had prepared the medicine and we have it here.

Prabhupāda: What is the dose?

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It is already very loud.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's very loud actually. (pause) All the devotees were very happy when they heard that you have started translating again.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yesterday Prabhupāda translated for nearly two hours. The edited work, Śrīla Prabhupāda, sounds very beautiful. It's very first class when it's finally edited. The whole staff is here, and it sounds very nice.

Prabhupāda: Tamāla Kṛṣṇa?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: In the horoscope we have dragged the life through so many catastrophes, but ultimately how long the life we have dragged?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: As far as I recall... The horoscope is written in such a way that if you survive these catastrophes, then it mentions that... He said that you would live for another five or six years.

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda:

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda

śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

(I offer my obeisances to Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Prabhu Nityānanda, Śrī Advaita, Gadādhara, Śrīvāsa and all others in the line of devotion.)

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare

hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare

(My dear Lord, and the spiritual energy of the Lord, kindly engage me in Your service. I am now embarrassed with this material service. Please engage me in Your service.)

This is from Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Then Brahma-saṁhitā.

rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan

nānāvatāram akarod bhuvaneṣu kintu

kṛṣṇaḥ svayaṁ samabhavat paramaḥ pumān yo

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

(Bs. 5.39)

Then again from Brahma-saṁhitā, premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu (Bs. 5.38). These mantras should be recited so that I can hear, you can hear, occasionally. And kīrtana must go on. And physically, massage. Sometimes that brahmi oil massage on the head. (break) Translating, whatever I have done in this state, is it going right?

Jayādvaita: Everything that you've translated is edited so far, except for the last two sittings. It's coming out very nicely. Now by your instruction to concentrate on Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's commentary, I think it will become even more clear, because Pradyumna will be able to give the English more easily.

Prabhupāda: So do it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You want to do some just now?

Prabhupāda: Yes, one or two lines. Let us...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. Yadubara wanted to film you translating. Is that all right? You don't mind. We can have a little light here while he films for about half a minute? It wouldn't disturb you.

Prabhupāda: Yadubara is good devotee.

Room Conversation -- October 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Devotee: My great-uncle, he had tonsillitis, so he went to a friend who was a doctor, and the friend said, "That's all right. We'll operate, and I will not charge you anything." So he went into the hospital, and in the operation the doctor dropped a scalpel, and after that—he was very big, and he became very small, never could eat again. (break)

Prabhupāda: No protection.

Bhavānanda: There's no protection. (break)

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: So? Bhāgavata?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bhāgavatam translation? I'll arrange now? (break)

Trivikrama: ...cannot do its plundering business.

Prabhupāda: The sun cannot take life during the Bhāgavata discussion. The more you discuss Bhāgavatam, you keep your life. Who is standing here?

Tripurāri: Now Bharadvāja is chanting.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who is standing? Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja, Svarūpa Dāmodara, Tripurāri Mahārāja, Nayanābhirāma, Bhavānanda Mahārāja, Upendra, Trivikrama Mahārāja, Pañca-draviḍa Mahārāja, Brahmānanda Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: So, you are understanding?

Devotees: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Trivikrama: By your mercy.

Prabhupāda: Then we stop here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We'll have kīrtana now. Should I leave the light that's on?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We're all at your disposal, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "No king was ever served like this," you said.

Prabhupāda: Here in one room, always closed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. That's a fact. It's closed. I felt it today, especially when you were translating. It got a little stuffy. When one can move around easily, then this house is very first class. But because the rooms are such design, if one has to stay in one room, then it can get a little bit stuffy. Just like here the only opening is from one side. In Māyāpura we'll get the cross ventilation.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's very healthy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Perhaps there are also some good vegetables or fruits that may be in season in the winter.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Vegetable boiled. Fresh vegetables. I can take little.

Room Conversation -- October 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was thinking yesterday that... You had wanted to go all over the world once again to strengthen our society. I was just thinking that since you're not going, the society is coming here to be with you. And simply by being with you everybody is becoming stronger. Simply by contacting you, taking care of you, helping to take care of you, they're all advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And I think that anyone who has your association, Śrīla Prabhupāda, will never fall away from Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And you're also instructing and translating every day. For the first time, devotees are allowed to be near you while you're translating and hear you speak. I don't think your existence has no value. There's so much value even now.

