Visit (Conversations 1976)

Expressions researched:
"visit" |"visitation" |"visitations" |"visited" |"visiting" |"visits"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 4, 1976, Nellore:

Indian man: ...mission, and they only think that...

Prabhupāda: So we shall return now?

Indian man: (break) ...my weekly visits, that Jyoti Swami showed me that incident at Japan(?), and he asked me, "Have you seen...?"

Prabhupāda: Doṣam icchanti pāmarāḥ. Doṣam icchanti pāmarāḥ. Makṣikā bhramarā icchanti...(?) Maksikā, these ordinary flies, they find out where is sore, and the bhramarā, he finds out where is honey. Similarly, doṣam icchanti pāmarāḥ. And the Bhaktivedanta Swami is doing preaching all over the world—that has not come to his eyes. He has come to the Japanese incident. He has come.

Indian man: Yes, I told him there might be some, in a big organization, such a...

Prabhupāda: No, why did you not say, "You are such a pamara that this thing has come to your notice and not other thing"?

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1976, Madras:

Prabhupāda: Oh, Sai Rāma.

Acyutānanda: Big Māyāvādī. And later on he had a very nice program for us. But the first day we visited—as I said, that he plays with snakes—so as we were leaving I said to Yaśodānandana Mahārāja, "I didn't see any snakes." He says, "Didn't you see that man on the āsana? (Prabhupāda laughs) That big one?"

Prabhupāda: That he said.

Yaśodānandana: That was just between ourselves.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Jaya. Brahmacārīs.

Jayapatāka: (break) Not so many gosas come for prasādam. (break—to room conversation)

Devotee (1): "...Sanat Kumāras were going to Vaikuṇṭha to visit Lord Viṣṇu. They were stopped at the door by the doorkeepers, Jaya and Vijaya. But specifically, the Supreme Lord cannot be seen by ordinary eyes. But He now became visible to the eyesight of the Kumāras. Another significant word is samādhi-vākyam. Meditators who are very fortunate see the Viṣṇu form of the Lord within their hearts by following the yoga process. But to see Him eye to eye is a different matter. It is only possible for pure devotees. The Kumāras therefore..." (break)

Bhavānanda: ...aratika?

Prabhupāda: No. No. That...

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: No, it's only from here. "It is more heavenly than heaven itself. It is the sacred Vṛndāvana of Bengal, hallowed by the dancing steps of the Lord, and its air is purified by His noble call to prayer. Whoever pays a visit to her will leave her with regret, and those who have not yet visited the place will carry their regrets unto death."

Prabhupāda: So he is making some propaganda that he is the...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, just like in the woods the jackal is always crying that he is the king, but who cares for him? What is his qualification?

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

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

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: Here they have even included our temple in their domain. "The headquarters extends for over a mile with beautiful temples and paddy fields." When we put up our wall, then they will not be able to include us. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The point is that no matter how much they press for any kind of mixing, our first point is: "You come here and visit us." And he'll never do that. Never do that. And we should not... We already invited him twice, so we don't have to give any more invitation. We should simply say verbally, "Let Tīrtha Mahārāja come here as we have come so many times. Then we can speak about some kind of cooperation."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhavānanda: I remember, Śrīla... You walked there.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhavānanda: From here you walked all the way...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Twice Prabhupāda has visited and personally requested, and he won't come here. And now... The thing is now he might say, "If you give it to me in writing, I will come," but we'll say, "We have already personally come. Our spiritual master has come twice personally, and now you have to simply come. The invitation is already given. Now Tīrtha Mahārāja should come here." He'll never do that.

Bhavānanda: He'll never come.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. So then that way we don't have to cooperate.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: That they are realizing, that "We are becoming insignificant gradually." That they are realizing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No one goes to Mādhava Mahārāja's maṭha at all. The only maṭha that they still visit is that Śrī Caitanya Maṭha. And they have no money, so that place is becoming so dilapidated that no one is going there either. And there's no life there. There's no young people. There are no...

Prabhupāda: No, how they can? They cannot feed them.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were speaking this morning, Bhavānanda Mahārāja and myself that, we were wondering if we could make like... You know, so many people come here to eat prasādam. On the weekends, at least two to three thousand people come. So we were wondering whether it would be proper to make some kind of propaganda that "If anyone wants to enroll their children here, their young boys in our gurukula, that they can..."

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: On every level. Even the people this invitation was issued to. But they come, and when they come on Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura's appearance day, they all come down the road to here to visit.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really.

Bhavānanda: Even he gives off so much energy inviting this one and that one, they all come. They all want to come down the road. They at least come down for darśana.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They do?

Bhavānanda: Yes, they have to. They've all been here. They all know it. They come with different personalities, different friends... In Krishnanagar, we are like the cinema in terms of entertainment. As soon as any man, any official, government official, his friends come from Calcutta, immediately they get in one of the government jeeps and they drive out here and come to see the ISKCON Maṭha, Māyāpur Chandrodaya Mandir. Immediately. So many men, they come all the time with their friends from Calcutta. Same thing in Navadvīpa. They come for an evening's...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone goes. They do not cook. He purchases prasādam and eat. Everyone.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's so famous. Yes, whenever someone visits there they always bring back prasādam from Jagannātha.

Prabhupāda: It is... Fifty-six time, prasādam is offered there, fifty-six time.

Harikeśa: It's constant.

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.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Every day I was seeing how to go to Jagannātha Purī and how to go to Vṛndāvana. At that time a fare was, for Vṛndāvana, four or five rupees, and similarly for Jagannātha Purī. So I was thinking, "When I shall go?" That's all. I took first opportunity to go to Jagannātha Purī after my examination, and in business connection when I went to Agra, then I first of all took the opportunity to go to Vṛndāvana from Agra. This was in 1925, and I visited Jagannātha Purī sometime in 1920. And '25 I went to Vṛndāvana. I remember, in those days I was sitting within the car, and there was some prasādam. One monkey entered and took away everything.

Morning Walk -- February 10, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Not all of them were real Vaiṣṇava. That was my discrimination from the beginning of my life. I never liked these bogus swamis and yogis. I never liked. But my father had no discrimination. "Never mind whatever he is. He is a saintly person. Receive him." He was giving fortnightly... There was one Māyāvādī sannyāsī in Kālīghāṭa. So first of all the father was sannyāsī. Then his son was sannyāsī. So we had very good relationship with him. I also used to... Because father was going... So he would carry gāñjā for him—in those days gāñjā was very cheap—so much gāñjā and so much butter. Whenever he would visit, he'd give some red cloth, gāñjā, and butter.

Morning Walk -- February 10, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Not high class. These bogus swamis and yogis. They...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that Mr. Das, the lawyer who came here?

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I used to visit him, and he had one sādhu who used to come who was his guru, and he would also smoke gāñjā.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Gāñjā smoking is not taken as bad in India, by the sādhus, not ordinary men.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. He told me, Mr. Das, that it increased his meditation and ecstasy.

Morning Walk -- February 10, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They said, "Now you cannot speak on such and such subject." He agreed, "All right."

Prabhupāda: I think there was a Vaiṣṇava meeting inaugurated by Mahārāja Maṇīndrānandī. You are referring to that. (break) When I was visiting, I used to sit on his couch. Yes, like... Guru Mahārāja was sitting on the couch, so I took him as ordinary gentleman. So then nobody asked me that, that "You are sitting? Get down." No. Nobody asked me. Then I was seeing that all other big, big disciples, they are sitting down. So then I began to sit down. Neither Guru Mahārāja told me, neither anybody told me.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What kind of a... It was a regular couch...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- February 11, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Tell them that if you take to Hare Kṛṣṇa, then these things will not happen. Tell them.

