Twenty-four hours (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"24 hour" |"24 hours" |"twenty-four hour" |"twenty-four hours"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 2, 1976, Madras:

Prabhupāda: Eh? Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā mano-rathenāsato dhāvato bahiḥ (SB 5.18.12). One who is Kṛṣṇa conscious, he has got all the good qualities. Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcana sarvair guṇaiḥ: "All good qualities can be manifest." And harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇāḥ: "And one who is not devotee, he has no good qualities." "Why? He is so educated." No, mano-rathena: "He is hovering over the mind." Asāto dhāvato bahiḥ: "He will stick to this asat." But the Vedic injunction is asato mā sad gamaya. He cannot go to the real platform of life. Asato bahiḥ. They do not understand that this godless civilization is the root cause of all calamities in the world. (Hindi) Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. The Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. Twenty-four hours you have to do that. But where is twenty-four hours? You will not twenty-four minutes. (Hindi)

tṛṇād api sunīcena

taror api sahiṣṇunā

amāninā mānadena

kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

(CC Adi 17.31)

(Hindi) ...Nectar of Instruction. I have recently published. (Hindi) There were no book for sale?

Indian man (4): Book was not in sale yesterday.

Mahamsa: That book is not available in India, Prabhupāda.

Acyutānanda: It's a brand new book.

Prabhupāda: No, no, other books, they are not...

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: So do we require to...? There is no use.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, our answer is all of these books.

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Our answer is twenty-four-hour kīrtana, prasādam distribution...

Prabhupāda: And you keep it very carefully in the file.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We should answer him by our preaching, by our vigorous preaching.

Bhavānanda: Many people must be asking him, "What about this ISKCON maṭha?" That's why he is... It's driving him mad.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's speaking against us all the time. He never says anything good about us.

Prabhupāda: No, he is very envious about us.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But I think now he must have come to the conclusion that there is no way to stop us, so he is thinking how he can... I have a hunch he is thinking how he can become connected in some way to get some benefit. That's why he is sending this man, this maṭha commander. Because he sees now there is no way he can stop us, so he is thinking, "How can I connect somehow with them? Because they have so much money and they're going to be doing so many big things, I must establish a connection with them."

Prabhupāda: So he wants to establish connection with us and...

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Harikeśa: It's constantly being offered all day long.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Once offered, ārati is performed. Then it is taken away, washed, the room. Again half and hour after... Why half an hour? Fifteen minutes after. Throughout the whole day and night, fifty-six times.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Night also.

Prabhupāda: Night..., not night. But up to late night. So fifty-six time, chāppānna, within twenty-four hours, so just imagine.

Harikeśa: Four or five times an hour.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we have to do that at this temple.

Prabhupāda: Every fifteen minutes new set, prasādam.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You need a whole lot of Shantilals to do that.

Prabhupāda: And these ingredients are supplied by Jagannātha's own field. They grow it, and they... So there is no difficulty. They grow and they sell. They get money so they can maintain the establishment. A long time. There are potters. Daily they will supply for each prasādam a new pot. It cannot be used again. So few people purchase with pot, original pot, and they have got a fixed price. This big pot, say, five rupees; this pot, two rupees; this pot, one rupee. So as you like, you can purchase. Very nice system.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You went there sometimes to take prasādam?

Morning Walk -- January 20, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That is called svarūpa-siddhi. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). This realization, that "I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa," this stage. And from here Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching begins.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very exalted.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Yes. So you have to preach all over the world that "You are simply wasting time by so many department of knowledge. You are so foolish, rascal." Śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8). Simply wasting time. I think I explained that to that gentleman last morning? He said in one hour, two hour you should devote... Not two hour. Twenty-four hour. Did I not say? Yes. Because that is the only business. We have no other business. Our Society is practically demonstrating that this is the only business and no other business. We therefore do not try even to earn our livelihood. That is the natural instinct of every animal. But we do not try even for that. Is it not?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Transcendental platform.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Let them see practically. We are not busy how to go to the office, how to the business place. We are not interested. We are simply interested for maṅgala ārati, for class, for chanting, dancing. That's all. Practically see. We are not going to any office or any business.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yet we're still living in a palace.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Let them see it. We are living in such a palace that everyone is envious. They ask in America that "You people, you do not do anything. How do you live so, like this?" Do they not?

Sudāmā: Yes.

Morning Walk -- February 4, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Harikeśa: It rotates on an axis like this. So therefore the sun seems to go around, but actually it's the earth that goes around.

Prabhupāda: Now, if you measure when this sun and when it comes meridian distance, so do you think the earth is moving so quickly? It is... According to their modern science, the earth is moving twenty-five thousand miles only throughout... No, within twenty-four hours.

Harikeśa: That's around the sun.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Then is it possible...

Jagadīśa: Twenty-four-hour day, twenty-five thousand miles circumference.

Prabhupāda: So how earth has gone so quickly round that it is seen, the different position of the sun? This means sun is not fixed. Sun is moving. And in the Bhāgavata it is said that it is moving at the rate of sixteen thousand miles per second. I think I have calculated that. Sixteen thousand miles.

Hṛdayānanda: Prabhupāda? Does that mean that the sun is going around the earth?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Hṛdayānanda: Is the sun going around the earth?

Prabhupāda: Sun is going around the whole planetary system.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The scientists think the whole planetary system is going around the sun.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Sannyāsa means ultimate success, because this human life is meant for becoming disgusted with this material life: "No more." Material life means to take a body and enjoy this material āhāra-nidrā, sleeping twenty-four hours, eating like elephant, and sex life like a monkey, these animals. This is material life, eating, sleeping, mating, and always afraid of. This is material life. And human life means to take freedom from these four things: no more afraid, no more sex, no more hankering after eating or sleeping. That is success. Everyone... You'll see in the sparrow in the morning. They're enjoying sex. So this is material life: eating, sleeping, mating and fearing. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca. And spiritual life means to become free from all this nonsense. That is spiritual life. They do not know what is spiritual life. The whole world, they do not know what is spiritual life. This is spiritual life, to become free from these four abominable things.

Hṛdayānanda: They are trying to increase these four things.

Prabhupāda: That means cheating themselves. What is the use of taking sannyāsa and cheat yourself? Material life means punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30), repeatedly doing the same thing. Either as human being or as monkey or as a small ant or the demigods, but doing the business is the same, four things: eating, sleeping, mating and fearing. In different scale, doing the same business. Therefore it is called punaḥ punaḥ, "again and again," carvita-carvaṇānām, "chewing the chewed." If one is sober, he thinks that "These four business, I have done many, many lives, as sparrow, or as jackal, or as demigod, and I have got this human form. Again I am doing this? So what is benefit of this human form of life?" This is sense. "I got this valuable life, and I am still doing the same thing as dogs and cats and sparrows? Then what is the difference between me and the dogs?" That is sense. "What is my better engagement?" That better engagement is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then his life is successful. Otherwise what is the use of...? Again become a sparrow. Again wait for millions of years to come by evolutionary process to the human form of life. You see? This is going on. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisram (SB 7.5.30). Because they cannot control the sense, they are going in the darkest part of this material existence.

Morning Walk -- March 10, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Niyamagrahaḥ is not good. Niyama means regulative principles. And niyama-āgrahaḥ is niyamāgrahaḥ. Āgrahaḥ means not to accept. And niyama-āgraha. Āgraha means only eager to follow the regulative principles, but no advancement spiritually. Both of them are called niyamāgrahaḥ. So the basic principle is that niyamāgrahaḥ is not recommended. The real business is that.... And if we advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, simple method, chanting twenty-four hours, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31), then things will be automatically adjusted. You cannot find in Kali-yuga everything is being done very correctly, to the point. That is very difficult. Just like our poet, Allen Ginsberg. He was always accusing me, "Swamijī, you are very conservative and strict." Actually, I told him that "I am never strict, neither I am conservative. If I become conservative, then I cannot live here for a moment. So I'm not at all conservative." (laughter) I was cooking, and I saw in the, what is called, refrigerator of Yeargen, Yeargon? What is his...?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. (sic:) Jergen. That boy you were staying with.

Prabhupāda: Ah, ah! I saw he kept some pieces of meat for his cat. So still, I kept my things in that refrigerator. What can be done? I had no place at that time. Jaya. (break) ...will be little earlier?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hm. The walk should be earlier.

Prabhupāda: Quarter to six. And class beginning quarter to seven. Because the sun is rising earlier.

Madhudviṣa: It's getting warmer.

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. The foodstuff is supplied very nice.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But how does that explain summer and winter?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because it's close to the sun in...

Pañca-draviḍa: Because it's close to the sun and.... No, it's not closer.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It spins. Every twenty-four hours it's turning. Why should that matter?

Pañca-draviḍa: No, but the orbit around the sun is...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Elliptical.

Pañca-draviḍa: Yes. Elliptical.

Haṁsadūta: Yeah, for instance, in Sweden, they have a certain part of the year when it is always dark. So they say this is because the earth's axis has shifted so that.... Yeah.

Prabhupāda: So your work is going to begin today? No?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatākā Mahārāja?

Jayapatākā: Pardon?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The work? When will it begin? Begin?

Jayapatākā: Maheśvara told me the work is going on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's going on?

Devotee (1): He said some men are coming today.

Jayapatākā: Yes. More are coming today.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But the sun has it's own...

Hari-śauri: But the sun has an orbit around the whole thing...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's own course.

Hari-śauri: So the whole universe moves around. Every twenty-four hours it does one rotation. And then the sun is also round all that.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Every twenty-four hours?

Prabhupāda: The moon.

Gurudāsa: Acintya-bhedābheda-tattva.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Gurudāsa: It seems to be one and different simultaneously.

Prabhupāda: No, no, not like that point. (laughs)

Satsvarūpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, are the planets shaped liked balls or more like plates? Because it's, it's hard to understand, 'cause they're called dvīpas, "islands." Their roundness is the roundness of a plate or like a ball?

Prabhupāda: Which one?

Satsvarūpa: The earth planet?

Prabhupāda: If it is like a tree, then these things can be as dvīpa, island.

Morning Walk -- April 13, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: Parā-bhakti.

Prabhupāda: Man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ: "To become My devotee means you shall think of Me twenty-four hours," man-manā. Then you become a bhakta. Not that meditation—I meditate fifteen minutes and twenty-four hours thinking of something else.

Dr. Patel: Then you never, I mean, even for, it is just like you, even for a moment you slip down, just like a (indistinct). It should be perpetual conscious within yourself.

Prabhupāda: I have seen Gandhi's prayer meeting, and I attended. Utmost, five minutes reading Bhagavad-gītā, then again politics immediately. Immediately politics. I was in Delhi. I attended the meeting when Nawa Khalia (Noakhali?) fast. So this was his prayer. I have seen. And as a result of this, in that prayer meeting he was killed. (Hindi) So nature punishment are there. (Hindi) The last stage of Kali-yuga means you die.

Dr. Patel: But the way the modern civilized nations are exploiting the resources of the world, another fifty years there will be no resources left, and civilization automatically will die out.

Prabhupāda: Wars. The occasional war, pestilence, famine, that's all.

Dr. Patel: Even there is no war, sir, or no pestilence, the population...

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: We have got activities day and night, but because the body is there, we have to eat, but we eat Kṛṣṇa prasādam. And naturally we go to sleep, to take some rest. Otherwise we are always engaged in Kṛṣṇa's business. We have no other business. So I go in the morning for little morning walk because the body, whole day if I sit down, it may be jammed. Therefore, for body's sake, I go for little walking. And then, whole day and night, I am sitting here, either chanting or writing books or talking with you, giving them direction. That's all. We have no other business than Kṛṣṇa's business. That is the peculiarity of this movement. Even if you take it is a religious movement, there is no religious movement in the whole world which has got twenty-four hours' engagement. You'll never find. The Christians go to the church once in a week for one hour, then closed. That is also not very regularly. Even if you take.... Our engagement. Twenty-four hours.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Every day.