Pañca-draviḍa: If the devotees are staying away, it is not because you are poisonous. It is because we are poisonous. I know due to my sinful habits I am so poisonous that when I'm in your presence I feel so contaminated and unworthy of being in the sight of such a person as yourself that I feel that I should be in some corner hiding like some... I am so impure that I cannot stand in front of you. It is not because I feel that you are poisonous, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I am poisonous.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: That's very true, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Pañca-draviḍa: You are a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, and your whole life is simply dedicated to the propagation of Kṛṣṇa's teachings all over the world, whereas my whole life is simply dedicated to sense gratification. So therefore, when I come in front of a person such as yourself, I feel ashamed.

Bhavānanda: It is true, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that if you lose your desire to remain here, then no medicine can be effective. But if you desire to remain, then the medicine can become effective.

Prabhupāda: No, in this way to remain—not desirable. Every day, crisis.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What you'll read?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, the other night... I mean we could read SB.. I'm always eager for you to hear Bhāgavatam. I mean, I wanted to call... I always like to call Pradyumna and Jayādvaita. Of course, that requires... If you wanted to translate, you could make the effort. Otherwise Jayādvaita could read some of the edited work.

Bhakti-caru: He went to Delhi.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Room Conversation -- October 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Hanumān-prasāda: (reads Hindi book or article and discusses with Prabhupāda in Hindi) (break)

Prabhupāda: As it is.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That's in all languages.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's unlimited service that one can render.

Hanumān-prasāda: That's why I become a bit discouraged sometimes because I'm not able to do what I want to do.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So you can translate also.

Hanumān-prasāda: I want. It's his mercy we shall do. (Hindi) He's a divine power. That's all. He's not a person.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: You want to take some prasādam?

Prabhupāda: Here... (?)

Bharadvāja: Nayanābhirāma.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Upendra: Oh, Śrīla Prabhupāda, none of us speak Hindi. There's no more Hindi-speaking disciples at your side just now. Bharadvāja, Nayanābhirāma and myself, Upendra dāsa, are here.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) ...report...

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is very difficult. You have all taken meals?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. While we were taking, we were thinking that you were seeing us, and we were satisfied. We were thinking that the spiritual master is very much satisfied when he sees his disciples respecting bhāgavata-prasādam. (break) ...pray, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that you recover. You won't have to be bothered now by any more worries of any kind. You simply can translate and see all of the temples and the devotees. It will be very nice. You've never in all these years been able to be free of the worries and anxieties, but now you'll be able to be. Kṛṣṇa may grant you some more years so you can just have nice time with all of your disciples, visiting all the Deities. Like to take a little rest now, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes. What can I do? (laughs) (scratching sound) Whose hand it is? Whose hand?

Bhavānanda: Śatadhanya.

Śatadhanya: Is it cold, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Make them warm. Make your hand warm by the stove.

Prabhupāda: Somebody's hand is warm, I want. Whose hand?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Tamāla Kṛṣṇa. Better?

Prabhupāda: Where is podda? (?)

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So I'll arrange for them to come, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We haven't heard from Tenth Canto in a few days. That would be nice, I think. (break)

Jayādvaita: ...sent me an urgent telegram asking me to send the book manuscript and also to pick up another manuscript that he'd sent. So I went for... He told me to go for three days and not to come back to Vṛndāvana until it was done. But I went for one day. But I heard that I inconvenienced you because you couldn't translate that night. I'm sorry that I held up the work. That anthology book of different articles written by Your Divine Grace, I think that will come out very nicely. That's what Rāmeśvara was having me send him.

Prabhupāda: Anthology?

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here's a new book.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's called Preaching is the Essence. "His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda." It says, "Compiled by Rāmeśvara dāsa Swami and Śubhānanda dāsa Brahmacārī." It says, "A note of explanation. Every word of the text of this book is taken directly from the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, founder-ācārya of the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. The text appearing in boldface type is Śrīla Prabhupāda's translations of verses from the Vedic literatures. The text in regular roman type consists of excerpts from His Divine Grace's summary studies and purports. Contents in brief: 1) The mission of the Lord—to give all living entities the benediction of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. 2) It is the duty of the devotee to preach." Each one of these subjects, then they give verses or purports.