Hṛdayānanda: Yes. In Caracas, where you visited, less then ten years ago there was a big earthquake and many big skyscrapers fell into the earth, completely disappeared.

Prabhupāda: Oh?

Hṛdayānanda: The whole skyscraper just fell into the earth. That was in Caracas. They said that after that people became more pious. During the earthquake they were screaming to God, "Have mercy, have mercy."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatākā: ...visit.

Prabhupāda: Just like they come to see the Taj Mahal...

Hṛdayānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: ...the architectural culture, they'll come to see the civilization culture, the philosophical culture, the religious culture by practical demonstration with dolls and other things.

Jayapatākā: And we'll be advertising that all over the world.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- February 28, 1976, Mayapura:

Devotee: Didn't that Dr. Radhakrishnan go crazy at the end of life, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Kīrtirāja: I think you have visited him...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Kīrtirāja: ...and he was not able to even talk.

Prabhupāda: No.

Kīrtirāja: How can that be God? (end)

Morning Walk -- March 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Pusta Kṛṣṇa: I think we'll make devotees on the way.

Prabhupāda: And so long the festival goes on, we shall keep always ready one big pot of halavā. Anyone comes, give him this. Anyone comes to visit. While going, take in a leaf, what is called, leaf cup. Give him halavā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everyone on the way.

Prabhupāda: Everyone.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's up and down this road.

Prabhupāda: No. No, no. Anyone who comes within the temple...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I mean...

Morning Walk -- March 12, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. He was fight against it. All, Nabadwip, Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana is not so... But still, they have got rate. One thing, it is a question of heart, that a man should come and visit the temple—he must give something. Why he is to be asked? Voluntarily he should give that.

Yaśodānandana: Yes. We were reading in Nectar of Devotion this morning. Your Divine Grace is writing that it is customary in India that whenever one visits the Deity or a saintly person to offer something, even one grain of rice.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the system.

Lokanātha: But encouraging is not recommended?

Prabhupāda: Huh? What is that encouraging?

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Gurudāsa: It should be life-size, like walking into the forest of Naimiṣāraṇya.

Prabhupāda: Life-size or not life-size. Three feet, four feet, that will be...

Haṁsadūta: The old exhibits can be sold to the visiting temples. They can take them back to their...

Prabhupāda: No, that is not possible.

Jayapatākā: BBT.... BBT did such nice packing with this modern styrofoam that they could easily move even fragile dolls.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) What is that?

Jayapatākā: They brought the glass light thing, and they didn't break it, with this plastic foam.

Talk at Radha-Govinda Mandir -- March 24, 1976, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Citra Das. No. No, Kashinath Mullik's father? So gradually this whole quarters belonged to this Mullik family. Still in front of this temple there is Gangara(?) building. That is also the property of Rādhā-Govinda. And as I have shown in coming, our house was just behind the present Govinda Bhavana. And we had the opportunity of seeing this Rādhā-Govinda from very childhood. When I was three or four years old I used to visit this Rādhā-Govinda daily.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Jaya Rādhā-Govinda! Jaya Prabhupāda.

Talk at Radha-Govinda Mandir -- March 24, 1976, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Hari-śauri: They are very nicely cared for.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. This is my inspiration, this Deity.

Abhirāma: Should we have some program with these Mulliks sometimes, visit?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Our house was here. I am coming almost daily, on every moment. I was playing here. They were all my playmates. The whole this, from that street to this street, that was our house, home. Here is the pharmacy, that Kailash Pharmacy. That was very old. Our limit was coming up to this road and up to that (indistinct) road.

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

Reporter (2): When you visited the Soviet Union, Swamiji, did you find the atmosphere worse than it is in Western countries, say? Are the people...

Prabhupāda: Everywhere the people are very good, but the leaders are bad.

Reporter (2): Did you meet any of them? No.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I talked with one of the best leaders, Professor Kotovsky. He is the professor of Indology. I talked with him. I have studied. The people are generally very good.

Reporter (2): But did you hold any meetings or anything?

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Pañca-draviḍa: In the Bhāgavatam it says that if a person cannot offer a straw mat like that to a saintly person when he visits, he doesn't live in a house...

Prabhupāda: But if he hasn't got extra straw, how can he do?

Pañca-draviḍa: He may offer obeisances. If he can't do that, simply cry.

Prabhupāda: Straw? Straw is offered. Oh, not taken care of.

Pañca-draviḍa: You said if he couldn't, if he cannot do that, he does not live in a house, but he lives in a tree full of snakes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So he has offered seat.

Morning Walk -- April 10, 1976, Vrndavana:

Yaśodānandana: Prabhupāda, there has been discussion amongst many of the members of the press and the Sanskrit editors regarding the actual place of Nṛsiṁha's pastimes. So I told them that on the occasion of our travel to South India we visited this place Ahobilam, and the paṇḍitas, they have scriptural reference from the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa and the Nṛsiṁha Purāṇa that the place is actually mentioned there, and it has been recognized by Rāmānujācārya and many of the great Ālwār saints. And yourself have already told me twice personally that this was the actual place where it happened. And on top of the mountain there, there is the pillar, iron pillar, which is the symbol of the spot where Lord Nṛsiṁha killed Hiraṇyakaśipu. So for the benefit of all of these devotees, they were just requesting your actual confirmation.

Prabhupāda: Confirmation or no confirmation, Nṛsiṁha-deva is our worshipable Deity, that's all. Why you are bothering where He killed Hiraṇyakaśipu? You worship Him, that's all.

Morning Walk -- April 21, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes, they have taken dogs as God. According to Vedic civilization, dog is untouchable. (break) ...all the centers, then how many days it takes?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: To visit all of our centers in the world?

Prabhupāda: No, Europe, America? That is world round.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: About three months if you stayed one day in each center.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no, one day only?

Guru-kṛpā: Thirty-five days.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, no, to visit each center and stay there for some time.

Guru-kṛpā: Some time?

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: No.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Now they're coming, so many.

Prabhupāda: They were coming. But I was engaged in writing. I was not visiting many...

Hari-śauri: (break) ...when they begin to write, then they finish up their activities and retire and simply write. But you wrote first and then came out.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I personally, I don't think that even Americans or Westerners would have accepted even your teachings as clear as they are without having your personal association and seeing your example. I think people would have thought that it's totally impossible to do such a thing.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Just up to Sunday. Monday we are going?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we were here on the twentieth of July. We'll be here until Monday.

Mr. Dixon: What's the main reason for your visit?

Prabhupāda: Preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness, about Kṛṣṇa. You have seen our books, our.... Show him.

Devotee (1): Have you seen Prabhupāda's books? The books I was just showing you?

Mr. Dixon: I am not very familiar with the books.

Prabhupāda: We have got very good response for accepting our books all over the world, Kṛṣṇa books.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Guest (3): No. Could I just share one experience, and I'd like your feeling on this. This is one thing that, the reason that we come throughout the world, and that is that we believe that in the year 1820 that there was a young man, Joseph Smith, who was confused about religion. And in this confused state he sought the Bible, and he read James 1:5, and the inspiration was to go seek God and ask Him in prayer. And in his prayer he had an experience where God the father and His son Jesus Christ appeared to him. Now, see this is what we base our religion about, is that a young man saw God and was visited by Him and His son Jesus Christ, and through him They used him as an instrument in restoring His true church. Now that's our testimony, and we believe this with all of our heart. We feel that it's built upon the spirit and that it's through prayer and study that we've found this. Now, what's your feeling about that?

Prabhupāda: No, if he has seen God, then God has given him some message.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: What is the instruction?

Guest (3): The instructions to Joseph Smith was, well, in a ten-year period of time, from 1820 to 1830 many things happened to Joseph Smith. One thing was that he was visited by an angel called Moronai, who lived fourteen hundred years earlier in the Americas, and he was a prophet, and he wrote a book and sealed it away, and it was written on gold plates. Joseph Smith translated this ancient work of Egyptian hieroglyphics into English, and it was called the Book of Mormon after a great prophet.