Prabhupāda: Every day. You can see how we are engaged twenty-four hours.

Guru-kṛpā: Prabhupāda gets up at one o'clock in the morning.

Prabhupāda: Last night I woke up at half past twelve. (laughter) Yes. So on the whole, utmost, I sleep four hours, two hours at night and two hours in daytime.

Mr. Dixon: I must.... Your Grace, I'm most grateful to have seen you. I must depart. Thank you very much for having me here.

Prabhupāda: Why, thank you for your coming. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Give him prasāda.

Mr. Dixon: Good-bye. (break)

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: So when.... At least in America or any civilized country, there is ample food for human being. Why they should kill? If you can live without killing cows, if you can utilize cows in a different way.... Just like we are maintaining a farm—not one, many. They are maintaining cows and we are getting enough milk. And from milk we can prepare varieties of palatable, vitaminous, nutritious food. And that is very, very enjoyable. So let the animal live and take the milk, and just like we.... None of us, we take meat, but we are not dying. We are having so many nice preparation from milk, from grains, from fruit. Besides that, our another principle is that we offer to God. So God said that "Give Me vegetables, milk," like that. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). So we offer these things, and we take the leftover. That is our principle. We are not after killing or not killing. We are simply after obeying the orders of Kṛṣṇa. That is our. So Kṛṣṇa says, "Give Me food from the vegetables." So we offer Him very nice, palatable dishes and eat. This is our principle. So even while eating, we remember God: "Kṛṣṇa has so nicely eaten this. Let me take the remnants." So while eating, we are remembering God. So if God said that "You remember Me always," we can do it. He has explained how to remember Him. He said, raso 'ham apsu kaunteya: (BG 7.8) "I am the taste of the water." So when you drink.... Who is not drinking water? At least three times, four times we drink water, everyone. So when you drink, and the water quenches your thirst, and you feel some taste nice, Kṛṣṇa says, God says, "I am that taste." So where is my difficulty to remember God? If you simply remember this formula, that "The taste of the water is Kṛṣṇa," immediately you remember Kṛṣṇa. Prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ. "I am the shining of the sun, shining of the moon." So who does not see the shining of the sun and the moon? At night you see the shining of moon, and day you see.... So where is the chance of forgetting God? There is no chance at all. As soon as you see the sunshine even, "Oh, here is Kṛṣṇa." As soon as see the moonshine, "Oh, here is Kṛṣṇa." As soon as you taste water, "Oh, here is Kṛṣṇa." So in this way there is list that you cannot avoid the chance of remembering Kṛṣṇa. Every moment, every time, you can remember Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa, God, says, man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ: "You always think of Me." So where is my difficulty to think of Kṛṣṇa? Unless I purposefully do not do it. It is not that when I go to the church and temple I can remember. I can remember Him twenty-four hours. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Guest (2): I think that's right, and I think that many people I know personally are what you say Kṛṣṇa conscious. They think of God and Christ twenty-four hours a day too.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is wanted.

Guest (2): And...

Prabhupāda: That is wanted. We obey the orders of Christ—we think of always—then we are perfect. Either Christ, the son of God, or God, Kṛṣṇa, the same thing. God and son of God, they are not different.

Guest (3): We were wondering if we could give you a personal gift that means a lot to us. We've got a Book of Mormon with us, and I don't know if you have one.

Prabhupāda: No.

Guest (3): But we feel that it's a scripture written by ancient people who lived in the South and Central American continents from the years 600 B.C. to A.D. 400. And we thought that this was kind of a special opportunity, and we didn't know if you had one. And we were wondering if we could leave you one.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can leave.

Guest (3): Great. I've got it right here. We don't want to take too much more of your time. We'll leave you our card. Would that be all right?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (3): It's been a very enjoyable experience.

Prabhupāda: No, you can give one book, Īśopaniṣad.

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

Prabhupāda: And you can disvertise(?) it from New Zealand or from Australia. There can be very peaceful condition of the whole world. Simply mismanaged by the rascal leaders. Otherwise, people can live very peacefully, eat sumptuously, save time, and there is no necessity of stopping the bare necessities of life. There is arrangement for eating, sleeping, sex life also. But not like fools and rascals. Like sane man. But this modern civilization, it is insane, crazy civilization. There is a little pleasure in sex life—simply sex life, increase sex life, spoiling everything. That is crazy. Eating-eat anything, any nonsense thing, and become a hog. Sleeping-oḥ, there is no limit, twenty-four hours sleeping if it is possible. Go on, this is going on. Eating, sleeping, mating. And defense—and discover atomic weapon, this weapon, that weapon, and kill innocent persons, unnecessarily, defense. This is going on. But everything can be used properly for peaceful condition, and when you become peaceful, no disturbance, then you can very happily chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and your life becomes successful. This is our program. We don't want to stop anything. How it can be stopped? Whatever is the bare neces.... Just like we have taken sannyāsa. What is that? "Oh, we have no sex life only. Otherwise, we are also eating, we are also sleeping." So that is also stopped in good old age. In old age, if a person like me, at the age of eighty years, if I would have shopped for sex life, does it look very good? Young men, they are allowed. That's all right. But a young..., old man is going to the club and spending for sex life so much money. Therefore younger generation, they're allowed gṛhastha life from twenty-five years to fifty years. That's all. After that, stop sex life. Actually, they want to stop population. Then why it, sex, then? No, they'll have sex life, at the same time, no population, kill the children. What is that? Simply sinful life. They will suffer, continue to suffer. So we want to stop that suffering. These rascals, they do not understand. They think, "Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is disturbing." A rascal civilization. So let us try our best. What can be done? You also helping in this movement.

Morning Walk -- May 3, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: Yes. But for a renounced order of life, the order is you must beg, bhikṣā. Not much. If I can subsist by taking one cāpāṭi, I'll simply ask for one cāpāṭi, not for two cāpāṭis. That is śāstra. If you can without any cāpāṭi, that is very good. But you can ask as much as you require. Not to eat sumptuously and sleep twenty-four hours, no.

Devotee: And what about householders?

Prabhupāda: Householder can eat the whole world and sleep. (laughter) Because he is householder, he has got the concession. Everyone should do that. Householders are unable; that is their incapability. "Because I am householder, I have got the facility to have sex as many times and eat as much..." That is not householder. That is gṛhamedhī. There are two words: gṛhamedhī and gṛhastha. Gṛhastha is different from gṛhamedhī. Gṛhastha āśrama. Although he's householder, it is āśrama, only for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is gṛhastha. But gṛhamedhī cannot do that. (break) ...man has got the potency. Otherwise why they are offering...? Everyone has got the potency. We have to utilize it. Hare Kṛṣṇa. You understand English?

Indian (indistinct): Yes, Guruji.

Room Conversation -- May 5, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: So who says that you don't chant?

Bhūrijana: Maybe the emphasis wasn't so much on the chanting even though everyone says harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21), everyone just chants their sixteen rounds a day, chants a half hour ārati in the evening and half hour ārati in the morning.

Prabhupāda: So what do you want more? What is your program? 24 hours?

Bhūrijana: I like more kīrtana than that.

Prabhupāda: So you don't like to sell books.

Bhūrijana: No, I think I like very much. I mean I think I would like to.

Prabhupāda: So what is difference?

Bhūrijana: Between selling books and kīrtana?

Prabhupāda: No no. Between others and you. Where is the difference? When you point out that this is the point, we differ. What is that point?

Bhūrijana: Well maybe the point about more kīrtana or less kīrtana.

Prabhupāda: So if you chant more, they're objecting?

Bhūrijana: No.

Prabhupāda: Then where is the difference? Has anyone objected (if you) chant more?

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They must be because they are keeping in darkness.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: These nasty countries, in the name of giving them material facility, they'll kill them, even they're independent. Such a horrible country. How people can tolerate loss of independence? It is very horrible. I am sitting here 24 hours, this is another thing, but if I understand that I cannot go out, I have to sit down here, oh it is horrible. It is a horrible condition. Simply this impression that I have to keep myself within this room, although I am keeping myself, I am not going, only for walk maybe. But if the impression is that I cannot go out from this room, then my life is lost. This is psychology. So, they are keeping their young men. They are not allowed to go out of the country, in Russia. Similarly in China.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even more so.

Prabhupāda: So what kind of government it is? It is a horrible government. And they are hackney only in literature. These communist country, the people are forced to accept the government regulation. And that is all bad. I have seen in Moscow, generally the people are morose, their face not very happy. They are also Europeans, they want freedom to go here and there (indistinct) and to work. The taxi driver-first of all there is scarcity of taxi, you can not get taxi...

Guru-kṛpā: Even in Moscow, big city.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That Professor Kotofsky, I asked him, "Please arrange for a taxi." (indistinct) "Well, Swamiji, this is Moscow." So he came down to the gate—he was very virtuous—he showed me, "You go this way, actually there was 3 or 4 lane then you find a short lane, then you go this way, this way, then you get to your hotel. He showed me some short cut, personally. They... He could not call a taxi. And somewhere we went, we got a taxi, private taxi, and that man was begging for more than the fare.

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

Prabhupāda: Everything.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: These buildings are churches, but they're all closed. But our churches are lively, even at four in the morning.

Prabhupāda: From four o'clock up to ten.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Now there's twenty-four-hour kīrtana. So all day and night.

Rāmeśvara: (break).... on the decline of the churches in America, and they say that the biggest reason in the last few years is that Pope, he issued one big statement against birth control and abortion. He said, "Catholics cannot practice birth control and should never have abortion." So they did not like this. So that is the biggest reason for the decrease in attending the church. They broke away from the authority.

Prabhupāda: That means if the church allows sense gratification without restriction, then they'll attend church. That is the conclusion.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're dictating.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The mass is dictating. Same thing as in...

Prabhupāda: That means, conclusion is, on account of sinful life churches being closed. Not the Pope, but the sinful. Pope said, "You cannot do this sinful," and they are sinful. Therefore they desert their church.

Rāmeśvara: Even the priests, they said that when the Pope issued that document, they lost faith in him as the representative of God.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Rascal priests also so sinful. Yes, they're supporting homosex. So when the priests are sinful, the public is sinful, how the church will go on? Churches, they are expecting church must support abortion and child killing.

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

Prabhupāda: There must be practice, that we are teaching. That simply not theoretical, but practical. Here in our institute, we teach all the students practically how to become God conscious. Theoretical knowledge will not help us. There must be practical behavior. They are rising early in the morning, attending maṅgala-ārati, then having class, Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, chanting, in this way, twenty-four hours engaged. It is not fifteen minutes recreation. No. Twenty-four hours program.

George Gullen: I think this is good for the world. I think the world needs it very much so.

Prabhupāda: So we are trying, although we are not supported by any government, we are trying in our own way. Own way.... The way is standard, but unfortunately people have lost interest in these things. Animal life. As soon as we forget our interest in spiritual life, then immediately we're animals.

George Gullen: We're very much creatures of habit, and it's difficult for us to give up our habits.

Prabhupāda: Habit can be changed. Habit can be changed by practice. Just like we advise no illicit sex, no intoxication, no meat-eating. So all these Europeans, Americans, they were habituated to all these habits, but now they have stopped. It can be, by practice, bad habits can be changed.