Brahmānanda: All about preaching.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In other words, a devotee can use this book to learn these verses which substantiate the following points. These are the points. "3) Preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the highest welfare activity. 4) Kṛṣṇa consciousness should be distributed to everyone without restriction."

Prabhupāda: How many copies?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This was printed strictly for the devotees, two thousand copies only. It's meant as like a preaching weapon. "5) One who preaches Kṛṣṇa consciousness is dear to Lord Kṛṣṇa and is protected by the Lord. 6) Kṛṣṇa empowers the preacher. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement spreads by the mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya. 7) Preaching is based on compassion. 8) The preacher should practice tolerance. 9) To be effective in preaching, the preacher must be pure and follow the regulative principles. 10) Conditioned souls benefit from hearing Vedic literature, kṛṣṇa-kathā. 11) The future of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement." Should I see what it says under that?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The future of this movement? Page 88. "The future of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement can save the world. 'Kirāta, hūṇāndhra, pulinda, pulkaśa, ābhīra, śumbha, yavana (SB 2.4.18) and the khasa races, and even others who are addicted to sinful acts, can be purified by taking shelter of the devotees of the Lord, due to His being the supreme power. I beg to offer my respectful obeisances unto Him.' Purport: 'The above-mentioned historical names are different nations of the world. Even those who are constantly engaged in sinful acts are all corrigible to the standard of perfect human beings if they take shelter of the devotees of the Lord. Jesus Christ and Hajrat Muhammad, two powerful devotees of the Lord, have done tremendous service on the behalf of the Lord on the surface of the globe. And from the version of Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī, it appears that instead of running a godless civilization in the present context of the world situation, if the leadership of world affairs is entrusted to the devotees of the Lord, for which a worldwide organization under the name and style of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has already been started, then by the grace of the Almighty Lord there can be a thorough change of heart in human beings all over the world, because the devotees of the Lord are able authorities to effect such a change by purifying the dust-worn minds of the people in general.' " Then it gives so many other quotes. "Kṛṣṇa consciousness will spread all over the world." Then it quotes from the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. " 'The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will inundate the entire world and drown everyone, whether one be a gentleman, a rogue or even lame, invalid or blind. When the five members of the Pañca-tattva saw the entire world drowned in love of Godhead and the seed of material enjoyment in the living entities completely destroyed, they all became exceedingly happy. The more the five members of the Pañca-tattva caused the rains of love of Godhead to fall, the more the inundation increases and spreads all over the world.' " (break)

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (chuckles) (pause) Do you want to hear some of the newsletter? It says here... This newsletter is written by Rāmeśvara. It's especially meant for encouraging book distribution, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It says, "Later on in the morning, Prabhupāda sent for Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Prabhu and explained to him that he wanted to print as many books as possible. 'My point is,' Śrīla Prabhupāda said, 'that I don't wish to keep money in the bank. Invest in printing.' So in this way, although... Then Prabhupāda went on, referring to Harikeśa Swami, after he presented six new hardbound German books to His Divine Grace, 'He is very intelligent boy. My Guru Mahārāja is so pleased. He used to say whatever money is there was to be used for printing books. He was so happy to print books. So you do it all very nicely. I printed my books, and now you do it. These are first class and there is no defect. German printing is very favorable. This is all right. Thank you very much.' It says here, 'Harikeśa Swami told Prabhupāda that now he has to become more healthy to finish the Bhāgavatam. Prabhupāda replied, 'Healthy? I have nothing to do with this body. I have to do with the spiritual world.' Bhagavān prabhu mentioned to Prabhupāda how many books his zone was distributing. They are trying for twenty thousand big books in one week. Prabhupāda was very encouraged and told him, 'Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī will give them all blessings. He wanted this very much.' An hour later Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja was in the room and told Prabhupāda that they had printed 100,000 copies of Kṛṣṇa book in Portuguese. Prabhupāda said, 'Thank you very much. Printing of books is our life force.' Prabhupāda looked through the books and again he asked, 'How many published?' When he heard 100,000, 'Oh, how they are selling, and what is the price? Very good collection? Print more books. This is life. This material body—only bones. So go on and this is life. We are not concerned with bones and stones. Our concern is the living force. The living force is actually sustaining these bones. Bones are not life. Print books as I have shown the way: half again for printing and half spent for propaganda as you like. In this way go on.' Then he turned to Jayapatākā Mahārāja and asked him if he was doing that. He told him, 'Whatever propaganda is needed, you go out and spend, but print books and distribute. Whatever English books we have got, if we translate into Bengali, you have got enough stock.' Jayapatākā Swami replied 'Yes, we have got a treasure house,' and Prabhupāda said, 'In this way, in all languages, distribute. Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.' " It says here, "Prabhupāda is translating the Third Volume of the Tenth Canto, and Volume Two is now just being printed and will be available for shipping to all temples on November llth along with a new book written by Śrīla Prabhupāda called the Teachings of Lord Kapiladeva. Fifty thousand copies of each volume have been published."