Prabhupāda: So what is the message?

Guest (3): Well, the message is that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the kingdom of God.

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

Prabhupāda: No. We are concerned that in spite of so-called education and advancement of civilization, people have been kept in darkness about real knowledge. So it is our little attempt to awaken them to the real platform of knowledge.

Interviewer: Well, what do you hope to achieve by your short visit here to New Zealand, where you don't have a very big following at all?

Prabhupāda: Just to encourage my disciples. They're also trying their best to spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So if I occasionally visit, they become encouraged. That's why.

Interviewer: Is your movement still growing? It was very popular here in the Beatles' era and so on and so forth.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Oh, you are adding two more.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Well, we had almost finished two. They'll be added in June, so that will make eight, a total of eight. And they're having a normal program going on nicely. And Madhudviṣa Mahārāja also went to visit the other temples. He said in Boston they've gotten.... I think they've already gotten it, right? That restaurant? Ambarīṣa Prabhu has gotten the most wonderful restaurant there, just around the corner from the temple. So it will be very, very high class restaurant with waiters, and...

Prabhupāda: Now, this New York restaurant being organized, other restaurant will follow.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: His father has been giving us.... Of course, it was.... We have been approaching him through the aspect of doing business in China. His father is encouraging us in the sense that he is seeing Dhṛṣṭadyumna.... Like whenever we visit him, we come in our suits, and his father is seeing that.... He is encouraging him also because he's taking some, what he calls a very, what would you say, a responsible position, attempting to do some business. So he's been giving us letters on his company's letterhead. Just like this is a letter to the director of the Department of Commerce of the United States. We've seen a number of people. We've been visiting different directors. First thing we did when we went back is after meeting him, we got many books on China. Some of the examples are, just like this.... We read about twenty-five books. We've studied up very thoroughly and researched everything about China. Here is a book, The Religious Policy and Practice in Communist China. It describes everything about religion there. So we thoroughly read this book. Then there's other books, books on education, we read books on history...

Prabhupāda: Chinese people, they are trying to raise their standard of civilization. Do they?

Room Conversation -- May 5, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, similarly, if somehow or other one can sell one book to a person it is good for him. Don't take how he is selling, but he's giving the book to that person and he's paying something and that is good. But big moralist, they cannot understand. They'll see, "Why the father has spoken lie to his son. He's not a good father." They'll mistake. Father is always friend. Father cannot be enemy. But for the benefit of the rascal child sometimes he has to say like that. That "If you take the medicine I'll give you cake." So those who are mundane moralist, they cannot understand this thing, because they are mundane platform. The another example is that Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja. He was asked by Kṛṣṇa that "You speak lie to Dronācārya that 'Your son is dead.' " Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja refused. For this he had to see hell. He was more moralist than Kṛṣṇa. For this moral activity he had to visit hell. This philosophy cannot be understood by neophyte devotees.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Then, how it will be possible?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were discussing this. The way to do it, is that you get some person... There are many persons all over the country who are knowledgeable, who can do the work, but who are friendly. Just like in many temples that I visited, they have people, professionals who are working, but they are young men and because they are friendly towards our society, they'll do the work for less money. I'm sure that there are people who can be found like that here.

Prabhupāda: American devotee, Asian, and Australian devotee.

Guru-kṛpā: I think it can be done amongst our devotees.

Prabhupāda: Mm. We are not very anxious to get done immediately, we shall do slowly.

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: Yesterday you suggested that I send groups of brahmacāriṇīs to that farm in Oregon where Yamunā-mātājī is staying, but I was thinking that, actually, she is a very, very wonderful preacher, and if she can visit our temples more often, then she can.... In other words, it's more expensive and difficult to send so many people to her...

Prabhupāda: So, do that.

Rāmeśvara: Otherwise, she can come to us.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's also a healthier environment, I think. It's a little...

Rāmeśvara: She lives alone with Dīna-tāriṇī. She doesn't have much association. She's keeping herself apart a little bit.

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Ekaś candras tamo hanti. Stars, they cannot do anything; they simply glitter, that's all. Glow-worms.

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, one boy joined our temple here, he was attending a very well known college and straight A's in physics, a scientist. So his parents were a little concerned. His father is a very big professor at California Institute of Technology, the biggest technical school in America. His mother is a professor of anthropology, and she is in the family of millionaires from Germany, German industrialists, so they were very concerned. So they came to visit their boy at our temple, and now the mother is coming regularly, giving nice donations and sometimes spending the weekend.

Magazine Interview -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Interviewer: Is this your last trip to America?

Rāmeśvara: He's asking if this is your last visit.

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily.

Interviewer: You feel that you can continue to make those serious travels?

Prabhupāda: Well, I began my traveling in foreign countries at very ripe old age, seventy years. Ten years I'm traveling. This is the fifteenth tour all over the world.

Interviewer: Are you surprised to see the popularity of your teachings in the last few years?

Prabhupāda: I think it is becoming popular.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: (indistinct).

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: I've been visiting your buses, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and managing the book distribution with the buses. It's going very nicely. Ever since Māyāpur all the boys have doubled their collection and distribution. And as soon as all the debts from New York temple are paid, then more and more books can go. We'll try to do everything. (break) The men are just like the army. The van leaders, bus leaders. So everything is very efficient, clean, and very high-powered. (break) ...just two years ago, when we left India, that you wanted an army of sannyāsīs and brahmacārīs always traveling, distributing books.

Prabhupāda: (looking at plaque) Commissioners?

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Oh? Police cars very often visit this quarter?

Mādhavānanda: No.

Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda? It's nine o'clock.

Prabhupāda: It may be ten o'clock. (laughter) What is the difference when here and there? (Prabhupāda laughs) Just like a blind man, he's sleeping, now his son is getting, "Please rise, it is now morning." So he said, "For me, morning and evening is the same thing. I am blind." Kebā rātra kebā din. "For me, there is no difference between day and night, because I cannot see anything."

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

George Gullen: ...I'm the president of Wayne State University. I'm very pleased to be asked to come and visit with you. (break)

Prabhupāda: You have studied something about our philosophy?

George Gullen: I beg your pardon?

Prabhupāda: I am asking, you have studied something about our philosophy?

George Gullen: A little. Not very much. I'm not as knowledgeable as I should be, I'm certain.

Prabhupāda: It is not a sectarian movement. (to someone else:) Why you stop? Yes. (to Gullen:) It is essential knowledge for the whole human society. There are two things, matter and spirit. We can understand, every one of us, we are combination of two things, matter and spirit. The matter is the body, and the spirit is the moving force.

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "One of India's biggest and most ancient religious festivals, Ratha-yātrā, the festival of the chariots, which has been enacted in several Western cities in recent years, is to be staged in South Africa in July. The festival in honor of Lord Kṛṣṇa is planned to be held in Durban next month by the local branch of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, widely known as the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. Based on the thousands-of-years-old annual parade of the three main deities of the Jagannātha temple on huge chariots through the streets of Purī, Orissa, the festival has been staged by devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa in major world cities such as London, Paris, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Montreal and Melbourne, following the spreading of Kṛṣṇa consciousness amongst thousands of Westerners in the decade since the founding of the movement in 1966 by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. Almost a million devotees participate in the chariot festival held every summer at Purī, where they offer oblations to Lord Kṛṣṇa; lend a hand, tugging the ropes, to pull the huge chariots; line the grand route; or simply attend to see the color and pageantry from high vantage points. Jagannātha-The three colossal chariots from which the term Jagannātha is derived carry the three Jagannātha Deities of Lord Balarāma, the Lord who gives spiritual strength and pleasure; Lady Subhadrā, one who is the auspicious one; and Lord Jagannātha, the Lord of the universe,"—with a capital L—"on the three-kilometer journey symbolizing Lord Kṛṣṇa's visit to the town of His childhood pastimes. This year ISKCON will sponsor Ratha-yātrā festivals in ten cities worldwide. Durban, however, is not amongst them, as the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is fairly new and has not yet established itself on a firm basis and increased its following in Durban. Branch members are enthusiastic and are hoping to organize a procession of their own through the streets of Durban to coincide with the festivals which will be held in several major cities."