George Gullen: You appear to have a program of great discipline, and I think that discipline is necessary for people who want to feel and learn and understand. I'm an admirer of discipline. But it's hard for one to bring oneself to do that out of a world that's strange, a strange world. Our world is strange, try to bring myself out of that to other things. But I'm pleased to have this opportunity to hear you and to think about it, talk about it. I'd like to read more about it.

Prabhupāda: One priest has joined us. What is his name?

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Ambarīṣa: It might have something to do with the magnetic poles. The magnetic force is always pulling to the north.

Prabhupāda: That is the polestar. Yes. That is the up side of the universe. And that we have described in the Bhāgavatam. That is the pivot, and the whole planetary system is moving twenty-four hours.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That's factual also. Because they see that all of these stars and constellations are going around the North Star.

Prabhupāda: But the modern astronomy, they do not say like that.

Jayādvaita: No. They don't say it is moving around. They don't say that it's moving around the polestar. They have some other explanation.

Prabhupāda: That means they're imperfect.

Mādhavānanda: They say that it's fixed. They say the polestar is fixed, but it doesn't revolve around. They say everything moves, but the polestar is...

Prabhupāda: Polestar is fixed, that is fact. And all.... It is like pivot. Everyone round, round. Ūrdhva-mūlam adhah-śākham (BG 15.1). This tree is spread downwards. The root is upward.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The scientists also say all of the stars are moving around. But they don't see the earth as moving around.

Prabhupāda: Why not? What is this nonsense? If all the stars can move, what is the earth? That is their nonsense. Only earth is populated, everywhere is vacant. (laughter) In the Bhāgavata it is said every planet is full of living entities. Jana-pūrṇa. Perhaps I have explained, in my recent.... jana-kīrṇa. Jana-kīrṇa means full of living entities.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Last chapter of the Seventh Canto.

Conversation with Clergymen -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: The difficulty I have found by my personal experience with these groups is that it couldn't give me a concrete enough realization, neither a whole practical lifestyle by which I could stay on the platform of God realization. You can go to the meeting, but then when you go out in the society you're forced to act in so many sinful ways because of the conditioning and the advertising and the force of pressure in the society. But even.... I lived in a Trappist monastery in Spencer, Massachusetts, with the monks there, and there was still that gap between how I could not only fulfill my own spiritual life there, but also how to help others in theirs, without losing my purity. And that I've been able to find in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, because it gives you a twenty-four-hour a day program to remain in God consciousness.

Prabhupāda: In our Bhagavad-gītā there is a verse. Find out:

yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ

janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām

te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā

bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ

(BG 7.28)

Those who are addicted to sinful life, they cannot understand God. So therefore we have to stop sinful activities. If you keep them in sinful activities, and if you expect that God will be revealed to them, it is not possible.

Scheverman: Yes, we certainly agree, no contradiction on.... I think it's very, very important—we do not see you in competition with our...

Prabhupāda: No, there is no competition. It is a science. Science is to...

Scheverman: We rejoice when we see people coming to the Lord God, wherever it may be and however it may be.

Prabhupāda: Do you have the passage there?

Garden Conversation -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: No. God talks with whom? That is said. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānaṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam (BG 10.10). Those who have already become devotee of God and engaged in His service, He talks with him. Not he's a third-class fool. He doesn't talk with him. It is clearly stated, teṣāṁ satata-yuktānām (BG 10.10), one who is twenty-four-hours engaged in the service of the Lord, with love and faith, God talks with him. That is clearly stated. How do you understand that God is talking with him? A rascal fool, who has no business with God? God talks with devotee, very sincere devotee who is already engaged in God's service. He talks with him.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But then he might say "But I love God."

Prabhupāda: He might say, that is another thing. The standard is this. He may say-he's a rascal, he can say so many nonsense. That is not the standard. He says that "God is talking with me." So I have to see whether he's a candidate with whom God can talk. The formula is teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam (BG 10.10). "One who is twenty-four-hours engaged in My service with love and faith, God talks with him." So first of all see whether he's twenty-four-hours engaged in God's service with love and faith. Then you can understand, "Yes, God is talking with him." But he has no preliminary qualification, if he says "I can talk with God," he's a nonsense. That means because you are a nonsense you are talking about him that God talks with him. You do not know with whom God talks. So you are nonsense also. You accept him, "Yes, he may be talking with God." How he can talk? That means you are also nonsense. You do not know with whom God talks. Why do you accept such proposition? If some store keeper says "I have passed M.A., L.L.D.," and I have to accept that? You must know with whom God talks. That means you are nonsense. You are accepting nonsensically. And the person who is constantly engaged in God's service, unless he's trained up by a spiritual master, how can he be engaged? So without spiritual master, one cannot be engaged in devotional service, and without devotional service, nobody's eligible to talk with God. So that nonsense talking, that without spiritual master God talking, and he has become perfect, this is all nonsense.

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

Prabhupāda: So he has said already that "I do not find any other means to pacify me, and You are the only..." The purport is that Arjuna is accepting Kṛṣṇa as guru to instruct him how to get relief from the perplexed position. So in this sense the real guru is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is guru. Not only for Arjuna, for everyone. So if we take instruction from Kṛṣṇa and abide by that order, instruction, then our life is successful. That is our mission. Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means accept Kṛṣṇa as guru. We don't say... Don't divert your attention. We don't say that "I am Kṛṣṇa." We never say that. We simply ask people that "You abide by the order of Kṛṣṇa." Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), and we say that "You surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Give up all other ideas of so-called dharma or religiosity." The same thing. But we don't say that you or me, "I am the authority." No, we don't say that. We say, "Kṛṣṇa is the authority, and you try to understand Kṛṣṇa." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Therefore the question is guru. So here, from the behavior of Arjuna, we see that guru is necessary. Arjuna was talking with Kṛṣṇa as friend, but Arjuna saw that "This is, there is no good talking like this. We can continue talking.... Because we are equal status. Kṛṣṇa is my friend. I am also His friend. So He's answering, I am giving something. If this talking will go on, there will be no fruit." Therefore he said, "Now, Kṛṣṇa, I am becoming Your disciple." Disciple means there is no argument. Whatever the guru will say, you have to accept. That is disciple. That is final. There is no argument. So Arjuna put him into that position that "I cease to talk with You on equal level of friends. Now I accept You as guru." Therefore the guru is necessary, undoubtedly, because every one of us in perplexed position. But who is guru? Guru means Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa's representative. And all others are bogus. If one does not say on the standard of Kṛṣṇa, then he's not guru. He's a bogus. In that way everyone can become guru. I have got some opinion, I can say. But unless.... Just like a lawyer is he who follows the standard law. If a lawyer says that "I have manufactured my own laws," so who will hear him? And what will be the use of becoming lawyer? No. You have to follow the standard law. Then you are a lawyer. And a big lawyer means who knows the standard laws very well. Similarly, guru is Kṛṣṇa and guru is necessary. But one must surrender to Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa's representative. Then he will be successful. So so far.... Now, one can say that Kṛṣṇa is not present. But Kṛṣṇa is not present, how you can say? Kṛṣṇa's instruction is there, Bhagavad-gītā. How you can say that.... Kṛṣṇa, absolute, means the Supreme Lord is not different from His words also. The words of Kṛṣṇa and the Kṛṣṇa, they are the same. That is Absolute Truth. In the relative world the words "water" and the substance water are different. If I am thirsty, if I simply chant "water, water, water," my thirst will not be satisfied. I require the real water. That is relative world. But in the spiritual world.... Just like we are chanting Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. If Kṛṣṇa is different from Hare Kṛṣṇa, then how we are satisfied chanting whole day and night? This is the proof. The ordinary thing, if you chant, "Mr. John, Mr. John," after chanting three times you'll cease. But this Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, if you go on chanting 24 hours, you'll never be tired. this is the spiritual Absolute Truth. That is practical. Anyone can perceive. So Kṛṣṇa's present by His words, by His representative. Why don't you take? You have to take guru. Why do you go to the pseudo guru who will mislead you? Why don't you take to the real guru? That is your mistake. Therefore you are now disappointed. Now you are in doubt whether guru is needed. Yes, guru is needed, but you go to the real guru. That is instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā. Just find out this verse.

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

Prabhupāda: Sense gratification is never helpful. That is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that kāmasya nendriya-prītir (SB 1.2.10). Sense gratification is required as far as..., as little as possible. Otherwise, not for sense gratification. Just like sleeping. Sleeping is required because this material body requires some rest. But not that we shall sleep twenty-four hours or twenty hours and enjoy, as in this country sometimes they enjoy sleeping. But sleeping is wasting time. So long we shall sleep we cannot do anything good work. Therefore it should be minimized. You cannot avoid sleeping altogether. That is not possible. But it should be accepted to the minimum extent. That is not possible. But it should be accepted to the minimum extent. That is called tapasya, or advancement of spiritual life. Eating, sleeping, sex and defense. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithuna. They're required. So long we have got this body, we require to eat something, we require to sleep sometimes, we require a little sense gratification, and we require defense. But it should be minimized, not increased. That is tapasya. In the human life this is possible, this is possible. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau **. One can conquer over these things, by practice. The more we minimize this āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithuna, this means we are advanced in spiritual taste.(?) It is practiced. My, my personal life, I don't sleep at night. And nowadays, at most, one hour. Yes. But I take rest in the daytime, at least two to three hours. So it is not that I am sleeping one hour. I sleep three to four hours total. But if practiced, it can be reduced, practiced. We see in the life of Gosvāmīs. About them, it is said: nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau **. They conquered over sleeping, eating. If we conquer over eating, then we can conquer over sleeping and other things also. If we can control over this tongue, then we can control over the other senses very easily. That is a fact. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has sung, tar madhye jihvā ati, lobhamoy sudurmati, tā 'ke jetā koṭhina saṁsāre. Of all our senses the tongue is very, very prominent. So the first thing in spiritual advancement, the first thing is to control the tongue. In the śāstra also it is said sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. Ataḥ śrī kṛṣṇa nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (BRS. 1.2.234). Our present senses are unable to understand sri kṛṣṇa nāmādi, the holy name of the Lord. Ādi, beginning from His name, nāma, then guṇa, qualities, then pastimes, then form. So people cannot understand the form of the Lord because they are not practiced to devotional service.

Evening Darsana -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Number? Yes, of course, no. Actually, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). Always to be chanted. But because you cannot do that, therefore you must fix up a number. Saṅkhyā-pūrvaka-nāma-gāna-natibhiḥ. Saṅkhyā-pūrvaka, that "I must chant so many times." That is determination. I have prescribed to my disciples that "You must chant at least sixteen rounds." That is very easy. But there is saṅkhyā. Saṅkhyā-pūrvaka-nāma-gāna-natibhiḥ. The Gosvāmīs, they used to do that. So it is; otherwise, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. The chanting should go on twenty-four hours. Just like Haridāsa Ṭhākura used to do. He was simply chanting. But that is not possible for ordinary man. Therefore they should have a fixed up, that "I must chant so many times." That will fix up the determination. Bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ. There must be some dṛḍha-vratāḥ, that "I must do it." Then the devotion grows very firm. If we become lenient, "All right, I shall do later on..." No, must be done. Dṛḍha-vratāḥ. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ (BG 9.13). Dṛḍha-vratāḥ. Everything should be determined. Then spiritual progress will be rapid.