Prabhupāda: Fifty copies?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifty thousand.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It says here, "This is the year of Europe," Śrīla Prabhupāda. It says here, "Here are the totals for book distribution in North America." And Europe is leading. The number one zone is Bhagavān Prabhu's. Number two zone is Jayatīrtha Prabhu's, England. And the number four zone is Harikeśa's zone. So Europe is leading the distribution. Maybe sometime later on today you can do a little translating, Śrīla Prabhupāda. No? Actually the kavirāja recommended that you shouldn't do that for a few days. Does that sound right? Okay. Anyway, I think Pradyumna and Jayādvaita have some work to catch up with, so they have enough to stay busy. Should we chant japa now, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kapoor: Which other languages have you translated Prabhupāda's books in? French?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, there's I think twenty-seven languages. French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish...

Dr. Kapoor: Oh. All the books are translated?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Gradually, one by one. This is Dvārakeśa. He's in charge of the translating department for East Europe. Which languages do you translate?

Dvārakeśa: Russian and Hungarian. And others translate into Yugoslavian and Polish, Czechoslovakian.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He has preached in some of those countries already.

Pañca-draviḍa: Now Bhagavad-gītā in Arabic also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Arabic, Chinese, Japanese. Twenty-seven languages altogether. One by one, they're being translated. Some are doing... Of course, the German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, these are the main languages. And Hindi. These books are going quicker in translation. Shall I finish reading this report, Śrīla Prabhupāda? (break)

Dr. Kapoor: It's a miracle what is happening, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Girirāja: No. The educated people speak English. In all the schools they teach English, so all the youngsters speak English in Kathmandu. And then most people in Kathmandu, even if they don't speak English, they speak Hindi. And there are just a few who only speak Nepali. But Prabhaviṣṇu has arranged for The Perfection of Yoga to be translated into Nepali.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He sounds like he's doing very good, Prabhaviṣṇu.

Girirāja: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Good man.

Girirāja: He's very good. So he's eager to get that in print. Then they'll be able to distribute literature to everyone without exception.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Do you remember when Prabhaviṣṇu was here you told him to go with "the courage of an Englishman and the heart of a Bengali mother"? He remembers those words.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You can't sit up. You mean after being sat up you can't stay sitting up? You were never able to sit yourself up. That you were not doing since many months ago. When you say you're not able to sit down, you mean you cannot keep sitting in a sitting position? 'Cause that you were able to do in the last day or two, sitting up. It might be... I don't know, but it may be more psychological, from laying in bed all the time. Naturally there is a feeling perhaps that one is... Weakness also means one's willpower becomes more weaker. Is that possible that that may be it?

Prabhupāda: What it is, Kṛṣṇa knows.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Anyway, the signs which the kavirāja told us to look for, which would show that things are going well, are definitely present. The fact is that you have been passing more urine every day, nearly double the amount that you previously were passing. And also you're not exerting yourself as much. Up until a week ago you were speaking a lot, translating or otherwise, and this parikrama you were doing was also exerting. So in that respect you're not exerting yourself as much. In other words, all of the things which the kavirāja has asked us to do, we're doing and you're doing. So we should now wait and see. In the meantime, we're here chanting. If you like, we can read. And we're perfectly satisfied to be with you. So I don't see that there's any difficulty in waiting to see the results of the treatment, see if it has actually helped.