Prabhupāda: They are arranging like that or not? Our branch there?

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, also they started, they've called the department the Department of Hindu Studies.... There's an all-Indian University in Durban, and when Śrīla Prabhupāda visited South Africa, the president of the university was a European gentleman, he very much appreciated our philosophy and the need for a Department of Hindu Studies. So Śrīla Prabhupāda recommended Svarūpa Dāmodara, and we submitted his application. And they've limited the choices for the Ph.D. in charge of the Department of Hindu Studies to three, and one of them is Svarūpa Dāmodara. So there's a possibility...

Prabhupāda: Svarūpa Dāmodara must be the best candidate. Others, what they'll know about it? All other Ph.D.s, they are simply rubber stamped. Actually they have no knowledge. Svarūpa Dāmodara has solid knowledge. He has learned from us. Therefore he's writing all these books. He has rejected his so-called scientific knowledge. He has completely understood that so-called scientific knowledge is bogus, it has no solid background. Now he's writing books on this. Now this morning, last night also, I got hint from Bhāgavatam, I told you in the morning? The sun planet is first. And nobody can reply this, that "Why Sunday first?"

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

Prabhupāda: That assistance means to.... First of all, a man is...

Scheverman: Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the homeless.

Prabhupāda: A man is poor when he's in ignorance.

Scheverman: So you see that as a greater poverty, is the ignorance, rather than the physical poverty of not having enough food.

Prabhupāda: So food problem can be solved simply by accepting.... That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Find out. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). How everyone can.... Find out.

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

Scheverman: It's an intellectual approach. I think our approach would be, we would be concerned with a person-to-person assistance. That is the way, our way, that Jesus has taught us. He said, "Feed the hungry and harbor the harborless and visit the imprisoned."

Prabhupāda: Yes. If you have got enough food grains.... Just like in our headquarter in Bengal, we are giving food daily, at least one thousand men.

Scheverman: So you are feeding the hungry at your headquarters in (sic:) London. You do utilize then the direct approach as well.

Prabhupāda: No, our process is that everyone who is hungry, come and take your food. But our program is going on, but feeding the poor is automatically there. If anyone comes to our temple, even here, anyone comes and take prasāda.

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

Prabhupāda: You can answer all these questions.

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

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

Prabhupāda: There is no such word as Hindu religion. You do not know. There is no such word as Hindu religion, at least in the Vedas. The religion is translated into Sanskrit as "characteristic." Religion is not a kind of faith. Just like chemical composition. Sugar is sweet—that is religion. Sugar must be sweet.

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

Devotee (1): But living in the temple is not necessary to engage in Kṛṣṇa conscious activities. You can engage outside also, take advantage of reading the books and visiting the temple, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Kathy Kerr: Do you consider that going..., your movement then is basically more of an educational movement than a religious movement.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Educational. It is religious, but it is not a man-made religious. Our idea.... I have already explained that our idea of religion means that like the sugar, it must be sweet. It is not that in Europe sugar is not sweet, in India it is sweet. Sugar, wherever it is, it is sweet. Similarly, the soul, the spirit soul is the same everywhere. So he, the spirit soul, is now embodied within this material body, and he is suffering on account of this material body. So we are teaching everyone how to get out of this material body and stay in his original, spiritual body. This is our real movement.

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

Jayādvaita: I can show you downstairs in our magazine, there's an article about our program of visiting India. We have very beautiful centers there. India..., it's not that because we're going to India, therefore it's an Indian idea. Science, it's not "Two plus two" is Indian or American. It's everywhere.

Kathy Kerr: I've asked everything I've been able to think of. Thank you very much for the interview.

Prabhupāda: Very good. You have given prasāda?

Jayādvaita: Yes, we have some downstairs.

Hari-śauri: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (end)

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: That is a farce. That is not temple. In London also there are Hindu Center, this, that. All nonsense. Now they are installing Deity. But it is not taken care of properly.

Viśvakarmā: They invited me, Śrīla Prabhupāda, to visit one of their Sunday services, and I went, and they had a fire, an installation of the Deities. They had one brāhmaṇa, and they had a small Deity of Viṣṇu, and he had the fire sacrifice in four minutes, and then they installed the Deity on the altar. That was it.

Prabhupāda: They, what do they know?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The press reporter's here, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are now asking... In Melbourne the priest asked me, "Swamiji, why Christian religion is dwindling? What we have done?" I told them, "What you have not done?" (laughs) They were little insulted.

Hari-śauri: That first time you visited that monastery, the man that was in charge, the head monk there, after you had visited, a short while later he left and he went to India looking for enlightenment.

Prabhupāda: Perhaps it was some shock when I said that "What you have not done?" They received me very well. (break)

Kīrtanānanda: Altogether about an hour and half. About forty-five minutes more.

Prabhupāda: What is being done with Hayagrīva's house?

Garden Conversation -- June 23, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: There is no necessity. But on account of ignorance, foolish association, sinful life, more and more and more and more going on. Andhā yathāndhair upagīyamānāḥ. And the deed is encouraged: "Yes, you do this. Enjoy life." What is his enjoyment? If anyone sees slaughterhouse, will he enjoy? Eh? What is...? He visits a slaughterhouse, is it enjoyment? But he takes as enjoyment. (Sanskrit), unnecessary, without any meaning. Mad, just like a madman acts, without any meaning. The monkey acts without any meaning. (Sanskrit), unnecessarily creating disturbance. (Sanskrit) sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje. If you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then all (Sanskrit) is finished. (Sanskrit) We are no more interested in unnecessary things. Illicit sex—one side they are encouraging contraceptive method, so why they'll not stop illicit sex, then automatically there is contraceptive method? So one side there is encouraged, contraceptive method, another, unlimited, unrestricted sex.

Marble Shop Visit -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Hari-śauri: (announces in microphone:) Prabhupāda visits the marble shop. (break)

Kīrtanānanda: This is a cutting table Śrīla Prabhupāda, here's is a diamond saw. When you cut marble you have to use water, so it automatically shoots water out.

Devotee: You can make the cut if you want to.

Prabhupāda: This is the marble? No.

Kīrtanānanda: This is a marble base, this is what they cut on. Just to make it flat, it has to be a perfectly flat table. This is part of the floor for your study room.

Prabhupāda: Oh. This is marble?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, this is all marble, but it is glued together in little pieces. Like inlaid. And this is the polishing room. (break) Take the rough marble and make it shine.

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

Prabhupāda: Well, love does not mean that you come once in a week at my house. Love means you come to my house, give me some presentation, and take something from me. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti bhuṅkte bhojayate caiva ṣaḍ-vidhaṁ prīti-lakṣaṇam. Love means if you love somebody, then you must give him something, you must accept something from him. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti. You must disclose your mind to him and he should disclose his mind to you. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati, and bhuṅkte bhojayate. If you love somebody, you give him something eatable and whatever eatable he offers you accept. These six kinds of exchange makes love. But if you do not know the person, the boy or the girl, then where is the question of love? Love begins... If you love some girl, if you love some boy, then you give something, some presentation, and he gives you some presentation. That develops love. You give something to eat and whatever he gives you to eat, you eat. You disclose your mind, "My dear such and such, I love you. This is my ambition." He dis... These are the exchange of love. So if there is no persons to person meeting, where is the question of love? That is not love. If I love somebody and weekly I visit that house, "This is the house," that's all.