Mr. Deyani: So many, when we go to our offices, since we come from India, naturally the very intelligent young boys and girls, they ask various questions to us. And just for the sake of their curiosity, naturally they ask the question about the Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we try to explain our ways, whatever we know. What explanation we have got when they put the example of, you know, that sixteen-year-old guru and something like that kind of things? What explanation we have got in that circumstance. In that circumstance, what explanation we have got as an individual for the Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This young boy guru, when they bring up this subject matter to the Indians who have come from India who are working here in America, they feel a little embarrassed, loss for words or explanation what to say, that this is their Indian culture, they feel they don't know how to represent themselves.

Mr. Deyani: How to represent the Kṛṣṇa consciousness? This is my question. How to represent it? What to say to them?

Prabhupāda: What is your question? That means you do not know about him.

Mr. Deyani: We don't know about those gurus...

Prabhupāda: You say "I do not know about him," that's all. The simple truth that "I do not know about it." Why you are very serious about him? It is not very important matter.

Mr. Deyani: I even don't know who is he. (laughter) To tell you the truth, I even don't know. (laughter) My wife, she sometimes, why she watch him on the television. There was a program or something like that, that now we, I don't watch that anymore.

Prabhupāda: It is not important.

Guest (2): Swamiji, you just said about the guru, in the Bhagavad-gītā, again after He is explaining to Arjuna all what He said, then ultimately he comes and he says—which the problem in our practical life comes which I see, I see it with me—he spoke very frankly, cañcalaṁ hi manaḥ kṛṣṇa pramāthi balavad dṛḍham (BG 6.34).

Prabhupāda: Huh? What is that?

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

Prabhupāda: Raso 'ham apsu kaunteya prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ (BG 7.8). When you drink water, you drink water for some taste, nice taste to quench your thirst. So that taste is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says raso 'ham apsu kaunteya. Apsu does not mean only water. Suppose you are drinking, so you are getting some pleasure by the taste of the drinking, and if you think that this taste is Kṛṣṇa, then gradually you'll give up this drinking. Because you'll be purified by thinking of Kṛṣṇa. So some way or other think of Kṛṣṇa and your life is successful. Yena tena prakāreṇa manaḥ kṛṣṇe niveśayet. So the process is given, you can think of Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours if you practice. Who can avoid drinking water? At least twice, thrice, we drink water, and if we think the taste is Kṛṣṇa... Prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ. Who can avoid seeing the sunshine and moonshine? As soon as you see the sunshine and the moonshine, if we think "Here is Kṛṣṇa," the sunshine is Kṛṣṇa. So this thinking of Kṛṣṇa, yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntarātmanā (BG 6.47). He is first-class yogi who is always thinking of Kṛṣṇa in every step of life. That is first-class yogi. He does not see anything except Kṛṣṇa. And the process is there. If we adopt, we can think of Kṛṣṇa. Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ (BG 9.14). It is not difficult, simply it requires practice. (sound of thunder) Śabdaḥ khe pauruṣaṁ nṛṣu. Now this sound in the sky, that is recommended, that the sound in the sky, Kṛṣṇa says, "I am the sound." So we can think of Kṛṣṇa as soon as there is sound. Not only this sound, when the airplane goes, drurururururu, that is also Kṛṣṇa. The practice. It doesn't require much learning, much education, simply take the words of Kṛṣṇa and he becomes a vast learned person. Kṛṣṇa is giving all the instruction. (sound of thunder) And actually, that is Kṛṣṇa. You cannot create such sound. It is Kṛṣṇa's management that there is sound while the cloud is rolling by air.

Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: That any rascal will do. Bambharambhe laghu kriya. Aparkulasvenavargolajagundakuligondoliojalīlāvale... (gibberish) (laughter) You can talk like that—what is the meaning? That intelligence they have got, to manufacture... I know, I was in the medical business. So any petty medicine, and you inquire medical man, and he'll present it in such a scientific way that people will think that it is very important thing. I know it well. In Bose's laboratory we used to do that. Aparkulavenavargolajdgunda... This is... (gibberish) Simply soda bicarb and little this and that. So the modern world means how to befool persons, that's all. Not to enlighten, but to keep them in ignorance and befool them more and more, and they like it. Under the influence of māyā they like to be cheated. (sounds of fire engines) Now just see the whole night there is blazing fire, and they are thinking they are happy. And if we sing saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka **, "the material world is blazing fire," that is sentiment. And this is not practical. Whole day and night, simply fire, disturbing. Such a big important city, and they are disturbing always twenty four hours, gongongongongongongon. They are so expert that this ordinary fire they can control. Another side is that nobody wants this fire, and why it is coming? Yathā duḥkha... Prahlāda Mahārāja, long, long years ago: yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ. As this fire business is coming without my endeavor, similarly, the other part, distress, this is distress, other part, happiness, also will come. Why shall I endeavor for it? So my energies should be utilized only for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is civilization. And whole life, day and night, they are trying for material happiness, and that is not happening. The problems are increasing. No intelligence, mūḍha. Mūḍho nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. They admit, the scientists, they admit that they are in ignorance. Simply bluff. Again one bluff, that Mars-going expedition. The business is going on in the Arizona, that's all. And after few years they will present some stone, "Now we went to Mars. There is no possibility of living there. Take this stone and sand and be satisfied for your millions of dollars that you have spent..." And they will say "Oh, we have made scientific progress. I have got this stone."

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

Bali-mardana: God helps those who help themselves.

Prabhupāda: We are not idle preachers, we are working. All, very hard, more than the karmīs.

Rāmeśvara: These men, they go out to engage people in taking our books maybe twelve hours a day sometimes, ten hours a day, without any salary.

Prabhupāda: I am now eighty years old, I am working twenty-four hours. I think I work more than my young disciples (laughter).

Bali-mardana: Oh yes, definitely.

Prabhupāda: I work at night.

Rāmeśvara: It is hard to keep up with Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Hari-śauri: Very difficult.

Prabhupāda: We are not idle creatures.

Rāmeśvara: We are publishing his books and sometimes he is ahead of us by seventeen volumes.

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.

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

Prabhupāda: No, it is not surprising, it is natural. If you do, just like if you do business in proper way there will be profit. Similarly, as it is enjoined in this book of knowledge, if you do like that it will expand, it will prosper. Two plus two equal to four. Mathematical calculation. If you make two plus two, it will become four. It will neither become three nor five. So here it is said, you have read the, that "One who is engaged twenty-four hours in My service, so I, yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (BG 9.22), I supply whatever he requires and I protect whatever he has got." So if you actually serve Kṛṣṇa, then everything you want, it will come.

Rāmeśvara: Do you have any questions about our festival coming up this Sunday? You know we're marching down Fifth Avenue.

Interviewer: Are you going to march?

Rāmeśvara: He asks if you are going to participate in the Ratha-yātrā Parade.

Hari-śauri: This is the parade that it's based on.

Rāmeśvara: This is a photograph of what takes place in India every year. It's a traditional festival in India, we are bringing it to New York. We've got our permits and everything.

Prabhupāda: We have already got in San Francisco, in Chicago...

Rāmeśvara: Philadelphia.

Prabhupāda: In Philadelphia.

Rāmeśvara: In London.

Prabhupāda: London.

Sudāmā: Melbourne.

Prabhupāda: Melbourne.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: I am taking rest now these twenty-four hours. I have no other business than to take rest. (laughter)

Jayatīrtha: Always resting at the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: That is real rest.

kṛṣṇa tvādīya-pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam

adyaiva viśatu me mānasa-rāja-haṁsaḥ

prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ

kaṇṭhāvarodhana-vidhau smaranaṁ kutas te

(MM 33)

The Mukunda-māla-stotra... There was a big emperor, Samrat(?), Kulaśekhara, emperor Kulaśekhara, he was a great devotee. So he wrote some poetry. Formerly, kings were so advanced, rajarṣi. They are king, at the same time, saintly persons. In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is said imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2)—this science of Bhagavad-gītā was learned by the rājarṣis. People were happy therefore. The head, or the executive, they were all saintly persons. So this Kulasekhara, he writes in the beginning of his poetry, "Kṛṣṇa, O Kṛṣṇa..." Kṛṣṇa tvādīya-pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam. The paṅkaja means lotus flower. So Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet is just like lotus flower. The lotus flower has stem down, and the swans, they take pleasure to go down the water and entangled by the stem. Have you seen their pleasure? Yes. That is their great sporting, to be entangled by the stem and come out, in this way, go deep, this is their sporting. So this Kulasekhara is praying, "My Lord Kṛṣṇa, let my swan of mind be entangled with the stem of Your lotus feet." Kṛṣṇa tvādīya-pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam adyaiva: "Immediately"—viśatu—"let enter." Who? Adyaiva viśatu me, "My," mānasa-rāja-haṁsaḥ, "my mind, which is just like a swan." So why adyaiva, immediately? He says that prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye, "At the time of death," prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ, "when the physical condition of the body will be in disorder," kapha, pitta, vayu will not be in order.... Prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ kaṇṭhāvarodha, "At that time I shall not be able to speak. I'll 'ahn, ahn,' but that's all. So I may not be able to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Better I am now in good health, so let my mind be entangled in the stem of Your lotus feet." Very nice poetry.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: No. That is called māyā. Just like the animal is running after the mirage, water, but there is no water.

Hari-śauri: He simply runs until he dies.

Prabhupāda: That's all. This is going on.

Hari-śauri: Dogs on four wheels. (laughs) It was so nice sitting underneath the tree there, chanting. I was thinking, this is what we could do forever, twenty-four hours. No need to do anything else.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (pause) Prospective place, this. Very future prospect.

Hari-śauri: Oh, yes. We're buying these big properties now, we don't have so many devotees, but we know just even in five years they're going to be packed.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Hari-śauri: Maybe now we don't have so many devotees for all these big places we're buying, but even just in five years or ten years they'll be full. We'll have to expand more and more. Your idea for fifty percent for books, fifty percent for buildings is very wonderful. I remember in Caitanya-caritāmṛta you said that the book distribution and the establishment of temples should go parallel lines, side by side.

Prabhupāda: Going on. Up to date, to my satisfaction, it is going on.

Hari-śauri: If you're satisfied, then we know it's going to be successful.

Prabhupāda: But they fight amongst themselves, the GBCs.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No, there, everywhere practical action. Just like all the Muhammadans, they go to the mosque, five times they offer prayer. That is good, very good.

Ali: Even to be attentive, to pay a lot of attention.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but that is also good, but if one is twenty-four-hours attentive, that is better.

Ali: But we tend to forget things that we don't see.

Hari-śauri: They don't see God, so the tendency is to forget.

Prabhupāda: Why you don't see God? When you see the picture of God, you don't see God? When you see the picture of your father, don't you see your father? You see or not? Suppose you have got picture of your father. When you see the picture, do you see your father or not?

Ali: Well, I see him physically.

Prabhupāda: Physical, everything is physical, subtle and gross. Suppose I am seeing you face to face. So I remember your face when you are not here, I am thinking of you, I am not seeing you? This is also physical. I am seeing with the mind, I am seeing with the eyes. So what is the difference between eyes and mind? They are all physical. Why do you take only the eyes as physical, not the mind? There are physical elements—earth, water, air, fire, mind, intelligence, ego. They are all physical. So either see with your eyes or see with your mind, it is physical.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Budget is there. Hundred rupees per head. Fifty men if you keep, it is five thousand.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We can keep less. We don't want fifty.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. It will be less. But I'm prepared to pay you five thousand rupees for fifty men. Not more than that. That I can pay. You do not require to collect. You sit down. But work hard here. Not that eating, sleeping. No. That cannot be. That cannot be done. They must be engaged twenty-four hours. That is wanted. It is not a lazy free hotel. Anyone lives, he must be engaged twenty-four hours. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). If he has no work, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa here. That should be done.

Akṣayānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda? We have this twenty-four kīrtana. I've requested everyone who comes to do at least one hour per day.

Prabhupāda: There is no question. This is the condition. If you agree, then stay here. Otherwise, you go to Rādhā-kuṇḍa.

Akṣayānanda: Also visiting devotees should do that too. Anyone who comes here should do that.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Everyone.

Prabhupāda: You must make a rule.

Akṣayānanda: At least one hour in the temple.

Prabhupāda: Why one hour? Four hours. Four hours. Four times. Morning, evening, night, morning again.

Akṣayānanda: Already, the rule is made...

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Haṁsadūta: Just for example... (break) ...chanting from nine to twelve, could you please chant then? She became furious. She said, "I am already making garlands for four hours. I have no time."

Prabhupāda: No, no, if she is making garlands that is another thing.

Haṁsadūta: I know, but it's only four hours and I said there are twenty four hours, so that leaves twenty hours left over. It will take a little time to account their time and convince them that they have to accept more and more engagement.

Prabhupāda: No, if somebody is engaged in some business, so he may not chant. That concession may be given. But chanting...

Haṁsadūta: But, actually...

Prabhupāda: It is not very compulsory. Take it.

Haṁsadūta: But if we want to have a twenty-four hour kīrtana, I was speaking...

Prabhupāda: If that is not available, not possible, don't be very... But these things must be done.

Haṁsadūta: Yes. It's just that I want to comply with all your desires.

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That may be taken as voluntarily. But nobody can sit idly. That is the point. If one is engaged in making for flower garland, all right, you may not take him. It is not compulsory for you. The twenty-four hours kīrtana may... Suppose if we haven't got sufficient men, it is not possible. It is required if there is sufficient men and they are not... We must see that they are not wasting uselessly time. That is the... If they are engaged in some business, there is no compulsory that he has to go and chant. But these things are... Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau **. That is compulsory. It must be done by you or me or... It must be done early in the morning. Whole temple should be... There is sufficient water supply in the pipe. Simply it takes half and hour. It is neglected. I see the temple is not washed. There's so much dust.

Akṣayānanda: We used to wash it three times a day.

Prabhupāda: It is stopped.

Akṣayānanda: With great difficulty, of course. With great difficulty, but still, it can be done.

Prabhupāda: So these devotees, they come here not to work.

Akṣayānanda: It is a fashion. They come to be bābājīs.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Akṣayānanda: Like that. Consciousness is like that.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes, otherwise where is consciousness? If you do not think of Kṛṣṇa. Just like these boys. They are always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, either chanting or reading book or selling book or writing book, preaching Kṛṣṇa, twenty-four hours, taking Kṛṣṇa's prasādam, taking rest for working in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, everything in Kṛṣṇa, chanting always Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They have no other business.

Guest (6) (Indian man): What is the meaning of good citizen? Good citizen?

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is spiritual vision. Kṛṣṇa is the supreme spirit, and if you remain Kṛṣṇa conscious, then spiritual vision. That is spiritual.

Guest (6): Swamiji, you have seen Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: What do you think? We are all rascals, blindly following? Do you think like that? Then why I have not seen? Why do you ask this? If we are acting for Kṛṣṇa, do you mean to say that we are following blindly? Do you think like that? What is your opinion? If we have not seen Kṛṣṇa, then how we are acting for Kṛṣṇa? Hm? What is your idea? We are all fools, that without seeing the master we are acting? Do you think like that? Why don't you answer? This is foolish question. How one can serve a master without seeing the master? Is it a fact that without seeing the master one is serving? Find out this verse, sarvatra yo māṁ paśyati, mayi ca sarvaṁ paśyati, like that.

Devotee (3): Sarvatra?

Prabhupāda: Yo māṁ paśyati. Or yo māṁ paśyati sarvatra. Find out.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: This is natural. So how to deal with this?

Mahāṁśa: So we have both. We can get outsiders to come and stay here who we can give prasādam, make them chant, and give them mahā-prasādam. They love it. In the morning. We used to give them a little mahā-prasādam in the morning. They like it very much. By that, we gain their confidence.

Prabhupāda: We shall like that they will come here and stay and remain our twenty-four hours' son. That is very good also.

Mahāṁśa: Only thing is that in the beginning, because they do not know us very well, they will demand some salary. I told you previously that now I am paying them hundred rupees and 125 rupees for family.

Prabhupāda: So why 125? Hundred rupees sufficient. If they are eating and we are giving shelter, then a hundred rupees sufficient.

Mahāṁśa: Hundred rupees... If they have a family, then his wife works also and his children who are grown up, they all work. Everyone works.

Prabhupāda: So they'll also work. So that you have to decide. Manage so that there is no misunderstanding. Simply management required. So you... The best thing is that you should sit together...

Tejas: Without fail we have to meet every evening. There shouldn't be any... Without fail every evening we should meet.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That will be all right.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Mahāṁśa: All the way from Poona.

Prabhupāda: The home attachment is so great. These Delhi passengers, they are coming, hanging, and there are so many accidents daily. And few hours he will live with wife. That is his home. And whole other, out of twenty-four hours, seventeen hours are outside, and maybe seven hours at home. But still, he'll come home. The home attachment is very big. Therefore we have to create attachment for this hari-saṅkīrtana. If you create that attachment, then they will give up home attachment, try life, to live here. Athāsaktiḥ. You have to train them in Kṛṣṇa consciousness in such a way. Then

ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-

saṅgo 'tha bhajana-kriyā

tato 'nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt

tato niṣṭhā rucis tataḥ

(Cc. Madhya 23.14-15)

Āsakti. Then they will be attached here. Spiritually if you enlighten them, then they'll be attached. They'll voluntarily say they are accepting here. The chanting, chanting, then... This is the beginning, that "You chant and take prasādam." Then ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Gradually the heart will be cleansed, and gradually they will be elevated to the platform of āsakti. Then they will not want money, they will not want... Then they will live here, work, just you are doing. That stage, that requires little advancement. Therefore I say this kīrtana program must be continued. Then ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. As you make the heart cleansed, they become more and more advanced. And then this stage of āsakti, that "This is... We shall live here." Just like we have given up our hearth and home and wife and children. We have given up that attachment. This attachment, practical... That is... You cannot expect immediately. That is not possible. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59). When one gets better attachment, then they can give up this nasty attachment. Therefore we have to continue this saṅkīrtana. This is the psychology. But there is very great prospect to develop this place, and you have got experience. If you can develop, it will be very nice example. Once successful here, we can introduce this program. And India will be easier because they are by nature inclined to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It will be easier. The kīrtana must be there. Otherwise why we have to take so much responsibility?

Room Conversation with Indian Man -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: What is your realization over? You see that the sun rises from the east. So everyone knows. Then where is the question? Anyone who has realized the sun never rises, then he has no question.

Indian man: Yes. So that present question is dropped.

Prabhupāda: Then there is no question at all. If one has known it, the sun is always 24 hours on the sky, it never rises, never sets, then where is the question? He knows it.

Indian man: But that present question is dropped. Otherwise, ignorance remains. One says that sun is rising, sun is setting.

Prabhupāda: For him there is question, that what is the process. So therefore the question is by the ignorant, and answer is by the master. The answer is one. Because everyone is coming, student, he is ignorant. So he may question in a whimsical way, but the answer is one. Answer cannot be many.

Indian man: Suppose there is a blind person...

Prabhupāda: Blind person, he should hear. He should hear.

Indian man: But a blind person wants to see. What is milk, it will be complicated if we keep on teaching him it is white or something like that. We have to give eyes. And then he can see.

Prabhupāda: Therefore eyes... What do you give? What you mean by giving eyes? Knowledge.

Indian man: Knowledge.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: By fourteenth or by thirteenth. It takes only one night from here to Allahabad.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Twenty-six hours. We're thinking of renting a small bus for devotees because coming back would be a problem.

Prabhupāda: I think Allahabad takes twenty-four hours.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Twenty-six hours.

Prabhupāda: Twenty-six hours by train?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And Calcutta?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Calcutta it is thirty-six hours.

Prabhupāda: Another ten hours.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: About thirty-six hours.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Preach as much as possible. By saṅkīrtana, big saṅkīrtana. Big saṅkīrtana is book distribution and small saṅkīrtana is with mṛdaṅga. Big saṅkīrtana is going on all over the world. Small saṅkīrtana locally. Overflood the demons' Godless civilization. Our declaration of war against this Godless civilization.

Girirāja: I met a very, very nice boy yesterday. His father is a life member, but he's studying in Boston at MIT.

Prabhupāda: Oh, technology.

Girirāja: Very superexcellent student. But he was so submissive and inquisitive that he could really... And because he lives there...

Prabhupāda: He qualified? No.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with C.I.D. Chief -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, not... Prohibition has yet come. But individual cases, they have been instituted, and we are fighting by spending so much money to defend.

CID Chief: Yeah, but I read in some paper that somewhere they had this county courts, you know, ruling that people are disturbed by the kīrtanas and this for twenty-four hours and...

Prabhupāda: No, we have got judgment. You read those judgment, judges? We have got counterjudgements also.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Now, this is from Philadelphia, Judge Alfred Longo, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia decree was typical and included the following points: "Kṛṣṇa consciousness is recognized as an authentic religion. To broadcast the glories of God to all people, members of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness society can perform saṅkīrtana, a missionary activity including chanting, dancing, and playing cymbals and drums, the dissemination of the word of God through preaching and reading aloud from religious literature, the distribution of religious literature, sanctified food and flowers to the public, and the solicitation and acceptance of contribution. In performing saṅkīrtana devotees can go wherever people gather: streets, libraries and other public places." So we also had decisions... Eventually we win almost all cases.

Prabhupāda: And we have got good support from the scholarly section by big, big professors. Even one priest, Mr. Cox, he is forming an association to support this movement in Harvard University. So we have got supporters also.

CID Chief: People are also coming in a good number to join this organization.

Roof Conversation -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Train.

Dr. Patel: You are going also by train? It will be too much strain.

Prabhupāda: No, first-class is all right.

Dr. Patel: Even first-class. Because it takes more than thirty-six hours to reach...

Prabhupāda: No, twenty-four hours.

Dr. Patel: ...by car, by Calcutta from here, no? Or Kashi Express.

Mr. Gupta: Yes, sir. Twenty-four hours.

Dr. Patel: Kashi Express?

Mr. Gupta: Kashi Express. Kashi Express reaches in the morning just at one...

Dr. Patel: I had gone by Kashi Express. It reached... From here it starts in the evening, and there it reaches Allahabad in the evening.

Mr. Gupta: That is Allahabad Mail. That's Calcutta Mail. Kashi Express leaves at 6:45 in the morning with other and reaches at the same time next morning.

Prabhupāda: So we have to get the train from Dadar.

Mr. Gupta: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Dadar is nearer.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I like train.

Dr. Patel: I would have accompanied you if you had gone by plane. I would lose lot of time going and coming. While coming back, you will come out to ten days, five days.

Prabhupāda: No. Train, first-class is very comfortable.

Dr. Patel: But you see, after all, it takes upon the health, twenty-four hours.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Rather, doctor, your doc..., civil ser..., man, he said that, "Avoid plane." For me he had said.

Trivikrama: Yes, because the atmosphere changes.

Dr. Patel: But pressurized plane, no. On nonpressurized plane, not.

Trivikrama: He is the knower of his body.

Dr. Patel: All right. I had gone to Allahabad by train. (laughs) I had a very bad experience myself.