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Bhakti-caru: I asked him if he would like to take some medicine.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Room Conversation -- November 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Wherever you kept, keep, I shall remain. The institution depends on the GBC.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I think that the time that you always were looking forward to—of the GBC managing things—has come, and that if you can survive, then you can simply be free to translate...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...chant.

Prabhupāda: If I am sane, then I'll do. But in this condition... Ah, ha... Hm. What is to be done now?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is to be done now? In regard to that Trust?

Prabhupāda: No, Trust or whatever. I have freed myself from everything.

Room Conversation -- November 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They have got experience Indian, you can go village to village and, arrangement as you may, but it is trouble taken, and I am no longer, you manage. If I live, I can come again. I shall be very glad.

Devotee: Previously it was mentioned that there was some risk in travelling.

Prabhupāda: What is that risk? Nowadays there is no risk. What is the risk? Mm?

Devotee: Well from the medical point of view it's something with the organs or something, I don't know exactly but it's been considered.

Prabhupāda: This is my proposal and...

Jayapatāka: That would be after you gained some strength, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes. If I (have) free air and free movement why sunshine (?) and I can come back again in a year.

Jayapatāka: You will be translating while you're travelling?

Prabhupāda: No, yes and no.

Bhavānanda: I think it's good idea, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Ha.

Bhavānanda: Only factor at this point is not to take any unnecessary risk.

Prabhupāda: No. As I think free, so I remain. Mm. Then when I am sane man, I shall come back again either Māyāpura or Vṛndāvana or Bombay, any other.

Room Conversation -- November 13-14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) (Bengali conversation with Bon Mahārāja)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is a certificate arrived from the Soviet Union.

Bon Mahārāja: It's in Russian language or in English?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, some of it, I think, is in Russian. I have the translation. It says, the top wording here, this says that "Books in the service of peace and progress. A diploma for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, Bombay, given by the First Moscow International Book Fair Exhibitions and Fairs, General Directorate of International Book Exhibitions and Fairs, USSR." (Bengali conversation)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: All Russian universities ordered Prabhupāda's books. (Bengali)

Bon Mahārāja: (Bengali) (Bengali conversation with Prabhupāda) That's Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto. That is up to which chapter?

Jayādvaita: Twelve chapters. This is up to chapter twelve. And now thirteenth chapter is also completed.

Bon Mahārāja: In and out, both are superexcellent. Inside, in Mahārāja's translation, and outside, your publication, printing, makeup, everything superexcellent. That is first attraction, when you take the book in your hand you feel that is something very nicely done. I don't think in India we can have this type of printing. You get them printed now in Los Angeles?

Jayādvaita: They're printed in Tennessee.

Bon Mahārāja: Tennessee. And the pictures are printed separately, then the pictures are sent to the publisher in pages.

Bon Mahārāja: Last time they told me in New York... Your press was in New York, and they were shifting it to Los Angeles. About two hundred brahmacārīs were working there and they told me.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now it's in Los Angeles.

Bon Mahārāja: Los Angeles. Well, it is all Mahāprabhu's will, and Prabhupāda is our...

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Los Angeles is godown... (Bengali) Howrah Station. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I have a picture of it, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I have a picture of that BBT godown.

Prabhupāda: Show him.

Devotee: It's about two blocks long and about one block high.

Bon Mahārāja: Everything is done in a very big way.

Devotee: 'Cause Prabhupāda's a big (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) (Bengali conversation with Bon Mahārāja)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here's a picture of that book godown in Los Angeles.

Bon Mahārāja: What's the length of the building?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the length of that building, Jayādvaita? Twenty thousand square feet in area.

Bon Mahārāja: In area. Well, in your country, in USA, everything is very big. Nothing is done in a small way.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is the Los Angeles temple. These are the Deities, Śrī-Śrī-Rukmiṇī-Dvārakādhīśa. And we have a very nice doll exhibition there.