Arrival Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Vipina: Our distributors were in the airport not long ago, and they distributed a book to a man who has just recently written a book called The Fourth Kingdom. And he stopped off to visit our temple and talk with us because he was impressed with the devotees and the literature, and he would like to come and speak to you.

Prabhupāda: You have arranged some engagement?

Vipina: Yes. If it's all right with you, he'll come. He's very nice, but he has some mixed-up ideas.

Prabhupāda: Everyone has mixed-up ideas because nobody is properly trained up. Some ideas they have got, some inquiries they have got. But unless one comes to the right person, he cannot be enlightened. Tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Therefore one must approach the proper guru.

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

Prabhupāda: Thank you.

Mr. Boyd: Barbara's been in the movement for two and half years and it's been..., we've heard a lot about you and a lot about the movement, and we've kept pretty close, you know, track of what's going on, and we've visited the different temples and talked to the different devotees, and we're quite impressed with the action.

Prabhupāda: We are having the difficulties of this immigration department.

Mr. Boyd: I guess, if it's like India, you've got troubles. We almost went to jail rather than get out of the country.

Prabhupāda: We think, according to our philosophy, everything is the property of the Supreme Lord, and we are all sons. So everyone has the right to use the property of the father. So that consciousness should be spread. This barrier of nationalism is against Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Why there should be? Actually everything belongs to God. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). The sky, the land, the water, they are all creation of God, God's property.

Interview and Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Janice Johnson: I'd like to know, this is your first visit to Washington? Is that right?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Janice Johnson: Who have you visited with while you've been here? Have you stayed here, or have you gone out and...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I am in the Western country for the last ten years, sometimes Europe, sometimes America. I have got more than one hundred temples all over the world, so I go and visit and instruct my disciples about this movement.

Janice Johnson: But you indicated in..., before you came here, that you were interested in meeting some leaders in the city. Have you met any of them?

Prabhupāda: Leaders?

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

Rāmeśvara: (break) ...came here, Bhāradvāja and myself went to Salt Lake City to visit the church of the Mormons. The Mormon religion is a branch of Christianity, and they own the whole city of Salt Lake City. It's the capital of Utaḥ, one of the United States states. So they control the whole city, and it is planned with the temple in the center of the city. Like our Māyāpur plan. And all around the streets are named after the temple. It is well planned. And in the temple square they have a visitor center, and it costs hundreds of millions of dollars, with dioramas and movies. They even have a little planetarium. It's all for recruiting people to join their religion. So we went there to study how they did it. Actually, it's all based on a crazy philosophy. They say that after Jesus Christ was crucified in Israel, he rose, and then the next stop he came to America.

Prabhupāda: Next...?

Rāmeśvara: Next he came to America. Because Jesus, they say, is the savior of the whole world, so why just Israel?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So when did he come to America?

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

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Only when you went downtown did the permanent men come. No one was visiting you up here? Hayagrīva?

Prabhupāda: No, they came there, Second Avenue.

Hari-śauri: Mukunda?

Prabhupāda: All of them.

Rūpānuga: That's amazing. How long were you there, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Here? About six months. Then when my things were stolen, then one boy was coming, his name was Paul Murray, he invited me that "You come to my loft." He took me to Bowery Street.

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

Prabhupāda: That's all right. They are taking the book. That is wanted. We don't want much profit.

Devotee (5): Many, many reviewers also from those big Sanskrits, the largest in the world (indistinct) professors here they also read the reviews and very much appreciate the books. All of the different parts we visited, from north to south, east to west.

Prabhupāda: They're welcome. That's fine. So make world party.

Satsvarūpa: Yes, we're very excited to do that. We're going to present it to the GBC.

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

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

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda is saying that the disciples are working so hard.

Interviewer: Oh, I see.

Rāmeśvara: But I was explaining to her that you are traveling all over the world, visiting your centers, and at the same time writing so many books.

Prabhupāda: That may be lessened. That may be lessened, but that does not mean retirement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He may not travel as much, but that doesn't mean retiring from spiritual life, because spiritual life goes on continuously at all times...

Interviewer: I didn't mean that he was retiring from spiritual life.

Hari-śauri: From management.

Bali-mardana: His main work is his books, so he'll continue that.

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

Prabhupāda: All family members, children, husband, wife, they are present there. How do you say it is against family? Wrong criticism. This is...

Interviewer: Are your followers encouraged to visit with their...

Prabhupāda: No, first of all you take your answer one by one. You say, "against the family." It is a wrong. It is a wrong propaganda. Oh, there are so many families in our society. It is a society. There are family members. There are brahmacārīs. There are sannyāsīs and vānaprastha. Whatever situation is suitable for you, you can accept, and in any situation, you can become God conscious. That's a wrong propaganda, that we are against family. Here is a wife of a boy. They have family. There are so many families. Why do you say like that, "We are against family?

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Some batches may go this year, some batches may go...

Rāmeśvara: The following year, Gaura-pūrṇimā festival there can be a pandal program in Bombay. Then they can visit it the next year. The main point is we don't have to be there for the opening.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: As you recall perhaps, in Māyāpur, we discussed that we would like to go in Vṛndāvana first and end the festival in Māyāpur on Gaura-pūrṇimā.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That way we'll get the cooler weather and we'll get the best preaching in America.

Conversation After Interview with Religious Editor, Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: It is good proposal.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: We discussed various difficulties that have been happening in Australia, and that Tamāla Kṛṣṇa should go there and help for..., just for visit, just to help. And then they will report to you.

Prabhupāda: What is Iran's business going on? I got some good report from Nandarāṇī that she is in contact with the Shah's daughter, princess. Is that a fact?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Well, Nandarāṇī Prabhu is doing very well. She's got a Gurukula, a school for the Indian children, they are being well attended. Also Mahārāja, Parivrājakācārya Svāmī, he has been in touch with the Shah's daughter and he's been preaching to them.

Interview with Trans-India Magazine -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Ninety-three.

Interviewer: His first one was 1896, I think, his first visit.

Prabhupāda: No, 1893.

Interviewer: Ninety-three, I see. Since then there has been a lot of interest in this country in Indian philosophy. Recent gurus have come, they have talked about meditation. My own view is that all of these things have influenced the American people, but in a kind of intellectual fad, a kind of fashion. And it seems to me that your intention and aim is not merely to cater to the mind, cater to reason, cater to the intellect, but to effect a kind of transformation of man himself. Is this why you have introduced a whole way of living, a whole way of life, is it? Am I right in suggesting that?

Interview with Trans-India Magazine -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: So we have got our temple, that is considered the best temple in Vṛndāvana. You can show the pictures. So thousands and thousands of Americans went to Vṛndāvana for our temple and other temples. But there is another Vivekananda, Ramakrishna āśrama, nobody went there. Not a single. So what preaching they have done, from practical point of view? So many men went to our temple. They had no inquiry even that "We have heard that there is a Ramakrishna Mission Temple here. Where it is?" It is not..., Vṛndāvana is not a very big city. Everyone knows. Nobody, not a single person went there. And they visited other temples. So what kind of preaching, hmm? What do you think?

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can make an airline office by which they'll get a reduced rate, and they can travel here, travel agency, and they can come here very inexpensively to visit you, and we can give full accommodations. If somehow we can keep you here, we will do anything required.

Bali-mardana: At least for a few months. That is all.

Prabhupāda: Which month?

Bali-mardana: During the summertime.

Prabhupāda: July?