Prabhupāda: No, first-class is... We reserved whole room, so no outsider there; will be very comfortable. We'll leave at...

Dr. Patel: First-class have got now berths.

Prabhupāda: Four, we reserve four whenever... So two upper berths, two lower berths—we sleep very comfortably-lock the door. And first-class...

Dr. Patel: You'll be coming back after how many days?

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You cannot educate, neither you bring. This is māyā. Do you think... Do you think that only in your presence your children will be happy? There are... Just see here in the corner, the father, mother, and the child is always, twenty-four hours, crying. The father, mother, is there. They are poor men, they are taking care, but still, the child is unhappy; it is crying twenty-four hours. There are many you'll find. So does it mean that in the presence of father, mother, a child is happy? Everyone is being conducted by his destiny. The father, mother, may be there or may not be there; his destiny will go on. This is the law of nature. You see here. Do you mean to say, because that man is poor, he's not taking care of the child? Why the child is crying twenty-four hours? So if one child is made to cry by his destiny, even in the presence of his father, mother, he has to cry. Nobody can make him happy. So this is called illusion, that "I am doing." Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). A rascal, he thinks like that. But it is not the fact. The fact is prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ. His destiny or her destiny is to suffer. So even though father, mother... Suppose a rich man's son is sick. He has engaged good physician, good doctor. Does it mean that he will guarantee life? Then what is the principle? Bālasya neha śaraṇaṁ pitarau. Prahlāda Mahārāja said that "It is not a fact that when the children are under the protection of father and mother, he's secure." Tvad-upekṣitānām: "If You neglect, that 'This child must cry; this child must die,' then even by the greatest care of the father and mother, he will die." So what is the use, saying that your duty...? Duty? That is māyā.

Indian man: Second thing is...

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Haṁsadūta: Well, there's no money, so not much can be done. The last two days there was no prasādam distribution in the evening, and so the last two days I was there, nobody came. The problem is that since Your Divine Grace left there, the same people would be cooking, these sweeper people. And now they don't want to cook anymore because they work all day, and they say, "We can't work all around the clock, twenty-four hours." So they stopped cooking. And together with no money... So the whole thing has just come to a stalemate. So now another problem is that the saṅkīrtana party which we sent out is also not... It came back yesterday, also not going on properly. I know this causes Your Divine Grace anxiety, but I just think I should speak frankly about how I feel about the situation. I think Mahāṁsa is a very nice devotee, but he does everything himself. He's always jumping over everything, and before it can be discussed, he's already done it. Just like he flew here. He flew here, and it costs a lot of money to fly from Hyderabad and back. It costs, I think, about five hundred rupees. And there's no need for doing things in that way. So I don't know exactly how to work with Mahāṁsa. It's not that I fight with him. I just don't know how to work out things so that it comes out in a practical way.

Prabhupāda: What is the use of investing money there? I have already given fifty thousand.

Haṁsadūta: I mean I talked with Mahāṁsa also. I talked with him when he came back day before yesterday. Talked with him very frankly and openly. Of course, he always says, "Yes, yes, yes," and then he just does whatever he feels should be done. And Tejas also... Now, Tejas, for example, he started a vegetable garden, and it was going on very nicely, but then everything dried up because all the workers, they work under Mahāṁsa. They're all accustomed to taking instructions from him. And so the plants were not watered. Mahāṁsa continually put the water someplace else. So now everything that Tejas has done is frustrated. So he feels, "Why should I be here?" Tejas, I think, has something really to offer. I think he's experienced, but if he's not given a field and some space to exercise his talent, he's going to go away, and I feel, without Tejas... I mean there's no one else I can refer to about these matters. I don't know anything about farming. I don't know planting. But Tejas seems to know. And he speaks Telegu also, and he also is one of our devotees. And I have more faith in Tejas than I would any other person who we might consult. But ultimately Tejas is, I think, more important than anyone else because he is your devotee, and he's very faithful and responsible. And one other thing which Tejas... When he was there, he worked out financial..., what he saw was the actual financial picture of how Mahāṁsa had been investing money in the past and what kind of result he had been getting on the basis of labor and...

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They may think anything nonsense, but this is practically going on. The medical men, they make their association. Especially in your country, unless one is member of the medical association he cannot practice.

Rāmeśvara: But the medical association does not take up twenty-four hours.

Prabhupāda: No. Not only twenty-four hours, twenty-six hours.

Rāmeśvara: That is their charge, that it is too extreme. They say we isolate the devotees from the real world. We don't let them read newspapers, we don't let them...

Prabhupāda: That is your real world, but you do not know what is reality. Your real world is this body. But this body is not real. That, you rascal, you cannot understand. Your reality is this body, but body not real.

Rāmeśvara: Even if this world is not real, temporarily it's real.

Prabhupāda: Temporary, yes. So I am eternal. I must associate with eternity. Why shall I..., temporary. Suppose if somebody comes in India, American, that is his temporary residence. Why shall I accept India as everything? Similarly this body is another India or for Indian, American. It is temporary, asann, asat. Asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). This body is temporary. That you have no knowledge. Why shall I be attached to the temporary things? I am the owner of the body, I am reality, so I must realize myself. Self-realization. This is self-realization, that "I am not this body, I am pure soul, Brahman." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Just like there is infection, and if you take a vaccine, then it will not infect, the contaminous disease. Similarly, if you take to bhakti-yoga, then you'll not be infected by these three guṇas. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya. You'll remain immune. This bhakti-yoga... Māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena (BG 14.26). Not vyabhicāreṇa, avyabhicāreṇa. Then you'll remain above the qualities transcendental. This is bhakti-yoga. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. Satataṁ kīrtayanto mām (BG 9.14). If you cannot do anything, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours. Bas. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma... (BG 14.26). You remain on the brahma stage. (long pause-kīrtana in background)

Satsvarūpa: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. Prasāda. Give them prasāda.

Satsvarūpa: Come and take prasāda, everyone.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Jaya.

Satsvarūpa: There is prasāda. Everyone can come.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Guest (9) (Indian man): I was told by the...

Prabhupāda: Hm? Who?

Guest (10) (Indian man): No, this is program.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: That is mahātmā. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ, bhajanty ananya-manasaḥ (BG 9.13). Sādhur... Api cet sudurācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk (BG 9.30). He's mahātmā. He's sādhu. We shall go to him. Why shall we go to a rascal? Simple directions. So if you are misled, if you are cheated, whose fault it is? But if you want to be cheated, who can check? Even though somebody by mistake has gone to a rascal, the book is there. As soon as you find out, "Here is a rascal who does not know anything about Kṛṣṇa, and I have come to him," reject him. That is stated in the śāstra. Gurur apy avaliptasya kāryākāryam ajānantaḥ parityāgo vidhīyate.(?) Even by mistake you have come to a rascal who does not know how to become guru, you can reject him. Why should you stick to him? Reject him. And by mistake I have come to rascal. Why shall I continue to accept him as guru? Cāṇakya Paṇḍita said, tyaja durjana-saṁsargaṁ bhaja sādhu-samāgamam: "Give up all rascals. Associate with sādhus." If you do not do that, that is your fault. Tyaja durjana-saṁsargaṁ bhaja sādhu-samāgamam. We have to mix with sādhu. Sādhu means who are twenty-four-hours engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service. Things are there. Why should you mix with asādhu? Then how can you understand? Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). If you have got little faith, then next business is to associate with sādhus.

Guest (2): Daily how many times you'll utter the names of Lord Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Twenty-four hours. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). There is no question of "How many times?" But if you have got other business, make some minimum quantity.

Guest (2): Minimum?

Prabhupāda: Quantity. Minimum number.

Satsvarūpa: If you can't chant all day—you have other business—at least make a quota and chant that every day. In our... Prabhupāda's disciples, we promise to chant at least sixteen rounds on the beads, japa-mālā, every day. One round is 108 mantras.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Dṛḍha-vrata. If you have no dṛḍha-vrata, (laughing) that is no vow. So that dṛḍha-vrata means you must promise that "I shall chant at least, minimum, so many times." That is called dṛḍha-vrata.

Satsvarūpa: "With determination."

Prabhupāda: With determination. Otherwise, satataṁ kīrtayanto mām (BG 9.14). Satatam means twenty-four hours. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). But that we cannot do. Therefore to keep dṛḍha-vrata, we have fixed up a certain quantity. Chant that. Saṅkhyā-pūrvaka-nāma-gāna-natibhiḥ kālāvasānī-kṛtau. About the Gosvāmīs-saṅkhyā-pūrvaka: "So many times." Not only chanting, also offering obeisances. Saṅkhyā-pūrvaka-nāma-gāna-natibhiḥ. Nati means praṇati. "I shall offer obeisances hundred times." Gosvāmīs, they used to do that. Still in Rādhā-kuṇḍa, Vṛndāvana, you'll see many devotees. They offer, counting, flat, so many times. So we have to take some labor. It is not so easy thing that you realize (chuckling) God so easily. Saṅkhyā-pūrvaka-nāma-gāna-natibhiḥ kālāvasānī-kṛtau. The valuable time of human life should be utilized only for cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is perfect. No other business. Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). That is sarva-dharmān. But if you cannot do that, all right, make

minimum: "So many times I shall chant. So many times I shall offer obeisances." Make some dṛḍha-vrata. Then gradually it will be successful.

Guest (5): (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa-twenty-four hours. Japa-tapa. Tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattvam (SB 5.5.1). Japa means tapa, tapasya. And that is dṛḍha-vrata. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa (SB 6.1.13). Tapasya begins with brahmacarya. There is no tapasya, there is no brahmacarya, there is no dṛḍha-vrata, there is no understanding, and they are becoming guru. Just see these Europeans, Americans. Their life beginning was meat-eating. And they have given up everything. This is tapasya. And we shall eat everything, do everything... Yato mata tato patha. "Whatever I like, I do, and still a devotee." What is this nonsense? Jaya.

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So you reply this, that "You come. I shall train you. You will guide. We are prepared to guide you, but it is not possible to, bring men outside to guide you. You come to us. I shall train you how to guide." This is the reply. And that is wanted. This Bon Mahārāja failed. Why? He wanted... Guru Mahārāja wanted that you start one temple in London. But he was thinking of bringing, taking men from India. Actually he had no.... (break) That is the fact. Therefore he failed. Instead of serving Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, he wanted to serve Vivekananda. To become like Vivekananda and "I shall be very much eulogized in my country, second Vivekananda." That was his ambition. He never wished to defy Vivekananda and elevate Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He has introduced in his Oriental Institute, Gandhi philosophy, Vivekananda philosophy. Just see his position. He's appreciating... We are simply condemning Gandhi philosophy, and he's appreciating Gandhi. We are simply depreciating Vivekananda, and he's introducing Vivekananda. This is his position. He cannot understand even that where is philosophy in Vivekananda and Gandhi? Gandhi is nationalist. Again problem with your finger. Twenty-four hours, finger problem or nose problem. That I am observing. No attention. So where is philosophy in Vivekananda or Gandhi? He was nationalist. Nationalist means dehātma-buddhi. Dehātma-buddhi means sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13), cows and asses. He worked throughout his whole life for Indian people. In Africa also, he wasted twenty years, and India, thirty years. Fifty years. He lived for seventy-eight years. So twenty-seven years was for his education or something like that and fifty years wasted. This is his position. And he's a big man. Actually he wasted fifty years. Twenty years in Durban and thirty years in... He started in 1917, and svarāja was, independence was given to India in '47. He had nothing... It is not due to him. It is that Subash Bose's INA. So twenty years there, thirty years-fifty years he wasted of his life. And balance, twenty-seven, education, sex with wife and so on, so on. He was so sexually inclined, he has written in his biography that when his father was dying he was enjoying sex life with his wife. Just see how he was sexually inclined. He could not take the serious illness of his father. He's going to die. He was enjoying his wife. We can... Just from one point we can understand. Everyone is sexual in young days. That is generally. But just see his position, that his father was going to die and he was enjoying sex.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

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

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

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Always thinking of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: I was giving two tapes daily.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I remember.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Stryadhīśa.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You had everyone busy trying to keep up. Even now I see that you're not at all wasting a second. Even in the middle of the night you call...