Bali-mardana: July, August.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: The Christians cannot organize. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You saw them. The only thing they were carrying was one sign like this. The sign said "Turn or Burn." It means turn to Jesus or burn. Turn or burn, burn in hell. That's their conception of God. Either God or burn in hell. We could give you a good rest here, also, Prabhupāda, because it's very easy to not... If the devotees could see you on Sunday, just like in the old days in Los Angeles... I mean everything could be nicely done, and you could still visit the European centers when you finally return to India. I mean they are not making such a big thing that you couldn't come later on. Oh, boy.

Prabhupāda: (laughing) Good determination.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "But the Kṛṣṇa people were not entirely free of harassment. Along the parade route three men, including one who said he was an Evangelical Christian minister, jeered at the parade and called on parade watchers to become Christians. 'Idol worship. This is absolutely ridiculous. Read the Bible,' cried one man who would identify himself only as a normal Christian. There was a brief scuffle when an Indian immigrant tried to tear a large placard out of the hands of another heckler. The placard read 'Turn or Burn.' The police broke things up but made no arrests. 'They are insulting us,' said the Kṛṣṇa follower who declined to identify himself. 'I'm a devotee of Kṛṣṇa and Christ. These people who are doing this in the name of Christ are criminals.' " Very strong statement. "Except for the hecklers, however, the parade was generally very well received by passersby, who enjoyed the three multi-hued floats, the sun, and the chanting and dancing of the young Kṛṣṇa marchers. 'I think it's great,' said Tyrone Adams of Philadelphia, who was paying a visit to his home town of Inglewood, New Jersey. 'I'm not religious, but they're all happy and dancing, and that is what life is all about.' " Even a nonreligious person said that. "In Washington Square a crowd of about three thousand, many of whom were there as part of the normal Sunday afternoon activities, heard Swami Prabhupāda deliver a lecture. Later the crowd was served a free vegetarian feast. Along the side, Kṛṣṇa followers sold Indian sweets, Kṛṣṇa scriptures, and what one speaker described as 'transcendental paraphernalia.' "

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Morning Walk -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: That means "I am first, I am first class." Less poison. "Nobody contains lower poison than me." (break) ...city, when it was constructed?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A lot of the buildings are from the early 1800s, 1850. Like the Museum of Natural History that we visited, that was 1869. It was settled even earlier than that.

Hṛdayānanda: It was always a very important city. For almost two or three hundred years it's been a very important city for trade, business, commerce.

Prabhupāda: When you first settled?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In the 1600s.

Ādi-keśava: It was settled by the Dutch in the 1600s. That's three hundred years ago.

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

Prabhupāda: Where you will meet him?

Devotee (1): His former secretary is now a devotee in this temple, she is from Thailand. And when he came to visit her in Paris, she introduced me to him, and since then he has spoken about us to his family, to businessmen. Many big people in Thailand.

Hari-śauri: People in Thailand are quite pious.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are Indian culture. Their original culture is Indian. It is called Siam. (pronounces like Śyāma) Kṛṣṇa's name. And they have got the airplane, Garuḍa.

Hari-śauri: Yes. Garuḍa Airlines.

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

Prabhupāda: Maybe he was rich man.

Hari-śauri: This was made in Penang.

Prabhupāda: Penang also I visited. I stayed with one Indian gentleman. His wife made very nice kacuri.

Hari-śauri: It doesn't matter wherever you go around the world...

Prabhupāda: They asked, "What you want to eat?" "If you can, you make first-class kacuri." That is from my childhood. My friends also did it. They'd make the first-class kacuris in my youthhood. I am fond of kacuri. Kacuri is made first class in Mathurā. Agra and Mathurā. Very, very nice. The kacuri is being made, hundreds of customers waiting. At shops, there was many shops, waiting for purchasing. And as soon as it comes out of the pan, immediately sold. There is no question of waiting. They make spice nicest. That is India's craftsmanship. Nobody will starve. If you have no business, you prepare something palatable, and people will purchase, all over India.

Morning Walk at Niavaran Park -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Jñānagamya: It's called Niavaran Park. There's a palace here called Niavaran Palace. The Shah has several palaces. This is the one where he usually meets visiting diplomats, heads of state. And this is the park that adjoins that palace. The palace is over beyond that wall.

Nava-yauvana: Jaya, this is where he's getting off. (conversation continues outside car)

Ātreya Ṛṣi: This is His Majesty's palace. This building is the servants' quarters, which has the best granite. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...that this body which we are taking so much care, will leave automatically when the time is finished. And I'll have to accept another body. Useless. The body, which I am taking so much care, will leave me. I'll not have to say, "Body, you leave me," but the body will leave me. When my period... Just like the house rented under lease, and as soon as the lease is over you have to vacate that house, or forcibly the house owner will oblige you to vacate. So what is the use of becoming so much attached to the body? What is the answer?

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: The other boy?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Śiva, Mr. Śiva from Malaysia. He's Hindu I believe. And he's recently come to visit us. Next is Dr. Rulf, he is from Holland. He is an economist and he is working here. I've been acquainted with him through business. And that is Reza. He has been coming here for a long time and he's been chanting.

Prabhupāda: He's trying to be (indistinct).

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So Iranian spiritual culture and Indian spiritual culture. You told me?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Atreya Ṛṣi: It is in the middle of the city. It is the one I was explaining to you the other day. So we went to the notary, and it takes a long time, because it's a lot of red tape. And also the lights went off. The lights went off in the middle of writing the agreement. So now we have the agreement, by your grace, it is nice. If you feel good, maybe you can visit it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Tomorrow morning I'll go?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Well, I would like it when traffic is low, because it's in the city.

Prabhupāda: When it is, traffic is...?

Atreya Ṛṣi: It is in the heart of the city.

Prabhupāda: No, when the traffic will be low?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Thursday is very good, otherwise... It should be both cool... I mean they're living there, it's not...

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No tree. In the desert, where is tree? All desert. All this Middle East, desert. So they can be allowed to eat meat. Otherwise, what they'll eat? So everyone must eat something. So if there is no vegetation, if there is no sufficient, they can be allowed.

Parivrājakācārya: I visited some of these small villages in the south of Iran, and the tents of nomads who kept sheep, that was their life. They had a tent and they had hundreds of sheep, and they would move the tent every month. They would take the tent, for one month they would live here, next month they would move.

Prabhupāda: Why they're changing?

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: And now we are trying Middle East with the cooperation of Iranians.

Mr. Sahani: I'm sure next year there'll be a film on Iran. When are you going to make the public announcement for this temple?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: It is announced. Śrīla Prabhupāda's visit was sufficient.

Prabhupāda: It is announced by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma. (CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126) As many towns and villages are there on the surface of the globe, this movement will go on. Sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma. This will go on. It is already predicted by Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Mr. Sahani: You've not seen today, the temple building has been taken over.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Mr. Patel has donated over $20,000 for the purchase of that temple, Mr. and Mrs. Patel.

Morning Walk, House Visit, Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No. There was devotee, Nityānanda's contemporary, he used to whip, and his whipping means as soon as he whips, the man becomes a devotee.

(visit to house which Ātreya Ṛṣi was purchasing)

Prabhupāda: You are not going to install Deity?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Not here.

Prabhupāda: Oh, not here.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: The Deity will be installed in the other place.

Prabhupāda: Oh, this is only for restaurant.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Which the company is buying. There is...

Arrival Conversation -- August 13, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Live peacefully, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. It is for you, so many buildings. Let devotees come, live here peacefully, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, that's all. That I want.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a lot of devotees visiting Bombay.

Prabhupāda: How many you are housing?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: On a permanent basis about forty, but there are a few from different centers.

Prabhupāda: Where you have received this?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Ṛṣabhadeva, president of Spiritual Sky Products.

Prabhupāda: President of?

Morning Walk -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They visit our temple?

Vāsughoṣa: All those brāhmaṇas that came for the yajña, and everybody, after the yajña ended at about six-thirty, they immediately came to the temple, our temple, afterwards. Everybody knew. We distributed thousands of books there. It was very good book distribution. We sold in one day, you know, we were selling two thousand rupees a day worth of books. Everybody that came there was very pious.

Prabhupāda: We took advantage.

Vāsughoṣa: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Gurukṛpā: That Raṅganātha temple is that temple where they do not allow us in. So Sampat Kumar and all of these paṇḍitas, they will sign one letter trying to request them. Also with the Purī people. To request them to let us in. While they are all here they will do that. Also Sampat Kumar was thinking that in November and December in South India the weather is nice because the rainy season is finished, and it would be a very good time to go and visit many of the temples. He personally knows many people in all the big temples. Shri Rangam, Kañcipuram, Maha Balipuram, Tirupati. They could arrange for receptions and programs.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) South India, Indian culture is still there. Other parts of India, they are not now Indian.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Gargamuni: Now on the weekend we have tours of the building. Many groups of people come. Fifty in a group sometimes come and visit.

Prabhupāda: Tourists.

Gargamuni: Yes, tourists, and we take then on tour of the building. That's Subhaga. He takes them on tour and he gives some preaching. So many people are coming.

Prabhupāda: Subhaga is in charge of that?

Gargamuni: Yes, he does.

Jayapatākā: Others are there also. One new boy is very good.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Do you think it is?

Jayapatākā: No, it's not necessary to personally see him. You might write... When you come to Māyāpur we'll write him invitation that he can come and see and visit you there. That was better. Mr. Choudhuri said that "Your Guru Mahārāja, he has got also the Vaiṣṇava pride not to see the politicians." He said, "This is a good stand. I respect this very much." Actually he mentioned once to Abhirāma confidentially that "If this project comes through, then you'll be requiring some liaison officer because there will be so many government things. At that time I can work for you as your permanent advisor and go to Delhi and here and there and do all the work." I think he wants a job.

Prabhupāda: I thought Mr. Choudhuri would do everything, but that is not the position.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: There were some other lighter matters. When I was traveling in my preaching, then last time in Māyāpur, when that Haridaspur, when they offered, you mentioned to me that you liked that we develop these holy spots. So just as a matter of convenience, whenever I was near any holy spot that you mentioned in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta I would go and just visit the place. So in my tours, one place I went to was very nice, and that sevaite, he spontaneously, when I showed him all your work, he offered me that he would like to give the temple to you. That temple is much, much more developed than Haridaspur. That's the temple of Maheśa Paṇḍita.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: You have advised to see our temple?

Jayapatākā: Yes, he'll definitely visit. I also gave him an introduction that if he goes, he should be received there. He's got... The present place where the Deities are situated is on four cuttas(?) of land. And apart from that, where Maheśa Paṇḍita's samādhi is, he's got three bighās of land. That's right next door to a four-hundred-year-old temple.

Prabhupāda: Chugda is to the... It is from Shrirampuri? No.

Jayapatākā: No, it's on this side of the Ganges. It's on the eastern side of the Ganges.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: They always... I visited one hundred members, and all of these old members, they gave one thousand.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Yes, they will give. I know.

Gargamuni: They'll give if you treat them nicely.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Gargamuni: And I gave them one book, and they're satisfied.

Prabhupāda: Any person who has money, we'll receive. So many places they are offering us land...

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Gargamuni: It's a place which he's not using. He met you in Bombay. He also visited our centers in Paris and New York. He's a Marwari man, very rich, very nice. He's also donated good sums to the society. So now he wants to meet you, and he wants someone to go there. So I told him we will go and look at it.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Gargamuni: It's in Rajastan.

Prabhupāda: Rajastan? Where? Which side.

Room Conversation About Blitz News Clipping -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Pradyumna: "Besides, they are planning to set up a Sanskrit university in Purī, the home of famed temples and one of the few spots in India blessed by Ādi Śaṅkara. Two devotees, Gurudāsa Swami and Abhirāma dāsa visited Bhuvaneśvara in April last to explore means to set up the university." Then in big heading, "Patnayak's interest in Kṛṣṇa cult."

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is going to get us...

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Pradyumna: "They reportedly met also our deputy defense minister, J. B. Patnayak, who hails from Orissa. It is understood that Patnayak has asked the district magistrate of Purī to find land for ISKCON's Sanskrit university there. ISKCON is pursuing not only Kṛṣṇa, it has started taking interest in politics also. It has founded a political party in the United States called "In God We Trust" Party. It has already contested civic elections in Los Angeles and intends to put up candidates for the U.S. Congress." We didn't do anything in Los Angeles. Only in Georgia. All wrong, complete...

Prabhupāda: What is wrong there? In God We Trust, this party. Yes.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: He brought $500 from his grandfather.

Gargamuni: Yes, he donated.

Prabhupāda: His father and mother divorced. So he used to visit sometimes his grandfather, father's father. So naturally grandfather, when he used to visit, he gave him some money.

Hari-śauri: And he'd give it to you. Then he gave it to you.

Prabhupāda: Once he gave me. Anyway, Kṛṣṇa is giving us encouragement. Religious, philosophical book, as soon as they hear of it they immediately say, "No, no, we..." That is the natural tendency.

Morning Walk Conversation About Bombay -- August 29, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: So on the whole it is coming nice.

Girirāja: Oh yes. There's a lot of enthusiasm for Kṛṣṇa consciousness in Bombay. Just due to this Janmāṣṭamī we made about 15 or 20 life patron members. They just keep coming. "I visited your festival," then they come back and arrange other programs for us and become patron members. And newspaper people also are starting to...

Prabhupāda: Giving some coverage.

Girirāja: ...good... The Free Press wants to make a two page feature with pictures all about our activities.

Prabhupāda: What about taking action against Blitz?

Meeting With Member of Parliament, Mr. Krishna Modi -- August 31, 1976, Delhi:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually, in some respects I found them even lower than India. You'll be amazed... I visited all the leading libraries of Russia and Leningrad. Moscow University Library, all the big libraries. These libraries don't have any foreign exchange for ordering these books. They all want to order... They were begging me for free books. They said, "Why don't you give us a donation or exchange." They have a book exchange that if they give their books then we give our books. Each library gets such little foreign exchange allowance to buy books from abroad.

Prabhupāda: A taxi driver, he was asking some bhakshish.

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Practically all your family is military.

Caraṇāravindam: Yes. Now he is retired. He is living in...

Prabhupāda: Your father is living? How does he like you have become Vaiṣṇava?

Caraṇāravindam: At first he would not even speak to me. Then I used to visit next door and my mother would come to see me. And then after awhile he would talk to me from the other side and I quickly used to go and see. I would sit down. I would not preach to him. I would just be social.

Prabhupāda: After all, father and son, affection, where it will go?

Caraṇāravindam: Now he likes. He says, "This is better what you are doing than all the other things you were doing." I've not seen him now for three and a half years since I left England. They are a little sick now.

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is the whole world history. Now they have made encumbrance. Naturally, a class of men, they became soldiers. They were trained up, and...

Caraṇāravindam: Whenever I visited a village in India, people were always very friendly. "Sit down, take some meal." Or if I walk through a field they will pick something from a tree, some tomatoes, or some vegetables and give it to me.

Prabhupāda: You can grow some tomatoes here. That is a very easy thing.

Caraṇāravindam: I have also some and some different seeds to plant.

Prabhupāda: Tomato, squash.

Caraṇāravindam: You would like to see growing in your garden a little sabji?

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

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.