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Ananyāś cinta... Simply you have to think how to execute Kṛṣṇa's program. Ananyāś cintayanto mām?

Hari-śauri: Ye janāḥ paryupāsate.

Prabhupāda: Ye janāḥ paryupāsate: "One who has dedicated his life for this program," teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānām, "because he is twenty-four hours engaged," yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (BG 9.22). Clear. Purport? Read.

Hari-śauri: Translation: "Those who worship Me with devotion, meditating on My transcendental form, to them I carry what they lack and preserve what they have." Purport. "One who is unable to live for a moment without Kṛṣṇa consciousness cannot but think of Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours, being engaged in devotional service by hearing, chanting, remembering, offering prayers, worshiping, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, rendering other services, cultivating friendship and surrendering fully to the Lord. Such activities are all-auspicious and full of spiritual potency. Indeed, they make the devotee perfect in self-realization. Then his only desire is to achieve the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is called yoga. By the mercy of the Lord such a devotee never comes back to this material condition of life. Kṣema refers to the merciful protection of the Lord. The Lord helps the devotee to achieve Kṛṣṇa consciousness by yoga, and when he becomes fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, the Lord protects him from falling down to a miserable conditioned life."

Prabhupāda: Why not do this business, guaranteed by Kṛṣṇa?

Bali-mardana: By your grace it is all possible. By your grace.

Room Conversation with GBC members -- March 2-3, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we were wondering that one time when you were ill in Vṛndāvana you requested that the devotees in our temples around the world could chant kīrtana all the time, twenty-four hours, till you recovered your health. So the GBC was wondering whether we could request again for that.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-'bhirāmāt. This is the real remedy for any disease. Very good idea. So, finished?

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Jayapatākā: Śrīla Prabhupāda? My mother left this morning, and she wrote a letter to you. I'd like you... If I could read it... "Śrīla Prabhupāda: I am sorry to hear of your illness. Jayapatākā tells me swift changes in temperature cause many illnesses in Māyāpur. A place so beautiful must have its thorns. May your recovery be soon. It was auspicious for me to have met you. Not having seen my son for so long, finding him in the midst of God's blessings at ISKCON with a spiritual master of such great repute was humbling in its magnitude. Perhaps in some small measure I can help parents understand what their children are into and weaken their weapons. This visit will be shared with others. It was propitiously enjoyable. As far as fund-raising, there is a seminar on new methods I am trying to get to, but Kṛṣṇa seems to be pulling me back. Perhaps tomorrow I will be able to go to Calcutta and Delhi. I will be corresponding regularly with Jayapatākā. In a few months I plan to move to California. You have taken good care of my son. You have brainwashed the cobwebs of materialism (laughter) and elevated his soul. Your goodness radiates to all who meet you. May God bless your body with good health. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jayapatākā's Ma."

Devotees: Haribol!

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- March 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Suppose I am a very big business magnate. Next life, if I am going to become a dog—according to my karma, the nature's law will act—then what is benefit? One day before, Indira Gandhi was so important. Next day I'll maybe(?) nowhere, finished. Nobody knows where is Indira Gandhi. Just twenty-four hours she was most prominent woman. And after twenty-four hours nobody cares to look at her. This nature's law, how you can check? This is going on. Any moment, anything can be changed by the laws of nature. So India's importance is there. They know the law. Therefore so long the body, full of intelligence, human body, is there, they'll utilize it very... That is life, not to be carried away by the waves of nature. This is India's duty. So we want to make our institution at least a place for understanding this knowledge. It doesn't matter only a few persons may understand. That is sufficient. Ekaś candras tamo hanti na ca tārāḥ sahasraśaḥ: "If you keep one moon in the sky, that is sufficient for light. What is the use of millions of stars?" Modern education, they are creating twinkling stars, millions. All useless for light. No light. And our Vedic civilization is: "Create one moon. That's all." That is sufficient. We respect, therefore, ācāryas. Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, not the so-called voted leaders. We don't care for them. What is their value? Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ (SB 2.3.19). You say, "Oh, they are being liked, eulogized, by so many hundreds and thousands," but what these hundreds and thousands of people are? Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-khara. They're kept in ignorance like dogs, hogs, camels and asses. This propaganda should go on by the ISKCON movement. Bombay is the nicest place. Invite them. Convince them. We have got answers for everyone, however big scientist, big philosopher, big politician. Bhāgavata has answered everyone. How selected animals' name has been given. This is Bhāgavata. How the comparison is perfect. I have tried to explain why a particular animal has been selected.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That purport is very clear.

Room Conversation with Ram Jethmalani (Parliament Member) -- April 16, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Therefore I said "Who understands this meaning of one line?"

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They really think that Morarji is a big religious man. They are very happy to think that their prime minister now is very, very religious. They are very pleased to think like that.

Prabhupāda: I said that my disciples rise at 3:30 and worship till 9:30. He said that he rises at 3:30 and three hours for... So I immediately said, "They are engaging twenty-four hours."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, we don't engage in politics for the other nineteen hours. Of course, I mean, I never would have said anything, but the fact is that this is not the business of one who is eighty-four years old, to be the prime minister. It is better if he were to take up preaching Bhagavad-gītā. You gave that advice to Gandhi. He could do more good then.

Prabhupāda: They will take advantage of Bhagavad-gītā and do their business.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What are some of the important shastric references in regard to developing an article on cheating?

Prabhupāda: Hm? Where is authority, that you are speaking rightly? Just like in the law court, when they plead, they give the reference to the lawbook that... A good lawyer means he will give reference "Under section... This is my authority." That is authority. (break) (Hindi) Ap thik hai?

Girirāja: So this is Mr. Ram Jethmalani. He is the Member of Parliament representing this constituency. So he recently came from Detroit. He was teaching at the university there while this emergency was going on, and now he came back. So he mentioned his idea of helping the slum dwellers. So I have showed him that article, "One Hundred Million Harijanas Looking for a New Messiaḥ" and gave him a copy of the letter which Goswami Mahārāja wrote. In the meantime he was just busy with other functions. He didn't get a chance to go through it. He is very interested.

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

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Mr. Dwivedi: ...the train reaches about one o'clock roundabout.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How many hours from Bombay by train?

Mr. Dwivedi: Twenty-four hours. We start here... No, it's twenty-two hours.

Prabhupāda: There are so many trains, Bombay to Jhan...

Mr. Dwivedi: No, the fastest train is Punjab Mail, train to Jhansi. Punjab Mail. It starts quarter past four and reaches Gwalior about, oh, just 1:30 or so.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Afternoon.

Mr. Dwivedi: Afternoon, the next day.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then we could... It reaches Gwalior.

Mr. Dwivedi: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then we could get down at your house...

Mr. Dwivedi: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...and wait till it cools down. Better to travel, say, about four o'clock. By then the sun is going down. It's cooler.

Prabhupāda: Or we can start in the morning.

Mr. Dwivedi: Or we can start in the evening, spend the noon there at my house, and, say, we start about four o'clock... When I left Gwalior just three, four days back it was, Gwalior itself was, also quite pleasant.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about staying overnight in your house and leaving the next morning?

Mr. Dwivedi: That will also be quite fine.

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

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Indian man: About quarter to two.

Kārttikeya: Less than twenty-four hours.

Mr. Dwivedi: Less than twenty-four hours. Twenty-two hours.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Are there any other trains?

Mr. Dwivedi: That... You have got the night train, leaving nine o'clock. That is taking you Gwalior at eleven o'clock in the night.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no, no...

Mr. Dwivedi: That is inconvenient.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Punjab must be the best.

Mr. Dwivedi: This is only the best train. Punjab Mail is the best train.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I already told someone to book everything. I've given them all information. Tomorrow morning I'm giving them the money for purchasing the tickets.

Kārttikeya: Mr. Jetthi's coming here in Bombay lst of May or 2nd of May to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Kārttikeya: Dayanand(?) Jetthi.

Morning Conversation -- April 29, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: It is luxurious. (break) ...the āṭā dough. So after it is cooked... They have got ghee. That ball soaked in ghee and the ḍāl, it is so nice when taken. That is called baṭī. Very quickly made. And after eating, with that ash the two or three utensils, mean the loṭā and the plate, they'll cleanse it very nice and walk away. And that food is sufficient for twenty-four hours. Within twenty-four hours he will not be hungry and feel very strong. The two things. And you can cook anywhere without any difficulty. In India, especially in village, you can get so many dried cow dung. So fuel is ready. The āṭā is packed up. And ghee in a pot. That's all. How simple life. Simply they'll sit down where there is water, and they'll take water. Then everything is arranged. No hotel. Or even there is no āṭā, they keep their own ghee, homemade, pure. Āṭā can be purchased anywhere in the village. There is no need of carrying āṭā. So this preparation for tourists... Tourists, Indian tourists, means going to some holy place. They have no other sightseeing, no program. All villagers, they are still... The pilgrimage in holy places, now no educated man goes. Very rarely. All these villagers by thousands... They... You see this Tirupati, Tirumala. All the contribution by the villagers. By their hard-earned money they keep something for going. You have seen Tirupati, Tirumal...? Standing for hours to contribute in a line. Hundreds of people. They'll come, contribute something. Then they'll shave their head, see the Deity, have some bath in the adjoining lake. Then they'll take prasādam. That is very big tank. Everywhere. In India, wherever some famous temple is there, there is a tank. Now the haircutting, that lakhs of rupees are sold to foreign countries is hair. Heaps. These managers, they are selling the hairs. Very big business. The foreign countries, the black hair, they purchase it at good price for making wig. (pause) So that is written nice. He wanted to criticize me, but he could not do it very strongly. He did not like the idea that I am sticking to Bhagavad-gītā. That was his... But it has been shown that our sticking to Bhagavad-gītā, that is our mission. And it is a science. Why he called sectarian? When Kṛṣṇa says anything, that is science. "Two plus two equal to four" is acceptable by everyone. Why it is sect...? Actually all religion is going on under the plea, "We believe." What is this nonsense, "We believe"? If you believe "Two plus two equal to five," will it be correct? Their religion is "We believe." So our Bhagavad-gītā is not like that. It is fact. That is the difference. (break) ...of him. I was staying there in one big room. Crazy. Alone I am.

Srila Prabhupada Vigil -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You haven't got to think over, "What shall I do now?" Never forget. So our first business is preaching. You should always remember. This is the education. These rascals, they have no father-mother-orphans. They may think as well-educated how to earn money. We have no... We are rich man's son. Economic problem is already solved. That is already taken. Tal labhyate yad anyataḥ sukham. We don't care for all this so-called improvement. That is already settled up. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ. Just see how to become a man of character like Nārada, Vyāsa. That is our goal. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ. Not for any other. "And what about your material problems?" That is already taken. Tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukhaṁ kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā. This is kṛṣṇa-bhakta. Don't care for maintaining body. "What Kṛṣṇa will give, I take. If He does not give, don't mind." So discussing all this twenty-four hours and death takes place. Death, if takes place, then where is the wrong? Where is the lamentation? There is nothing... You are not permanent. You have to die. But if you die discussing all these things, that is your glorious death. Death is sure. You cannot avoid it, today or tomorrow or hundred years after. But die a glorious death. Yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ. Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ (BG 9.14). That is wanted. It is not... So I have called you for that purpose. So if death is to take place, let me die in your association and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. There is no harm. That is glorious. Now it is very important point, Nārada's qualification.