Room Conversation -- September 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And he was old. So he had to agree. Otherwise, the whole thing was catastrophe. So the king said, "Yes. She's not married. If you like I can offer my daughter to you." Then everything was settled up. But the daughter was young, and he was like her grand, great-grandfather. Match was not at all suitable, but he had to offer. So this girl also took it seriously, and she was serving the old husband very faithfully like honest, chaste wife. Never mind. Then, some days after, the same saintly person was visited by two heavenly physicians, aśvinī-kumāras. The aśvinī-kumāras, they had some difficulty. They were not allowed in the society of the demigods while drinking soma-rasa. They had some defects, something like that. So when the physician came to see Cyavana Muni he said that "If you can give me young age, beautiful, you can make me by your treatment beautiful young man, which is very pleasing to young girls, then I shall give you the facility of drinking soma-rasa in the society of demigods." "Yes." So he made him very nice beautiful-looking young man by taking him to a certain lake, and they dipped down and all of them became fresh young men, beautiful, very beautiful.

Room Conversation -- October 9, 1976, Aligarh:

Prabhupāda: It doesn't require to taken care of very much. It grows automatically.

Indian man: It's growth is very good. And plenty of it. If your Divine Grace gets any benefit from it, then it can be planted in each temple on one side. No problem. And then on your visits, the place where you will use.

Prabhupāda: Then we can, in Vṛndāvana.

Indian man: Yes, yes. Vṛndāvana we will put the plant in Vṛndāvana. And I will show you tomorrow.

Prabhupāda: No, he got from Vṛndāvana.

Indian man: Got from Vṛndāvana.

Hari-śauri: Yes but not from our temple. From an āśrama it's grown.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: If you all don't mind, just for five minutes, we would like to read the selected extracts from some leading scholars about this movement. We're not reading the views of Western scholars. These books are being used in five thousand universities, including Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, but some of the leading Indian scholars. So you also get an understanding of the Indian appreciation of Prabhupāda's activities. This for example, is a letter from Mr. Ghosh, District and Summon Judge in West Bengal: "I'm highly impressed at the sincerity and devotion of the disciples of the International Society of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. A visit to the Māyāpur Chandrodaya Mandir, West Bengal, sublimes the mind from all harsh talk and disturbing influences." Then...

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Stop now. Don't divert attention.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Stop now. Don't divert attention.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is a letter from Śrī Ambarish Sarkar, General Secretary of the Nadia District Congress Committee. "I had an opportunity to visit the Śrī Māyāpur Chandrodaya Mandir on the 12th August, 1975. It is absolutely a religious institution. Jayapātāka Swami has devoted all of his efforts and endeavors to organize and propound the sacred name of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. I'm impressed by his charming manner and strength. Although it is a religious institution, this organization has performed many social services. Many poor and destitute families have had an opportunity to work and at the same time they have become worshipers of Lord Śrī Caitanya. To engage these workers, so many industrial centers have already been started, such as handloom cloth, printing, etc. I wish this organization, with its help of the local people, all success."

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Prabhupāda: Because this is our means of income. Kindly give us some contribution, you take as many... (laughter)

Interviewer: I could only purchase one book. I cannot purchase four dozen books. Now you are here, I think you should present us one set so that we may read this.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We have a library here where everyone can come and read. Besides, five or six other, fifteen libraries in Chandigarh have all our books. You can visit either of those fifteen or the Hare Kṛṣṇa... (Guests talk at once)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Would any of you like to have any pictures of Guruji? or... (end)

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: My son Daniel, Sravananda Das, entered the Hare Kṛṣṇa Movement almost 5 years ago. The only request that he made of me and my husband was that we read about the Hare Kṛṣṇa philosophy and try to understand his new way of life. My husband and I have read everything we could find about the movement and the philosophy. We have visited the Hare Kṛṣṇa Centers in Philadelphia and New York frequently, always speaking to the devotees and having our questions answered. Evidently these youths feel a revulsion towards the sense gratification of forbidden permissive values of our society. When I see how happy the devotees are..."

Prabhupāda: Haṁsadūta, Haṁsadūta?

Hari-śauri: Haṁsadūta?

Prabhupāda: The Ceylon is educated and if they are receiving, why not open a branch?

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is a most important thing. That you cannot discriminate minority communities. That is against American constitution.

Haṁsadūta: Prabhupāda, when this, when we had a similar situation in Germany, what we wanted to do is have all our centers in important cities in foreign countries all over the world make a letter and a delegation to visit the United States embassy in all these places. This will have an effect because if it's brought, if it comes in this way, international reaction...

Prabhupāda: Yes, arrange like this.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What is the time of sunset?

Hari-śauri: It's about 5:30.

Prabhupāda: 5:30, then one hour after. Then 6:30 is all right. 6:30 is all right.

Akśayananda: Okay. So in that case, when would you like to come and visit?

Prabhupāda: No, 6:30.

Akśayananda: Now you're coming six till seven.

Hari-śauri: 5:30 to 6:30?

Prabhupāda: We shall come... 6:30-7:00, ārati will go on. So we can come half an hour before.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: Our men, they can prepare rasagullā, samosā, kacuri.

Mr. Malhotra: Now this Bombay center, when I visited Girirāja he showed me, and the restaurant, that vegetarian restaurant which will be coming up, that is good. (break) ...I mean is it regular new films are being made or only one or two films have been made so far?

Girirāja: We make more films.

Hari-śauri: There's another one just coming up now which explains the philosophy in more detail. The films were to show general activities, that was The Hare Kṛṣṇa People. The new film was to show the farming scheme that Prabhupāda set up in New Vrindaban, and many other farms we have now. And there was one other film to show how the books are produced and then delivered to the public. So gradually more and more are coming out.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Mr. Malhotra: This place is full of tourists from Bombay, from all of Gujarat. (break) Pancagani is one place, and 12 miles difference Mahabalesvara. Also it is twin city like Secunderabad, Hyderabad. (break) In the morning when you go for walk you will find local ladies getting load of food collected from the forests and taking. Very old, old type of life (break) ...this place. I visited Switzerland and I visited almost every hill station of the country, and almost practically entire world. But I find this place of a different solace, (break) ...and second, it is very neat and clean.

Prabhupāda: Maharastrians are very neat and clean. Upper class, they are very. (break) ...karmī.

Mr. Malhotra: Good man.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: Oh, Taksila.

Mr. Malhotra: No Taksila was in Punjab, that side. In Bengal, Bihar, that...

Prabhupāda: Tarbanga.

Mr. Malhotra: I visited that. So this was the seat of very old temples, oldest temples in this place, this Haya. (?) And they say this is one of the oldest of the oldest towns or cities of the country. Small place, Pasir, with a population of about 10-15,000 people. All the temples are in the Kṛṣṇā River, in the Kṛṣṇā river. (break) Whatever I am today, that is all due to my past karmas, good or bad, I mean.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: Everything. Yes, bhakti is, generally He gives bhakti. If you want something other than bhakti, you can get it.

Mr. Malhotra: This is the center of M.R.A., Moral rearmament. I phoned them for yesterday, so that Rajmohan Gandhi is away, not here. But the other people are here. We will visit this some time during the day. These days one conference is going on. There are 130 countries. Some conference.

Devotee: There?

Indian man: What is the subject?

Mr. Malhotra: I don't know, remember.

Prabhupāda: Oh, you may not know it, and this will do never any benefit.

Mr. Malhotra: Now this is Pancagani, starts from here. (end)

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: After it would be (indistinct).

Indian man: During the 7th of January or...

Prabhupāda: I may be going away by the 3lst. And there visit the Kumbha-mela. (everyone talking at once)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Devotees will be going there starting from the 5th by installments.

Indian man: We can keep it up till 20th, after 20th of January.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kumbha-mela will be over...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: For the 24th I thought.

Indian man: 24th, last weekend.