Rāmeśvara: Purport: "These are the necessary qualifications of a..." (break)

Prabhupāda: This Nitāi, as soon as he mixed with some pseudo devotee, fell down. Rascal. He's searching after guru. And where is now?

Rāmeśvara: In America.

Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And in summer shut off.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yeah. We have... We hired a man. There was man working there for four years. They were paying six hundred dollars. So we kept him for the first year until... We had one man stay with him. We have one devotee, he's a plumber. He's very good man. And he learned from him everything about the boiler for one year. And then we let that man go, and we have our own man running it. And there has to be a man twenty-four hours a day, sitting with the boiler.

Prabhupāda: That means you have to change.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, we have a change. One man is expert. He knows how to run. The other men, they simply watch the gauges to see that... Because the gauges indicate that's everything's okay. If anything ever goes wrong, then they call that man. He's a maintenance man. He's very good.

Prabhupāda: So where do they supply oil?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oil? There are companies that sell you oil. I don't know what the rate is.

Prabhupāda: What is that oil? Petrol?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's crude... It's something like crude oil, I think. I'm not sure, Prabhupāda. They just call it oil.

Prabhupāda: Not vegetable oil.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, no. It's a crude type of oil, brown.

Prabhupāda: Grease.

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

Prabhupāda: Well, with chanting you can meditate. The Deities are there. So you can think of the Deities—that is meditation—and chant.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is there a certain number of rounds you would recommend for her?

Prabhupāda: That is minimum... Because these people are not accustomed, only sixteen rounds.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sixteen rounds.

Prabhupāda: But the chanting is recommended twenty-four hours.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Twenty-four hours.

Alice Coltrane: (laughs) (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). Sadā means twenty-four hours.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But minimum, sixteen rounds.

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

Alice Coltrane: That only an experience (indistinct).

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Per day.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Haridāsa Ṭhākura.

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

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Per day.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Haridāsa Ṭhākura.

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

Alice Coltrane: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Otherwise, minimum sixteen.

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

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

Alice Coltrane: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She wants like personal day-to-day instructions, which she says she gets from meditation.

Prabhupāda: That you become qualified, then He'll give you. First of all be qualified to meet Him, then He'll give you. Buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi tam. What is that verse? Find out.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te.

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

Prabhupāda: Ah! Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam, dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ tam (BG 10.10). That is... If you want to speak with a very big man, you must be qualified, not that he is your order-supplier: "Please come and give me instruction." No, can't do that. That is servant. You can ask your servant, "Please come here. Do it." You cannot ask God like that. You must please Him. Then He'll give.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And the method of pleasing Him...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānām (BG 10.10). One who is twenty-four hours engaged in pleasing the Lord, He gives intelligence to him, not ordinary... You cannot expect. But you don't take God as your play doll. Then it will be futile. God is God. God is great.

Rasāṅgī: So the proper instructions will come, how to act and what to do, just by chanting. There's no need to separately endeavor. Just by chanting, Kṛṣṇa will guide you how to act properly.

Prabhupāda: Everything is there in Bhagava... Bring Bhagavad-gītā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That verse?

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

Prabhupāda: Good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. It's personal. They have a personal conception of God, of a person, but they don't understand that one has to become very highly qualified before he can actually talk to God. They take it as anybody who has any position in spiritual life should be able to talk to God. So that she has to learn again with real understanding.

Prabhupāda: Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānām (BG 10.10). One who is twenty-four hours engaged, He talks with him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She's quite serious. She eats very minimally, sleeps very little. This girl told me... She lives with her. She only sleeps about three hours a day, and she eats very little.

Prabhupāda: Then she'll be qualified if she reads Bhagavad-gītā nicely.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And she's only reading... You know, she... All of her students, they only read your Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think it's a question of time only. She says that... She's been to India three times, and she said that she's never found any place like Vṛndāvana. And this is to her... Now she feels this is her home, that she only wants...

Prabhupāda: She may stop here whenever she likes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think it was a very ba... She was in India this time for three weeks, and she never left Vṛndāvana. She only wanted to stay here.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That man is a big drunkard.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who?

Prabhupāda: This Sai Baba.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sai Baba is a drunkard.

Mr. Myer: He is chewing pān twenty-four hours a day. His teeth are all red. Most of the time, when he goes there, he is...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda said he doesn't just chew pān. He drinks. He's a heavy drinker.

Mr. Myer: But these are all nothing. It is all temporary. When the sun shines, then all these little glows, they just automatically go off.

Prabhupāda: You are leaving when?

Mr. Myer: Today evening. Tomorrow morning I'll return to Madras, leave the day after, morning, then come back next week.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When will you be coming back?

Mr. Myer: Next week. Wednesday or Thursday.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. (break) Any intelligent person can understand this is all Communist propaganda. And the Central Government is seeking an opportunity to drive them away.

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I must thank you that you took me to London and again brought me without any difficulties. That's a great credit for you. That I am thanking you, that in this condition, a bundle of bones, you did it. Kṛṣṇa will... Yesterday I saw that Central Station, Bombay, so much crowded. Unexpectedly. Is it not remarkable?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Because they have introduced this train. Twenty-four hours this Deluxe train is running.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a train that's even faster, called the Rajdhani. Seventeen hours.

Brahmānanda: Also there was air strike. So people who would normally take airplane, they're taking train.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Girirāja made one life member aboard the train, a very nice gentleman living on Marine Drive, quite wealthy. He says he never takes the train, only flies. But he went to the airport at four o'clock, and the airport said, "We have no flights. All flights cancelled." They didn't even give the courtesy to call up the people to tell them the flight was cancelled, although they had the telephone numbers of the ticket purchasers. So the man had to take the train.

Prabhupāda: The strike instrument invented by modern civilization, so dangerous.

Hari-śauri: Means the government becomes completely controlled by the lowest working class.

Prabhupāda: Naturally. Without hands and legs, how one can function? Therefore Vedic civilization, that everyone is engaged.

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I can hear day and night.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So should we arrange...? Maybe we should arrange starting in the morning going till night.

Prabhupāda: That is according to your convenience. But kīrtana is very sweet.

Hari-śauri: Last June we were doing twenty-four hours.

Prabhupāda: That is real business. These astrologer are karmīs. We have nothing to do with the karmī.

Hari-śauri: Their measurement of happiness and distress is how much nice wife and children they get and how much money they get.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bhāgavata reading and kīrtana... Hm. Hm.

Hari-śauri: They don't understand that the real happiness is giving everything to Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Don't waste time and money in any other way.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes I find that you're sleeping, Śrīla Prabhupāda. So I was just wondering—at night, when you do most of your sleeping, whether we should still do kīrtana. I was thinking that we could do it up until nine o'clock at night and then begin in the morning again.

Prabhupāda: No.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Kīrtanānanda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Should we have some chanting now, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes, chanting twenty-four hours.

Upendra: Śrīla Prabhupādajī? I would like to change your dhoti. It won't take but five minutes. I have everything.

Prabhupāda: What happened?

Upendra: Well, you have passed liquid stool.

Prabhupāda: Stool?

Upendra: Yes, Prabhupāda. And by morning it will be too dry. It's not that much, so it's very easy. You're already on your side, so that's good. (break)

Bhavānanda: And you could take little bit spoon, half spoonful, every half an hour or twenty minutes, I think.

Prabhupāda: Very good suggestion.

Bhakti-caru: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He said, "Very good suggestion."

Room Conversation -- October 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says that he is very rough, this Trivedi. He'll be taken away. This is just temporary. Immediately they got rid of Gupta because they knew that we were very much dissatisfied. And Trivedi is just a temporary replacement for Gupta. As soon as the man is sent from Delhi, then this Trivedi will be taken away.

Prabhupāda: So they're going to send a ma...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Oh, yes. They said that they'd be sending him this coming week. I mean they're quite serious about this. The fact that they have transferred Gupta within twenty-four hours shows that they're quite serious in wanting to please us. The man said it: "We want to please you."

Prabhupāda: Huh? Dugal. What about him?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's a rogue. I said it from the beginning, he's a rogue. Anyway, they couldn't throw the manager out. They had to throw the... That would have been a disgrace. They couldn't do that. This Dugal was president formerly of Hrishikesh for twenty-five years. I mean, how is that to deal with... (talking softly to someone else) Śrīla Prabhupāda, you haven't had anything to drink for awhile. Would you like something? It's been quite awhile since you last took. Upendra is here. He could make something for you.

Prabhupāda: Fruit juice?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fruit juice? Yes. What kind do you have, Upendra, that you could make? Some grape juice? Or do you have that pomegranate? Would you like some pomegranate, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: I did not like that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's bitter.

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No idea of... He has no authorized.

Brahmānanda: One thing they recognize is that the young people of India, they want to see the experience of Bhagavad-gītā. Just like Arjuna in the beginning was bewildered and in the end he agreed. So that experience... I said, "Yes, and we have had the same experience, because as Westerners, in the beginning we didn't even the know the name Kṛṣṇa, and now we are serving Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours a day. So obviously there was some great experience. So that has been given to us by Śrīla Prabhupāda." And then he recognized, "Yes." I said, "So we are... We can actually give our experience." So then he suggested that some publication be made actually dealing with the experiences.

Prabhupāda: That we are giving. This Bhāgavata discourse...

Brahmānanda: I think now that our books are coming out in the Indian languages and are being distributed, I think this will cause young Indians...

Prabhupāda: Young Indians are not... They have already published these things. Scientific investigation of matter.

Brahmānanda: Yes, they appreciated that we are preaching to the scientists. They liked that, that we're the only ones who are doing this, because the scientists are amongst the biggest atheists.

Prabhupāda: This Gītā Pratiṣṭhāna is a good proposal, transport(?) Bhagavad-gītā As It Is all over the world. (indistinct)

Brahmānanda: When I was in Jammu, we went to visit a big army base there, Indian Army, huge.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hopeful, hope against hope—that is natural. But I am becoming hopeless.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But we are not yet hopeless.

Prabhupāda: What is the value of your hope? I am the practical man. Then, if it is failure, what you will do? That I am asking.

Bhavānanda: One thing we could do is begin twenty-four-hour kīrtana again.

Prabhupāda: That's all? I am afraid you may put me in the hospital.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, Prabhupāda, we're not going to do that. We already said that we would never do that.

Prabhupāda: If you..., what is called, want to move me, so what arrangement will be made?

Bhavānanda: What arrangement we have made?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Moving is no problem. But we say that we're not going to move you unless you show improvement. But we're not going to put you in the hospital. That is not going to happen. We can always take up the program of twenty-four-hour kīrtana.

Bhavānanda: Massage.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And you can fast. That's... But why should we suggest that at this point? It is not proper for us to suggest that. Obviously we could say that, but that's not very... That means hopeless. So we cannot become hopeless. As your disciples, we can't become hopeless. And putting you in the hospital means hopeless. That's sure. Hospital is absolutely useless.

Śatadhanya: Neither we would ever go against your instruction.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, it's not within our... Śrīla Prabhupāda, we only took you to the hospital in London because Your Divine Grace said we should take you there. Otherwise we were not going to do that on our own. We did not go there on our decision.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that starving and chanting and little gaṅgā-jala or... In this way let me pass away peacefully.